Saturday update: A couple of new facts in the FTM story, a new insight into FTM's website design principles, and new RAIN Reader Feedback on the Clear Channel national contesting issue.

At the end of a day in which we noticed its corporate website going down, coming back up, and going down again (see 5:45PM CDT screenshot below), Los Angeles-based website developer Feed The Monster finally announced it was suspending operations this afternoon.

At 2:30PM PDT, the firm issued the following press release: "FTM Media Inc. (OTCBB:FTMM), also known as 'Feed The Monster' Media, an electronic media and content developer for major-market radio stations, Friday announced that due to its continuing cash shortfall, it has suspended its operations. The company will continue to seek a strategic partner and/or the sale of the company.

"Feed The Monster was established with a business plan to position itself to become the leading Internet solutions provider to major-market radio stations." Its staff of about 70 people actually launched only seven websites during its approximately 18 months of operation -- all for CBS/Infinity radio stations.

Earlier this week, in an apparent negotiation ploy with CBS (which owns about 17% of the design firm), Feed The Monster briefly shut down all of the broadcaster's websites. (See RAIN story here.)

In its most-recently quarterly financials (for FTM’s fiscal quarter which ended 6/30/00), revenues were $178K, with a net loss of nearly $3 million.

Various sources have suggested to RAIN and on financial message boards that Feed the Monster staffers haven't been paid for the past month.

More on Monday in RAIN.

What really happened with Feed The Monster last week was just a public glimpse of the dirty laundry between FTM and Infinity.
BY BRIAN PARSONS
I don't like to get into rumor or gossip in the industry, but the outright sensationalism that has occurred around the Feed The Monster story [in other trade publications] is very much uncalled for and has left the facts buried under the muck of so-called "journalists" trying to advance themselves in the industry. Here's the real scoop:

Feed The Monster has an agreement with Infinity to develop web sites for Infinity stations for cash...

READ BRIAN'S FULL COMMENTARY HERE.

... RAIN noted earlier this year that the Feed the Monster websites seemed, in general, to be a bit graphics-heavy and slow to download. (Of course, to a certain extent, this is the pot calling the kettle black...) But in looking at their corporate site yesterday, before it disappeared, I noticed an interesting phenomenon. The site had small, monochromatic photos of each of their executives -- and each of the images was 6K in file size. That didn't seem right. So I did what any first-week Graphic Art 101 student should have done -- I copied the image into Photoshop, reduced the number of colors in the image, and exported it. Ten seconds later -- voila! -- I had an identical-looking 3K file. (See below.) What this means, of course, is that the image would download to a user's computer twice as quickly. It's just a rudimentary, basic, thoughtful-to-the-consumer step in the design process that they ignored. -- KH ...
	Ron Conquest - Chief Executive Officer, FTM Media, Inc.: Ron Conquest has over 30 years of experience as a businessman, consultant and entrepreneur and, since 1987, has served as partner and Chairman/CEO of Warwick-Clarendon Investors Ltd., a diverse investment/merchant banking entity providing a variety of business, financial and development services to emerging private and public companies. Prior to 1987, Mr. Conquest was Chairman/CEO of an Oklahoma based oil and gas exploration/operating company. Mr. Conquest's experience includes extensive strategic planning, start-up, organizational, corporate finance and public entity operating skills. He attended the University of Oklahoma.
Size: 6K (FTM)
Size: 3K (RAIN)

BY KURT HANSON
The Z100 "$100,000 Thursdays" contest that the New York Post has recently told its readers is a national contest masquerading as a local one (here) is also presented on the Z100 WEBSITE as a local contest, as best as RAIN's crack team of interns, having scoured the site, can determine.

As show below, the "Details" page ("Here's How to Play") seems to clearly imply that you have to listen to Z100 to win:


And I'll bet that this is the same verbiage that Z100 used when their contests were, in fact, local. There are no further rules or disclaimers on the "$100,000 Thursdays" page (here).

Elsewhere on the site, however, there is a link labeled "Click here for official Z100 contest rules," which brings up the following pop-up screen:

Does the disclaimer really reveal? One might also argue that the motor-mouthed once-a-day disclaimer described by the Post's Mainelli -- "This station is participating in a contest with other Clear Channel stations. Odds will vary based on entries from this and other states" -- doesn't really reveal the nationwide nature of the "$100,000 Thursdays" contest. (For example, the reference to "this and other states" could easily be interpreted by listeners as referring to Z100's state of license, New Jersey, as "this state" and the adjacent states of New York and Connecticut as "other states.")

