San Antonio, Texas – More than 800 more terrestrial AM/FM stations can be streamed through select tabletop Internet radios and digital media adapters (DMAs) now that Clear Channel Radio announced the availability of its broadcasts through home products equipped with Reciva’s Internet radio modules.
The deal includes Clear Channel HD2 and HD3 channels that are multicast by the chain’s HD Radio-equipped FM stations.
Before the announcement, Clear Channel stations could be streamed only though PCs, Sonos’s wireless multiroom-audio system, select hotel on-demand media services, and cellphones operating on the Sprint, U.S. Cellular and Metro PCS networks, a Clear Channel spokesman said. The radio chain boasts more than 110 million listeners per week.
U.S.-basedcompanies that manufacture Reciva-based Internet Radios include C. Crane, CTA Digital, DMTech, Grace Digital Audio, Sangean and Tangent. An automatic upgrade allows existing radios to receive Clear Channel Radio stations.
More than 50 CE companies worldwide offer Reciva-based tabletop radios and DMAs, a Reciva spokesman said. HTiBs, shelf systems and set-top boxes using the Reciva modules are in the pipeline and should hit the market in time for the Christmas season, he added. Reciva-based car stereos using Mobile WiMAX or 3G cellular are due in 2009.
ClearChannel called Cambridge, U.K.-based Reciva the largest Internet radio module manufacturer. Products incorporating Reciva modules access Reciva’s Internet Gateway, which regularly pushes updated Internet radio-station links to Internet radios. Reciva-enabled devices can play back online stations in the MP3, Microsoft Windows Media Player, RealAudio Player, AAC) Ogg Vorbis and other formats.
Reciva also offers a radio portal that lets listeners access the same stations via their PC.
The Reciva modules support more than 11,000 live streaming stations from around the world, with more than 7,100 emanating from the United States, including the new Clear Channel stations. The majority of live stations are AM/FM stations, and the rest are Internet-only stations. The module also supports more than 20,000 on-demand streams and more than 55,000 podcasts.
In coming weeks, Reciva service will add more subscription-based services. The platform already supports the MP3tunes music-locker service. During the week of May 19, Reciva will add the Pandora subscription-based radio service, followed in the summer by Rhapsody’s interactive music subscription service.
“Several more” U.S.- and Europe- based subscription services that will go live within the next few months, the Reciva spokesman added.
