RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter

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BY PAUL MALONEY
Minneapolis-based multi-channel webcaster NetRadio holds seven out of the top ten spots in Arbitron's

August Webcast Ratings.

NetRadio's "80s Hits" channel took the number-one spot of the published top 75 webcasters with a 311,600 "ATH," or aggregate tuning hours, for August. Also ranked in the top ten were British Hot Adult Contemporary Virgin Radio, and heavy metal webcaster KNAC.com. New to the top ten were NetRadio's "Quiet Classics"

and "Route 1 Country" channels. Toronto Alternative rock CFNY slid considerably, falling out of the Top-75 from the number-nine slot in July.

Arbitron has also posted on their website revised Webcast Ratings for July, after realizing that the initial study included some incomplete data from some providers. The beneficiaries of the new data included Global Media's "Kool Hits," "Innercity Soul," and "The Edge" channels, WOKQ-FM, ABC Radio Network's Tom Joyner program, eYada.com, Christian Pirate Radio, WBLS-FM, One-on-One Sports, KBLX-FM, and WBLM-FM.

Here are details on the top ten Arbitron rated webcasters for August 2000:

Rank / Channel (Format)	July 2000 ATH (Aggregate Tuning Hours)	August 2000 ATH (Aggregate Tuning Hours)
1 NetRadio - 80s Hits	201,000	311,600
2 Virgin Radio (Hot AC)	236,100	264,800
3 NetRadio - Vintage Rock	143,300	264,400
4 NetRadio - Hits	146,900	263,400
5 NetRadio - Smooth Jazz	157,500	257,600
6 NetRadio - The X	133,600	254,800
7 KNAC.com (AOR)	148,600	254,500
8 NetRadio - Quiet Classics	100,700	208,400
9 WABC-AM (News/Talk)	119,500	194,100
10 NetRadio - Route 1 Country	76,900	179,300

Here are the top ten "percentage increases" for Arbitron rated webcasters in August 2000:

xxx Rank/Channel and Format	July 2000 ATH	August 2000 ATH	Change over 1 month
22 KBTU-FM (AC)	35,300	107,200	+204%
10 NetRadio - Route 1 Country	76,900	179,300	+133%
24 NetRadio - Symphony	48,200	106,700	+121%
40 NetRadio - Quiet Storm	35,800	76,600	+114%
44 NetRadio - Power Hits	31,300	66,000	+111%
8 NetRadio - Quiet Classics	100,700	208,400	+107%
5 NetRadio - Smooth Jazz	131,000	257,600	+97%
29 NetRadio - Acoustic	51,100	98,100	+92%
13 NetRadio - Cafe Jazz	71,500	137,100	+92%
32 NetRadio - Celtic	48,000	91,900	+91%

...

.
BY PAUL MALONEY
Some observations regarding the recently-released Arbitron Webcast Ratings for August 2000:

-- Why was the percent-increase of ATH so high? Some theories: Arbitron recently renamed their measurement system, and improved the delivery and data gathering. MeasureCast has now hit the scene as a competitor. This activity has resulted in more press releases, and more mainstream press coverage. This certainly can't hurt webcasters' efforts to drive people to their sites.

Also, in Arbitron's press release, Director of Marketing and R&D Joan FitzGerald explains the company is now "able to include all of NetRadio's streaming media data." This means that some of NetRadio's gains may not be true audience growth, but rather better reporting. Could it be that since not all of NetRadio's streams (not channels, but actual streams -- for example the RealAudio stream and not the WindowsMedia stream, or vice-versa. Or possibly one or more providers' weren't counted, for whatever reason.), were measured in the past, the evident growth is merely listeners who've been there, but just not counted?

-- We've been accused of beating this point to death, but it's a valid one. Translating those ATH numbers into a traditional broadcast metric still yields pretty underwhelming results: The #1 webcast in August, NetRadio's "80s Channel," pulled an ATH of 311,600. To translate that into AQH (Average Quarter-hour, roughly the average number of people listening at any given moment), divide the ATH by the number of hours in the month (for August, 744). This means, at any given moment, only about 419 people are tuned in to the globally available webcast. We're not cutting into broadcast territory here -- yet.

-- What do the admirable rankings of stations and channels like NetRadio's "Smooth Jazz," "Quiet Classics," and "Lite Hits;" WABC; ABC's Tom Joyner's show; and religious-KLTY tell us about the validity of preconceived notions of who's listening on the web -- in terms of age and ethnicity? Do people listening to smooth jazz on their machine at the office listen to this type of music in a more casual atmosphere, say at home or in the car (were it possible)?

-- To reiterate a theory proposed in this space before, these numbers may not be a true representation of Internet radio listenership for the entire industry, simply because Arbitron is only measuring in the neighborhood of 900 streams. That leaves out thousands and thousands of others -- like Spinner, Sonicnet, Cyberradio2000, and WWW.com. Of course, other webcasters might be having similar results as those rated by Arbitron, but who knows?

...

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From the San Francisco Chronicle: "Wireless music is slowly becoming a reality. And numerous telecommunications

and technology firms are beginning to experiment with ways to bring video, cartoons, games, electronic books and other forms of entertainment to cell phones and wireless devices.

"'The lines between the Palm Pilot and the cell phone are going to blur, and the lines between a cell phone and an MP3 player are going to blur,'' said David Broadwin, a media and entertainment analyst with Andersen Consulting...

