Emerge Inc. Blog

High school football started tonight and for the 8th year, Emerge is providing live audio of games through LorainCounty.com.

Once again, the high school football audio is done in partnership with local radio stations. This year we are working with WOBL 1320 AM and WDLW 1380 AM. As you probably already know, we are big fans of partnerships. LorainCounty.com provides an additional distribution opportunity for the radio stations and the stations provide great content for LorainCounty.com users.

In addition to being simulcast live, the games are stored all season in an archive (WOBL, WDLW), enabling fans to listen anytime.

This year we feature an all new flash based audio player. On game days, the flash player is added to the LorainCounty.com home page and sports page. Before games begin, the schedule is posted. Once games start, the schedule is replaced with a play button that enables users to listen to the audio directly in their browser.

No plug-ins or 3rd party applications are needed (assuming your one of the 99.2% of Internet users who have flash). There is also an option to ‘pop-up’ the player, taking the audio off the page so you can surf around the Internet and still listen to the game.

Also new this year is real-time score updates. During Friday night games, fans can submit scores through a web form, by email, text message, or through their iPhone or Blackberry. Fans can view the LorainCounty.com sports page to see the latest scores from all Lorain County games.

In addition to High School football, LorainCounty.com will also be simulcasting football games from Oberlin College again this year. Tune in to the LorainCounty.com Sports Section on Friday nights and Saturdays. If you know of a high school football player with grandparents, brothers, sisters, uncles, friends, etc. who live outside the local radio reach, be sure to let them know about the live and archived audio.