BY
PAUL MALONEY
The year 2000 opened with the Y2K bug, the most widely
heralded non-event ever (bigger even than Geraldo opening Capone's
secret room!). It then quickly and quietly crawled under the rug
-- at least it seemed quiet compared to the deafening burst of
the wild Internet investment bubble a few months later.
The year in Internet radio, in a lot of ways, paralleled
what we saw in the online world as a whole. There certainly were
a lot of "fond farewells" to poorly placed money, companies
with little or no plan for ROI, and ideas whose time had not yet
come. Or came and went. And certainly, quite a few of our talented
but unfortunate colleagues lost their jobs.
Add to that a disproportionate amount of legal wrangling
between copyright holders, technology innovators, entrepreneurs,
and the government. Have any Internet law firms had an IPO? That
sounds like a successful business model.
But the past year is also a reason to hold on to hope.
Poor are those who live through bad experiences and don't take
a lesson from it. Every
day in this newsletter there are stories of energized people with
new ideas that may succeed where others have failed. There's a
steady stream of new technology to help us do what we do better.
And there's a reason to think the promise of the Internet (and
Internet radio) hasn't died -- it's just become more realistic.
We leave the judgment up to you. We'd like to present what
we feel were some of the biggest news stories from radio and the
Internet in the year 2000. As always, we'd love to hear your comments.
Happy New Year!
The first major story to break
in 2000 was the biggest, and we don't even yet know how big.
From January 10th...
AOL buys Time Warner in
biggest deal ever
From CNET News: "America Online is acquiring media
giant Time Warner in a deal that would create a company valued
around $350 billion.
 "It
is probably the most significant development in the Internet
business world to date," said Phil Leigh, an analyst at Raymond
James. "If it hasn't been evident to most of us yet, it should
be obvious to us now that the Internet is about audio and
video and not just merely text and graphics."
Read RAIN's coverage here. |
Another news event with ramifications
yet unknown (but that will almost certainly make an impact
in the radio and Internet worlds) came February 17th...
deCastro walks!
Last remaining Evergreen
founder is leaving; says he plans to start Internet venture
From yesterday's R&R Online: "Jim deCastro,
the last remaining executive who started AMFM Inc., resigned
this afternoon, in advance of the company’s impending merger
with Clear Channel. De Castro was Vice Chairman of AMFM,
President/CEO of the AMFM Radio Group, and Chairman/CEO
of AMFMi. His resignation caps off a string of recent
high-profile departures from AMFM, including that of Chief
Programming Officer Steve Rivers a few weeks
ago. AMFM Radio COO Ken O'Keefe will assume oversight of the
radio group..."
Read RAIN's coverage here. |
As
winter was ending (and RAIN hid in Japan!),
hope sprung eternal! Two companies pioneering what was (and
still could be) Internet radio's best bet to generate income,
ad-insertion, got some financial "validation." Both
stories are from March 7th...
Internet radio tuner Hiwire
gets $17 million in venture funding
 From
CNET News: "A pair of industry heavyweights are venturing
out on Hiwire, a little-known streaming
media company that hopes to span the gap between local and
national advertising on the Internet.
"Grey Advertising and venture capital firm New
Enterprise Associates today are expected to announce a
$17 million investment in Hiwire, a deal that will also add
NEA's Stewart Alsop and Grey chief executive Ed
Meyer to Hiwire's board of directors."
RadioWave announces $20.5
mil in first-round outside financing
From
the company press release: "RadioWave.com, which
creates customized interactive audio
players that coordinate graphics, interactive advertising
and e-commerce with streamed audio, announced today that it
secured $20.5 million in its first round of private financing.
"Warburg, Pincus Equity Partners, L.P. led the investment
round, with FBR Technology Venture Partners and Intel Capital
also investing in the company. RadioWave.com began as a subsidiary
of Motorola, which retains a major holding in the new entity.
Read RAIN's coverage of both of these stories
here.
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More
good news in Spring, as it seemed that one of the
most important tools for the success of radio on the Internet,
metrics, had gained a foot hold with the first major multi-channel
webcaster, as reported May 23rd...
