 |
BY KURT HANSON
While America's top broadcasters are essentially still
messing around with the question of what  their
Internet strategy is going to be, a Canadian-born entrepreneur who
owns a small nine-station group in the upstate New York state area
has leapfrogged past all of them with the launch of a 950-station
Internet-only radio network.
Martz Communications Group announced this morning that FMcities.com
is "live and on the air" in 12 U.S. markets -- New York,
Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta,
Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Washington DC and Seattle -- "streaming
CD quality,  digital
radio sound with local and national news and information from 50 Internet
radio stations in each city."
Those 600 stations are on top of the 350 stations that
entrepreneur Tim Martz launched
in seven major Canadian markets earlier this summer.
By the end of next week, the firm says that it will launch
an additional 400 radio stations in eight more major markets; Miami,
Phoenix, Minneapolis, San Diego, Denver, St. Louis, Cleveland and
Baltimore.
FMcities.com is privately owned and funded and has offices
in San Francisco, New York and Ottawa. Martz himself holds joint U.S.-Canadian
citizenship, attend Northwestern University's Kellogg MBA program
in Chicago, and for 15 years has owned radio station clusters in Michigan,
Maine, and Wisconsin.
Martz's stations' programming is provided by Everstream,
the Cleveland-based firm that has until now been primarily
used by newspaper websites. (See
RAIN stories here
and here.)
The 50 channels of music offered in each city are, I believe, essentially
identical, although Martz plans to add some customization later this
year.
"'The Internet is dramatically changing the way we listen to
radio,' said Martz said in his firm's press release. '"Internet radio
gives listeners an amazing array of music options and advertisers
the power to get their message directly to the people who buy their
products; it provides listeners with CD quality sound and puts them
in control of what they want to hear and see."
"Using state-of-the-art audio streaming technology through
an affiliation with Everstream Inc. and the Windows Media Player,
each of FMcities.com's stations offers innovative features such as:
-- No commercials until November
(and limited commercials later),
-- Name and artist of current
song,
-- "Pause a song" for a minute
or an hour and resume at the note you left,
-- "Next selection" tells you
what artist is up next,
-- "Skip to the next song" lets
you jump immediately to hear the next song, and
-- One step "click and purchase"
the current CD (through CDNow.com).
Look for an exclusive RAIN interview with Martz -- including
a discussion of the financial dynamics of his venture -- in tomorrow's
issue of RAIN.
...
 |
As you'll read tomorrow, this sounds like it could be a
promising venture. The only caveat I'd note is one of terminology:
Have they got 50 stations in Chicago...or simply one
website with 50 channels? (From a marketing point of
view, the former terminology sounds a lot better, which is of
course why they're using it. (Note that it also makes for a
more dramatic-sounding headline.)
... |
More tomorrow in RAIN!
BY
PAUL MALONEY
The fact that the shows aren't
live but archived detracts almost nothing in terms of how enjoyable
LondonUnlimited.com
is. The site is very attractively designed, the personalities are
a hoot, and the shows, featuring music from unsigned artists and
comedy from London's underground scene, are topnotch.
Take a look at some of the screen elements here. The designers
have used subdued colors, "unbusy" graphics, and nice
photographic elements of London to create the "atmosphere"
for LondonUnlimited.
The darker hues of green and red (as opposed to the hot pinks and
yellows on
black backgrounds that give us sore retinas at the end of the day)
remind us of a dignified British parlour or a well-kept pub. The
button roll-overs tell more of the site's functionality, rather
than being merely decorative (or worse...distracting). On top of
all this, the classy photo bits make the site indelibly British
-- and add to the excitement of hearing radio that until recently
was inaccessible here in America (we're still thrilled by this)!
The shows are updated weekly. Five popular music channels,
a comedy channel, and a soon-to-come video channel promising "London
as it happens!" These archived programs are more "radio"
than a lot of what is streaming to your PC these days. Well-programmed
with great music flow, the shows are delivered by skillful personalities
(often more than one) with fun attitudes.
Even the streams sound really good. Though the rate is only
28kps, the sound quality is noticeably higher than most other Internet
radio sites, even those with 56kps or wider streams. Perhaps the
difference is in the processing or compression processes, done before
the signal streams (actually, since the RAIN interns
are building their own Internet station, any technical
clarification from the knowledgeable readership would be appreciated
here, or click the
"Quick Message" box above). Unfortunately, since the video
stream is still unavailable, we weren't able to test its quality.
But here's hoping the video glimpse we get of "Swinging London"
is on par with what we've been hearing!
|
Simply click the headline at left to
bring up a convenient pop-up form! |
|
"Man With Complete Mama's Family Video
Library Never Going On eBay Drunk Again "
Read
the news story from The Onion's archives here,
or visit The Onion's current home page here.
|
More RAIN coming soon -- we're writing it now!
