According to the research firm International Demographics' The Media Audit, the highly desirable "yuppie demographic" -- upscale, educated 21-34 year olds -- which have been elusive to media outlets, "are logged on and reading local dot-com newspapers and other high news content web sites."

According to a company press release, yuppies are "a group that is less likely to be regular readers of newspapers and/or viewers of television news programs. But they are terrific prospects for the web sites for these same media. They grew up with the computer and the Internet is a natural extension of the computer as a medium."

This particular demographic is characterized by the firm as being college educated, investment-wise, and economically upscale with significant buying power. The company advises that to hang on to this audience, media sites have to maintain current and interesting content, and not rely on the "traditional (print or broadcasting)" side of their company to keep the Web side afloat. "If the interactive media have to make it on their own, they have to sell the value of their sites," the company claims. "They can't depend on the income from the traditional media side of the aisle. They have to make a commitment to the new media, because there is no other place to turn."

"The Media Audit...now contains both quantitative and qualitative data on 1000+ local media web sites serving more than 80 markets...

"Bob Jordan, Co-chairman of The Media Audit said that although his firm is focused exclusively on local markets, other rating firms are doing just as credible a job with national media web sites..."



GlobalMedia.com, a supplier of Internet broadcasting and e-services, announced the release of "Always On," a multi-media channel and directory for its audio and video network. The video channel can be launched from RealPlayer, RealNetworks' streaming media player.

A RealChannel is a graphical "logo" button embedded within RealPlayer software that allows users to link directly to specific content.

The Always On channel appears alongside broadcasters who have RealChannels. Always On links to GlobalMedia's streaming offers, such as music, radio, talk, and video entertainment. The signal is streamed continuously or on-demand 24 hours a day.

According to Winston V. Barta, vice president of Business Development, "Three elements are required to make money broadcasting content on the Internet: brand extension, advertising and e-commerce to monetize network traffic. The Always On channel in RealPlayer gives our customers a tremendous boost in these key success factors. This makes our solution the most compelling choice for broadcasters."

Accessing the Always On channel requires a quick download to update the RealPlayer. Then clicking the button in the Channels section of the player brings up a "portal" of sorts to GlobalMedia-streamed stations.

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

From the company press release: "Premiere Radio Networks' Mediabase 24/7 and RateTheMusic.com join to launch an online music testing service that provides national music results to the broadcast and music industries.

"Mediabase 24/7 will deliver weekly "Rate The Music National Results" to its 1,000 affiliates and music industry executives through RateTheMusic.com's website. More than 500 major market radio stations will provide consumers access to the website, creating unprecedented national sample sizes.

"The information will be marketed and available through Premiere Radio Networks...

"Through www.ratethemusic.com, browsers choose their preferred music format, listen to the latest music and rate what they have heard. RateTheMusic.com compiles the audience data and makes it available to subscribers on a weekly basis...

"Mediabase 24/7 monitors over 1000 radio stations in the top 140 markets, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In addition to providing vital information to the music industry, the company provides its research to more than 950 affiliate radio stations on a barter subscription basis.

Premiere Radio Networks, Inc.(is) a subsidiary of Clear Channel Communications..."



"For 20 years, WVFI has existed only within the University of Notre Dame bubble. But on Oct. 11, after two years of negotiation with Student Activities, the 'Voice of the Fighting Irish' began global Internet broadcasts and, for the first time, reached the entire Notre Dame nation.

"'It's not simply a student community or an alumni community, it is an international community,' Adam Frick, WVFI station manager, said at a press conference Wednesday, officially announcing the station's switch to global broadcasting. 'To truly be the "Voice of the Fighting Irish," we had to be international.'"

"People with access to the Internet and Real Player installed on their computer can listen to WVFI by logging on to wvfi.nd.edu.

"Global Internet broadcasts for its campus radio station puts Notre Dame on the same level as most of the top 25 schools in the country, according to Nicole Detorie, promotions director. She said all of the top 25 schools in the country, with the exception of MIT, have globally-broadcast student radio stations...

"With its new global status, WVFI expects to expand its coverage of Notre Dame athletics. Currently the station broadcasts every home and away football game. Sports programming director CJ Murray hopes to add home men's and women's basketball games, home men's and women's lacrosse games and home baseball games."

Read the entire story here.

