Rate Expectations: Game changer? When iHeartMedia, Cumulus, Entercom, Cox, Sun and Shazam partner on a "groundbreaking new audio measurement solution" as announced this morning (read the release here), that conclusion isn't much of a leap. Or is it? The folks involved and even at the peripheries are quite tight-lipped about what it is, how it works and when it's coming. Key phrases peppered throughout the release offer tantalizing if vague clues.

Through what's termed a "strategic alliance," the radio groups and Shazam are promising "market- and station-level audience metrics across all radio formats" that will include "broadcast and digital audio." Also incorporated: "these companies’ proprietary data assets and measurement capabilities." The high concept: "Utilizing the most innovative audio recognition technology available and information from specific geographic markets, [the system] will leverage information collected from tens of millions of devices to produce the accurate, stable cross-platform audience metrics that the industry has been waiting for."

So a shot across Nielsen's bow or a serious run at a new ratings platform? "This has nothing to do with Nielsen, this is just an effort for us to continue to find additional ways to measure and present radio, both broadcast and digital," iHeartMedia President/Research & Insights Radha Subramanyan tells Country Aircheck. "This is about getting more robust data and measurement. The media world is very competitive these days in data, this is one more important way to demonstrate the value of radio." The questions, however, are prodigious. "We are not prepared to release further details at this time," Subramanyan says. Stay tuned.