 |
Part
two in a series:
 BY
KURT HANSON
Today is going to be a continuation of Wednesday's "very special
issue" of RAIN, as we take an all-day-long look at the
features that belong on the ideal radio station website.
If you didn't read Wednesday's introduction to the subject, click
the screenshot  below
to jump to that issue of RAIN. (Yesterday's issue had reader
comments on the subject; you can use the arrow to the left of the
issue date above to read that issue. (Clicking the RAIN
logo at the top of the page always returns you to the current day's
issue.))
Today, I'll be writing all day long and uploading fresh, updated
editions of RAIN every two hours, adding new features recommended
by RAIN readers. To contribute your suggestions and
comments, use the "Quick message" form below or, to use
your own e-mail software, click here.
First, here's the latest reader feedback:
 |
"Website
visitors are the creme de le creme of your P1s..."
|
Kurt: Based on
several research projects I've done on radio station websites the
one thing I think everyone is missing is that station website visitors
are the creme de le creme of your station's P1s. I've done
several focus groups where the respondents knew more about the station
than the PD did! The respondents were incredibly forgiving of all
of our faults like dead ends , outdated info, and no response to e-mail.
In fact one lady said she keeps coming back to the site in hopes that
we had fixed the problems.
Streaming was not something that was important to them. They used
the website as a brand extention. They wanted info about what
we were playing, advertisers, advertiser coupons, artist info, jock
info and some way to communicate with them,weather and contests.(We
developed a game calle "Scratch For Prizes" that was a game
card web visitors could play like a Lottery Ticket using their cursor
-- the respondents loved it.) Speed was also very important.
They didn't want fancy graphics if it meant longer download time.
In short, I would suggest that before anyone spend time guessing
what our visitors want on the "perfect website," there needs
to be more research done. After all, most of us wouldn't program a
radio station without doing the proper research.
--
Donn Seidholz, Net In
Focus
|
"One
of the most compelling emotional components..."
|
Kurt: Congratulations on a great site, with a voluminous amount of
original ideas for radio and the technology of the Internet. As a
web developer (and former radio broadcaster), I can see that most
radio broadcasters are just barely coming to grips with the dynamics
of this new content/delivery system. Your site demonstrates how
to think in a different and more expansive way than most broadcasters
have been used to...
As far as suggestions for the perfect radio station website:
We must remember that, for the music listener, especially women, one
of the most compelling emotional components of the radio listening
experience involves the lyrical content of a given song. To
some people, lyrics convey more emotional meaning than the beat, melody
line, or other musical attributes. Some lyrics of pop songs aren't
always clearly identifiable (can anybody fully understand the some
of the lyrics mumbled by the likes of Bob Dylan or Bruce Springsteen?).
Today's music has its examples as well.
A well-rounded radio station web site should have a database of
all of the lyrics to every song they play (or more). It should
be part of the "song detail" component you mentioned in your June
2nd article. The database should be fully searchable by keywords,
just like any other web search... The only administrative issue I
can think of regarding the retransmission of song lyrics would be
any ASCAP/BMI considerations --and should be covered by a station's
existing arragement with those origanizations (after all, we're transmitting
the auditory version of song lyrics anyway).
Anyway, best of luck with RAIN!
--
David Tate
|
"It's
almost nonsense to consider the simucast as (an) effective
tool ..."
|
The ultimate website most definately should contain far more than
simple simulcasting with its sister broadcast facility. It's almost
nonsense to consider the simulcast as any kind of effective tool.
If you have a station in College Station, Texas with it's minimum
wage jocks and 50% computer-generated programming what will simulcasting
accomplish? Nothing!
I hear the same old story from every PD and GM I speak with about
the over-priced investment they have made to webcast. "Why, it gives
people in our market the opportunity to hear the station in buildings
and locations where they normally can't pick up the signal." Yes --
a signal that constantly goes out of phase, re-loads or drops out.
In Texas, we call that kind of statement 'horse manure'.
Yahoo Broadcast costs $5,000 a month after an initial investment of
$7,500 for a one time set-up. So you gain 100 listeners in the all-metal
building that normally couldn't pick up your signal. You're paying
$50.00 per listener per month for the increase!
