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Katz signs NetRadio for ad sales representation Reader feedback: Sonicboxes ARE shipping RAIN interns experiment: New content every hour Citidel signs groupwide streaming deal with Coollink Los Angeles Daily News on WorldClassRock.com Website Design Clinic: WXCD/Chicago U2 puts a webcam into their studio RAIN adds "Search" capability to site Reader feedback (Yates, St. James, Eubanks) *CD launches 30-market trial

9AM:

From the company press release: "Katz Interactive Marketing has signed NetRadio Corporation as a client for the Katz Streaming Media Sales Network, it was announced [yesterday] by Mike Agovino, Managing Partner of Katz Interactive Marketing.

"Under the joint agreement, the #1 seller of streaming audio advertising will bring national advertisers to the NetRadio.com website reaching over 2.5 million unique users per month.

"Through its premier website, NetRadio.com, NetRadio Corporation is one of the largest Webcasters (Internet streaming media providers) to have results reported by Arbitron... NetRadio claimed five out of the six leading slots in Arbitron's February 2000 InfoStream Webcast report, including the top two rankings...

"'This new relationship with Katz Interactive Marketing offers us an enhanced opportunity to monetize our advertising value as we continue to grow audience with targeted marketing alliances and consumer campaigns,' said Ed Tomechko, President and CEO of NetRadio."

... In Summer 2000, the opportunity to make money with Internet radio is finally coming together -- better streaming options, ad insertion capabilities, rep firms (and other sales staffs) being built, and more. One question I'd be curious to know if anyone has the answer to: Who, if anyone, is selling audio ads for Spinner and Sonicnet? ...

In yesterday's article on the launch of Sonicbox sales (the second story here), we noted that their website didn't explicity state that the company actually had any of the devices in stock and available yet...

"Please be assured, we do have plenty of stock in hand..."

Thank you very much for your article! Just a quick followup regarding our launch this week. Please be assured, we do have plenty of stock in hand and have already shipped out orders. We actually waited to open our store until we had units in hand to ship, so your impression that we might not have stock surprised us. Re-reading the site, we agree that it is better to let people know our standard shipping policy earlier in the process. We have updated the site with this change.

Another clarification I would like to make is that we follow the standard e-commerce practice of not charging people's cards until product is sent on its way to the listener. So although people have entered their card data, no charge is made until an iM Remote Tuner is on its way to them.

BY KURT HANSON
RAIN's crack team of summer interns has been working behind the scenes for eight days now, building up a knowledge base and a skill base. Today, you're going to start receiving the benefit of their efforts.

What we're going to try today is a ONE-DAY-ONLY experiment in which we add fresh content to RAIN every hour, all day long. You're invited to check back at the top of each hour today -- times shown below are CDT -- for the latest news, features, and commentary from the world of radio and the Internet.

12N:

From Radio Business Report: "Citadel Broadcasting Company has signed an agreement with Coollink Broadcast Network (CLBN), which makes Coollink the exclusive streaming provider for 110 Citadel stations. Coollink will also be in charge of all pending acquisitions as they are added.

"Citadel chose Coollink because of their ad insertion product, which allows listeners to immediately interact with advertisers."

According to Coollink's website, "On CLBN radio broadcasts, you hear and see the commercial...Internet ads can range from traditional audio with client's logo to rich media involving audio synchronized with flash animations and even video." Visit the CLBN website here. (Note: This is a streaming provider that we were previously unaware of.)



5PM:


Thanks to RAIN interns David Don and Qianqian Zheng, you can now search through RAIN's News Archives more quickly and efficiently than ever before!

To get started, simply enter a search term in the box below and click "Search." (Our engine supports wildcards and "+" and "-" inclusion/exclusion commands.)

For example, if you want to find all RAIN references in the past eight months for former AMFM exec Bob Visotcky, simply type Visotcky into the box above and hit the "Search" button. In Bob's case, the search engine will find two issues, listed in descending order of relevance (e.g., how often the phrase appears, how high it is on the page, etc.).

Click to one of those pages. Then use your browser's "Edit...Find..." menu choice to locate your desired term within the page.

Click here for more detailed information on RAIN's search capability. We hope you find it valuable.


2PM:

From the Los Angeles Daily News: "San Fernando Valley listeners heard equal parts static and "world class rock" when they tuned into KACD out of Santa Monica last week. Now the station, known as Channel 103.1, is crystal clear from Canoga Park to Katmandu.

"It's becoming the first broadcaster in history to leave the airwaves to become an Internet-only outlet. 'The only disappointing aspect of it is, people won't be able to hear us in their cars,' said Program Director Nicole Sandler.

