BuyMedia.com -- the Burlingame, CA-based service founded in 1995 by former Bay Area radio exec Mike Jackson that lets media buyers purchase premium advertising over the Internet -- announced Monday that it has just received a new $45 million equity investment.

Jackson founded the company to make the communication process easier between media buyers and stations, he says. The media industry's "fragmented population of advertising buyers and sellers needs an efficient and cost-effective online marketplace that e-commerce can deliver," observed Victor Hwang, managing director at the firm's new investor, Internet Capital Group.

There's still plenty of room for growth -- currently, U.S. advertisers spend more than $60 billion annually on radio and television advertising.

Interestingly, I remember talking to Mike about this concept years ago, when he was just getting started, and he was planning to create his own expensive private network...because the Internet wasn't on anyone's radar yet!




Another former Bay Area GM, Dave Kendrick, has been promoted to President/COO of Phoenix- and Burbank-based Feed the Monster ("FTM"), a 75-employee website development firm founded by Secret Communications CEO Frank Wood and R&R founder Bob Wilson.

EVP/GM Vickie Collier, a former Disney Online and R&R executive, is departing. Collier and consultant Jeff Pollack are also exiting the firm's Board of Directors, while record company exec Bob Buziak is joining the Board. (Kendrick joined FTM last April as SVP/Sales, Marketing and Affiliate Relations.)

Two weeks ago, under Collier's direction, the company announced that it had moved its creative/production staff of 75 employees into "monstrous" new offices in Burbank.

The firm's business model, according to its website (click logo above), is to build a network of 175 Web sites in the top 25 U.S. markets, comprised of seven smaller networks, each targeted at a different format (e.g., active rock, country, etc.). Thus far, FTM has developed websites for three stations -- KROQ/Los Angeles (right), KITS/San Francisco, and WBCN/Boston. (It also plans to build sites for other Infinity stations.)

For the its most recently-announced fiscal quarter, which ended September 30, 1999, FTM reported no revenues and expenses of $1.6 million. The company (OTC BB "FTMM") has had a recent market capitalization of $60 to $80 million.

Kendrick was GM of KKSF in 1993 when his technical staff launched what is may have been the country’s first commercial radio station Internet Web site.

The derivation of the company's name, Feed the Monster? Its website explains: "The Internet offers radio stations an unprecedented opportunity to maximize their market share, listener loyalty and infotainment potential while simultaneously creating significant new revenue sources. But developing and maintaining a Web site that continues to draw and satisfy visitors is an awesome challenge -- what we affectionately call 'feeding the monster.'"

Read FTM's press release on the management changes here.



Reprinted from Tuesday's late edition:

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).

LG Electronics, a leading Korean consumer electronics firm, has announced that it has developed a digital refrigerator that can retrieve information through the Internet and play MP3 digital music.

LG said that its "Digital Dios" refrigerator is equipped with a 15.1-in. color LCD and LAN port. LG Electronics said it has spent 15 billion won (about $14 million U.S.) on the product's development, with 55 researchers working on the project over three years. It should be available in the first half of next year in Korea and overseas. (Details here.)



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