...

... It seems reasonable in this day and age that if a radio station has a website, they ought to be able to post their contest rules on said site. And, in fact, Z100 does post contest rules on their site -- they're just not right. (Note that the New York Post story ran on Monday and it's now Friday, so Clear Channel management is certainly aware that this might be an issue worth addressing.) The larger picture is that radio has established at least a 35-year history of contests being local (and thus, from the listener's perspective, reasonably winnable, because you're simply competing against fellow listeners in your own market). It's certainly fair if a radio chain wanted to debut a national contest. But trying to take advantage of listener expectations to surreptitiously massively reduce the odds of winning doesn't seem like it's good treatment of listeners. If listeners conclude they've been deceived by their favorite station, that may not drive them immediately into the arms of competitors (or competitive media), but it's certainly another brick in the wall. ...

These readers responded to RAIN's original coverage of this story yesterday. Newest items have maroon headlines. Your thoughts are welcomed, too -- e-mail us here.

"They're not sticking with the spirit..."

1. Perception is reality. They may be going by the letter of the law with their rapid-fire rules promo, but the NY Post article proves that they're not sticking with the spirit. Seems to me they should make it a positive and say, "We've teamed up with stations all across the country so we can give you chances at even BIGGER prizes!" Why hide? Maybe because of point #2:

2. The Clear Channel top 40 in my market is part of the same promotion and when I heard it (and the associated rabid, I mean rapid, promo), my first reaction was: "How lame! You mean they went to all of this trouble to put this 1,000 chain group together so they could add up the marketing power of all of these radio station promotion budgets and brains and all they could come up with was '$100,000 Thursdays'? Pretty weak." On the air, it doesn't sound any better or bigger than what they did when each station was on their own!

3. BTW, want to stir something up? What would the Post guy think of the fact that it says that Z100 contests are open only to people in the Z100 listening area (I guess that's not really true, is it)? (Check out the link here.)

"If listeners really knew what went on behind the scenes..."

This type of promotion is not only deceiving to your loyal listeners but just WRONG in all aspects of great on-air contests.

I understand that everyone wants to win bigger cash prizes, but if you think that they don't care that they have lower chances of winning and that they are competing with people across the country, then just be honest with them and make that clear, not hidden in small print and mumbled disclaimers.

Brynn Capella WebRadio.com

"What's so 'local' about Internet- or satellite-delivered radio?..."

On the issue of "national" contesting, I have to wonder whether everyone is getting worked up about a relatively small thing. When this concept was first introduced to radio I found myself wondering too about whether it was deceptive or just smart business. But let's step out of the box for a moment.

First, MANY contests are national in scope. Look closely at the contest rules for any major manufacturer who promotes their product with contests and you'll see odds that are greater than your chances to win a $10 million jackpot in Vegas!

Second, let's not forget that only a small percentage of listeners actually "enter to win" any contest no matter how big the prize is; the vast majority of a station's cume participate vicariously. If that's the case, then why not make the payoff bigger in scope so those who want to play feel like it's a bigger deal and the rest of us can listen with (some) interest to hear if anyone actually wins the $100,000.

Third, at least radio promotes and celebrates a winner. You don't get that through print or mail-in promotions (no intentional dig at the NY Post).

Finally, the notion that terrestrial radio listeners will turn to Internet and satellite stations because of contest issues like this is a bit of a stretch. What's so "local" about an Internet- or satellite-delivered radio station? It will be for far more egregious missteps than a "national" contest issue that drive them away.

Dennis Gwiazdon Sales Insights

"Clear Channel...will face reality sooner than most have predicted..."

"Clear Channel's pooling of resources is a brilliant concept..."

I really think Clear Channel's pooling of resources is a brilliant concept even if they didn't execute coordination with the website designers in a timely manner. I was under the impression national, corporate contesting had been going on for several years. Certainly Z-100 can afford money giveaways such as this in the world's number one media market, but allowing CC's smaller market stations to offer THAT kind of money to their listeners also is again a brilliant bit of strategy.

If you want to get really technical, if Z-100 is webcasting then all contests are being played in their listening area. Time will tell if listeners in the Apple as well as small town America are offended by the exciting trillion to one chance to win on a shared 888 line.

