|
Welcome!
Today's
News
Yesterday
Kurt's
essay
Guest
essay
Site
of the Week
Feedback
form
News
archives
Vendor
guide
Readers'
forum
Internet
101
Internet
201
Who's
Who
Interesting
sites
Fave
bookmarks
Coherent
Design
Chat
room
|
 |
 |
|
 |
 BY
KURT HANSON
In what I believe might be the strongest multi-channel, localized
Webcast  operation
so far, former KUPD-KDKB-KSLX-KDUS/Phoenix programmer Tim Maranville
has launched a five-format Internet-only radio site specifically targetted
to the Phoenix market.
The site, PhoenixRadioNet.com, offers five formats -- "Cactus
Country," "Hits Az," "Desert R&B Jams," "PhxJazz"
and a 24 hour a day channel featuring music from local Phoenix artists.
The stations are positioned as "virtually commercial-free"
-- featuring "music programming without commercial cluster
interruptions." (The music is. however, occasionally interruped
by recorded liners and promos that direct listeners to go to the station's
website for offers and contests. The liners, in my opinion, actually
make the station sound better than the pure jukebox Webcasts.)
Maranville was the head of Operations and Programming for Sandusky
Broadcasting's Phoenix stations from 1992 through 1999. His five 24-hour
"live" streams are offered in the Windows Media format.
For advertisers, the site does not offer spots; instead, it offers
full site, full page, banner ad, and e-mail advertising options.
Click here to read an
item on the site from All Access (in "Net News," registration
required), here
to visit the site, or here
to contribute your comments and feedback on the topic of multi-channel
locally-targetted Webcasts (which we'll share with readers tomorrow).
From the New York Times: "As I sit down to write, an accordionist
accompanies me,  embroidering
a fast, bluesy riff over an ancient melody. This kind of music --
part swamp pop, part zydeco -- doesn't get much play on my local Boston
radio. But the station that is helping me get down to work comes straight
out of Eunice, LA, and the reception on my little iMac is just fine.
"Although we are still in the minority, my friends and I are
among the growing number of
 |
| The
NYT piece gave exposure to DiscJockey.com (above), Broadcast.com,
plus several eclectic, obscure, and international sites.
|
computer-literate
radio fans who are logging on, tuning in and dropping out of our local
market to listen instead to the global offerings popping up around
the Internet dial...
"And since radio is already ubiquitous -- what Thom Mocarsky,
an Arbitron vice president, calls 'the thing you do while doing
something else' -- the next step seems obvious.
"If at its best Web radio can deliver better-than-FM audio, and
the Internet can offer you thousands of choices ranging from Radio
France to little KBON in Eunice, then your mouse may soon
be an indispensable companion while you prep dinner, or the tool you
turn to for truly global news..."
"The traditional radio companies have an edge in experience and
resources. The game, the media watchers say, is the big corporations'
to lose. 'The real question,'
Mr. Taylor said, 'is whether radio people
can move fast enough.'
"Indeed, the country's 11,967 conventional radio stations have
been relatively slow to take advantage of Web radio's capabilities..."
The article is worth reading in its entirety, which you can
do by clicking here.
Your reactions to the article are welcome; contribute them here.
From today's New York Times: "For the music industry,
the combination of America Online  and
Time Warner has struck a chord. It promises to hasten the coming of
the day when music is distributed digitally through the Internet rather
than through record stores.
"But that chord does not sound the death knell of record stores
just yet. Many obstacles must be overcome before consumers routinely
download music instead of buying compact discs...
The article continues: "'We do believe that music is going
to evolve into somewhat of a service,' said Mr. Geiger, whose company"
-- ArtistDirect -- "is partly owned by Warner and other big record
companies. 'Right now it's product only, except for radio'..."
Read the complete story in today's New York Times here
(registration requried).
BY
KURT HANSON
A year and a half ago, Forbes magazine ran a superb, prescient
three-part article about the future of radio and the Internet entitled
"AM-FM-PC." If you missed it then, it's definitely worth
reading now. If you did read it then, it's probably worth re-reading.
The article began: "The Internet seems the perfect place
for post-millennial radio.  While
the reach of the most powerful land-based broadcasters is limited
by the strength of their signal, the height of their transmission
tower, hills, mountains, and sunspot activity, even the gimpiest 5,000-watt
college radio station can digitally pipe Nirvana onto the net and
distribute alternative music to the ends of the earth.
"Net-based stations aren't limited by frequencies, so they can
deliver a much wider range of content than traditional radio. Stations,
therefore, can provide more than one music playlist or format at a
time, which translates into greater and more focused advertising opportunities
(read: more revenue streams).
"Adding to the noise surrounding Internet radio are the consumer
benefits. An online radio user can access hundreds of channels organized
by genre, or customize his listening experience to hear the kind of
music he wants to hear--and only when he wants to hear it. If he likes
a song, he can immediately access artist information (a discography;
biographical bytes) or purchase the CD and have it shipped right to
his door...
"'Internet radio is a great idea, but like chat it seems more
like a tool than an end product,' opines Kim, who says he expects
a shakeout of the industry in the next year. 'Does chat add economic
value to a site? No. Does it attract and retain users? Yes, and so
will Internet radio'..."
Read the entire three-part series, archived in Forbes.com,
here.
 If
you haven't read it yet, there's an excellent new Guest Essay
this week by former WMMS General Manager Bob Bellin. You can read
it by simply clicking here.
Click on the
logos above to go to the corresponding sites. Contribute
your suggestions for additional sites here.
For some screenshots of various audio players, click here.
For a sample full-page view (about WWW.com), click here.
More
coming soon!
Thanks for reading RAIN today. Please check back again later for
more -- or see menu items at top left. And
if you like it, please tell your colleagues
about it!
(See below.)
We've
made it easy! Simply click this button
to access some text that you can cut-and-paste into
an e-mail document and then send to people in your address book.
|
...
.
|
|
|
|
