Beasley Media Partners With SonicAi for Alexa Skills

RADIO ONLINE | Thursday, August 17, 2017

Beasley Media Group is making it easier for listeners to play its radio station streams and access on-demand content at home and at-work with multi-command skills for Amazon Echo smart speaker systems. SonicAi, the partnership between mobile developer jacapps and Amplifi Media, is designing these skills in collaboration with the Beasley's programming team. These skills also highlighting specific station features and can heard across most of the company's 63 stations in the upcoming months.

Beasley Media Group has enjoyed recent success with the launch of the Amazon Echo technology at WMMR-FM in Philadelphia, providing voice access to station content when Echo users simply say, "Alexa, open MMR." After a welcome from station morning team Preston and Steve, users can listen to the station live, hear that day's Preston and Steve podcast, or the popular "Bizarre Files" segment with just a simple voice command.

"Alexa and the Echo device have taken off quickly, providing a huge opportunity for radio to get back into the audience's home listening environment," said Jacobs Media President Fred Jacobs. "Our latest Tech survey shows that 11% of those surveyed already have an Amazon Echo or another smart speaker device in their home-and it's growing."

Amplifi Media's Steve Goldstein noted, "SonicAi is thrilled to start right at the top with Beasley Media Group Vice President of Programming Justin Chase, Executive Vice President of Digital Steve Meyers, Vice President of Digital Operations Kimberly Sonneborn, Vice President of Programming Buzz Knight and their incredible talent in creating a multi-level listener experience that goes beyond the stream. Our focus is audience retention and creating more listening occasions."

"Beasley is a company that 'gets it' when it comes to digital," stated jacapps Chief Operating Officer Bob Kernen.