Simon & Schuster Audio and Broadcastr Team Up For "The Great Bridge Tour"

NEW YORK, Aug. 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Simon & Schuster Audio and Broadcastr, Inc. are pleased to announce their collaboration on "The Great Bridge Tour," a social media experience that features eight exclusive audio excerpts from Pulitzer Prize-winner David McCullough's acclaimed audiobook, The Great Bridge, narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor, Edward Herrmann.  

Broadcastr, a new social-media platform for location-based audio, has a free app—available on iPhone, Android, and the Web—which lets users easily create and share recordings on an interactive map.  For "The Great Bridge Tour," some particularly memorable moments from the Bridge's history, and featured in the audiobook of The Great Bridge, have been pinned to the Broadcastr map and are accessible for free on the app.  These excerpts come together to form a streaming, half hour walking tour that unlocks layers of history surrounding the Bridge.  

To coincide with the launch of "The Great Bridge Tour," Broadcastr is rolling out  its new geo-fencing technology, which sends an automatic alert to anyone using the app in a specific area, giving them the chance to link directly to relevant featured audio. This new technology makes it even easier for app users to discover captivating stories about their location.

With the new geo-fence feature, anyone using the Broadcastr app on or near the Brooklyn Bridge will receive a notification about "The Great Bridge Tour," with the option to go directly to the Tour.  Imagine listening to McCullough's classic account of one of the greatest engineering feats of all time—the building of the iconic Brooklyn Bridge—while walking across it.  As read by Edward Herrmann, excerpts such as "Boss Tweed and the Bridge," "Highway to the Sky," and "The Critics Weigh In" from The Great Bridge audiobook will not only entertain but also educate users on the bridge's history.

"Broadcastr provides an exciting new way to introduce audiobooks to new listeners," says Chris Lynch, Executive Vice President and Publisher of Simon & Schuster Audio.  "After Broadcastr users listen to excerpts from high-quality productions such as The Great Bridge, we are confident that many of them will want to hear the full program."  

"The Great Bridge Tour is an ideal showcase for our new geo-fence feature," says Broadcastr co-founder and President Scott Lindenbaum. "The rich, amazing information in McCullough's audiobook are a great accompaniment for anyone's walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, and our free app makes it easy to listen to those stories in an organic and natural way."

Download the Broadcastr app to listen to "The Great Bridge Tour," available here: http://broadcastr.com/appdownload.  

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster Audio is a leading publisher of general interest audiobooks including bestselling fiction, nonfiction, business/finance, self-improvement, inspiration, language learning programs, original audiobook productions, and children's titles.  In addition to a list that includes such unparalleled authors as Mary Higgins Clark, Vince Flynn, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Michael Lewis, and David McCullough.  Simon & Schuster Audio has produced audiobooks that have won seven Grammy Awards and earned thirty-five Grammy nominations since 1989.  For more information about Simon & Schuster Audio, visit our website at www.audio.simonandschuster.com. 

Simon & Schuster, a part of CBS Corporation, is a global leader in the field of general interest publishing, dedicated to providing the best in fiction and nonfiction for consumers of all ages, across all printed, electronic, and audio formats. Its divisions include Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing, Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, Simon & Schuster Audio, Simon & Schuster Digital, and international companies in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com. 

ABOUT BROADCASTR:  Broadcastr is a new social-media platform for location-based audio.  The free app—available on iPhone, Android, and the Web—lets people easily create and share recordings on an interactive map. On the mobile app, anyone can take a walk and hear stories about their surroundings stream automatically into their headphones, building a digital layer of history, memory, and voice in the world around us. For more information, visit www.Broadcastr.com.

SOURCE Simon & Schuster Audio