FMQB's cover story this week is an interview with Clear
Channel Radio Senior VP Tom Owens,
who oversees 1200 radio stations in the nation's largest ownership
group.
In the article Owens addresses the subject of his company's plans
for competing with and taking advantage of the Internet. Especially
interesting is the revelation Clear Channel's plans to create
online, customizable variations of their stations' programming.
"What are the company’s plans for the Web?
And will the innovative KIISFMi model be rolled out at other stations?
"'Streaming existing or mutated versions of broadcast
products is simply a place to begin. Side channels and ad insertion
are good starts. However, our ultimate
objective is to allow the online consumer to create completely
self-targeted variations of our on-air brands. 
Whether
they prefer one air personality to another, dislike certain music
selections, or have more interest in entertainment news than traffic
information, our goal is to provide a
product designed to service such highly individualized need.
"'Our belief is that just as CDs or DVDs stimulated
economic windfalls for the entertainment industry in re-selling
existing products, there exists a similar
upside in the online re-purposing of existing broadcast
content. Ad insertion technology already exists that will allow
us to target online advertising by demo, gender, ethnicity, station
preference, and zip codes. Our most bottom line is that we have
to view Clear Channel as being in the entertainment business and
providing superior, difficult-to-duplicate products to our consumers.
If we succeed at that fundamental level, we can blend the delivery
systems in any manner that seems prudent over time.'"
From FMQB: "What should programmers do to protect
themselves from potential audience erosion from satellite radio
and online audio?
"'Product excellence, prioritizing unique characteristics,
will always be the most effective condom. Interconnectivity enhances
our insulation as we’re able to draw
from the entire Clear Channel arsenal of personalities, production,
and promotion. Our intellectual properties can now be shared by
the many, or focused on the few.
"'There is no doubt that a greater volume of narrowly
casted products will further fragment the marketplace. However,
without the accompanying advantage of a quantum leap in audio
integrity -- such as FMs enjoyed versus AMs, or CDs constituted
over LPs -- these services will have to provide programming
so clearly superior to existing broadcast or private
portable entertainment that consumers are willing to pay, not
only for the necessary reception or interface hardware, but also
for subscription fees in some cases, while continuing to endure
a degree of commercial clutter in others.
"'Internet-based products will not face the same barriers
to entry that the satellite companies must overcome, and their
economics will rationalize micro-niche
content that many
will find appealing. However, since the mid-‘50s, when television
displaced radio as the primary source of home entertainment, the
majority of radio consumption has come "out of home." Therefore,
the current radio-interface fixed-position units like Kerbango
or Sonic Box will attack the minority of current radio consumption,
and, in the near-term, are further hampered by the reality that
less than 10 percent of Americans subscribe to broadband service.
I’m sure this is something that AOL Time Warner intends to address.
"'It is an interesting statistic that Internet usage
doubles in households acquiring broadband at the equal expense
of television and radio consumption. From network television to
AM radio, our industry has a grim history of inappropriately responding
to alternative delivery systems. The reality is that 27 percent
of Americans are consuming radio-like products online today and
we need to position ourselves as partners, not adversaries, or
worse yet, victims of this rapidly emerging technology. The more
immediate decisive issue is how rapidly the barrier of portable
bandwidth will be resolved and how comparatively compelling
the products will be to the average audio consumer.
Read the entire FMQB interview here.
From the press release: "
NetRadio
Corporation today announced fourth-quarter
revenues of $430,000,
a decrease of 36 percent from $669,000 in the fourth
quarter of 1999, and down 6 percent sequentially from the third
quarter of this year. On a cash revenue basis, fourth-quarter revenues
were flat with last year as the fourth quarter of 1999 contained
$237,000 in non-cash barter advertising revenues. Revenues for the
full year of 2000 increased 43 percent to $2,067,000.
"Net loss for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2000,
improved to $3,521,000, or 35 cents per diluted share, compared
with a net loss of $5,573,000, or 60 cents per diluted share, in
the same period last year . The fourth-quarter net loss also reflected
a 20% sequential improvement from the $4,384,000 net loss in the
third quarter of this year. The primary sources of year-over-year
fourth-quarter savings were the reductions in bandwidth costs and
advertising expenditures to promote the company's web site. The
fourth-quarter sequential improvement was also due to an ongoing
reduction in operating costs. Cash balance at the end of the quarter
was $11,523,000.
"NetRadio has also been notified by the NASDAQ Stock Market
of NASDAQ's determination that NetRadio is not in compliance with
the minimum market value of public float of $5,000,000 requirement
and the minimum bid price of $1.00 requirement for continued listing
of its common stock on the NASDAQ National Market. NetRadio has
requested a hearing with NASDAQ regarding these compliance issues,
which request temporarily stays delisting of the common stock from
the NASDAQ National Market."
Read the entire release
here.
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This feedback is in regards to Activate's shutting down of former
GlobalMedia (now SurferNetwork) radio stations streams (read RAIN
coverage here
and here.)
 |
"You
bet we had our streams shut down..."
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You bet we had our streams shut down -- very unexpectedly,
with no notice. Happened to KOMORadio.com, STAR1015.com and 570KVI.com
on Monday, 2/6.
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Scott Carty, Internet & Creative Director
Fisher Radio Seattle |
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"It
has been all down hill from there..."
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Our station was one of the first 20 Magnitude
Net stations starting about 3 years ago. Well it has been all down
hill from there. Default and sale --- over and over --- several
times. Always the contracts got worse for us and the service deteriorated.
We never realized any income after Magnitude sold out (darned little
before).
Now we get these strange e-mails saying things will be better
if we just wait and cooperate. Cooperate means signing a $1350/mo
contract with Activate while Surfer finds a way to interdict our
automation system and takes 100% of our local inventory for their
own on the net.. What a deal. Surfer says they will compensate us
for the Activate fees but will not put that into their contract..
Go figure. They want us to hold onto them until they keep or dump
us (depending on their needs). Meanwhile we get stuck for this outrageous
streaming fee. Yes they say they will also pay ASCAP, BMI and SESAC
--- but should they fail, we the stations are stuck again. The history,
short as it is, suggests great caution.
What to do ?? Stream Audio wants $395/mo plus you provide
the stream. A possible choice is Warp which requires you to provide
a wideband stream and down the road access to commercial insertion
( plus some current on-air inventory).
For us the answer is simple. Move our WEB site back to our
local ISP. Develop a local streaming plan with the ISP and look
out for the RIAA "hit" when it comes.
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"Do
I want to deal with either of these schmucks?"
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So are the two companies "working together", or are they "unable
to come up with a resolution?" Or perhaps the larger question
-- for a radio station GM, at least -- is "do I want to deal with
either of these schmucks?"
Although to be fair, Activate's statement reflects normal
business practice: don't air your dirty laundry in public! Like
it or not, it's much more businesslike to say "we're having constructive
discussions" even if the truth is that you're fighting like tomcats.
So my answer to the question would be "Yes, I'd deal with Activate...
but I wouldn't touch SurferNetwork with a 10-foot pole."
| |
Robert
Brooks
robertb@dixie-chicks.com |
|
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