Arbitron signs NetRadio.com
for InfoStream ratings service
 BY
KURT HANSON
Arbitron has signed Minneapolis-based NetRadio.com
as its first multi-channel Internet-only broadcaster for its
InfoStream webcast ratings  services,
and "preliminary audience figures" contained in
the press release on the subject suggest that at least four
of its channels will be at or near the top of the Monthly
Cume ranking in its next report.
Read RAIN's coverage here.
|
Please look for Part 2 in this series, coming soon in RAIN.
In the December 29th issue of
RAIN (
here),
Hiwire spokesman Wayne
Hickey, in regards to the reported
rumor that Clear Channel had made a "huge" investment
in the ad-insertion technology company, said "the funding rumor
with Clear Channel is just that -- a rumor."
And according to today's
Radio
Business Report, the other party in the reported deal is
echoing that stance. RBR quotes Clear Channel
Internet Chairman and CEO Kevin Mayer as saying “We have not made
an investment in Hiwire, period. We do not have any equity stake
In Hiwire whatsoever. We do not contemplate purchasing equity in
Hiwire, or acquiring it through any other means. They approached
us for an investment. We may do a business deal with them at some
point, because they have a technology that’s interesting to us from
an operational perspective.”
Read the article from RBR
here.
From the Chicago Tribune: "The biggest development in
radio since the popularization of the FM band will
launch next month, putting to the test a multibillion-dollar bet
that millions of consumers will gladly spend $9.95 a month to hear
what they want, when they want it and to escape the barrage of commercials
they hear every day going to and from work...
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc. of New York will begin quality
tests in early January, broadcasting 100 channels of music, entertainment,
sports and news—50 of them commercial-free. If all goes as planned—and
that is a big and critically important if, analysts say—the fledgling
satellite radio industry could mount a potent challenge to the nation's
12,000 local radio stations...
The timing is not ideal. Auto sales are slumping and the
economy is slowing, both of which underscore the question of whether
consumers will be inclined to pay for yet
another source of entertainment—and an unproven one at that...
"(The company's chairman and chief executive officer
David) Margoles is undaunted, and here's why: An intense wave of
consolidation in the radio industry has raised debt levels of the
biggest radio station owners, resulting in a big increase in the
number of commercial minutes to pay off the debt. While radio commercial
clutter varies from station to station, with as little as 10 minutes
of ads per hour on some stations to as much as 25 minutes on others,
some radio and advertising industry executives say clutter is angering
listeners and creating a potential market for satellite radio."
Read the Tribune story
here.
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From PRNewswire: "In a move designed to show the world
the future of music technology today,
MP3.com
will offer
a live webcast of the 'Next Generation of My.MP3' event to be held
in San Diego on January 4. The event, from 1:30 to 5 p.m. PST, is
scheduled to feature presentations from music technology experts
and groundbreaking demonstrations of new devices and mobile music
players. Users can access the live webcast at
http://www.mp3.com/events...
"The 'Next Generation of My.MP3' event will showcase
some of the world's latest technologies designed to provide global
access to music from the home, office and even
the car. Demonstrations are scheduled to include the public debut
of several new music devices, as well as the latest in software
and wireless technologies from the music research labs of MP3.com
and key partners.
"Among the devices slated for demonstration is the Broadband
Music Player from
Panja, Inc.
A fully functional digital home-stereo system, the BMP-100 is designed
to allow consumers to program and play MP3 files without downloading
them from a computer."
Read the press release
here.
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Reprinted from Friday's edition...
From the press release: "GlobalMedia.com
announced today a major restructuring of its business, which
includes the sale of its radio contracts and related assets to SurferNETWORK.com
under the terms of a letter of intent between the companies.
"SurferNETWORK will pay GlobalMedia.com a combination
of cash and equity for its radio assets. GlobalMedia.com will also
get a seat on the Board of SurferNETWORK.com. The
agreement also provides GlobalMedia.com with interim funding...
"SurferNETWORK.com will combine GlobalMedia.com's radio
contracts with the radio contracts it previously has closed with
a number of the leading radio groups in the Internet broadcast industry.
SurferNETWORK.com has previously announced a potential combination
of businesses with Broadcast America, pending Broadcast America
successfully completing and exiting their Chapter 11 proceedings...
"GlobalMedia.com will now focus on video delivery over
the Internet."
Read the press release here.
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