UKRD Launches News Service for Amazon Alexa

Private Radio operator, UKRD Group, has today launched a locally focussed news service specifically designed for Amazon’s Echo, and Alexa enabled Fire Tablet and Fire TV devices.

The service, which facilitates the provision of daily and weekly news updates, has been launched today on Eagle Radio, which serves Surrey and parts of Hampshire. UKRD’s other stations will each have the service rolled out over the next month or so.

Group Chief Technology Officer, James Wenger, confirmed that the launch and roll out was “all part of the groups’ ongoing commitment to developing services that ensure that all of UKRD’s stations can deliver valuable content and information to their listeners and customers across all platforms they wish to use.”

“People using an Amazon Echo or Alexa Fire device, simply install the flash briefing skill and they’ll get daily or weekly local news updates direct from the station as they request them,” said Wenger. “This is all about enhancing the service which great local stations provide to their communities and making trusted, reliable news, sourced through our excellent team of journalists, freely available on demand.”

UKRD has been developing the service for some months and, with its launch today, puts the group at the forefront of multi-platform news provision in terms of the local commercial sector.

“This is an exciting development for our stations and, as sourcing local news and information becomes ever more important to local communities, we are determined that UKRD’s stations will be delivering what matters, whenever its requested on these increasingly important devices,” said Wenger.