In terms of Time Spent Tuning, December's top stations included WGMS/Washington, DC, KPLA/Columbia, MO, WJZW/Washington, DC, WRQX/Washington, DC, and WMGN/Madison, WI.

Note that all five stations are in towns with high concentrations of government and/or university employees. I think that means that a high percentage of people have high-quality, always-on broadband connections (either at work or in their dorm).

It's possible that I may have missed a station or two that made that top 25 in October or November. If you catch one, please e-mail me here.

Analysis of what this all means coming soon in RAIN. (The full Arbitron press release is here.)



If you'd like an easy-to-read set of tables of the Arbitron InfoStream December 1999 results, they're now available for your viewing here in RAIN. Click here for...

           Top 25 stations in Monthly Cume
           Top 25 stations in Time Spent Tuning
           Side-by-side comparison of the above two lists

Now you can easily click through previous issues of RAIN by using the blue arrows to the left and right of the issue date above. This navigation element has been added retroactively to all of March's issues.

Internet deal for Belo
From RBR: Belo’s Belo Interactive subsidiary is investing $4.9M in Digital Cyclone and will have exclusive rights to market Digital Cyclone’s My-Cast in all Belo markets. My-Cast is an Internet-accessed service providing a personalized (within three miles) local weather forecast. Digital Cyclone also sold an additional $3.2M in new equity in a private placement by Miller Johnson & Kuehn.

Radio Internet director joines Web start-up
From All Access: KPNT/KXOK/WVRV/St.Louis Online Director Mike Halbrook joins St. Louis-based Internet Startup Loudscope.com as Operations Mgr. Loudscope.com is currently in the financing stage and seeks to broadcast multiple channels of localized Internet-only radio for St. Louis, following the tradition of local, grass-roots radio online.

All-Canadian online music channel to launch
From PR Newswire: "Canoe Limited Partnership (www.canoe.ca) and Iceberg Media.com Inc. are pleased to announce that they have entered into an Internet broadcast agreement to create a co-branded, all-Canadian, online music channel. The channel will be Canada's first Internet station to exclusively feature music by Canadian artists on a 24/7 basis. In addition, it will include related audio content based on articles from Canoe's main entertainment property, JAM! Showbiz."

NBC does CBS-like deal with Space.com
From InternetNews.com: "In another example of traditional media companies using their prodigious advertising inventory to get traction in the Internet business, NBC on Wednesday traded ads and cash for a minority equity stake in Space.com, the start-up founded by former CNN Financial News executive Lou Dobbs. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed, but it calls for NBC to contribute cash and ad time across NBC's television properties..."

Thanks very much to everyone who helped spread the word about RAIN in Week #1 of the RAIN Viral Marketing Contest. However, we didn't have a winner (see details here), so we're going to add another prize to the RAIN Viral Marketing Contest Prize Package and try again!

This week, you could win both the Sony Music Clip digital music player (pictured below) and a gorgeous Nextel i1000plus Internet-ready cell phone!

It's totally packed with features -- including the ability to give you wireless Internet access when Nextel begins that service in some markets next month (see full specs sheet here)...but the best part, in my opinion, is this: It's got an integrated speakerphone.

That means you can use it holding it halfway at arm's length -- exactly like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy used to hold their communicators!   ("Scotty, I need warp power in ten minutes or we'll all dead.")

So, here once again are the rules: You're invited to recommend RAIN to your friends and colleagues. If RAIN gets 100 new "subscribers" this week (i.e., new readers who fill out the form immediately above), we'll give away the entire prize package to one lucky winner (chosen randomly from everyone who has sent out an e-mail recommendation to date).  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 would benefit from knowing about RAIN -- co-workers, subordinates, friendly competitors, clients, vendors, college friends -- and tell them about this fine Web-based daily newsletter. And win!

(Want to write an e-mail to a couple of colleagues right now, but need help composing the e-mail? Click here for some suggested language.)

If you've already recommended RAIN to your colleagues (see list HERE to make sure we've got your name), you really don't have to recommend it to more people, because your name is already in the hat. However, it would be nice if you did. The deal on the cell phone is that when you buy it (and sign up for service), we'll reimburse you for the cost of the phone (which should be about $200). Or if you don't want to do that, we'll buy you some other cool electronic item in that price range instead. And the 100 new subscribers have to be legitimate industry-related people. (No stuffing the ballot box with 40 kids from your daughter's 5th grade class! Thank you.)

Yesterday in RAIN we told you about a comprehensive, multi-part story that the Gannett-owned Cincinnati Enquirer newspaper ran last Sunday on Clear Channel Communications and the changes it is bringing to the radio industry.

A sidebar to the story was titled "Pay stations, Internet to change what and how you hear." Some excerpts:

“'Radio as an industry has logistically operated the same for the past 40 years,' says Darryl Parks, director of AM operations for the four Cincinnati stations owned by Clear Channel Communications, the dominant radio owner in the city. 'What radio is in 10 years will be totally different from today...'

"The Internet's potential is not lost on the radio megapolies. In August 1999, Lowry Mays, chairman and chief executive of Clear Channel, announced a $15 million investment in Tunes.com, an Internet music network that spans formats from hip-hop to jazz and rock...

"The company's Web sites already receive more than 60 million visits per week. The company plans to have all stations providing Internet audio this year, Randall Mays, chief financial officer, told an audience at the National Association of Broadcasters last April..."

Read the Internet sidebar here or the full piece (pictured at right) beginning here.

More coming soon! Contribute your suggestions here. (Suggestions already in the hopper include RadioWoodstock.com, Nerve Radio, Radio Gogaga, and HotCountryHits.)

Miss an issue?
Visit the RAIN News Archives here.

To read RAIN's coverage of the release of the October 1999 InfoStream report, select from any of the following stories: