Two Giant Radio Groups Form Daily-Deal Alliance

Two of the fastest-growing trends in media have been daily-deal Web sites and the aggregation of entertainment content online. Now the two biggest radio companies have formed an alliance to compete on both fronts. Clear Channel Communications, which owns about 850 stations, will announce that it will run ads for SweetJack, the daily-deals program owned by Cumulus Media. In turn, Cumulus, the second-biggest operator with 570 stations, will become part of iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s streaming app and all-purpose online radio brand.

The deal will help Cumulus quickly expand its nascent discount service to hundreds of cities and compete with the dominant daily-deal players, Groupon and LivingSocial. SweetJack, which sells promotions to local merchants and advertises the deals on the air and online, opened in April, shortly after Cumulus agreed to pay $2.5 billion to acquire the Citadel Broadcasting Corporation. Cumulus has introduced SweetJack in 16 cities and signed up one million users, the company said. By teaming with Clear Channel, Cumulus plans to take the service to 120 markets by the end of next year. SweetJack will have its own sales forces in local markets, and the companies plan to share profits from the service. Clear Channel also stands to significantly expand iHeartRadio, which collects streams from 800 of its stations along with programming from broadcasters like Univision and the New York public radio station WNYC. It also offers a Pandora-like personalized music service; the company said the app had been downloaded 44 million times by users.