It looks like Clear Channel may have dropped that pig of a player that ran prestream video ads after downloading a 1 MB XML station list over and over – at least on some stations. The play requests are being redirected to iHeartradio which contains a simple non-flash based player.
It’s a major, major improvement – the new direction (indicated by the concert in Vegas) is to turn Clear Channel into a social networking hub. Don’t underestimate Bob Pittman. He may well do to radio what Steve Jobs did to computers.
It will be a PITA to update all the links, but should result in the Clear Channel quality ratings significantly improving.
The ads are back – prestream ads for walmart (mostly) are popping up using the new iheartradio player – not a huge surprise, but the ratings will be adjusted as I bump into them.