BY KURT HANSON
Radio's most popular station website is not even one of the top 5,000 websites nationally, according to usage data from PC Data Online that
has become available in a new search engine called Top9.com (which launched last week).

The PC Data Online rankings are based on popularity data provided by a panel of 85,000 Internet users.

According to the rankings, as shown in the screenshot below, the leading broadcast radio station website is New York City's Z100.com.

However, if PC Data's "unique visitors" estimate is correct and the site gets 95,000 unique visitors per month, that would imply that less than 1% of Z100's weekly cume visits the station's website in a typical month.

Note that had Broadcast.com been assigned to this "Radio" category (it is categorized instead as an "Internet Resource"), it would have absolutely dominated the category, due to its estimated 3.9 million unique visitors. (That usage puts it in 69th place among all websites nationally, according to the firm's estimates.)

AOL-owned Internet radio Spinner.com's 629,000 unique visitors also would also have put it #1 on this list had it been assigned to the "Radio" category. For some reason, however, it is listed in the "Music" category (with MTV.com, MP3.com, and Winamp) rather than on this "Radio" list (with similar competitors NetRadio, RadioMoi, and Imagine Radio (now SonicNet)).

Note that Z100.com is the only station-based website of the top nine sites. Syndicated radio shows' sites hold the #1, #3, and #10 positions on the list, Internet-only radio webcasters take the #2, #4, and #6 slots, and radio station aggregators Broadcast Music.com and OnRadio.com take the #5 and #7 slots.

The press release announcing the debut of Top9.com is here. All three of the illustrations above are also links to their respective sites.





From Mediaweek: "Newspaper publishers spent with abandon on their online operations in 1999, and plan more of the same next year. That was the consensus coming out of two financial conferences for the media industry held in New York last week.

"In a typical example, Washington Post Co. president Alan Spoon bragged to investors, "We're pouring money into our Internet business." He said the company will incur $100 million in related charges next year, adding, "This isn't the time for neatness in Internet models..."

Read the full story here.



From Radio & Records: "Clarion Corp. of America has agreed to develop car radio receivers for both Sirius Satellite Radio and XM Satellite Radio. It's unclear whether Clarion will be able initially to deliver one radio that accepts signals from both Sirius and XM, or if subscribers will need separate receivers for each service..."

From Radio Business Report: "Two of the three IBOC DAB developers are now working together: Digital Radio Express is teaming up with USA Digital Radio. 'Our field testing program is now in conjunction with USADR,' DRE President Norman Miller tells RBR..."

Click here for the full story in RBR.



From Radio & Records: "Mike Tyler, former National Affiliate Sales Manager for the ABC Radio Network, will handle Southern sales for the online classifieds and auctions site, while former KFRC-AM/San Francisco Sr. Sales Exec Nancy Dutcher will be in charge of the West Coast region..." Click here to read more.

According to their website, "BuySellBid.coms' core business is to be the TOTAL one-stop source and solution for traditional media in its transfer to the Internet with advanced multimedia classifieds, auction, e-commerce, personals and content systems and programming." Click logo above to visit the site.



Although MP3 players from a variety of minor players in the consumer electronics field are currently avaiable, it looks as if the first really major player, Sony, is about to make its move.

I just noticed that Sony's website is currently taking advance orders for the device shown at right, promising shipping in early January.

The player includes a 64MB "Memory Stick," about the size of a stick of gum (similar to a "Star Trek" isolinear optical chip) that stores up to 120 minutes of music. Consumers will be able to quickly upload custom-made music mixes (or, theoretically, radio station-provided audio programs) into a 2.5 oz device that contains no moving parts.

"Q: How long does it take to transfer music to the Memory Stick WalkmanTM player? A: It takes approximately three minutes to fill a 64MB MagicGateTM Memory Stick® card. The USB interface between the player and PC transfers music approximately 18x faster than real time."

There are implications for radio about the apparent upcoming proliferation of such devices that's we'll address in future issue of this newsletter.

Radio and Internet Newsletter is a daily compilation of news (plus essays, commentary, and resources) designed to help you better understand the Internet and its potential impact on radio -- both the dangers it presents and the opportunities it offers. We hope you find it valuable.

For a summary of other recent news stories, click here.

To read our big story last week that analyzed Arbitron InfoStream webcast ratings, click the screenshot at left. For reader responses to that article, click here.

"How to increase your station's webcast ratings" is coming later today, hopefully. I'm writing it now. Check back later, please.

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