-By Katy Bachman

Jelli, a company that merges crowdcasting with traditional radio, is hoping to take its user-controlled radio system national through a deal announced late Monday (Oct. 19) with Triton Media Group. As part of the agreement, Triton will syndicate two daily Jelli programs, Top 40 Jelli and Rock Jelli, while Triton’s Digital division will offer affiliates the ability to create customized Jelli programming.

A far cry from the days of phone-in requests, Jelli gives listeners the ability to control what songs get aired using Web-based, real-time voting and other features. The community can even vote to pull a song off the air instantly.

The syndication deal follows Jelli’s pilot launch in June on CBS Radio’s KITS-FM in San Francisco where listeners took over the station’s airwaves 10 p.m. to Midnight on Sundays.

“Jelli combines the engagement, challenge and teamwork of a videogame; the personalization and sharing of music we see in social networks; and a traditional broadcast that brings the experience to the masses,” said Jim Kerr, vp of strategy for Triton Digital Media.

In addition to the agreement with Triton, Jelli also inked a distribution deal with Australian broadcaster Austereo, which plans to launch Jelli shows on stations in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaid and Perth.

Launched this year, Jelli is based in San Mateo, Calif.