"What's unknown is how much -- or even whether -- consumers will pay for having digital entertainment

available on cell phones and handheld digital assistants. Widespread use of wireless entertainment will depend on how fast telecommunications companies can deploy next-generation, higher-capacity wireless networks. In the United States, that could be several years away.

"In the United States, technology startup Savos Inc. of New York began a test last week in the New York City area of its MediaCrossbar technology, which lets cell-phone users listen to music supplied by Vitaminic...

"Analysts, though, say the wireless

entertainment market is still a long way from becoming a hit...

"For now, 'customers will say I can download a song on my phone or I can wait until I get home and pick it off Napster for free and store it on my MP3 player,' Broadwin says. 'My hunch is there will be an impulse market for people who want to hear that tune right now, but it probably won't be a majority of the market.'"

Read the entire Chronicle story here.

The New York Times published a nice piece on the strengths and some of the signs of growth of Internet radio.

Interviewed for the article were BetaLounge.com's Ian Raikow, KNAC.com's Rob Jones, Arbitron's Bill Rose, eYada's Peter Hallen, and the publisher of this newsletter and Strategic Media Research chairman Kurt Hanson.

From the New York Times: "After existing for five years, Internet radio is no longer an online version of what Web types like to call terrestrial radio. It's live game-playing, it's community, it's chat, it's TV, and it's as many channels as a site has servers.

"Propelled by technology and the chance to present more interesting fare than on-the-air stations offer,

Internet-only Webcasters have proliferated, offering every imaginable kind of music, talk and news. A typical American city has 20 to 50 broadcast radio stations. According to BRS Media, which has been compiling a directory of Internet radio stations since 1995, the online listener now has access to more than 13,000 sites...

"Bill Rose, vice president and general manager of Arbitron's Internet Information Services, worries that once broadcasters begin to take Webcasting seriously, it may be too late for them to have a stake. 'A number of years ago, when cable TV began, the network and affiliate part of the business said, "Oh, it's only that wacky guy in suburban Atlanta broadcasting old movies over and over again." If you ask them now, they'll say they made Ted Turner rich, and they lost an opportunity.'

"The Internet radio audience is

growing quickly. At the National Association of Broadcasters convention in September, Arbitron/Edison Media Research presented its fifth Internet study, 'Twenty Startling Insights About the Internet and Streaming.'

"According to the report, which is posted at www.arbitron.com, one of every five Americans has listened to online simulcasts of broadcast stations, and 13 percent of the population has listened to Internet-only radio. But radio stations have had 75 years to build a following; Internet-only stations have had less than three years."

Read Sue Cummings' NYTimes article here (registration required).

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This feedback is in response to RAIN's review of the newly-released ClickRadio. Read Part 1 of that story here (scroll down), and Part 2 here.

"Radio on the PC is not a goal -- it's a stepping stone..."

Instead of putting together a fluid list of songs, ClickRadio 1.0 is a test in the theory that people could care

less about what sounds good together unless they are dancing to it. I for one am glad to see someone challenging the long-standing theory that the definition of a playlist should come from the broadcast side rather than the consumer side.

Personality is a tool used by broadcasters to give differentiation to their radio station, not something that consumers necessarily desire...when it comes to wanting music, anything that doesn't sound like music is a major turnoff.

I highly doubt ClickRadio's end plans are to be computer-based...Radio on the PC is not a goal -- it's a stepping stone. What companies like ClickRadio realize is that listening MUST take place away from the computer. So, if you had to take all the Internet music technologies in the world today and move them into an automotive application or a mobile Walkman environment -- who do you think would come out the clear winner?

--Dan Rudman
President/CEO ChannelFire, Inc.

...
Mr. Rudman makes some excellent points here. We failed to mention in the ClickRadio piece that our opinions stemmed from the idea that the software is designed to emulate the traditional radio experience. Perhaps this is not (or no longer) the case with Click. -- RS and PM
...

This piece of feedback is based on Mark Cuban's warnings to webcasters regarding proposed RIAA licensing fees, reported in RAIN here...

"$4,683,096 in RIAA fees for the year..."

I did a little math experiment of my own to see what would happen if the same rules were applied to a REAL Radio station. Imagine for a minute that a successful rock radio station in a top 15 market had to pay the same rate for music that the RIAA is currently proposing - about 3/10ths of a cent per song per listen. Here's the math based on a real radio station in Seattle.

GIVEN: Station has 18,000 average quarter hour listeners Mon-Sun 6 am to midnight. Basically, there are 18,000 people listening at a given time, hearing each song that is played.

The RIAA proposed rate is .0033 (three tenths of a cent per song per listener) X 18000 listeners = $59.40 per song - the Radio station's cost to play that song.

Station plays 12 songs an hour = $713 for an hour of music; Times 18 hours in a day = $12,830 per day for music (not including overnights); Times 365 Days in a year = $4,683,096 in RIAA fees for the year.

--David Rahn
Co President SBR Creative Media

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From Reuters: "Three to nine-year-olds on Tuesday got their own online radio station that is being sponsored by

the makers of the Barbie doll.

"The London-based station has already attracted 50,000 people to its web site Barbie.fm in the last three days. Lined up for interviews are leading pop stars Louise, Westlife and Steps.

"Among the celebrities launching the station full of sleepover, dancing and fashion features was actress Patsy Kensit who said: 'I have never hosted a radio show before and to do so for Barbie.fm and an audience of young girls around the world is fantastic.'

Mattel Toys, manufacturer of the Barbie doll, sponsors the station and says it's aimed at girls age three to nine.

Read the entire release here.


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

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