From the press release: "GlobalMedia.com today announced planned changes in management and board composition in connection with its reorganization and implementation of its new business model. Jeff Mandelbaum (right) and Barr Potter (left) will step down as the Company's CEO and President, respectively, and will resign from the board, on February 1, 2001, in order to pursue other opportunities.

"Two investor representatives will also resign from the board at that time. Michael Metcalfe, Global's founder, past CEO/President and largest shareholder, will re-assume the roles of CEO and President, and is presently working to recruit other potential board members and senior executives.

"On December 29, 2000, Global announced the restructuring of its business, including the pending sale of its radio station streaming audio contracts to SurferNETWORKS.com (see RAIN's coverage here). That transaction is currently scheduled to close on January 31, 2001."

Read the press release here.

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Reprinted from this morning...

BY KURT HANSON
After over a year of operating in "stealth mode," Radio Ink and Streaming Magazine publisher Eric Rhoads (pictured below, center) has debuted his own VC-funded, San Francisco-based Internet radio business, Radio Central, and revealed that he's closed on $7.25 million in new funding (on top of $5 million he raised last year).

Radio Central intends to provide customized Internet radio programming to enhance third-party sites. ("RadioCentral combines custom music programming with the interactivity of the Internet to deepen the user experience of your site.")

Rhoads's partners in the venture include legendary programmer Steve Rivers (pictured, left) as Senior Vice President and Chief Radio Programming Officer, former 99X/Atlanta MD Sean Demery (pictured, right) as Director of Music Programming, and former Zapoleon Media Strategies consultant Steve Wyrostok as Director of Radio Operations.

Rivers previously served as the Chief Programming Officer for AM/FM, where he oversaw the programming 465 radio stations; prior to AM/FM, he held the same position at Chancellor Media, Evergreen Media and Pyramid Broadcasting. As a PD, he is best known for his achievements at WXKS/Boston ("Kiss 108").

Participants in the financing include Allegis Capital, RacRim Venture Partners, and FBR CoMotion Venture Capital. The latter firm is also the source of the venture capital behind Measurecast.

RadioCentral offers a product, at least on their two demo stations, that sounds much more like "real," live radio than traditional Internet-only efforts -- with segues, talkovers, professional-sounding jocks, a tight playlist, and more. It's an impressive sound!

The site offers two demos: Classic Alternative and Classic Soul. Listen to them here.

Included in Radio Central's press release (here) was the optimistic assertion that "one in six Americans listen to streaming during some part of the day," attributed to "a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive / Measurecast." An examination of that study (third study on the page here) reveals no such finding. According to the study, only 16% of U.S. Internet users (already a subset of the total population) had used streaming for even an hour in the past 30 days, and of those, only 20% said they were everyday users. Overall, the study seems to indicate that about 3% to 4% of Americans (much fewer than "one in six") access streaming media on a typical day.                                           -- KH

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Comedy World explained to RAIN that the recent dismissal of 40 employees was the result of company decision to concentrate on the development and syndication of their content -- and get out of Internet distribution by ceasing the live streaming from their site.

Comedy World Marketing Director Liza Hausman explained that the ComedyWorld.com site will change from a consumer "destination" site to a corporate information site for clients, partners, media, etc. Consumers looking for content will be directed to one of Comedy World's distribution partners like Yahoo.com., where the live programming can be heard. Look for these changes some time next month.

Comedy World last week let go 40 employees from its Internet operations group in San Francisco. The network continues to provide its 24 hour live programming from its LA headquarters.

This past October, the company announced that it had secured $20.5 million in venture funding (see RAIN coverage here).

According to Hausman, the company at one time had hoped to generate income by packaging banner ads on the site along with spot flights in the syndicated shows, but realized it would never recoup the streaming costs.

Comedy World’s programming can currently be heard on radio stations in twelve markets across the United States.

"The format is a sleeper..."

Rain Radio, very nice use of an embedded windows media player. Nice touch that you can even get the stats. However, the format is a sleeper

-- loujosephs@hotmail.com

"My talking computer will not 'speak' the listen button..."

I would very much like to listen to RAIN Radio, however my talking computer will not speak the listen button for me.

-- Jim Vaglia

"I miss the volume button..."

Very Nice piece. But I miss a volume button.

-- Wim Wylin Belgium

"I think the Beatles, Van Morrison and Tom Waits write 'standards' too..."

Ended up a little more waby.com like than you first intended. Particularly when you consider our New Dogs Old Tricks on demand program. You've just taken a narrower view of what is a standard than I do. I think the Beatles, Van Morrison and Tom Waits write 'standards' too. We actually cover all this music between our On-Air Live and on demand programming. BTW thanks for the terrific article on nerve radio. All the criticisms were spot on. Probably the nicest press we've gotten.

-- Paul Bendat wabyradio@yahoo.com

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Reprinted from yesterday...

From the press release: "MeasureCast announced today that 22 of the top 25 on-line stations in the company's weekly ranking attracted larger audiences during the week of January 15 than they did the previous week.

"The number of estimated unique listeners, or "Cume persons," for the MeasureCast Top 25 increased seven percent from the week of January 7. (Cume persons is an estimate of the total number of unique listeners with one or more listening sessions lasting five minutes or longer during the reported time period.)."

Read the MeasureCast press release here.

See the Top 25 for the week of January 15th here. You can always see the latest MeasureCast weekly report by clicking the link under "Metrics" in the left-hand menu of RAIN.

February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001, Dallas, TX
February 21-25, 2001	The Gavin Seminar 2001, Miami, FL
February 26-28, 2001	Broadcasters Website Sales Conf. 2.0, Tempe, AZ