BY KURT HANSON
An Internet start-up based in Los Angeles called Hiwire is introducing a new streaming audio tuner/player today that could significantly change the Webcast landscape.

The firm, which until today operated under the name of Rocket Radio, has created a player that's CODEC-agnostic, meaning that it doesn't care what format (i.e., CODEC) an audio signal is streamed in. The tuner can play audio streams whether they're streamed in the Real Audio or Windows Media format.

Furthermore, the tuner features an elegantly-designed user interface that, in my opinion, may make it the easiest way yet for listeners to find and listen to streamed Webcasts.

And perhaps most importantly for radio broadcasters, Hiwire may have come up with a way for you to generate revenues from the out-of-market listeners who are listening to your audio streams. (Right now, they cost you money -- you pay for the streaming but receive no financial benefit from the listening.)



Here's how the Hiwire tuner works: Once you've download the software, it shows up as an icon on your desktop. You click the icon to bring up the main tuner window that's shown above. (The first time you do so, you are asked to enter your gender, birth date, and zip code. (This will be important later.))

When you click the orange "Tune in" icon in the top left corner of the tuner, it brings up the search page shown below. The yellow box below labeled "City" actually toggles between "City," "Country," and "Format" each time you click it, giving you three different ways to search for stations.

In the screenshot at right, I've selected San Diego. The Hiwire tuner instantly (there's no waiting for a new page of HTML to download) brings up a list of all of the stations being streamed in San Diego. You can then click on any station to instantly see a detailed description of it and then simply click the station you want to listen to.

There is also a "Search" field at the bottom of the screen to help you find a station based on any criteria contained in a station's "description" field (e.g., "Sinatra" or "Dr. Laura").

Some Internet-only Webcasters are represented (e.g., NetRadio in Minneapolis), but currently Spinner and SonicNet, among others, are not.

Easy presets, integrated Web browser
The tuner offers eight presets (in powder blue at left) that operate very intuitively. Like a well-designed car radio, just hold a preset button down for a few seconds and you've set it. It's the best execution of presets I've seen on any Internet audio player to date.

Finally, a unique feature of the tuner is the orange "Web" icon. It opens up a mini-browser window within the tuner that brings up the station's website. (Some vendors offer a player within a broswer. This is the opposite -- a broswer within the player!)

One flaw in the current version of the player is that the window is not a full-sized browser window -- and thus has trouble with sites that use frames. (Also, if you use a link on station website to leave the site, there's no easy way to get back.)

Hiwire president Jim Pavilack told me that the firm's business model includes sales from the tuner's banner ad, from selling aggregated data on listenership that the firm will collect and process, and, perhaps most importantly, from sharing revenues with partner stations for localized ad insertion.

Here's how that might work: Let's say you're a Chicago-based radio station. If you've got ten listeners in Los Angeles listening to you via a Hiwire tuner, Hiwire will theoretically be able to cover the local spots you play with spots appropriate for the Los Angeles market! (In fact, Pavilack says, those ten listeners could be fed several different spots based on their age and gender.) And your share of the revenues could potentially more than cover your cost of streaming.

My impression is that this could be really something. It might even be what Mel has been waiting for.

Branded single-station player available
Pavilack noted that an Arbitron-designed research study last year suggested that consumers might like a simple icon on their computer desktop which they could click to hear their favorite station.

In response, Hiwire is also offering radio stations a branded, single-station player -- i.e., without a search feature and without presets. (This reminds me of stations in the 1970s that distributed transistor radios that were permanently tuned to their station.) According to Pavilack, the firm is currently designing such a tuner for WLTW/New York City.

Founders Jim Lambert and Pavilack in the past built user-friendly interfaces under the DigiToy Entertainment label. The company received angel funding throughout the second half of 1998 and obtained its first round of venture capital in early 1999. Radio industry veteran Ron Rivlin (formerly with ABC Radio Networks, SW Networks, and Launch Media) joined the firm last fall.

To download a free copy of the player for yourself, visit the Hiwire site here (The site should be up by 8AM ET today; if you can't accesss it yet, use the old Rocket Radio site here). The sites also have a page where you can submit a revised "Station Description" for your radio station -- or alert Hiwire to stations that are currently missing from the tuner.

And once you've tried the tuner, please contribute your opinions here. I'm curious to know if your opinion is the same as mine.

From Radio & Records: "INTERVU and PacketVideo will begin testing by the middle of this year new technology that promises to allow streaming of audio and video over wireless Internet devices such as 3Com’s Palm Pilot. During the trial phase, users will be able to listen to and watch broadcasters and websites for which INTERVU provides streaming services, such as MSNBC, CNN and NetRadio.com..." Story in Tuesday's R&R here (subscription required).

From ZDNet News: Soon, all sorts of devices-from PDAs to cell phones--will receive CD-quality sound and data from radio stations. Digital radio was one of the hottest topics at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) even though it won't make it to the open market for over a year... That's plenty of time of manufacturers to start building digital radio receivers into all sorts of devices beyond alarm clocks and portable tape players. You're likely to see cellular phones, PDAs, and PC Cards with built-in digital radios as well... Good overview in ZDNet here.

Sirius Satellite Launch Delayed
From Radio & Records: "The first of three satellites produced by Lorel was set for lift off Monday from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, but was delayed by Russian authorities after several launch mishaps last year... Sirius, which built a six-month leeway into its start-up schedule, expects to launch in March or April and says the other two satellites are still scheduled to be up by June..." Story in R&R here (subscription required).

Beasley Buys Stake In Web Search Engine
From Radio Business Report: "The broadcaster is swapping $3 million in on-air and online advertising for 600,000 shares in FindWhat.com, an Internet search engine that charges sites for their placement in online searches. The web company hopes the deal will broaden its exposure in top Beasley markets like Philadelphia, Miami and Atlanta..." On first blush, FindWhat.com looks like it's a clone of the pay-for-placement search site GoTo.com. Read RBR.com is here.


The link to last Sunday's New York Times piece on radio and the Web was not functioning in all editions of RAIN this week. If you wanted to read the article and couldn't get to it, the correct link is here.

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