BY KURT HANSON
Philadelphia's Jerry Lee (pictured at left) owns what I believe is the last remaining independently-owned major radio station in any of the top five markets in America: Philadelphia AC station B101.

And he's a cutting-edge kind of guy.

(Here's how I know this: For the past few years, at every NAB conference's opening night cocktail party, I've tried to impress him by whipping out the latest high-tech gadget I've found in Japan or wherever that season. He usually whips out the exact same gadget -- or a better one. In either case, I've never been able to best him.)

Now he's apparently the first major broadcaster in America to give every single one of his advertisers a visual on his webcast's player to accompany their audio spot (and to link to the advertiser's website.)

Asked to speak from the audience at last week's Radio Ink Internet Conference in Boston, Lee explained, "It's all about giving value to your advertisers and giving value to your listeners."

He said he doesn't see it as an immediate revenue stream but rather as an enhancement that will allow him, in the next two to three years, to grow his spot rates from $800 to $1,600. "Within five years, I calculate that my P1's will be worth will be worth another $100 to $500 in net profit...and I've got 250,000 of them," Lee said.

B101 is using a player from RadioWave that is contained within the station's home page. As shown below, when a spot is playing, the album cover art (as shown in the Lionel Richie example above) is replaced by the advertiser's logo, which is a clickable link to the advertiser's site.



As for the rest of the site, there's lots there, but I believe it's still a work in progress. For example, the left-hand column in the top screenshot above gives listeners their choice from a list of dozens of helpful topics. But they link to a real mishmash of different content sources.

For example, it's unfortunate that many of the "city guide"-type links first ask the listener which Philadelphia they're interested in (see screenshot). This is a dead giveaway that B101 actually has little to do with the information provided. (Note: Certain other links send the B101 listener to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Philly.com city guide website.)

The site's "Movie reviews" content link is also, to my mind, somewhat questionable, seeing as it features unsigned reviews from an unnamed source. ("Battlefield Earth," considered by most reviewers to be possibly the worst movie of this year, decade, or possibly even century, got the following review: "It has a good story, solid performances and serves as a pleasant diversion to kick off the summer movie season.")

Of course, I'm sure that that these are short-term bugs that are in the process of being fixed or improved. You can visit www.b101radio.com by clicking this link.




Does Jerry's strategy make sense to you? Share your opinions here.

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BY KURT HANSON
Over 600 radio and Internet execs from around the U.S. and the world converged on the Copley Theater in Boston last week for the second Radio Only Internet Conference. (Publisher Eric Rhoads's first conference was held last fall in Santa Clara, CA.)

Unlike typical radio conferences, the Radio Ink event is a single-track event, meaning that all attendees shared one auditorium for a single continuous series of speakers, panels, and presentations that were linked together by an announcer (Sammy James) and a live band.

For the next few days, I'll be uploading pieces on various sessions throughout the afternoon and evening. Please feel free to check back at your convenience -- and if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, e-mail me here.

Pictured below: Radio Ink publisher Eric Rhoads.

Ad insertion
Ad insertion was one of the biggest topics of the convention, as it now seems to be coming together. RadioWave's CEO BIll Pearson asserted, "There's demand among agencies -- but because there's more listening to the Internet-only players, they're driving it."

Hiwire's CEO Warren Schlichting added, "There are household names that have budgets set aside...but they don't see a clear path yet."

Pearson opined, "Radio is falling behind the Internet-onlys. It's broadcasters' games to lose, and so far they seem to be trying to lose it."

WebPresence's David Owen observed that "Banner ads are so easy to ignore," pointed out that various sources predicted advertising spending of $22 billion in the online world by 2003, compared to $24 billion for radio that year, and suggested that audio ads would be a likely contender for a good share of that $22 billion.

Igniting the imagination of the crowd, Lightingcast CEO/CTO Tom Des Jardins noted, "Our rate card goes up to a $150 CPM." (In truth, at least as of this weekend, the Lightningcast rate card tops out at $120.)

For the rest of the confernece, this "$150 CPM" was referred to repeatedly, almost as a mantra (with most attendees probably having forgotten where they had first heard it). However, no one asked whether anyone has ever succeeded at selling any ads at such asking prices.

More later today...





While looking for Jerry Lee's Philadelphia station (see story above; the site I wanted was actually www.b101radio.com), I stumbled first into www.b101.com -- a Providence, RI oldies station owned by Clear Channel.

Personally, I think the overall design is somewhat clumsy -- notice, for example, that the primary station logo (and link to the home page) is a tiny little thing almost hidden in the upper-left corner of the frame that comprises the bottom inch of the page.

But there is a cool navigation element -- you can navigate between the six primary sections of the site using the "records" in the bottom frame -- and you'll know which section you're in because that record is spinning! (A minor functionality problem exists in that you can't read it when it's spinning.)

Also note that the site's "Photos" section -- of the six key sections of the site -- contains four photos, all of which are from their December 12th "Christmas with Santa" event.

But the spinning records are cool! Visit the site for yourself by clicking either of the screenshots (above or below).





On Wednesday (here), I promised that I'd write an analysis of the latest Arbitron InfoStream webcast ratings this week...

Coming soon!

May 22-26	Real [Networks] Conference 2000, San Jose
June 12-14	Streaming Media East 2000, New York City
June 14-17	R&R Convention 2000, Los Angeles
June 14-17	PROMAX & BDA, New Orleans
July 13-16	Upper Midwest Conclave, Minneapolis
August 3-5	Morning Show Bootcamp, New Orelans
September 20-23	NAB Radio Show, San Francisco
October 5-7	Billboard/Airplay Monitor Seminar, New York
November 5-7	NAB European Radio Conference, Berlin
Nov. 28-Dec. 1	Radio Ink Internet Conference, Santa Clara, CA

If you're hiring for a position that's radio- and Internet-related this week, we'll post it -- free! Simply e-mail the job description here. If you're looking for new opportunities that involve the Internet, you can take a look at the first three available positions here.

Try it out! Explore the wide world of Internet audio by clicking the screenshot above.

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