"Channel 103.1 will lose its FM signal sometime in the next month or two, a casualty of a corporate merger and FCC regulations. But Friday afternoon, Channel1031.com and WorldClassRock.com began offering unlimited feeds with the same audio that's going out over the airwaves, with the station's Adult Album Alternative format that includes Van Morrison, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Marley and Lyle Lovett...

"Clear Channel hopes to spread the popularity of the niche station around the country, if not the world. Clear Channel owns 850 radio stations nationwide, and will promote Channel 103.1 on those, and also owns Eller Media, one of the nation's largest billboard companies, Sandler said..."

Read the full feature story here. (Note: Is that wishful thinking on Sandler's part, or is Clear Channel planning to get seriously behind this?)

11AM:


BY PAUL MALONEY for RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter
RAIN’s “Site of the Day” today points its browser to ABC’s classic rock property WXCD/Chicago.  CD94.7's site is a pretty good example of a broadcaster knowing how to speak to its audience via the Internet, though not necessarily giving the site visitor precisely what he/she wants.

Good marks for navigation here.  As has become customary, the station’s logo is in the upper left-hand corner, and links back to the home page from elsewhere in the site...

Read this full piece by RAIN correspondent Paul Maloney here. 



1PM:

Legendary AOR programmer Tom Yates was among the morning's correspondents...

"It's an inately polluted sample going on..."

Kurt: A belated thought -- and possibly something you've covered/noticed- regarding Arbitron's Internet ratings: They don't include any independents, just companies that are participating.

As an example, going back to your excellent analysys of a few days ago, we compared our streaming listenership to the top stations. With a high of 32,000 users in a month and an average exceeding 20,000, we would have ranked pretty well... Our average quarter-hour usage is 30-35 folks, but since we do it all ourselves and not through a recaster, we don't show...and won't under the current system.

Even though we're a Marconi finalist and quite proud of our station, I'm also cognisant of the fact that there are many, many fine stations out there with larger streaming capabilities than ours -- at least at this point in time- - who also don't show for the same reason.

It's an inately polluted sampling going on, most likely not that indicative of the real world of Internet listening. And, lest ye think I'm an Arbitron basher... Wrong, we've enjoyed a great relationship and excellent ratings since we got The Coast up and running...it's just the Internet stuff that bugs me. Best..and thanks for a great product.

"It's up to Internet broadcasters to make Arbitron aware of us..."

If Tom Yates of KOZT wants to be rated by Arbitron (above), all he has to do is call Joan Fitzgerald and allow Arbitron to FTP his server stats. That's it, that's all we did to join the process.

It's up to Internet broadcasters to make Arbitron aware of us, not up to them to seek us out. They're there and willing to add people. You don't need to be streaming through the majors. If he had called Arbitron they would have been glad to give him that info.

"Thanks for putting into e-print something I had known...but..."

Dear Kurt -- I ran an article discussing your July 13th issue on the Feb. Arbitron ratings (here) onto our forum site, http://www.buzzwaves.com .

Thanks for putting into e-print something I had known for a long time, but couldn't prove with open sources.

10AM:

From PRNewswire: "U2's final weeks in the recording studio completing their long-awaited new album can now be viewed by fans around the world at www.u2.com. After striking an alliance with World Online, who will be hosting the site, U2 will give their fans a sneak peek into the recording process.

"Since going live, the site has attracted over 3.2 million page requests which represents 509,000 visits to the site per day.

"The site, a precursor to the official site, will track the developments on the new album, and includes live, constantly updated images 24-hours a day from the band's Dublin studio...as they put the finishing touches to their first studio album since 1997's 'Pop.'

"Visitors to www.u2.com will be able to explore the studio online via a 360-degree revolving web-cam. They will also be able to register to receive e-mailed updates with band news."

Visit the U2 website here. (It may give you some ideas with what you could do with webcams at your radio station.


4PM:

*CD launches 30-market trial
From Radio Business Report: *CD, a service that allows listeners to ID songs, performers and titles of tunes played on the radio via telephones, cell phones and wireless devices and then instantly purchase them, is taking its service nationwide. Announced this week, *CD is adding the following cities, among others, to its offering in Philadelphia and San Francisco: NYC, Chicago, LA, Boston, Washington, Atlanta, Seattle , San Diego and Dallas.

See original RAIN news story on this company here.

"I think that a hat that has a little cannon that fires and then goes back inside the hat is at least a decade away." Buy this fine book from Amazon here.

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

xxx

Try it out! Explore the wide world of Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.

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