It appears that CBS has finally found a use for Last.fm, but did anyone ever dream it would end up programming an actual radio station?

Last.fm, the social site for music, was purchased by CBS in May 2007 for $280 million. While no one was quite sure what the old media company planned to do with a site that allows people to listen to music, and vote their favorite tunes up charts, it didn’t really seem to change the nature of the service in any way.

Well, it has now been announced that CBS will be using those charts of users favorite songs to power four over-the-air radio station in the largest radio markets in the United States.

Beginning on Monday, Oct. 5th, HD radio stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and San Francisco will be be comprised of “an eclectic mix of music aggregated and influenced by the service’s user-generated weekly charts, combined with live performances and interviews from the Last.fm studios in New York, and event updates.”  The release from CBS Radio continues, “The new station will expose audiences to underground, breaking and established artists and songs popular with Last.fm’s more than 25 million monthly users.”

While these new stations won’t be accessible by traditional radio units, those with HD radios will be able to pick them up in the mentioned markets.  There will also be options for listening to them on the iPhone, iPod Touch, select BlackBerry devices, on Last.fm itself and via select radio station web sites.  The stations where you can pick the transmissions up will include WWFS-FM (102.7 HD2), KCBS-FM (93.1 HD2), WXRT-FM (93.1 HD3) and KITS-FM (105.3 HD3).

This is the first known example of a social network influencing the programming of a traditional radio station, but it seems like the perfect marriage of old and new media.  Instead of top 40 charts, which have always been a bit questionable in their accuracy, you will now be hearing charts that are actually influenced by everyday people.  True, it is limited to members of Last.fm, but considering that is over 25 million people, it should make for some interesting choices in what you hear.

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Entry was posted on Saturday, September 12th, 2009 at 3:07 pm under Social Media.

Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
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