Reporting live from Japan all this week...

BY KURT HANSON
In an ambitious effort to simultaneously (1) provide a community service, (2) build an Internet business, and (3) accomplish some personal image-building, former and future J-Wave/Tokyo morning air personality Jon Kabira has launched his own sophisticated discussion forum Website.

Kabira's site, "NUZ: Network User Zoo," features discussions in a bulletin board format on a wide variety of topics of interest to his listeners, including current events, sports, culture & entertainment, food and drink, and gadgets.

The site is cross-promoted on the home page of his station's website, www.J-Wave.co.jp, and is sponsored by AT&T WorldNet, an Internet service provider. (Although the site is still in beta and not yet profitable, AT&T's sponsorship covers all of Kabira's hardware, software, and hosting costs.)

Kabira explains, "My thinking was, Why should I print my journals or publish my essays? Who would care? I suppose a few listeners might, but I decided I would rather provide a service...and I thought it could burnish my image at the same time."

At the moment, Kabira is winding up a one-year sabbatical from J-Wave. During the past year, he made a world tour that included stops at several radio industry conventions, including NAB events in Orlando (where we first met) and Brussels, Belgium. "Since I was off the air for a year, this seemed like a perfect tool to remain somewhat visible," he said.

Kabira is scheduled to return to his morning slot on J-Wave on April 3rd as host of a new three-hour program to be called "Tokio One," the station announced yesterday. "Tokio One" will feature about a 50/50 mix of talk and music, including a number of daily ten-minute feature segments that in Japanese radio are called "corners." (For example, "Gabbat Corner" is a combination restaurant review and contest; "Masters of Sound Corner" features a singer or songwriter; "Tokyo Lingo Corner" looks at a "phrase of the day" and in doing so explores the uniqueness of the Japanese language.)

J-Wave's morning show typically runs about 6 minutes of spots per hour (allocating 10% of each show for spots is the general rule). Interestingly, however, the standard unit for J-Wave is a :20, which thus allows the station to sell about 18 units per hour. (Note that, the standard unit for TV spots in Japan is a :15. A spot break will be a bunch of :15's all in a row.)

The "Tokio One" morning show, Kabira explains, will have its own full-service website, featuring live streaming during the three-hour broadcast and archived programming available 24/7. The individual "corners" will also be separately archived on their own pages of the site.

For the first several months, however -- until music licensing issues are worked out with the Japanese music industry -- the show's live stream will not include the six or seven songs Kabira will play each hour; the songs will be covered with content that is yet to be determined.

Kabira expects mentions of his own site, NUZ, to come up naturally within the flow of his program. "It should give me great feedback for the show -- and it'll provide a forum for listeners to discuss topics that were brought up during the program."

You can get a feel for Kabira's site by clicking here. Perhaps his site will give you some ideas for a variation on the concept that you could produce yourself.



As noted last week in RAIN, Japan is leading the world in terms of wireless Internet access. In fact, three competing cellular phone service providers are currently offering phones with one-button Internet access -- and hundreds of providers have designed websites for those phones.

However, virtually all of the Internet access is text- and graphics-based. Because music licensing issues have not yet been worked out between potential Webcasters and the recording industry, there are virtually no radio Webcasts or Internet-only radio broadcasters.

I'm learning more about this as quickly as I can. More details on this topic later this week as RAIN's week-long Japan field trip continues.



News from America:

From CNET News: "A pair of industry heavyweights are venturing out on Hiwire, a little-known streaming media company that hopes to span the gap between local and national advertising on the Internet.

"Grey Advertising and venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates today are expected to announce a $17 million investment in Hiwire, a deal that will also add NEA's Stewart Alsop and Grey chief executive Ed Meyer to Hiwire's board of directors.

"The investment follows Hiwire's January release of an advertising-friendly Internet radio 'tuner' that the company says can effectively drop targeted one-to-one advertising into any audio stream sent over the Web... Although Net radio is still in its infancy, recent research suggests that streaming could be one of the most effective advertising mediums."

As previously reported in RAIN, the Hiwire tuner offers consumers an easy way to listen to thousands of stations, no matter what audio format they're being streamed in. The company also offers radio stations an opportunity to make money from out-of-market listeners, as Hiwire can feed each of those listeners premium-priced audio spots aimed at their demo and/or location.

The CNET News story continues, "Today's investment is a coup for Hiwire, which must convince an array of broadcasters and advertisers to buy into its system. Grey ranked sixth in overall revenue among U.S. advertising agencies in a 1998 survey by Advertising Age, and its backing provides important validation for Hiwire."

Read the full story in CNET News here. (Journalistic full disclosure here.)




From the company press release: "RadioWave.com, which creates customized interactive audio players that coordinate graphics, interactive advertising and e-commerce with streamed audio, announced today that it secured $20.5 million in its first round of private financing.

"Warburg, Pincus Equity Partners, L.P. led the investment round, with FBR Technology Venture Partners and Intel Capital also investing in the company. RadioWave.com began as a subsidiary of Motorola, which retains a major holding in the new entity.

"Aggressive in its campaign to establish a new standard for interactive audio programming, RadioWave.com also announced today two key entertainment industry alliances with EMI Recorded Music and Susquehanna Radio Corp."

RadioWave is developing a number of Internet-only radio stations for various EMI-owned record labels, including Blue Note Radio (see "RAIN Guide to Internet Audio" below).

The press release adds, "Susquehanna will be the first group to use RadioWave.com's innovative and proprietary live broadcast advertising insertion technology. RadioWave.com's new live broadcast advertising insertion capability is the first to allow radio stations to separate their over-the-air and Internet broadcast advertising inventory so that the same ad spot can be sold twice, once for each medium."

Most of these announcements were previewed in January and February issues of RAIN. (See "News Archives.") To visit the RadioWave site, click here.




Reporting live from Japan:

After a tough day of negotiating a crowded subway system and electronics shopping, I've found that there's almost nothing better than taking a break for a huge, refreshing, frosty "nama biiru" (draft beer)... Unless, of course, when it comes with a free side order of octopus! Now that's living!







I've looked all over Akihabara (Tokyo's famous home electronics shopping district), and I haven't seen a more stylish new home electronics item than the Sony Music Clip audio player. Just slightly thicker and about twice as along as a "AA" battery, it's got no moving parts, and it plays about an hour of digital music that you download into it from your PC.

And now you can win one! Announcing (imagine some heavy reverb here) the first-ever RAIN Viral Marketing Contest!

All you have to do to be eligible to win it is to tell a few of your friends and/or co-workers about RAIN via e-mail, with a "cc:" to "RAINreply@kurthanson.com." (Need help composing the e-mail? Click here for some suggested language.) (Have you already done this? You don't really necessarily need to do it again; just send me an e-mail reminding me and I'll throw your name in the hat.)

RAIN is already up to about 800 "subscribers" (i.e., registered readers; see form immediately below) and we've been hearing from about 10 new readers per day. So here's the plan: If RAIN gets 100 new subscribers this week, we'll give away the Sony Music Clip to one lucky winner (chosen randomly from those who sent out the e-mail recommendations). If not, we'll roll over all the entries, add something more to the prize package, and try again next week.

So think of a few people you know who might like to read RAIN -- co-workers, college friends, subordinates, friendly competitors, clients, vendors -- and do them a favor and tell them about this daily, Web-based newsletter about the key issues affecting radio and the Internet. And win!

More coming soon! Contribute your suggestions here.

Click here for RAIN News Archives