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BY KURT HANSON
Responding to last Thursday's RAIN story (here) about the emergence of a new, Portland, OR-based competitor called MeasureCast, Arbitron Internet Information Services VP/GM Bill Rose talked to RAIN yesterday and revealed, among other things, Arbitron's planned timetable to catch up on its monthly InfoStream webcast ratings releases (which are currently being released about six months after the period being measured).

According to Rose (pictured at right, outside Arbitron's Columbia, MD headquarters during a light rainstom), we can expect to see InfoStream results for March, April, and May "in very short order" beginning just after Labor Day. "Then, pretty much every other week thereafter, we'll release another month of data until we're caught up, which should be in early November," he said.

"We'll also have a prototype of our ratings software -- the software that clients will be able to use to see how they're doing -- to show in the next 20 or 30 days," Rose promised. It will actually be released to clients when Arbitron begins charging customers for its service, which Rose says that he expects to be early next year.

Rose also agreed to comment on the firm's new competitor, MeasureCast. I asked him if their approach to measurment, using software that resides on the streaming provider's servers, is similar to Arbitron's new plan involving their recently-announced relationship with Lariat Software. (See 7/19 RAIN news story here.)

"The difference," Rose said, "is that many, if not most, of the content delivery networks -- called CDNs, which are the companies that provide streaming servicves for webcasters and online radio stations -- are already using Lariat's 'Media Reports' software. And they use it primarily for two purposes: To be able to allocate more servers and more bandwidth on the heavy-demand channels -- and vice versa of course -- as well as to bill their customers based on the amount of activity each channel is getting.

"So the bottom line is that each of these CDNs is familiar with and many are already using the software. Furthermore, the Lariat software has a very small what they call in softrware development a 'footprint,' which means that there is little or no impact on server load.

"What we're doing with Lariat is that they're going to have a special version of their software that will automatically collect what Arbitron needs and send it to us -- and it will be turn-key and extremely easy to participate and to use the software."

As to the main differences between the MeasureCast and Arbitron approaches, Rose said, "The big difference is that Arbitron is a big company that for fifty years has been in the business of measuring audiences -- and we have very strong relationshiops with the agencies and the advertisers that are planning and buying. We are a well known and highly credible source for this information.

Rose reiterated that Arbitron will also have demographic estimates when their service is up and running. When will that be? "I'm aiming for the first of the year -- when we're offering it for sale."

Finally, Rose commented on MeasureCast's plans to release data with a 24-hour turnaround basis: "That's just fine and dandy, I think, when it comes to understanding what's going on with your streams, but software like Lariat's Media Reports has that ability, and it's usually available for free from your content delivery network.

"What we're talking about in this business is creating a currency -- sometimes more commonly known as ratings -- a standard by which buyers and sellers can conduct business. And from Arbitron's experience, especially in our radio business, daily ratings would be overkill in the buy/sell environment."

Let other RAIN readers know your opinions on this topic. (Thanks to the work of RAIN's crack team of interns, clicking the headline at left should bring up a nice pop-up form.)

Buckley Radio's WOR-AM in New York bills itself as "America's most listened to Talk and Information Station," with big-name talent like Joan Rivers, Dr. Joy Browne, John Gambling, and Bob Grant. The station has a long and solid history as one of the most successful broadcast organizations in the 75-plus years of radio.

Last Thursday, GlobalMedia announced that they had designed and launched a new player for WOR's webcast (see screenshot at left).

We hit the WOR site and launched the player. Here's what happened:

•  We had to wait. Hey, I know it's the Internet -- but we've got a cable modem! We don't like to wait. It took two clicks to actually launch the player. It took 30 seconds before we saw anything (yes, there are things to see, we'll get there), and 45 seconds before we heard anything.
  
  
• The player looked really nice. Tasteful design, seemingly logical links, nice little Flash transitions. Some buttons on the player, like "Promo" or "Online Store," take you right to the appropriate section on the website itself. On the other hand, the "Station," "Contact," and "Station Directory" links have more potential than that for which they're being used now. (Is this a limitation of the player, or just lack of content?).
  
  
• Hitting the "Weather" link was really cool. The audio stream stopped, and we got some pretty high-quality video (and audio) of the latest local weather forecast (see screenshot at right), with maps and graphs and all. When the report was over, the display returned to the player screen, and the audio stream resumed.
  
  
• There's also a "Quiz Show" button, which leads to a proprietary Global trivia game (i.e., you get the same game on other Global station's players).
  

So, WOR has heritage --and now they have a glitzy GlobalMedia player. Unfortunately, the website is pretty rinky-dink.

Now here's a thought: Talk and information stations have typically older demos than pop music outlets. With the Internet crowd being so young, it stands to reason that Top 40/Alternative/Dance stations would have an aggressive presence on the web.

But since older people might be less inclined to refer to the Internet, shouldn't that be all the more reason for a station like WOR to make sure that their site is informative, convenient and simple to navigate, and, most importantly, compelling to drive repeated use and listening?

The site really has very little to offer, and is surprisingly unprofessional-looking in its design. Unimaginative, round, brightly-colored navigation buttons on a black background, better suited to a site for grade-schoolers than for adults. "Back" buttons that don't work. Remember WOR's history? If you don't, you won't learn it here with their 12-photo "Archive." The "Sponsors" page is five or six banner ads stacked on top of each other. And the "Sports" section (keep in mind this is a Talk station in America's number-one sports market) consists of a link for New Jersey Nets basketball (which takes you off the page), and the State University of New Jersey Rutgers (which is a page largely devoid of info about the team, schedule, etc.).

We can only believe that WOR's site is just a first attempt to get on the Internet, and that a real site is in the works. Certainly if they expect added exposure from their new affiliation with GlobalMedia, they're working on it now. A station with WOR's history, talent, and audience deserves it.

Visit the station's site at www.WOR710.com here.

Coming later today...

Check back after lunch today for three interesting feedback pieces from RAIN readers, including ClevelandHits.com's Mike Hilbur and Katz Interactive's Gerry Boehme.

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.) First name: Last name: Station & market (or company or school): Title: E-mail address: How often would you like to receive RAIN's e-mail updates? Approximately daily Every week or two Major news alerts only Note: All fields above are set up as "required." You should be receiving a confirmation e-mail from us shortly. Thanks!

September 12-14	Digital Coast 2000, Los Angeles, featuring a panel on Internet radio moderated by RAIN's Kurt Hanson
September 20-22	Gavin.com: Music on the Net, San Francisco
September 20-23	NAB Radio Show, San Francisco
Sept. 29-Oct. 1	MOBE/Internet & Technology, Chicago
October 5-7	Billboard/Airplay Monitor Seminar, New York
October 9-12	QuickTime Live! Conference, Beverly Hills
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA

 

xxx

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