Agreement Between Carmel Limousine Service and WEMP

[Barry]

According to a press release, drivers working for the large Carmel Limousine service will be providing WEMP News 101.9 real time traffic information. This may help make the thorough WEMP traffic reports even better. At 15 and 45 minutes past the hour, routes around traffic congestion will be given on the air. Naturally there will mentions of Carmel.
The press release also states that Carmel limos will use WEMP reports to help navigate in traffic. I would guess that means that all Carmel drivers and their passengers may be a captive audience for the station.
WEMP has also been running a contest that gives cab drivers whom are spotted with a WEMP air freshener and the station playing, a $50 "tip."

Press Release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/carmel-car-and-limousine-service-announces-partnership-with-fm-news-1019-radio-161557605.html

[luperm]

It's like the Fugazy cars all over again!

[Barry]

It's like the Fugazy cars all over again!

Could you explain that?

[reelyreal]

It's like the Fugazy cars all over again!

Could you explain that?

Fugazy Car Service had a deal with WCBS for a little while in the 80's where their limo drivers would call in traffic reports... it was a disaster.  Unprofessional, out of date reports, just not good.

[Barry]

It's like the Fugazy cars all over again!

Could you explain that?

Fugazy Car Service had a deal with WCBS for a little while in the 80's where their limo drivers would call in traffic reports... it was a disaster.  Unprofessional, out of date reports, just not good.

So it will be interesting whether there are procedures in place to handle limo traffic reports better this time around.

[DToTheJ]

Guys: It's called the reply button. Use it, please. You're welcome.

[Bill DeFelice]

Considering it took them weeks (months?) to fix a erroneous time check that aired daily do you think they're going to listen to the traffic reports? When I bother to tune in I still sometimes hear the traffic bed with no report.

[reelyreal]

Guys: It's called the reply button. Use it, please. You're welcome.

Thank you, Message Board Formatting Police.  I don't know how we'd ever understand anything without you there to help us.

I'll quote whatever i want, thanks.

[WNTIRadio]

It sounds like a good deal... for the limo company and the salesperson who engineered this sure to be debacle.

In this day and age, when I can go on my iPhone and pull up Google traffic and get the road conditions from real time inductive sensors in the road (reacting to the large metal objects passing over them) and cameras it seems pretty 1975 to have a fleet of limo drivers reporting traffic.  Why not give them all CB's too? 

If you're going to go the eyes on the road route, for goodness sakes, invest in a plane/helicopter.  Let's see, Tom Kaminski 1,000' feet up in the air with years of reporting experience or Jimmy Jimmarino driving his limo on the BQE who can't see past the truck in front of him?  What will you choose?

FM News is a joke.  Time to do something else with a station that's been there almost a year and can't get more than a .6.  How long will Merlin continue to live in denial of the obvious?

[radiophiler]

I worked at a news station in the 90s that had this type of arrangement with an airport shuttle company. It didn't work too well. After a while, drivers just didn't call.

And as someone else noted: This is supposed to be better than Google traffic which monitors traffic directly via users smartphones? I doubt it.