杏吧原创

SWITCHBOARD operators at radio stations are driven mad by listeners desperate
to find out the name of some song they heard on the radio. Callers often don鈥檛
know the lyrics or melody, when it was played or who sang it.

To the rescue comes Presslaff Interactive of Torrance, California, which has
developed a system that makes it easy for listeners to track down a song on the
Internet and even order the CD.

Presslaff had already developed a telephone system that allowed callers to
hear the titles of music played at given times over the past two days. But its
new Net system, called Click2Hear, is much easier for radio stations to run and
for listeners to use.

Stations have to produce a log of music played, so they can work out the
鈥渘eedle time鈥� copyright payments owed to record companies. Stations using the
system send the log file to Presslaff, which combines it with short clips of the
songs. All the information, including links to online music shops, is then
posted on the station鈥檚 website, which also carries links to sites where the CDs
can be bought.

Listeners can scroll through a list of titles, find out exactly what was
transmitted when and even click on an entry to hear what the song sounds
like.

The website of Arrow 93FM of Los Angeles, one of ten stations on the West
Coast that are testing the system, is already getting several thousand hits a
day (www.arrowfm.com).