RadioInk.com is reporting that BroadcastAMERICA.com has filed Chapter 11. According to news source, SurferNETWORK.com will merge with the cash-strapped company, and infuse $1 million in cash in an attempt to save the it.

As reported in a "RAIN exclusive" (here), the average radio station webcast streamed in October of 1999 by BroadcastAMERICA.com seems to have had an AQH audience size, based on a 24-hour broadcast day and rounded to the nearest person, of zero persons, according to Arbitron Infostream ratings.

From the RadioInk.com story: "On Monday November 6,2000 BroadcastAMERICA.com, Inc. filed a voluntary petition with the court for relief under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code,11 U.S.C.

"On November 7,2000 BroadcastAMERICA.com, Inc. received a letter of intent from SurferNETWORK.com, Inc. whereby the parties would form a New Company and SurferNETWORK.com, Inc. would provide $1M of funding provided certain conditions were met.

"The parties estimate that the new company will need to raise between $4M-$7M by December 1, 2000. This letter of intent states that neither the new company nor SurferNETWORK will assume any liabilities and claims against BroadcastAMERICA."

Read the RadioInk.com story here. Read the SurferNETWORK press release here.



From MSNBC.com: "While voters flocked to the polls Tuesday, Internet users jammed Web sites looking for the latest reports and rumors. Conservatives and liberals argued over the results — when they could get onto the sites...

"Keynote, a California-based company that measures online performance, said all of the seven top sites it surveyed --including MSNBC.com -- showed at least some evidence of access problems. The Washington Post was the only news site that was accessible in less than 2 minutes, 100 percent of the time, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT and also from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. PT, according to Keynote’s data. However, in Keynote’s final survey, The Washington Post had slipped to being available 98.4 percent of the time for 9 to 11:30 p.m. PT.

"Four of the seven top news sites (CNN.com, CNN.com/AllPolitics, ABCNews.com, USAToday.com), nevertheless, were accessible in under two minutes more than 99 percent of the time in the 9 to 11:30 p.m. survey...

"MSNBC.com’s tally of unique users for Election Day was expected to exceed 5 million, which would be a 'huge record,' said Executive Editor Michael Silberman. 'Our previous record was 3.1 million, which was the day the Concorde crashed in July,' he said.

"Silberman said traffic began spiking upward at about noon ET.

“'This shows that users know the Internet is the place to come for results, even before we were able to report any results,' he said.

"MSNBC.com, however, was the worst performing news site in the 9 to 11:30 p.m. Keynote survey, with the site accessible in under two minutes only 72.5 percent of the time..."

Read the entire story here.

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

From Radio Ink: "Radio Ink has announced the final lineup for its upcoming Internet Conference. Set for November 28 through December 1 at the Santa Clara (California) Convention Center, the sessions are designed for broadcast executives and others who want to learn how to use their Radio stations and experience to make money on the Internet...

"Ed Ryan, Radio Ink¹s editor said, 'Unlike other Internet conferences, we emphasize the practical and the do-able. Futurists and philosophers are very entertaining, but they're not for us. We also believe in delivering more than we promise. Many of our previous attendees, in fact, signed up for this conference because they know how rapidly things change, and they want to stay ahead of the curve.'...

"Panels focus on Internet ad sales, streaming media, ad insertion technology, interactive ad agencies, competitive media and more. The sessions are preceded by an Internet "Boot Camp," designed for newcomers and neophytes on basic Internet technologies and terminology."

Kurt Hanson (pictured at right), the publisher of this newsletter, will moderate a panel on the progress stations are making with ad-insertion technologies.

Radio Ink publisher Eric Rhoads is pictured above left.

Other featured speakers and presenters set for the conference include:

iBEAM CEO Peter Desnoes	Paul Sagan, president of Akamai	John Patrick, vice president of Internet technology, IBM Corp.
Mp3.Com CEO Michael Robertson	Martin Tobias, founder and CEO, Loudeye	MeasureCast CEO Edward T. Hardy
Bill Rose, VP/GM, Internet Information Services, Arbitron	Jeff Smulyan, chairman/ CEO, Emmis Communications	Bob Kohn, chairman of the board, eMusic.Com

Visit the conference website here.

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

From the company press release: "Sonic Foundry announced Perfect Clarity Audio, its new proprietary audio compression codec.

This technology allows users to compress music in a format that will not sacrifice the fidelity of the original source audio recording. While most audio compression technologies such as MP3 and WMA are considered "lossy," Perfect Clarity Audio delivers audio output that is identical to the original source and supports both 16- and 24-bit audio.

During the editing process, Perfect Clarity Audio files can be modified and recompressed without degradation that lossy codecs add to every generation. Test files have shown compression ratios of 2:1 and as high as 5:1 with no loss in audio quality.

Read the entire press release 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.

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,
February 1-4, 2001	RAB 2001. Details coming soon.