 |
The nation's first news radio station focused on Internet-related
news has debuted on AMFM's  KNEW-AM/San
Francisco -- and its live audio stream is now also available
on the CNET
website.
CNET Radio
runs live from 5:30A to 7P. "We've signed an agreement to run
CNN Headline News from 7P to 5:30A and on weekends," KIOI/KNEW/KABL
VP/GM Brent Osborne tells RAIN, "although we're
exploring possibilities of adding more Internet-oriented content
during the non-CNET dayparts."
"It's not all tech news," Brent continued. "The
station is dayparted. We're doing news of the new technology and
the New Economy -- it's very broad. It's for general consumption;
it's not a techie radio station. Middays are more feature-oriented
and lifestyle-oriented, and afternoons are a wrapup of the business
day"
"We believe that the two things kind of came together that
allowed this to happen for us. First of all, we have a cluster of
radio stations. That means we have a  unique
opportunity to promote a new venture -- CNET is being promoted on
all six other AMFM stations in the market.
"Secondly, this information -- the technology revolution --
has progressed so far and so fast that this format probably would
not hav been realistic as recently as a year ago. But now this new
technlogy and New Economy affects everybody's life. If your kids
go to school, you're involved in this. If you bank, if you get an
automobile, you're involved."
CNET produces  its
programming from its own facility, which happens to be in the
old KMEL location at 55 Battery. Ironically, CNET Radio news director
and morning anchor Brian Cooley (pictured at right), worked
for AMFM at one time.
Brent explains, "He was News Director with John London and
the House Party at KMEL and he went down to L.A. with London for
The Beat. Then he came back to the market and was the original News
Director and the anchor on the Westinghouse news operation that
started when the O.J. trial began [on KPIX-FM]. When that went away,
one of the founders of CNET had heard Cooley doing a tech update
on KPIX and hired him for CNET. He's been there for a couple of
years. He's a trained news guy and experienced program director
who brings real broadcasrt experience and finesse to the challenge
of presenting 13 hours of tech news every day.
"Sales have  been,
as far as I'm concerned, unprecedented for a brand new radio station,"
Brent told us. "We've had demand from national markets and
demand locally. Advertisers have been eager to get involved early.
It's been overwhelming. We had no idea that ther response would
be like this. We have other markets clamoring it, and the national
rollout is being planned." How soon? "We want to get the
bugs out of it and get the product right, but we have markets thart
are awaiting delivery of the product now."
You can listen to CNET Radio by clicking here.
Eric Rhoads's Radio Ink magazine has announced its first
two big-name speakers for its upcoming Radio Ink Internet  Conference
East: Yahoo! marketing chief Seth Godin and computer journalist
Walter Mossberg.
Godin, the best-selling author of the book "Permission Marketing,"
is nationally known as an expert  on
the Internet and opt-in e-mail marketing. He became part of Yahoo!
after selling his highly successful company, Yoyodine Entertainment,
to Yahoo!
Yoyodyne developed games and contests consumers played via e-mail
to sell products; Yahoo! bought Yoyodyne and Godin received $30
million in stock
Mossberg is best known as the author and creator of the weekly "Personal
Technology" column in The Wall Street Journal, which
has appeared every Thursday since 1991.
According to Radio Ink, Newsweek magazine calls Mr. Mossberg "the
most powerful arbiter of consumer tastes in the computer world today,"
Time magazine calls him "the most influential computer journalist,"
and Brill's Content,  the
watchdog magazine that covers the press, ranks Mr. Mossberg as one
of the 25 most influential people in the American news media.
Radio Ink's Fall conference in Santa Clara, CA was of the best-received
radio industry conferences ever. Its 607 attendees were inspired
to start dozens of new Internet ventures (including this newsletter!).
For registration information for the Boston event, which will be
held at the Copley Theater from May 15th to 18th, call 1-800-610-5771
and ask for Gwen. (And just for fun, tell her you read about it
in RAIN.)
From CNET News: "All of the 'Big 5' record labels and
Madonna's Maverick Records have invested undisclosed sums in Listen.com,
the San Francisco-based start-up plans to announce today.
 "Although
the labels are finally moving their battleships to address consumers'
growing interest in building digital music collections, collectively
the majors have been skittish of the MP3 format, which employs no
security measures to curb piracy...
"Listen.com only points online users to legal MP3s, meaning
its is directory is dominated by independent artists..." Read
the full story on CNET News here.
DaimlerChrysler
Makes Sirius Investment
From R&R Online: The  automaker
will purchase $100 million in common stock and exclusively factory-install
Sirius receivers in its cars and light trucks -- including Mercedes-Benz,
Chrysler... The deal also calls for the two companies to work together
to develop telematics functions using Sirius' digital satellite
system, which could result in a range of wireless security...and
navigation services... DaimlerChrysler spokesman Sjoerd Dijkstra
tells R&R Online the receivers will be installed when Sirius works
out the bugs in its service. "The moment the system  works
flawlessly, we'll be ready to install receivers. We have a pretty
quick turnaround." Read R&R Online here
(subscription required for current content).
 Friday's
issue will be posted one article at a time throughout the
day. Please check back for more. Below are headlines from Thursday's
issue, with new reader feedback added. (And please add
your own comments and opinions here.) |
 BY
KURT HANSON
One of the most interesting aspects of the recent Arbitron InfoStream
Webcast ratings report is this: Out of 255 stations measured in
markets of all sizes across America, three sister  stations
in Columbia, MO (Arbitron market #243) managed to take the
#2, #4, and #6 slots in terms of Time Spent Tuning (TST)! How
in the world did they do that?