Reprinted from yesterday's edition...
These RAIN readers are responding to last Thursday's article
(here)
on the advent of successful targeted audio
ad insertion (on Salem's Christian
Pirate Radio)...
 |
"Ad
agencies are laughing at us
as they get sweetheart deals..."
|
I
have to respectfully disagree with your analysis that targeted
advertisement delivery is the crucial element to successful webcasting
business models. What  evidence
is there that people who consume Web media want to be intimately
known to the company serving up their advertising? Do you think
your Web content is so compelling that they will offer up the demo
data needed to make such a concept work on a mass market basis?
Look how much damage came about in the supposedly-accidental goof-up
around privacy with the RealJukebox.
The mere numbers that would be necessary in terms of listeners
and impressions -- even with premium rates -- would mean that only
the largest webcast entities could expect to survive in the long
haul. That reeks of the current stench of radio group ownership.
Webcasting is an industry that will thrive because it isn't well
understood by the stodgy old boys of big radio.
For almost five years, I have been involved in this industry
and one thing is clear to me from all of the experience our company
has tucked under its belt: people want to hear unique,
compelling content. And they want to hear it the way
they are used to consuming radio, even though it comes out of the
computer speakers. The opportunity to make a business in this industry
successful must first be based upon delivering something that other
broadcast media isn't doing. Then, by having a unique marketplace,
you can offer advertisers the opportunity to access a strong psychographic,
which is ultimately going to be far easier to do than having demos
based on region, age, sex and other marketing preferences.
Stellar Networks' flagship GAYBC Radio Network (www.gaybc.com)
has spent less than $50,000 in the past year on promotion. Yet,
we are one of the top-2 Talk/Personality Internet-only radio channels
according to Arbitron's most recent ranking. Gays and Lesbians are
a very appealing vertical psychographic. But, there are hundreds
of other niches that will ultimately be winning keys to advertising
success.
Don't lose sight of the fact that you already have a tremendous
demo -- regardless of sex or geography: your
listeners own $1,000 to $5,000 radios, and spend an average
of $200/year to tune in (ISP
fees). If you just duplicate what radio is already doing, or a CD
jukebox is capable of, why waste your time and your investors money?
Ad agencies are laughing at us as they get sweetheart deals
to reach our lucrative online audiences because we're letting them
run us in circles. Broadcasters and print media outlets have never
had to offer the kind of consumer results that we do. Targeted ad
delivery is a prison wall we are erecting around ourselves because,
like most Web businesses, most in our industry have not learned
how to be . . . patient.
Our opportunity is to be to radio what cable was to broadcast
television. The spot delivery model doesn't need improvement, and
it's just an excuse used by agencies who still don't have a clue
as to how valuable streamies are in general. Time will change that.
| |
John
McMullen
Chief Programming Officer
GAYBC Radio Network
Stellar Networks, Inc. |
|
"We
have a major evolutionary step forward in advertising..."
|
RadioWoodstock and WoodstockTV are looking into various methods
of targeted video and audio ad insertion for our 5 full time streaming
audio channels with live DJs and our full time streaming video channel.
 Targeted
ad insertion is an example of how Internet radio has a major advantage
over terrestrial stations. The key is that advertisers and agencies
have been working on the targeting concept for TV for some time, but
digital set top box roll-out, necessary for targeting on TV, hasn't
happen as fast as originally thought. Advertisers and agencies already
know how audio and video ads work. So it is a logical migration to
the streaming environment on the Internet, which is delivering on
the promise of targetability before before TV can.
For RadioWoodstock, we added the advantage of being able to
have our live on-air DJs back promote national ads that go to all
listeners. For example, if we air an ad for a new Pontiac Firebird,
our DJs can motivate listeners to go to the Pontiac website by actually
being on the Firebird website and talk about the cool feature that
allows the visitor to manipulate a 360 degree view of the interior
and exterior or be on the PCFlowers.com site and mention how you can
create a gift reminder so you'll never miss Mother's Day or your anniversary
again. The only thing terrestrial radio has that is even close
to this interaction with listeners is to hopefully air an ad for a
store in a local mall when the listener is actually driving to or
near the mall.
Add in the mix the tremendous accountability with the Internet
and streaming media that traditional TV and radio can't even come
close to matching and we have a major evolutionary step forward in
advertising that goes to targeting, one-on-one marketing and beyond.
| |
Richard Fusco
RadioWoodstock.com |
 |
| 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 |
 |
|
Try it
out! Explore
the wide world of Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.
Miss an issue?
Visit the RAIN News Archives here.
|
|
