Earlier this month, as part of "R&R Convention 2000" in Los Angeles, rock consultancy Jacobs Media hosted its "Jacobs Media 2000 Summit" for several dozen active rock and alternative rock programmers, and their featured keynote speaker was Jason Calacanis, editor and publisher of a variety of Internet-oriented trade publications.

Those publications include Silicon Alley Reporter and a new e-mail newsletter (and associated website) called Digital Music Weekly.

Calacanis offered an hour's worth of insight about radio and the Internet. (Read RAIN's coverage of it here.)

Calacanis concluded his speech launching a web broswer and and visiting a website called CampChaos.com, which offers a number of short cartoons produced using Flash animation, to show their take on the Metallica-vs.-Napster controversy. (The cartoon succinctly expresses Metallica's position as "Money good. Napster bad.")

Due to the extremely positive response from his audience to the first cartoon in the series ("Napster BAD!"), Calacanis also showed two follow-ups -- one in which actual members of Mötley Crüe give their take on the issue ("MetalliGREED"), and another ("MetalliCOPS") in which Metallica band members bust a fan who they catch downloading an MP3.

They're all available at the Camp Chaos Entertainment website here, along with a new entry in the series, "Metallica Millionaire" (pictured above).

(Hint: I strongly recommend that you watch them in the order described above, as the jokes build on one another.)

(Warning: The first and third cartoons in particular have the Metallica characters using incredibly foul language. They are not for even slightly sensitive ears.)


Regis asks Metallica's James Hatfield an easy question.


Nonetheless, Hatfield elects to use one of his lifelines.

Radio stocks slide with analyst downgrade
From Friday's Radio & Records: Michael Kupinski of A.G. Edwards in St. Louis [Friday] cut his ratings from "accumulate" to "maintain position" on Clear Channel, Viacom, Westwood One and Disney, causing their shares to drop in midday trading on Wall Street. Clear Channel, the largest radio group with about 900 radio stations, fell more than 5%... Kupinski’s assistant tells R&R Online the analyst was out of the office today and could not be reached for comment.

Emmis drops after analyst downgrade
From today's Radio & Records: Morgan Stanley Dean Witter analyst Frank Bodenchak cut the issue from "strong buy" to "outperform" on Friday, and Emmis shares lost all they gained — and more — from Thursday's good news regarding its earnings and its acquisitions from Sinclair and Bonneville. Emmis ended the week down more than 10% from Thursday's $48 close... Emmis President/CEO Jeff Smulyan tells R&R Online he's "a bit surprised" by the analyst's rating and is "disappointed with the selloff." Still, A.G. analyst Michael Kupinski had good things to say about Emmis: He maintained his "buy/aggressive" rating on the issue and touted Emmis as "our favorite play in the group..."

Kupinski lukewarm on radio industry
From Radio & Records: Despite his praise for Emmis, the analyst [Kupinski] encourages investors to "under-weight" the radio broadcasting sector on expectations of slower advertising growth next year. He downgraded Clear Channel, Westwood One, Disney and Viacom on Friday, causing significant decreases in those companies' share prices. "Although there are no company-specific reasons for our ratings changes and the current pace of radio revenue growth is strong," Kupinksi says, "investors are encouraged to be cautious over the next several months given the forecasted slowdown."

Gupta says downgrades are 'without merit'
From Radio & Records: "Radio stocks already are discounting a deceleration in growth," Salomon Smith Barney analyst Niraj Gupta says. "In our opinion, today’s market concerns are all about perception and not at all about reality. We believe that analysts estimates for 2001 are understated by roughly 10%. Radio companies enjoy the best economic model of any media sector, given their fixed cost structure and extraordinary free cash flow generation. We view the weakness in the group as a buying opportunity."

MediaAmerica to represent RadioMOI.com
From Radio & Records: Interactive radio station website and audio streamer RadioMOI.com has chosen MediaAmerica as its ad rep.

"We are simply taking our place alongside radio as a New Media..."

In response to the RAIN reader who wrote,"Local radio stations can easily combat this approach..." I would like to submit that Hits Network (Clevelandhits.com) are designed to simply offer the at-home entertainment consumers another choice. We are taking our place alongside radio as a "New Media".

Clevelandhits.com and Hits Network are not format focuesd. We are offering an oppertunity to have your voice heard and participate in the actual programing of the site. In offering a true choice to the consumers they can interact, and have instant results. After all isn't that what the Internet was actually designed to do?

All Hits Network sites will be locally operated and designed for its's respective city. We will also be focusing on the Local music scene. Offering an outlet to the local groups that can't get any exposure on the air, even though they sell out the local venues.

There is SO much music out there that deserves to be heard, no one format/station can handle the load. We are another choice. New Media for the new millenium.

"This RAIN reader needs to...count his/her blessings..."

"Why would anyone think that'd be a good thing?..."

Well, I'd say they have a long way to go. The site design is -- ahem -- a bit hard on the eyes. During the 12PM hour today, they had a grand total of 13 responses to their online request feature (& each listener can select up to 7 songs...). Plus, they make the curious choice to give people who choose the "56k" option better video (of a DJ at a control board) and worse audio than those who choose "28.8". Wait a minute, folks -- this is radio, right?

These are all fixable. But what about the concept itself? There are good reasons why you don't find any broadcast stations playing Offspring, Lipps Inc., and Enrique Iglesias in the same half-hour (as they did during the time I listened). The whole concept is a step backward to the "if it's a hit we'll play it" era of 60s Top 40. Why would anyone think that that'd be a good thing?

The reason that those stations worked is that they were generally the only place you could hear any hit music. You sat through Henry Mancini to hear the new Stones single (or vice-versa) because that's the only place you could hear it. Why would a contemporary listener suffer through Madonna & N'Sync to hear Stone Temple Pilots when they could more easily (by turning on the radio) sit through Nirvana & Limp Bizkit instead? Or, by tuning into another Internet channel, find something that honed in on their personal tastes even more exactly?

Just my $0.02...

"I don't advocate that children start smoking. But for those kids who already do smoke, boy, it's good, isn't it?" Buy this fine book from Amazon here. (RAIN doesn't have an affiliate deal with Amazon or anything. It's just a great book.)

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
October 9-12	QuickTime Live! Conference, Beverly Hills (NEW)
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA

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