Read the full article in yesterday's RAIN here.
Feedback from RAIN reader
After the first Infostream results for October came in, seeing
us (93xfm) in the top 10 hit me like a brick between the eyes.
Our station was a direct off-air simo for that rating and also
November.
I immediately adopted your views in point #7 of your essay (here)
and prepared a special spin off version of KNSX for the web.
Our station has always been automated. (I love automation) We
had spent the last 4 months or so upgrading from a low end Pristine
system to the Enco Dad32. After working with Dave at Powergold
to design multiple voice ID attachments to our ripped .WAV music
files, we had as slick of an automation system on the air as
I could have wished for.
I have always had this thought in the back of my mind that an
internet listener just does not want to hear local advertising
and local talk etc. I also feel that the same listener may have
a short attention span for listening as well. Our format is
adult alternative which many say has a good appeal to net listeners.
So...about mid December we shifted into high gear and ordered
a second Enco System, cloned a Pent III computer and took exactly
the same music played on the air and installed it on the 2nd
computer feeding the web stations on Real and Media Player.
See www.93xfm.com. We removed all local spots and station id's,
and replaced them with internet only liners, id's and promos.
Presto, the exact same music programming, with a cyber-station
slant, void of local things that web listeners don't want to
hear anyway.
Your article makes lots of sense and is exactly what we have
done. Since there are only 3 of us (and about 8 computers),
work is slow but sure. This month we will be adding more voices
and better scripting on the net stations. We also have a live
studio ready to go on the net, but have yet to kick off a live
net program. (maybe next month)
As you stated, I feel that net stations should be live, interactive,
and certainly national or global. Just in case some web listeners
want to hear the actual St. Louis station, it is broadcast on
the webradio button on the same site.
Will it work? Only time will tell, but Kurt Hanson has basically
read my mind with this article. As far as revenue generated
on the audio side of these web stations, where are some money
making hungry agencies that can supply web stations with some
decent clients??? Maybe a year or two away.
Have a great day, check us out on www.93xfm.com. It's the best
we can do but we are really having fun!!
Randy Wachter
Owner
KNSX-FM/St. Louis (93xfm)
|
 ''We
have the opportunity to create a personal jukebox in the house and
the car,' Case told Business  Week
recently. 'Ten to 20 years from now, we'll think it was a silly
notion that music was so tethered to a physical disk.'
Read the full story in Business Week Online here.
Feedback from RAIN reader
''We have the opportunity to create a personal jukebox in
the house and the car,' Case told Business Week recently. 'Ten
to 20 years from now, we'll think it was a silly notion that
music was so tethered to a physical disk..."
Only weeks after the merger was announced Steve Case has already
been transformed from new media icon to music industry shill.
Most college kids and an increasing number of young adults already
think the notion of the physical disk is silly and Steve Case
knows it. Downloading music isn't just for geeks anymore. I
was shocked when a friend of mine (also middle aged) complained
to me that his fourteen year old daughter, who is not at all
technically inclined has taken to downloading music onto HIS
computer and filling up his hard drive.
Actually, saying that "...we have the opportunity to to create
a personal jukebox in the house and the car", is like saying
we have the opportunity to transport people from place to place
without hitching a horse to a wagon. Several companies have
already introduced personal jukeboxes for the PC that can be
downloaded for free. Ironically, AOL owns one of them (Winamp).
It will be more like ten to twenty months than ten to twenty
years before such devices are available in car stereos.
The music industry would love to hold off for ten to twenty
years the day when the Internet is the main distribution source
for music, but they can't say that publicly. That would alienate
their biggest customers...you know, those kids who already think
the notion of a physical disk is a silly one and just happen
to buy most of the CD's. They (the music industry) stands to
lose from this inevitability (the net taking over as the main
avenue of music distribution) in two ways. First, the margins
they currently get from CD sales will surely shrink when there
is no physical product involved. Second, the revenue split they
are contractually entitled to from CD and tape sales does not
translate automatically to downloaded music. They have to negotiate
with each artist separately for the money split from downloads.
You sure can't blame the music industry for trying to keep things
the way they are and AOL/Time Warner is definitely in the music
business. No industry wants to have their earnings permanently
shaved by technology. It's just funny to watch someone like
Steve Case talk about something being possible in ten to twenty
years that HIS OWN COMPANY already does now...just for the asking.
Maybe they let Ted Turner make those kind of statements.
Bob Bellin
|
|
Feedback from RAIN reader
Thought you might find this one interesting. Another headache
for the music biz.
MP3
free-for-all
By Janelle Brown
Feb. 3, 2000
The tiny Napster -- a still-in-beta program that can temporarily
turn your computer into an MP3 server -- is shaking the music
industry to its foundation..." (Click headline to
read it.)
Nick Francis
KYOT/Phoenix
|
Click on the
logos above to visit various Webcasters. For some screenshots
of various audio players, click here.
For a sample full-page view (about WWW.com), click here.
Coming
later today: Lycos Radio, SpikeRadio, Groove Radio, Salon Radio
(a/k/a The Dial), and more.
Also, more on this story soon.
Thanks for
reading RAIN today!
Please
feel free to check back for more later.
If you missed yesterday's issue and would like to read it,
click here.
And remember, you can contribute your feedback here.
Department
of Viral Marketing:
If you have
friends or colleagues that you believe might enjoy reading this
newsletter, please click here
and we'll help you them about us. Thanks! |
Coming soon...
Lots of Internet sessions planned for RAB 2000 later
this month
Follow-up story on the Hiwire audio tuner/player
New stand-alone Internet radio to be launched on Monday
...
.
|
|