--
Dick Martin
The following table shows some of the features you might want
to consider for your website. (An orange box in the left-hand column
indicates a feature that I personally believe would be of major value
to both you and your website's visitors.)
| |
Streamed
webcast |
| |
"What's
Playing" (and what played in the past few hours or days) |
| |
Song
detail (biography, discography, link to artist's website, etc.) |
| |
Current
playlist -- including song hooks |
| |
Music
research (a/k/a "Smash or Trash") |
| |
E-commerce:
CD sales |
| |
Local
music (MP3s downloads, archived programs, etc.) |
| |
New
music under consideration |
| |
Subchannels |
| |
Studio
webcam |
| |
"Instant
request" form |
| |
Chat
room in which listeners can talk with the on-air jock |
| |
Jock
photos and bios (with favorite web links and e-mail addresses) |
| |
Bulletin
board ("guest book"/"soapbox") for messages
to station |
| |
Studio
tour (e.g., 360-degree IPIX view) |
| |
Contest
entry forms (and rules) |
| |
Loyal
listener program |
| |
Screensaver
of station logo |
| |
E-mail
newsletter (sign-up form) |
| |
Photo
album (station events, etc.) |
| |
E-commerce:
Station logo merchandise |
| |
Music
news (format-specific) |
| |
Weather
forecast |
| |
Traffic
info |
| |
Concert
calendar |
| |
Local
events calendar |
| |
Station
promotions calendar |
| |
Program
schedule (especially weekends and short-form programs) |
| |
Station
contact information (phone, fax, e-mail, address, map) |
| |
Visuals
(and links) that coordinate with on-air spots |
| |
Ad
insertion (Internet-only targeted spots) |
| |
Links
to station advertisers |
| |
Spots
currently in rotation (on-demand audio) |
| |
E-commerce:
CD sales |
| |
E-commerce:
Station logo merchandise |
| |
E-commerce:
Concert tickets |
| |
E-commerce:
Classifieds (e.g., jobs, cars, personal ads) |
| |
"How
to advertise on our station" page (also "Why you should...") |
| |
E-mail
newsletter (in which you can sell ads) |
| |
Coupons |
| |
Program
schedule (especially weekends and short-form programs) |
| |
Archives
(on demand) of past weekend programs, interviews, etc. |
| |
Station
history (with photos and audio archives) (for legendary stations) |
| |
Jingles
(on demand) |
| |
Listener
poll |
| |
Trivia
games |
| |
Java and/or Shockwave games |
Following
are examples of some of the features listed above. (We'll be
adding more throughout the day.)
 
One feature
that's valued by some of your listeners and gives nice upselling
opportunities to your sales department is a page of coupons
from various advertisers.
Citium, for example,
is a California-based firm that offers a software package
that lets your listeners identify their zip code, the radius from
that zip code they're willing to travel, and the product categories
they're interested in, then gives them a list of offers for which
they can print out the coupons they'd like to use.
 WTMX/Chicago,
under Bonneville's talented Chicago webmaster Jaime Kartak,
offers listeners a chance to see the title, artist, and CD title
of every song played in the past couple of days via an easy pull-down
menu.
Sites like KKSF/San Francisco take the music log concept
one step further by giving the listener the chance to hear song
hooks for each of the songs on the music log. ("Yeah! That's
the one!") This feature is particularly handy for formats like
Smooth Jazz, in that the title of the song is not obvious when you're
listening to it.
The example
shown above is a product called "Click2Hear" that's sold
by Presslaff Internactive
Revenue.
There's nothing
that says you can't give your listeners a lot of information
about every song your play.  Here
on Dallas's Merge933.net
website ("Powered by RadioWave"),
every song's CD cover is displayed on the station's home page while
the song is playing, and below the CD cover are links to a biography
and discography of the artist, plus relevant news, interviews, and
photos. (Plus of course the ubiquitous :Buy Now" button.)
 It's
not scientific -- and it's not representative of your true audience
-- but it's a nice "customer service" type feature to
offer your website listeners a chance to tell you what they think
of the songs you're playing.
Note that this major-market station (WTMX) is currently not getting
a lot of votes per song.
Something
that would be of interest to your "ultracore" might
be a list of upcoming station remotes. (It's unlikely that someone
who isn't a big fan of your station is  going
to make an effort to visit. This is not to say that remotes can''t
help you add new listeners -- but those new potential converts would
most likely have to be casual passersby.)
It's been
an age-old problem for those radio stations that want to own
the "new music" or "local music" image: If you
actually put such music on your airwaves, you risk significant
listenership losses.
