SYLACAUGA, Ala. — A new Alexa “skill” now allow users of Amazon Echo devices and Alexa-enabled speakers in their homes and offices to engage with RadioAlabama’s live radio station streams.
Smart speakers, controlled by voice commands, have invaded bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, and offices, and millions of cars will also be Alexa-enabled later this year. Billions of times each day, people ask Alexa to play radio streams, podcasts, audiobooks, and music as well as answer questions, read news and weather, provide sports scores, serve as wake-up alarms, and control lights, thermostats, appliances, and other devices.
“Voice-controlled hands-free access to our radio network via these smart devices is an important innovation, extending our goal of being available how, where, and when our listeners want,” said Lee Perryman, RadioAlabama’s President & CEO. “With voice becoming the new button, our audio streams are now just a spoken command away on more than 20 million Amazon Alexa devices including the Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show.”
The new RadioAlabama skill can be enabled in the Alexa mobile app or browser interface. Saying “Alexa, open RadioAlabama” will then list stations and allow listeners to select the desired stream. Each individual stream can be directly requested, too. Example commands.
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to play Yea!106.5.”
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to play 98.3 Fox FM.”
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to play 105.1 WRFS.”
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to play KiX 96.3.”
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to play KiX 100.3.”
- “Alexa, ask RadioAlabama to list stations.”
“We’ll be adding separate ‘Flash Briefing’ capabilities so listeners can request or awake to, for example, local weather forecasts and local news/sports updates — precisely when they want to hear it, rather than waiting for it in the normal on-air or stream mix,” Perryman said.
RadioAlabama’s live station streams are also available via mobile apps and browsers as well as through TuneIn and iHeartRadio.
The RadioAlabama station network’s four radio brands across six signals — 106.5 FM, 1290 AM, 98.3 FM, 105.1 FM, 96.3 FM, and 1050 AM — blanket East Central Alabama, where more than a million people can hear them. Yea!106.5 & WYEA!1290 serve the greater Sylacauga-Childersburg area, while 96.3 & 1050 WLMA focus on Alexander City-Dadeville, and 98.3 Fox FM and 105.1 WRFS are the company’s regional signals. Collectively, the stations potentially reach hundreds of thousands of people from Sylacauga northwest to the edges of Birmingham, east through and past the Lake Martin area toward Auburn, south into Wetumpka and Prattville and past Montgomery, and north toward I-20. Parent Marble City Media LLC also has a construction permit to build a new FM station serving the Auburn area.
