Substituting streaming station for over-the-air broadcast
An automotive radio receiver includes an over-the-air radio tuner and a network interface. When a broadcast received at the radio receiver, it includes embedded information that can be used to identify the radio station providing the broadcast. The radio receiver uses the embedded information to identify a streaming station that corresponds to the broadcast station. The radio receiver transmits information associated with the streaming station to a web service, which returns an address at which the radio receiver can access the streaming station. The address of the streaming station is stored in a memory accessible to the radio receiver for later use. The next time the radio receiver is tuned to the same broadcast station, the radio receiver instead connects to the streaming station at the stored address.
1. A broadcasting system for use with a radio receiver, the system comprising:
a processing device configured to implement a web service;
a media automation system coupled to an on-air broadcast system, and to the web service, and wherein the media automation system is coupled to an automotive radio receiver through a mobile device paired to the automotive radio receiver via a personal area network;
the on-air broadcast system broadcasting an on-air radio station in a particular over-the-air frequency band, the on-air radio station including media content and embedded information at least partially identifying the on-air radio station;
the media automation system further configured to:
receive station identification information from a radio receiver, the station identification information identifying a radio station to which the radio receiver is tuned;
make a determination, based on the station identification information, that the radio receiver is tuned to a broadcast station that is a member of a group of radio stations having corresponding streaming media stations;
provide a result of the determination to the radio receiver, wherein the radio receiver uses the result to determine whether to request the web service to provide a streaming media station corresponding to the on-air radio station; and
the web service configured to transmit, to the radio receiver, a network address of the streaming media station corresponding to the on-air radio station in response to receiving a request for a streaming media station from the radio receiver.
2. The broadcasting system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a streaming broadcast system coupled to the media automation system, the streaming broadcast system configured to transmit the streaming media station corresponding to the on-air radio station, to the radio receiver, in response to receiving a request addressed to the network address.
3. The broadcasting system of claim 1 , wherein the media automation system receives preference information from the radio receiver.
4. The broadcasting system of claim 3 , the media automation system transmits the preference information to an advertisement targeting system.
5. The broadcasting system of claim 1 , wherein the embedded information is transmitted using at least one of a Radio Data System (RDS) protocol or an in-band on-channel (IBOC) radio protocol.
6. The broadcasting system of claim 1 , wherein the media automation system is further configured to:
receive, from an advertisement targeting system, at least one item of customized advertisement content; and
transmit the at least one item of customized advertisement content, via a packet switched network, to the radio receiver, wherein the radio receiver caches the at least one item of customized advertisement content for playback during playout of a streaming radio station.
7. The broadcasting system of claim 1 , further comprising:
a streaming broadcast system coupled to the media automation system, the streaming broadcast system configured to:
receive, from an advertisement targeting system, at least one item of customized advertisement content; and
transmit the at least one item of customized advertisement content to the radio receiver as part of a corresponding streaming radio station.