South Africa Grants Futuri with Patent for Listener Driven Radio & Takeover Technologies
CLEVELAND, Oct. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Futuri Media has received a patent from the Republic of South Africa for its Listener Driven Radio (LDR) and Takeover technologies, including Instant Alerts™, live interactive radio programming, and social playlist sharing. The patent, which names Futuri President/CEO Daniel Anstandig and CTO Brian Seeders as inventors, also pertains to LDR's unique interface with radio automation systems.
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The patent supports Futuri radio station partners KFM/Cape Town and 947/Johannesburg (formerly 94.7 Highveld Stereo), owned by Primedia. The stations use Futuri's LDR1 services on their websites and mobile apps around the clock to connect live playlist data, drive contesting features and engage audiences through social media. Using their smartphones, listeners vote for their favorite songs and sign up to be automatically notified by text, tweet, or email message when those songs are about to play. Using the "Call Me Back On-Air" interactive feature to enter contests listeners can also receive a call back from the station's on-air personality/presenter.
Listeners also engage with the stations' Futuri-powered Takeover platform to choose every song that plays for an hour each weekday on a special show called The Takeover. Audiences vote songs up the chart; the ones with most votes are played on Adult/Contemporary-formatted KFM at 10am with personality/presenter Ian Bredenkamp and on Contemporary Hit Radio-formatted 947 Johannesburg at 1pm with personality/presenter Tholi B.
All of these features are customized to offer marketers new mobile advertising channels to promote products, events, services and special offers directly to listeners who are proven to be activated consumers.
947 Primedia Johannesburg Station Manager Ravi Naidoo said, "As a music programmer I know that music requests always work for the audience. The challenge is always how to keep it fresh and engaging. When I was introduced to LDR and Takeover, it not only ticked the box of great radio, but it allowed us to introduce our audiences and advertisers to the best-of-breed technologies on the market. Futuri's LDR and Takeover exemplify our commitment to connecting everyone together in ways that demonstrate how radio continues to be a state-of-the-art business."
Futuri President/CEO Daniel Anstandig commented, "We are proud to be recognized by the government of South Africa for our groundbreaking work with our LDR and Takeover programming innovations. This patent is a wonderful accomplishment for our team and our partners. Our partnership with Primedia has shown how powerfully impactful real-time interaction with a live broadcast can be on audience growth. As our company has rapidly expanded to eleven countries, this is another illustration of how Futuri is changing the face of radio around the world."
About Primedia
Formed in 1994, Primedia is a South African media group, headquartered in Sandton, Johannesburg. It operates more than 50 brands in broadcasting, advertising, marketing, promotions, sports, entertainment and digital media.
About Futuri Media
With live interactive programming on the air at more than 525 stations, networks and broadcast groups across North America, Europe, Africa and Asia, Futuri Media (http://www.futurimedia.com) reaches more than 100 million consumers monthly. Futuri Media's LDR (Listener Driven Radio) platforms empower listeners to become real-time collaborators in on-air programming, automatically adjusting content based on audience input. The Futuri Mobile division has developed more than 165 iPhone, Apple Watch, Android and tablet apps for broadcasters, delivering audio and video content to mobile users. Ranked among Inc magazine's "Inc. 5000" fastest-growing private companies, Futuri Media also provides real-time consumer intelligence to newsrooms and content producers with its popular TopicPulse (http://www.TopicPulse.com) system, tracking local trends across social media.
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