Radio 2.0

A few years ago, Joe Harb, a customer relationship management expert, was listening to NPR in his car and wanted to identify the artist who had played a particularly beautiful jazz piece. By the time he got through to KUOW, several other songs had played, but the DJ gave Harb a name. The next day, Harb purchased the artist’s CD: It was the wrong one. “It was so bad, I threw it out,” Harb recalls. “I still don’t know what that [first] piece of music was.”

From there, Harb set out to create a new system that could make offline radio information readily available online. The result is a Seattle-based interactive radio company Emo-V, which recently launched MyQuu, a social networking tool that allows listeners to share, rate and discuss music with friends.

“Radio is the last media giant not to be interactive,” explains Harb, formerly with Kirkland marketing ROI firm, Who’s Calling. “Building the bridge between the car radio and the web is key.”

MyQuu uses cell phone (QuuMobile) and text messaging (QuuText) applications that allow listeners to purchase songs instantly once they hear them on the radio. The web 2.0-ness gets even more sophisticated with MyQuu’s integration with Facebook and Twitter, plus the QuuLounge.com social networking site, which urges music fans to connect with each other.

Most importantly, Harb adds, the MyQuu model works “without disrupting the already established relationships between the media and the advertisers” in a market that has been resistant to change.

Harb, however, says MyQuu subscriptions are on the rise, and advertisers who had never considered radio before are buying ad spots because of MyQuu’s ability to measure ad performance. Currently, Harb adds, Emo-V has relationships established with Sandusky Seattle radio group (Movin’ 92.5, Smooth Jazz 98.9, Warm 106.9 and 880 KIXI) and plans to add new interactive MyQuu features in the coming months.