BY PAUL MALONEY
Portand, OR-based streaming audience measurement service MeasureCast has signed an agreement with GlobalMedia to supply measurement data for a number of GlobalMedia’s Internet radio stations, the firms announced yesterday. With this agreement, MeasureCast will now be producing reports on "more than 1,000 of the reported 4,000 Internet radio broadcasters," the firm said.

Vancouver-based GlobalMedia provides content and end-to-end streaming and e-commerce solutions for broadcasters and traditional retailers. They recently added Magnitude Network, Inc.'s clientele to their stable of streaming customers (as reported in RAIN here). MeasureCast was the first company to be able to provide "next-day" audience size and demographic reports (as reported in RAIN here). They also measure audiences for stations streamed by BroadcastAmerica and StreamAudio, plus eYada.com's channels.

Ratings results for March, April, and May for Arbitron's InfoStream webcast ratings service are due to be released any day. (see RAIN story here).

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As part of a "class project" to build new skills -- and develop a better understand of the field they're covering -- RAIN's crack team of Summer interns is currently in the process of building its own Internet-only radio station...and we'll share the fruits of what they're learning here for the next couple of weeks in RAIN. See Part 1 of this story here.

Step #2: Building a playlist

contemporary version of pop standards

the staff began to build a playlist. As you might imagine, not a lot of the selections from artists like Ella Fitzgerald, Chet Baker, Rosemary Clooney, or Lena Horne were immediately familiar to our group of young 20-somethings. But this wasn't necessarily a bad situation.

Certainly not to suggest that the best radio programmers know nothing about the music they play. But, by not being intimately familiar with deep tracks from a wide variety of the format's artists, the interns could be sure that a playlist they created, using only the songs which they recognized, would feature only the biggest and most popular hits.

Of course, top RAIN management had a few of their favorite tracks to add to the mix -- but

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BY PAUL MALONEY
Things are mighty interesting at the South Pole. The sun often doesn't rise or set, it just goes around in a circle. And of course, when you're right at the Pole, every direction is North. And we don't even want to know about the weather (but if you do, check the box below). But some industrious research folks down there (I'm assuming they're researchers -- I can't imagine they're running a resort/golf complex) have put together a nice site with interesting music and some gorgeous images.

First off, the music: the programming mission of ANetStation.com is to provide a venue for independent artists -- those that themselves own, publish, and distribute their music. "That is why we provide links to their web sites. We play what we like, everybody benefits and we create web sites we feel good about," says George Maat, designer and music programmer for ANetStation.

The music is mostly acoustic-based, singer/songwriter material. There's a page with a few artists' CD cover art and links to RealAudio samples. Indy musicians are welcome to submit their music, and the designers even offer to build sites for the artists they play. The stream itself is a 20kbps RealAudio stream in stereo. Given their "independent" stance, it may not be surprising that they acknowledge, and even link to, Napster.

The links and images on the site are really a treat. If you think Antarctica would be like hell on Earth, take a look at some of these pictures. Lots of links here to webcams, still photos, and "photo-animations" to give the visitor a glimpse of the natural splendor of the region. Click on a link to visit scientific and research sites too, like the very interesting Virtual Antarctica. There are links to the South Pole observatory site, a special "Adventure Site" for kids, and a link to the Russian short wave station (with the caveat that they don't talk very much!).

Team members no doubt have a very vested interest in the environmental and ecological issues of the Antarctic region -- seeing and feeling firsthand the effects of harmful and illegal hunting and polluting. On the site is a link to the bio page of Captain Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd organization, a non-profit group that investigates and documents violations of laws protecting marine wildlife. Plenty of other links to environmental and other progressive causes are available in the "Quality of Life" section of the links page.

ANetStation.com is worth a visit if not only for the music, then definitely for a glimpse of life in the Sub-Antarctic through the photos and links on the site.



RBR: Radio Business Report has added a source guide and directory database feature to their website, here.

The extensive guide contains 7451 radio station listings, 2251 entries for radio group owners (yes, there are more than four left!), and 3040 entries in the "catch all" vendor category. All three categories can be searched by city and state criteria, and stations can be found by market as well.

The detailed entry for a station includes (when available) frequency and call letters, ownership information, address, phone, fax, some technical broadcast info, format, city of license, debut date, and a brief management directory. The group owners entries include a listing of all the stations in their group. The entries for the vendors -- which includes agencies, syndication companies, producers, talent, hardware, and more -- provide basic contact information as well.

One additional bit of information we thought might be helpful would be a links to the station's or vendor's website. Publisher Ken Lee

New RAIN feature:
	itoke.co.uk: "Need Weed?" Can this be for real? This is the "corporate" site for a company that says it plans to deliver marijuana in Amsterdam (and then New York, London, and Tokyo!) like Webvan and Pink Dot deliver groceries. Here's the site. Read more about if in a San Francisco Chronicle article here, and why the big launch is being delayed in CNet here.
	www.altoids.com Just how cool can a site be? This is a great example of a company positioning their product in the minds of consumers with cool associations. What any of this has to do with mints is simple: nothing. It's just cool. Make sure you have Flash, Shockwave, and Real or QuickTime. Here.
Do you know of a website that you believe other RAIN readers would enjoy visiting? Recommend it here.

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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.

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