[February 08, 2012]

Critical Mention Triples the Number of U.S. Radio Stations Monitored in Real-Time

Critical Mention introduced Full Radio to its Software-as-a-Service broadcast intelligence platform today, tripling the number of radio stations being captured and offering real-time coverage of the top 50 U.S. radio markets for the first time.

Demand for blanket radio coverage is expected to spike during the 2012 Presidential election, when analysis and voter participation on talk shows peaks. The first tranche of Critical Mention radio coverage, added in 2009, included four dozen top-rated stations.

"Radio is among our most popular content sets because it is hyper-local and relatively easy to pitch," said Dave Armon, president of Critical Mention. "Subscribers have been clamoring for more markets and deeper coverage, so accessing 150 stations in real-time is a big deal."

Speech recognition software, once a finicky technology that was challenging to use across a range of voices and accents, has been fine-tuned and popularized in the mass market through services like Siri, on the Apple iPhone (News - Alert) 4s.

Critical Mention utilizes seech-to-text so all of a radio station's programming can be accessed through both ad hoc text searches and pre-determined alerts, said Armon, adding that Critical Mention optimizes software by market to achieve more accurate results when faced with local dialects and accents. When a subscriber has created an alert that matches what is said on a radio station, an email is immediately sent and the subscriber can sample, edit and share the audio clip.

"Despite the advent of live Internet streaming of radio stations, it has been nearly impossible for a company, agency or any type of organization to locate radio coverage after it aired," said Armon. "The addition of community news and talk powerhouse radio stations in markets like Milwaukee, Sacramento and Hartford will add tremendously to our clients' media monitoring efforts."

Many of Critical Mention's subscribers are in the public policy and government arena, so heavy use of the Full Radio package is expected during the 2012 presidential campaign, said Armon. (To subscribe, email sales@criticalmention.com or call 877-262-5477.)

About Critical Mention

If it's on TV, we've got it. Critical Mention is the clear leader in broadcast intelligence, with more than 1,000 clients and 4,000 desktops. The Critical Mention platform provides 24/7 blanket coverage of television and radio, capturing, digitizing and indexing in real-time 35 hours of live broadcast programming from more than 1,400 channels in all 210 U.S. DMAs and four continents every 60 seconds. Founded in 2002 in New York City, Critical Mention is a unit of privately held Critical Media, the leading broadcast intelligence and services company. For more information, visit http://www.criticalmention.com.

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