John Boswell JHB Communications Kansas City

"There is PLENTY wrong misleading local radio listeners..."

Didn't Clear Channel get their hands slapped by Florida's Attorney General's office for this kind of misleading contest in that state? Now they roll out another contest to confuse the listening public.

There's nothing wrong with having a national radio contest with a big prize. There is plenty wrong misleading local radio listeners. Not revealing the true scope of participation in a contest or camouflaging them in some time-shifted, voice altered promo is unethical at a minimum.

It seems like Clear Channel wants to continue to play these "shell game contests" until another attorney general, the FCC or DOJ steps in.

From the Indiana Daily Student: "IU alumnus, and Internet audio pioneer Mark Cuban was ready to write an open-ended check that would bring Napster back to IU computers. But the University turned him down, Cuban said.

"'New technologies, new means of commerce, new uses of digital media are all learning experiences for the students, the University and for how commerce is done over the net,' said Cuban, the founder of Broadcast.com and current owner of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks.

"'Rather than learning from the experience, and coming to a conclusion that allowed Napster to continue, like so many other schools, IU wimped out from fear of legal issues.' IU's 'wimping out' on its dealings with Napster as well as the firing of basketball coach Bob Knight forced Cuban, a self-made billionaire, to cease giving money to his alma mater, he said.

"Cuban offered to purchase extra bandwidth that would allow Napster users to unencumber the rest of the IU Internet traffic, he said -- an offer that he said the University rejected...

"Cuban said, 'They told me the problem with Napster was that it used too much bandwidth. I said that it was a cost of being a leading university, but if it was a problem, I would pay for it.' Cuban said he offered to buy one year's worth of service on a DS3 line priced at $540,000 -- or $45,000 per month...

"Mark Bruhn, Information Technology Policy Officer for the UITS said 61 percent of IU's bandwidth was used up by Napster at its peak, in the second week of February.

"Cuban still calls himself a Hoosier, and roots for the cream and crimson, but said he won't have anything to do with the administration. 'I still love the school, the campus and the students,' Cuban said. 'It's just the administration I have a problem with.'"

Read reporter Aaron Sharockman's full story from the student newspaper's website, IDSnews.com here.

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BY PAUL MALONEY
Interesting dichotomy: The Loop's (WLUP/Chicago) website. The Information-age medium presence of a nostalgic, heritage radio format -- the counterpoint of high-tech, splashy graphics to grab the eyes that belong to the ears stuck on Classic Rock.

There really is plenty here for site visitors. Aside from the (oops) empty Contest page and rather slim section for station personalities, The Loop does a fine job on the other rock station necessities: Informative music news, exhaustive concert information, artist links, and a complete list of station on-air features. Main complaint: where are the interaction opportunities?

The best page is the section of Volunteerism opportunities. The station does its listeners and the featured charities a definite service by not merely giving lip-service to a few causes to show that they're "public-interest minded."

Rather, the page is a real resource of background info, links, and phone numbers for what must be a couple hundred altruistic opportunities. Very well-researched.

Tuning into the stream (powered by Chicago-based RadioWave) is like a stroll through a museum of Rock radio history. (Sorry, but really. In my opinion, "Rocktober," "2-fer Tuesday," and "Get the Led Out" were getting kinda crusty 12 years ago, much less in Y2K.)

Even the marketing (on the site and direct mail) of their fall ratings book promotion (the tried-and-true, by the way, "Artist of the Day") is the classic earthy-glam rock-n-roll "chick."

Maybe these elements are presenting their brand exactly as they intend -- in which case, Great! Again though, it's an interesting counterpoint: old-school rock radio branding in the age of Information.

(By the way, what's up with having no morning show? It's generally believed that older demos, who are typically less passionate about music than the younger end, need significant "nonmusical" incentive to listen -- i.e., a personality-driven morning show.)

That said, the site is sleek and professional. Its look and presentation do a fine job of giving the station a visual (if not particularly interactive) web presence.

Have an opinion on anything in this issue of RAIN? Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient pop-up form -- or click here to use your own e-mail software.

October 9-12	QuickTime Live! Conference, Beverly Hills
October 10-12	Streaming Media Europe 2000, London
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
November 12-14	Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) "Broadcasting 2000: On-air / On-line," Calgary
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
February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001. Details coming soon.

xxx

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