The Internet offers the ideal solution -- put new artists on a page
of your website, where fans of new music  can
explore to their hearts' content without bothering the rest of your
listeners! You can link to clips of each band's music, to their
MP3 downloads, and/or to their websites.
 (Incidentally,
note the excellent band names on this Japanese site -- The
Bufferins, Bump of Chicken, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Muscle Doggie
Grooves, Spoochy, Suitcase Rhodes, The No Parking Style... They
sound like band names from a Dave Barry column!)
 Your
typical listener could care less, but your "ultracore"
listeners might enjoy looking for photos of themselves if you put
up a "photo album" of shots taken at various station promotions.
This also seems like a good sales opportunity. I would think that
sponsorship of the page is an obvious sell to film manufacturers,
local camera stores, Internet on-line photo sites, etc.
 For
your ultracore, you can offer a list of upcoming station promotional
events...
To
be continued...
Please check
back later this weekend.
And remember, we welcome your comments and suggestions. Use the
form near the top of this page or click here
to use your own e-mail software.
Coming soon.
Coming soon.
|
"Regarding
Mr. Boarman's 'unique' question..."
|
Regarding
Mr. Boarman's "unique" question (here):
"Unique users" are determined by the identity of the
server from where they come. For example, where I work all of us
are on one network working through the company's corporate  server.
If I log on to ESPN.com,
the path goes from my computer workstation to the network server
then out to ESPN.com. If my officemate also looks at ESPN.com from
work, it goes from his computer, through the network server to ESPN.com.
On ESPN.com's end, they see two separate user sessions, but
because my officemate and I came from the same server source, it
sees one address. Therefore we are counted as ONE
unique user. (who tuned in twice).
On the other side of this, I may look at ESPN.com from work
then go home an hour later and log on. ESPN.com again sees these
as two user sessions, but because I went through two distinct
servers, it would count me as TWO unique (i.e., different)
users.
The facts we can count on to quantify the activity of our
sites are such things as page views, time spent online, user sessions,
RealAudio accesses, and other data.  But
when it comes to distinguishing the individuality of the
users behind the keyboards, we can't say for certain who they are,
because Internet tracking is done through cookies and computer/ISP
coding. Unless users have specific identification assigned to them
(e.g., a password) that they are forced to use every time they to
your site, you can't tell if it's one person at multiple computers
or several different people at those computers. (On the flip side
of this, consider schools and universities where hundreds of people
may use the same workstation...or households with all family members
using one computer!)
The time will likely come when we can determine true unique
users, but until the method to gather this information is accurate,
our radio stations won't provide the misleading information.
As for a number to shoot for? Always shoot for more than you
have. Work with all departments at all levels -- programming, marketing,
clients, your street team, sales, receptionist, etc. You have many
avenues to get your URL and the benefits of your site out to the
people. Use them all.
I appreciate the ideas for the ultimate station Website. (What
I wouldn't give to have the resources to undertake some of these
suggestions!) Thanks, Kurt, for providing the forum for these discussions.
--
Sonia Highet, Director of New Media, ABC Radio/San
Francisco
|
 We'll
send you RAIN's e-mail news updates on a regular basis,
plus bulletins when important news breaks. (In addition, we'll
appreciate knowing that you're reading our efforts -- and
you'll hopefully appreciate reminders to read RAIN.)
You should be receiving
a confirmation e-mail from us shortly.
Thanks!
|
 |
| June
12-14 |
Streaming
Media East 2000, New York City |
| June
14-17 |
R&R
Convention 2000, Los Angeles |
| June
14-17 |
PROMAX
& BDA, New Orleans |
| July
13-16 |
Upper
Midwest Conclave, Minneapolis |
| August
3-5 |
Morning
Show Bootcamp, New Orleans |
| September
20-23 |
NAB
Radio Show, San Francisco |
| October
5-7 |
Billboard/Airplay
Monitor Seminar, New York |
| November
5-7 |
NAB
European Radio Conference, Berlin
|
| Nov.
28-Dec. 1 |
Radio
Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA |
New
and improved!
| xxx |
 |
|
Try it
out! Explore
the wide world of Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.
Miss an issue?
Visit the RAIN News Archives here.
If you're hiring for a position that's radio- and Internet-related
this week, we'll post it -- free! Simply
e-mail the job description here.
If you're
looking for new opportunities that involve the Internet,
you can take a look at the first three available positions
here.
|
|
|
