Yahoo!'s Goldberg to keynote RAIN Las Vegas seminar David Goldberg (right),VP/GM of the world’s #1 Internet radio property, Yahoo! LAUNCHcast, will be the keynote speaker at the second annual "RAIN Las Vegas Summit" on Internet radio, to be held Tuesday afternoon (4/19), 2:30-6pm, at the Bellagio Hotel. LAUNCHcast has a weekly cume of over 2 million listeners and a Mon-Sun 6A-12M AQH audience approaching 200,000 simultaneous listeners. That’s an audience size that dwarfs even the largest New York City or Los Angeles terrestrial radio stations -- and which has been growing lately at the rate of 10% to 15% per month! Goldberg is the latest in a series of prestigious names that will be speaking at the event, including top executives from most of the country’s leading Internet-only webcasters and the heads of interactive efforts for many of the country’s leading terrestrial broadcast groups. Previously- announced speakers include the head of Susquehanna Radio's interactive efforts, Dan Halyburton; outspoken news/talk consultant Holland Cooke; legendary rock radio programmer Dwight Douglas of RCS; the head of Cox Radio's interactive efforts, Gregg Lindahl; Digitally Imported CEO Ari Shohat; Radioio founder Michael Roe; royalties expert David Oxenford; Net Radio Sales president Jennifer Lane; and CustomChannel.net's Dave Rahn. Panels and group discussions will include: Streaming 101: The basics of getting your station(s) online Stream Monetization: Agency attitudes, audience measurement, subscriptions, and available sales networks Programming Online Radio: What do listeners want? Where might podcasting fit in? Working with Labels: How can webcasters and record labels work together? Envisioning 2009: Where is technology headed? How will consumer behavior change? If you're thinking about attending NAB 2005, this may push you over the edge... it may be the most valuable 3-1/2 hours you spend this year! To register (attendance is free to the first 50 registrants), send an e-mail to vegas@kurthanson.com. Seating is limited! x

From SmartMoney.com: "In technology, there's always something bigger and better around the corner. And when it comes to wireless, that something is WiMax...

"So, what is it? WiMax is the catchy name for a new wireless standard. Similar to how 802.11 was marketed as WiFi, WiMax is the consumer-friendly branding of 802.16, or high-speed wireless broadband, capable of spanning greater distances than WiFi. Whereas WiFi typically provides wireless broadband service up to 150 feet in so-called hot spots, WiMax is capable of covering a radius of three to 10 kilometers (about two to six miles).

"Consider the possibilities here... it could be deployed much more cheaply than traditional wire-line technologies even in the U.S., since trenches wouldn't have to be dug and pricey wires wouldn't have to be snaked around. WiMax doesn't even require a direct sight line with a base station...

"Eric Mantion, senior analyst at Scottsdale, Ariz.-based market research firm In-Stat, calls WiMax 'the rebel broadband,' because you can deploy it to 85 million or so homes for about $2 billion. Compare that to SBC Communications' plans to spend $4 billion to connect 18 million homes with high-capacity fiber cable...

"The economics alone could make WiMax seriously disruptive to data and voice services... data, voice and video wrapped up in one high-speed, cost-efficient package, posing not only a challenge to cable outfits, but to phone companies as well... And given the number of Internet radio stations out there, WiMax could even pose a threat to satellite radio upstarts XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio...

"Intel pushed and marketed WiFi until it became the popular technology it is today (just try and find a notebook computer today that isn't WiFi ready). A similar rollout is expected for WiMax. Next year, the technology should be incorporated into notebooks and PDAs...

"There's opportunity aplenty here... consider the impact some random billionaire entrepreneur could have if he or she were able to come in and plunk down a billion or so dollars to throw up a WiMax net. Richard Branson could easily get himself a nice telecom foothold. Ditto for Bill Gates — or Oprah."

This entire article can be found online at SmartMoney.com here.

...	... The concept of "disruptive technology" was examined by Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen in his book The Innovator's Dilemma, which Kurt discusses in his "The Future of Radio" speech (upon which a series of RAIN articles, beginning here, is based). ...

From Robert MacMillan's "Random Access" column in today's Washington Post: "More than 6 million American adults have listened to podcasts -- in your dreams.

"For those who don't know yet, a podcast is an audio file specially formatted so that certain software programs can download it automatically and transfer it to an iPod or other portable media player. It's a little like on-demand radio.

"The Pew Internet and American Life Project in Washington reported its conclusion based on its daily tracking survey of Americans' Internet use (see the methodology at the bottom of the report).

"But the author of a the Engadget technology Weblog says the number sounds too high to be credible. Peter Rojas, freelance journalist, said he was skeptical about the sample size -- 208 people -- which produces a 7.5% margin of error (that's big). He says Pew now has backtracked... 'and [have] admitted that the question they asked (if people had "ever downloaded a podcast or radio Internet program") was a little overly broad since it could easily encompass all sorts of things besides podcasts. And since most people still don't know the difference between streaming and downloading, we bet that anyone who has ever even listened to Internet radio said yes to this question, too.'..

"Regardless of whether Pew stands by its numbers or backs off them, I wouldn't start calling podcast the technology of tomorrow. Blogs, podcasts and other ways of sharing your mind with the world are hip, which is why they make headlines... the hype over new technology doesn't always correlate with how many people are using it...

"Podcasting and blogs are still novelties to most Americans... what many of us perceive as a part of normal, daily life is actually still trickling into the real mainstream...

"More people will get into podcasting and other new methods of public access, but it will be neither the business opportunity that the corporate world might want it to be, nor some mode of expression that will fundamentally change the world and how we communicate... Podcasting, blogging and similar ways of sharing our thoughts with the world are less important than the thoughts that we have to share... Technology is cool, but great ideas are cooler."

Read McMillan's entire column from the Washington Post online here.

...

... Yes! Thank you, Mr. MacMillan! The statistic that more than 6 million American adults have listened to podcasts seemed absurd to me when I first read it, and this journalist explains clearly how Pew got it wrong -- a small sample size and, primarily, a poorly-worded question. A big media buzz is not that same thing as mainstream consumer acceptance. Podcasting, thus far, is far more the former. -- KH ...

From Radio & Records: "Mapleton Communications has agreed to acquire KMZT-AM, licensed to the San Francisco Bay Area community of Piedmont, CA... [and] will use the facility to simulcast its popular KPIG/Monterey, which airs a hybrid Triple A-Americana format. With the move, expected to occur by July 1, Freedom, CA-based KPIG will enjoy coverage from Marin County, CA to San Luis Obispo, CA, where the station simulcasts on KPYG.

"'It is time to answer the people of San Francisco whom for many years have been asking, "When is KPIG coming to the Bay?",' Mapleton President Adam Nathanson said."

Read the entire article in R&R online here.

...	... KPIG, of course, became a nationally-known radio station thanks to its streaming efforts -- and the efforts of its charismatic and articulate spokesperson at the time, Bill Goldsmith (now of RadioParadise.com). -- KH ...