BY
PAUL MALONEY
This past week saw the introduction of a new product that
can leverage the power of the Internet and the telephone to give
your audience another opportunity to interact with your radio
station. And the company has already won over one high-profile
fan, WBCN-FM/Boston program director Oedipus, who says, "RadioVoodoo
is one of the most exciting radio programming concepts I've seen."
RadioVoodoo is a software
solution that allows listeners, via the phone or web, to record
and upload song requests, "shout-outs,"
dedications, "rants," and vote in song countdowns. The
use of live or recorded phone callers on the air has long been
seen as a powerful method of connecting "personally"
with listeners, and to add energy and excitement to music programming
(especially that geared toward younger demos). It's a concept
that's been around for years (Anyone remember WLS-AM/Chicago's
"Boogie Check?"), and remains vital in the form of MTV's
"Total Request Live."
According
to RadioVoodoo President/CEO J. Scott Hamilton, the product
has been in development for nine months, with the past month spent
in beta-testing in Albany on Urban WAJZ- FM and Alternatives WQBK-FM
and WQBJ. The official launch is planned for this week, at WBCN-FM/Boston
and KFSD-FM/San Diego, with a national marketing campaign kicking
off in June.
Listeners of affiliate radio stations (via telephone or
the web, if they have a microphone for their PC) call in and vote
for their favorite songs they've heard on the station, voice their
opinions, send greetings along to friends, etc. The programming
is then created by RadioVoodoo's staff of DJs and sound engineers
-- a two-hour mix of the top songs plus the listener voice elements
interspersed throughout the program. The result
is a show, ideal for evenings or a midday "lunch" program,
which can be positioned to your listeners as "produced by
the listeners, for the listeners."
The company's board of directors include the founder and
former VP of web community company Tripod (Bo Peabody and Ethan
Zuckerman, respectively), and AMFM Interactive founder Charles
Armstrong.
Hamilton says, "Of course I'm biased, but I think
we've got the next big thing in radio with RadioVoodoo. A solution
that properly leverages the web, the phone, and the audience to
produce must-hear radio with a built-in audience."
From CNet News.com: "Earlier this month, when he decided
to record a new compact disc, Joe Smith followed a
procedure
he's done hundreds of times: Insert the CD, get into the online
music database and select songs.
"Yet this time, instead of displaying the usual song
information, the popular CD-burning software made by Roxio delivered
a different message.
Roxio
products were no longer supported by
Gracenote's CD information service, which housed the
database Smith had been using to match song and album titles with
a disc placed into his computer -- a collection entered in large
part by individuals on the Net...
"The data blackout is the result of a copyright battle
between the two companies that may have far-reaching
consequences. Already, thousands of customers have been cut off
from the largest such online database, a collection of 885,000
records called CDDB. While the legal dispute centers on whether
Roxio can use online databases created by people on the Internet,
many people are concerned that CDDB -- maintained for the last
three years by Gracenote but built from individuals' submissions
-- can be owned...
"While Gracenote claims the collection of CD information
at the heart of the CDDB system belongs to the company, many cyber-rights
activists and open-source advocates are raising eyebrows. Because
much of the database was entered in by the public, they argue
that the public should own the result."
Read the entire article (accompanied by a cool animated
graphic which explains how the technology works)
here.
From DigitalMusicWeekly.com: "There is a certain value
in discussing the
eMarker
despite that, because the
rubberized key chain represents something that will become a bigger
and bigger part of the wireless community's life over the next
few years -- an initially interesting, technologically sound wireless
toy that will only be purchased on a goofy impulse and used for
a few days, or perhaps weeks, before being relegated to the back
of the junk drawer forever.
"The eMarker is a two-inch, rubber-coated plastic
ovoid with a thumbnail-size digital screen and a covered USB port.
It's designed to detect songs you hear playing on the radio that
you like but don't know enough about. When you hear an unknown
song, you press the button and the eMarker takes a time stamp
(memory is limited to 10 songs). Later, when attached to your
PC and transmitted to the eMarker.com website, you learn
the title and artist, and receive a clip of the tune...
"Now, I'll give you that the inherent technology is
simple. But it puts the cart before the horse: specifically, it
puts the technological ability to do something before the market
demand.
"The flip side of that argument is that small wireless
consumer devices will inevitably run into this problem: except
for a few items that replicate current wired devices people carry
-- such as headphones -- all wireless gadgets are breaking new
territory. Thus, demand will have to be manufactured via marketing."
Read the entire article
here.
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Here's more feedback from disgruntled Internet radio listeners
deprived of their favorite streams, in one person's case, driven
to the point of poetry...
 |
"The
Internet is nothing more than a translator..."
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I can get (broadcast) radio for free in my
car, home, shower and just about any other place where I have
access to a radio.
Radio personalities are on salary and are being paid for
their time. Advertiser's radio commercials are being broadcast
over the radio to their local customers and generating income
for their businesses. The Internet is nothing more than a translator.
Streaming allows me to sit in a small town and enjoy radio in
a bigger and better place.
If I live in a small town in Texas there's no way in hell
I can do business with a company advertising on a Phoenix radio
station. I can't drive 800 miles for a muffler. What's next, should
I feel obligated to send money to my favorite commercial radio
station next time I listen in my car?
Maybe I don't have a clear understanding of all the issues
involved here. It's just radio. I enjoy the streaming broadcasts
very much and I miss listening. If streaming radio fails it'll
be the fault of the people who are trying to profit from it. I
do appreciate you guys working on a solution.
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"(Ad
insertion) would be a perfect deal..."
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I don't understand why radio stations subscribe to streaming
providers which have the option of "streaming
ad insertion," but never used it. The technology is definitely
not perfect, but if stations put time and effort into using it,
it could be used as a secondary revenue stream, as well as reduce
any related fees.
This would be a perfect deal for the large- and medium-market
stations that webcast, but as of this time, it's still a costly
proposition for small town radio (look at how much BroadcastAmerica.com
spent to provide Internet connectivity to these tiny stations,
and you know what happened to them).
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"This
is making me upset and sometimes SCREAMING!..."
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I sure do miss the stations with audio streaming,
This is making me upset and sometimes SCREAMING!
There is a lot to enjoy on the Internet each day.
But the thing I miss is listening to stations like WOR, KGO and
WABC I must say.
I am looking forward to the time when these stations resume their
audio.
But thanks to RAIN I am in the know.
Keep up the good work and don't go dreaming.
I am one of many wishing radio stations would resume their audio
streaming!