Simply click the headline at left to bring up a convenient pop-up form!

From Reuters in Infoworld.com: "The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), which administers performance royalties for songwriters, said on Thursday it remained willing and ready to issue a license for performances of its copyrighted music to song-swap service Napster.

"Marilyn Bergman, ASCAP president and chairman, said that as ASCAP had indicated in previous discussions with Napster, it has never sought to shut the service down.

"'We ask only that it be licensed for its performances of music so that songwriters may be fairly compensated for the use of their works. We welcome any mutually agreeable resolution of the outstanding issues among the interested parties,' she said...

"On Tuesday, Bertelsmann -- parent of BMG, one of the big music companies suing Napster Inc. for copyright infringement -- broke ranks with its rivals and said it would drop its suit against the song-swap company once it implements a membership-based service that pays royalties."

Read the story here.

Kurt Hanson is working from the Strategic Media Research offices today. To reach him, please call 312 726-8300 x. 4401, or e-mail him here.

Reprinted from yesterday's issue...

The following refers to "RAIN Reader Feedback" from Bob Bellin (here) on why he feels some webcasters aren't reporting their number of listeners...

"The services are still fine-tuning their systems..."

Reporting is not the issue, it's how that information get interpreted and presented in public forums [in an improper manner] that is detrimental.

The systems currently in place to gauge the "listeners" are still going through changes. That means that the information presented as a "monthly report" in the past may not have been correct or properly measured. The services are still fine tuning their systems. When you throw in analysis on flawed data that then get presented in a public forum you wind up with a thoroughly misinformed group of people reading incorrect "expert" analysis [based on "not so correct data] and that is the detriment. While we believe Measurecast has the best system and Arbitron is moving forward they're all still tuning their systems to accurately report numbers.

Another issue is compatibility. Not everyone serves audio the same way and with that in mind - somewhere between the two, is us. We were reporting. We changed the way we serve audio and that affected the ability to receive data from us.

When we change our serving method we will gladly report.

Salvatore Lepore CyberRadio2000.com

"Rating streams in the same way terrestrial stations are rated is moot..."

Although a good exercise, one could argue that rating streams in the same way terrestrial stations are rated is moot. Why? Terra-Stations are rated for one reason- to help advertisers determine what stations they should buy for how much.

With that in mind, rating streams is unnecessary, since you 'should' be able to determine exactly how many times an ad was heard, allowing the advertiser to purchase a specified number of impressions. Joe Client get's exactly what he purchased rather than an estimate of an audience size.

That said, I do believe that subjecting streams to the rating standards of Terra-Radio IS important in helping radio broadcasters separate hype and reality.

Larry Downes

This piece refers to an article by RAIN's Ralph Sledge on new wireless broadband technologies, here...

"This is much further down the line..."

I think the reports of broadband wireless being on the horizon are greatly exaggerated. Here are some of the sobering issues:

1) Towers. New protocol won't change the fact that people don't want those big ugly towers staring down on their houses. Unless and until some other system (something like small transmitters on every telephone pole) is conceived, embraced, zoned and built out, last mile issues will preclude widespread adoption. No tower, no signal.

2) Spectrum. Much of the spectrum needed for G3 is now being used by TV stations to transmit analog signals. The current law says that they don't have to give up that spectrum until 2006 or 85% of America is set up to receive digital signals, whichever is later. Given that the current set top box runs around $750 per TV, it's unlikely that we'll hit the 85% number anytime soon. No spectrum, no G3.

3) Bandwidth costs. Bandwidth is still relatively expensive, despite efficient conduits like cable lines. The $40/month cable modem price that's become relatively standard doesn't assume the bandwidth needs that widespread streaming/downloading movies or wireless webcasting applications would require. Only the well to do gadget freaks would be willing to absorb the minimum bandwidth costs that would accompany broadband wireless. Remember, the price for the current, lousy quality voice only wireless app is still at $.10/minute. At that rate, the bandwidth costs to watch a streamed 90 minute movie would be $9.00 and then you'd have to pay Blockbuster.com or whoever originated the stream.

Any of these issues are enough to keep wireless broadband from becoming a near term reality. All of them together probably mean that this is much further down the line than many of the people who write articles on the digital space would have you to believe.

Bob Bellin mp3player.com

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

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.