TEN SCOOPS IN TEN DAYS! We've got a LOT of excellent, exclusive material in the queue. Look for original reporting on brand-new stories involving radio and the Internet virtually every day for two straight weeks in RAIN!

BY KURT HANSON (with PAUL MALONEY)

ad insertion technology

...

... Targeted audio ads, we believe, are the key to making Internet radio a profitable business. When an advertiser can place a spot schedule specifying that he wants his spot to be heard only by, say, M25-34s in certain selected zip codes, the webcaster can obviously charge a premium price per listener for the spot. (Broadcast radio has never had that ability and probably never will.) (Of course, because each station's audience size is currently quite small compared to broadcast stations' audiences, each individual station will also probably need to be part of a network that brings a large number of aggregated stations to a potential buyer.) ...

We listened on the custom-designed, Hiwire-enabled CPR player (see screenshot above) that was offered on CPR's site for the first time only last week. (In fact, the "What's Playing" feature only started working a couple of days ago) (Previously, the station was offering its listeners a three-station version of Hiwire's customized multi-station tuner. The station also offers listeners options to listen in RealAudio or WebRadio's Emblaze format.)

Using CPR's custom player currently requires the use of Microsoft Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, plus a quick, one-time download called "Hiwire Browser Tuner Media Utilities" and the filling out of a fairly simple registration page (see left).

According to Hiwire co-founder Jim Pavilack, CPR's ad targeting system is running today on a Prophet automation system and in the Windows Media format, although additional automation systems and streaming media formats are in the final stages of testing and/or installation at other stations.

Los Angeles-based Hiwire is not alone is making progress in this direction, although it seems as if it has won the race to get a fully-functional system actually on the air. Other firms making progress in this area include:

•  Chicago-based RadioWave showed a demo at last Spring's RAB of an ability to overlay an Internet spot on top of a broadcast spot and is also capable of sending visuals and web links to accompany each spot played...
  
  
•  Washington, DC-based LightningCast, according to RAIN's sources, may be only days away from having the technical ability to successfully insert spots into an automated station's stream...
  
  
•  And New York-based RCS (Radio Computing Services) is currently offering station-level streaming software that communicates with ad serving networks like Engage and AdForce.
  

Hiwire, which is backed by Grey Advertising and several major Silicon Valley venture capital firms, is also building up its ad sales network, Pavilack revealed to RAIN: In addition to its Los Angeles office, headed by former KLSX/Los Angeles LSM Rick Flores, it has opened up a new sales office in New York City, headed by new hire David Sall (who previously worked as AE/Director of Radio Marketing for Infinity Radio Sales, a division of Interep) and in San Francisco, headed by new hire Carter Tanner.

"We've already served thousands of ads," Pavilack told RAIN. "We're busily installing into partner stations right now, and we're serving more ads every day. In fact, we have more ads sold than we have places to put them," he asserted.

More on this topic -- including exclusive stories on how other firms in this field are doing -- is coming up in the next couple of weeks in RAIN.

Do targeted audio ads really make sense for advertisers and Internet radio? Are you with a firm that's making successful inroads in this area? Let us know! E-mail us here.

Reprinted from yesterday's late-afternoon edition:


BY KURT HANSON
One of the most unique domain names on the Internet is about to get repurposed, as Internet-only radio broadcaster WWW.com changes its company name to OnAir.com and allows its current domain to be used by a soon-to-debut portal, CEO Scott Purcell has confirmed to RAIN.

Purcell told RAIN that the current domain has become a destination site for Internet users -- "It's in the MediaMetrix 500," he noted -- but that his company's new business model of building Internet radio stations for other business websites ("B2B") does not require a destination site for consumers. "We're an infrastructure and hosting company," Purcell explained.

As a result, the company plans to provide hosting, technology, and the domain to a company that's building a new consumer-oriented site "which will be heavily focused towards entertainment, but with some portal features," Purcell revealed.

Purcell acquired his unique domain name from "four guys in Hong Kong" last November, he said, adding, "I knew I could do something with it." But now, "Our customers think we're competing with them, which makes the initial discussions a little tough."

WWW.com provides custom-branded radio stations with over 200 channels of music to a variety of websites. WWW.com's clients include Levis.com, CBSSportsline.com, and HardRock.com, Purcell said.

The firm recently began taking steps to launch a commercial-free "pay radio" version of their product (see RAIN story here).

Have an opinion on this article? Share it! Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient pop-up form.

As a brief aside to the CPR story above: You have never lived until you've heard an 18th Century pirate ("Ahoy, matey!") from Christian Pirate Radio doing a promo for the Black Gospel Network ("Bringin' ye the best gospel network on the Internet!").

Radio programming veteran Andy Friedman, who last month resigned as News Director of Infinity-owned WBBM-AM/Chicago, has resurfaced as News/Talk Content Manager for the Clear Channel Web Services Group.

Friedman is a 16-year veteran of the industry, starting right out of college as a reporter and eventually Assistant News Director of KFI/Los Angeles while getting an MBA at night from USC. In 1996, he became News Director of KTAR/Phoenix, working with legendary programmer Todd Wallace. He moved to Chicago to accept the News Director position at WBBM-AM last summer.

"I'm excited about this unique opportunity to work with an outstanding group of people to help create innovative and compelling content for Clear Channel web sites," he told RAIN. "I think the convergence of radio and the Internet will be one of the big developments in New Media over the next few years and I'm thrilled to be a part of it."

Friedman actually began with Clear Channel last month, he revealed, working from the Web Services Group's Northfield, IL office. He joins previously-announced Rock Content Manager John Duncan (see RAIN story here).

As one of the highlights of this summer's internship program, RAIN's crack team of summer interns is currently in the process of building an Internet-only radio station that readers will be able to listen each day to while perusing that day's issue of RAIN.

The station, to be called (logically enough) RAIN Radio, is not only designed to be an educational experience for the interns, but it will hopefully eventually serve as the "RAIN Test Lab" for various products and services available to webcasters.

Previously, RAIN's summer interns have added a "Search" feature and bulletin boards to RAIN, beefed up our LAN (local area network), contributed a number of "Site of the Day" pieces and feature stories (including last week's piece by intern Ralph Sledge on Internet appliances), and are currently in the process of redesigning RAIN's "RadioJump!" website (our consumer-oriented guide to the wonders of Internet radio).

RAIN publisher Kurt Hanson is a big believer in the value of internships, having launched his career as an intern at WLS/Chicago working alongside such current industry heavyweights as John Gehron, Don Bouloukos, Larry Lujack, Jim Smith, G. Michael Donovan, John Cravens, Linda Waldman, Marty Greenberg, and others.

So look for a series of feature stories on how to build an Internet-only radio station -- starting tomorrow in RAIN!

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
October 10-12	Streaming Media Europe 2000, London (NEW!)
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
November 12-14	Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) "Broadcasting 2000: On-air / On-line," Calgary (NEW!)
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA, featuring a brand-new national study on Internet radio usage presented by Eric Rhoads & Kurt Hanson

xxx

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