Cleveland - Apr 23, 2012 - Listener Driven Radio has hired news/talk radio programmer Gabe Hobbs as a strategic advisor. Hobbs will advise LDR on the long-term development of LDR.TopicPulse, a new system that offers real time social media topic tracking, so news/talk stations can see what local audiences are talking about up to the second.

Hobbs is a 35-year radio veteran who has specialized in news, talk and sports formats for the past 20 years. From 1998 through 2008, Hobbs was responsible for the programming oversight of Clear Channel's 275 news, talk and sports-formatted stations. Hobbs has also served as a consultant for Premiere Radio Networks, the Rush Limbaugh Program, the Glenn Beck Show, Trumped with Donald Trump, Costas on the Radio with Bob Costas, the Dr. Laura Program and Jason Lewis. Hobbs also worked on the launch of Fox Sports Radio in 2000 and remained an advisor to the network for eight years.

Hobbs' first focus will be to work with LDR on the development of LDR.TopicPulse, which gives real-time information to show producers and hosts on which topics and news stories are getting buzz in their market on socialmedia. The system scans all available news sources, local blogs, Facebook posts, Tweets and other social media. Then producers can see a report, which is updated to the second, on the hottest trending topics and their shelf life.