Zipwhip Cloud Texting Platform Gives Radio a Direct Connection to Listeners

SEATTLE, WA--(Marketwired - Sep 30, 2013) - Zipwhip, the world's first text carrier, announced today that radio stations around the country are turning up audience engagement by using Zipwhip's cloud messaging platform to interact with listeners -- and making better use of tight marketing and communications budgets at the same time.

Zipwhip's texting application lets businesses text enable existing landline and toll-free numbers to send and receive text messages from any connected desktop, tablet or smartphone. Commercial radio stations like KISS 106.7, in Rochester, N.Y., are discovering innovative applications for the unique service to boost the level of engagement they have with their listeners, including taking song requests via text on phone numbers their listeners already know.

"We have been loving Zipwhip -- it has completely changed our show for the better," said Paul Guglielmo, executive producer of "The Wease Show" for KISS 106.7. "The access that our listeners now have to us -- and us to them -- is on a level higher and better than it has ever been in the history of the show.'"

College radio stations are also successfully leveraging the value of Zipwhip's texting platform, relying on text as a backup to existing communications systems. For many stations, Zipwhip's service is an affordable alternative to short codes, which are cost-prohibitive for most radio station budgets.

95.5 FM WBRU at Brown University, in Providence, for example, has equipped its existing landline number with Zipwhip's service to be able to take song requests and feedback from listeners via text -- allowing its mostly student audience, which vastly prefers text messaging to any other form of communication, to interact more frequently with the station. The same is true for Impact 89 WDMB at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich., which values the ability to leverage the number its listeners already know.

"We, and more importantly our listeners, love Zipwhip. It has tripled the amount of feedback we get on new music and it's been a great resource for creative on-air promotions and content," said Wyatt Crowell from Brown University.

"The transition to using Zipwhip's texting features has been seamless, since we're able to use the same phone number that we've used for the past ten years," said Sam Riddle, station manager at Impact 89 FM.

91.7 FM WHUS at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn., meanwhile, has not only engaged more listeners with the ability to text from its existing number, it also relies on Zipwhip as a cost-effective, always-on solution for communication in general.

"We use a specialized multi-line phone system that occasionally crashes and leaves us without phones," said Andrew Gates, CFO at WHUS. "Zipwhip remains up and running despite this, allowing us to continue to communicate with listeners via text message."

"College students really only want to text, and radio stations need a way to engage them the way they prefer to engage," said John Lauer, CEO of Zipwhip. "Not only is Zipwhip's service connecting these radio stations directly to their core audiences, it's also helping them make far better use of their already limited budgets for everything."

About Zipwhip
Texting is for more than the mobile phone. Zipwhip has given new life to texting, a service that celebrates its 20th birthday this year. Zipwhip pioneered the concept of utilizing the cloud to enable existing mobile, landline and toll-free numbers to send and receive text messages from virtually any connected desktop, tablet or smartphone. Zipwhip powers a messaging service on any device over any number. Consumers and small businesses can sign up at www.zipwhip.com. Additionally, Zipwhip offers a carrier-grade texting platform to help mobile and landline operators modernize the text-messaging medium. Its technology introduces trailblazing functionality while holding true to the distinct culture of texting that consumers have grown to love. Zipwhip now has more than 7 million registered users of its texting services.