Seattle.internet.com has learned that Seattle’s 710 KIRO radio station launched an all new website last Friday at 5:00pm. The site’s URL is: www.710kiro.com. Although, the use of the internet by radio stations is commonplace these days, early indications show that KIRO’s site has features that will set new standards in the industry.
The firm in charge of the website’s development is Web-X, Inc. The Tacoma-based firm focuses on developing and providing dynamic, personalized and innovative Web solutions to the corporate arena.
In an exclusive interview, Web-X President and Co-Founder Joey Caisse told seattle.internet.com that the 710KIRO website involves real time communication on a tightly scheduled timeline. “We’re delivering content in some cases by the minute,” says Caisse.
The new site has extensive use of programming to facilitate the two way communications between the audience and the station. From the website, surfers can listen online and participate with the talk programs in real time through instant messages that can be sent directly to the personality while broadcasting in the studio.
In addition, each personality can create his/her own show and set up online polls before each show begins. The website posts the information automatically at the beginning of each show.
According to Caisse, the website content management system has also reduced the cost of updating and maintaining the website overall.
Reporters, for example, can use their existing methodology of reading and writing news to nearly drag-and-drop news stories directly to the Web site’s news sections.
Other features include real time weather data, scheduled banner advertising display and rotation, Seattle Seahawk and Mariner’s schedules that interact with the website during game times, and real time chat. In addition, 710KIRO has access to real time web usage statistics in order to monitor their reach to the community.
“With 710KIRO’s reputation as the leading radio broadcaster of news, weather, and traffic, we knew that we had to find a strategy that kept the content fresh, even up to the minute,” says 710KIRO Executive Producer Dustin Hormby.
