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Nation-wide radio station owner Corus Entertainment has partnered with mobile apps developer Viigo, to deliver free content to smartphones – starting with Web site content and eventually on-demand audio, according to company executives.

Nine Corus radio brands will be accessible via Toronto-based Viigo Inc.'s mobile content application for BlackBerry and Windows Mobile smartphones. Content from radio stations in six major cities across Canada will be piped out in RSS feeds through the application.

It's a new media effort involving a traditional medium, by a company that aims to instill more listener loyalty in an environment awash in entertainment choices.

“Radio is the original wireless technology,” says David Huszar, general manager of interactive and integrated solutions at Toronto-based Corus. “It's the old style, but I think advent of the Internet was a real boon for radio because it's [enabled] interacting with audiences in the same way.”

He says radio has long thrived on listener call-in shows, and is using the Internet to reach out to audiences through blog comments, tweets, and now mobile applications.   

Having content from an established entertainment company with in a co-branding effort will help boost Viigo's visibility, according to CEO Mark Ruddock.

“A mobile app isn't something that leaps off the page to the average user, especially the BlackBerry user.” Viigo's strategy, he says, is to enable a person already in love with some radio content to take it with them wherever they go. "Viigo can be the way to do that."

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