Westwood One and AirSage Partner to Launch Next Generation Platform for Traffic Reporting

Westwood One and AirSage Partner to Launch Next Generation Platform for
Traffic Reporting
- Cell phone signal analysis to provide faster alerts, reliable travel times,
and better alternate route suggestions-

NEW YORK, July 31 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Westwood One, Inc. (NYSE: WON)
today announced a multi-year strategic partnership with AirSage, Inc. to
combine traffic speed and flow information derived from cell phone signals
with Westwood One's leading traffic incident reporting expertise. With the
expanded depth of information-gathering provided by the partnership, Westwood
One's Metro Traffic will improve the accuracy of traffic information available
to commuters, offering significant advancements in the reporting of travel
times, faster alerts, and better alternative route suggestions. Metro
Traffic will begin to roll out the innovative reporting technology in
September.
"Our partnership with AirSage merges Metro Traffic's market-leading
experience with cutting-edge cellular technology to provide local traffic
reports that are simply more accurate than what is currently available
anywhere," said Jonathan Marshall, Westwood One EVP -- Business Affairs &
Strategic Development. "We've been searching for a technology that provides
accurate speed and flow data to complement our strategy of providing premium
content to our media partners."
As the leading provider of traffic information, Metro Traffic serves 129
markets with incident monitoring services covering more than 350,000 miles of
roadway. AirSage, the only U.S. supplier of traffic data from cell phone
signaling systems, compiles and analyzes the anonymous real-time experiences
of tens of millions of drivers to report up-to-the-minute traffic flows and
speeds. The combined offering, an industry milestone, will vastly expand
coverage of secondary roadways and provide best-choice alternatives to
minimize the hassles of daily commuting.
AirSage CEO Cy Smith said, "We are excited to partner with Westwood One,
the longtime leader in traffic reporting. Our combined technology and data
sources will enable Westwood One to provide the most complete, accurate and
timely traffic information to media outlets and to commuters. With this
service, drivers will find it easier to avoid congestion and navigate the
roadways of America."
"Coupling AirSage's breakthrough technology with our 1000+ experienced
traffic experts nationwide lifts traffic reporting accuracy to a new level,"
said John Frawley, EVP Broadcast -- Metro Networks.
AirSage's proprietary software supplies speed, travel time and
traffic-flow information for over 150,000 miles of roadway, including primary
and alternate travel routes. This is a notable improvement over systems based
on fixed-traffic data sensors that monitor real-time traffic for only about
7,000 miles of metropolitan interstates. By relying on the extensive presence
of mobile communications technology, AirSage is also able to provide greater
visibility into how the nations network of highways and arterials is
performing and being used at different times of the day, month, and year.
About Westwood One
Westwood One (NYSE: WON) is a platform-agnostic content company providing
over 150 news, sports, music, talk, entertainment programs, features and live
events to numerous media partners. Through its subsidiaries, Metro
Networks/Shadow Broadcast Services, Westwood One provides local content to the
radio and TV industries and to the Web. This content includes news, sports,
weather, traffic, video news services and other information. SmartRoute
Systems manages traffic information centers for state and local departments of
transportation, and markets traffic and travel content to wireless, Internet,
in-vehicle navigation systems and voice portal customers. Westwood One serves
more than 5,000 radio stations. For more information please visit
http://www.westwoodone.com.
About AirSage, Inc.
AirSage is the leading provider of reliable and accurate real-time traffic
information providing partners and customers with the highest quality speed,
travel time and traffic flow information on more than 150,000 miles of the
nation's highways, freeways, primary roadways and arterial roads. The
Atlanta-based company has developed innovative, patented software technology
that aggregates anonymous signaling data from wireless mobile operators.
AirSage is currently the only company in the U.S. with a wireless carrier
partner that is committed to a national deployment and is the only company
with the capability to provide real-time traffic information using this
ground-breaking technology. For more information please visit
http://www.airsage.com.
SOURCE Westwood One, Inc.

Sandy Hillman or Terry Rooney of Westwood One, Inc., +1-212-223-0561