BY KURT HANSON
Having chased the dotcom dream for two years — and having spent tens of millions of dollars in the process — the Board of Directors of the LMiV (Local Media Internet Venture) has voted to dissolve the venture by the end of September, the company announced this morning.

"Effective September 30th, the LMiV will cease to exist as an independent operating company, with its functions to be performed by the individual founder companies and stations," the press release noted.

The LMiV venture was announced in Spring 2000 (see "RAIN Exclusive" here) and formally launched in a press conference at the Fall 2000 NAB.

The five broadcast groups behind the venture included Bonneville, Corus, Emmis, Entercom, and Jefferson-Pilot. Each group committed $1 per cume audience member toward the venture -- a total of $37 million, which LMiV corporate communications executive Kim Graham Lee told RAIN was not yet fully funded and thus not the proximate cause of the shutdown.

The venture was based in Indianapolis, home of LMiV founding broadcaster Emmis Communications and LMiV chairman Jeff Smulyan. It was led by Indianapolis-based attorney Jack Swarbrick (pictured), who was brought in initially by Smulyan to help bring competing media companies to the discussion table, was lead consultant on the project for a year, and who ended up upon its launch as the firm's CEO and President.

Swarbrick's background was in sports and entertainment marketing and legal work and in government relations.

The decision to shut down the venture was made at a board meeting earlier this month, Lee told RAIN..

The venture was slow to get off the ground from the start, with the organization taking almost a year to launch its first five websites.

Last December, the company scaled back from approximately 45 employees to 30 (see second RAIN story here), at the same time announcing plans to grow from 20 active websites to 125+ "by the end of March 2002." The venture actually made to 60 active websites by August 2002.

The press release notes, "In explaining why this decision was made at this time, Swarbrick cited the difficulties LMiV faced in attracting additional radio stations to the LMiV network. 'Unfortunately, the fundamental change in the economic viability of streaming and the recession in the broadcast advertising market have conspired to cause many radio stations to reduce the resources they are allocating to their interactive efforts.' Swarbrick added, 'As we continued to encounter prospective customers who loved our product but couldn't find the funds in the 2003 budget to become an affiliate, we knew that it was time to shut down LMiV"

"LMiV is working closely with each of the companies and their affiliate stations to ensure a smooth transition of all LMiV-powered radio station websites. No interruption in the operation of those sites is anticipated."

	Jack Swarbrick President and Chief Executive Officer Jack is LMiV's team captain. He works closely with the board of directors to determine the company's strategic vision, and leads the executive team as they turn that vision into reality. As a lawyer with Baker & Daniels, his practice focused on the interests of sports and entertainment clients.
	Claire Roberts Chief Operating Officer Claire oversees LMiV's day-to-day operations. Originally hired as EVP of Finance and Administration, Claire was promoted to COO in December 2001. Before joining LMiV, Claire spearheaded the financial turnaround of Citadel Architectural Products Inc., a manufacturer of commercial construction applications with $20 million in annual sales.
	Kim Graham Lee VP of Corporate Communications and Marketing Kim is responsible for making sure LMiV's value proposition is clearly understood and enthusiastically communicated to its different customers. Before joining LMiV, Kim was VP of corporate communications and customer services at Eviciti, a (defunct) international Web development and Internet integration company.
	Terri Simpson Vice President of Affiliate Relations Terri and her team serve as LMiV's primary link with its nearly 200 member stations. She joined LMiV from RadioCentral, where she served as vice president of marketing. Before that, Terri was general manager and vice president of the radio business unit of NBC Internet.
	Monte Maupin Gerard Executive Director of Sales Monte leads LMiV's charge to bring to advertisers the potential and promise of LMiV's integrated media network, LMiV MediaNet. Monte has over 20 years of experience in the radio business. She has enjoyed working with top broadcasting companies like Cox Radio and Susquehanna Radio Company.

From the San Jose Mercury News: "When friends at local Hindu temples asked Krishna and Ram Bapu to help them broadcast spiritual messages and music on the Web, the twin brothers figured: What the heck?

"They had the technical know-how. Business was slow at their enterprise software start-up, Exuber, and the idea sounded fun. So they started uploading MP3 files and scheduling four hours of audio programming a day. That was in November...

"The world, and particularly Silicon Valley, is filled with people like them: People who have emigrated from India to land a job in the high-tech sector. People who spend much of their day in front of computers and who miss the music and culture of their homeland...

"And so they began to build their programming on what they named TaZa Radio...

"By spring, they were working full time on TaZa. Today, their Web radio station resides on a couple of laptops and some servers in a closet at The Enterprise Network, a high-tech incubator on Saratoga Avenue in San Jose...

"The Bapus have big plans for TaZa. They're ramping up their advertising sales effort. They're hoping to start a talk show aimed at 'ABCDs,' or American-Born, Confused Desi. (Desi is a term sometimes used to describe first-generation Indo-Americans.)

"Krishna explains many first-generation Indo-Americans wrestle with the difference between their parents' expectations for them (extensive education, stable professional job) and their desire to be independent and experiment with life...

"The brothers have even bigger plans to sell the software they developed to run the station. They're pitching the software, which essentially automates the programming and operation of the station, as a way for large companies to improve internal communication."

Read this entire article from the San Jose Mercury News online here.

Reprinted from yesterday's issue...


BY PAUL MALONEY
Webcasters may have found their first high-profile ally among artists in their struggle against the sound recording royalty rates.

Techno/electronica star Moby, whose music has been released in the U.S. by recording labels V2, Elektra, and Instinct, expressed his support of Internet radio and his anger towards the RIAA for trying to shut it down.

The comments appear in the musician's online journal from July 22. Moby posts his journal on his website here.

Referring to the CARP panel recommendation and subsequent determination by the Librarian of Congress on the rates, Moby writes, "I would like to lend my support to the cause of repealing this unnecessary and ass-backwards piece of legislation."

"What does the RIAA hope to accomplish by forcing hundreds of wonderful Internet radio stations to shut down?" he wonders. "And why is the RIAA even involved in the world of Internet-radio?..For the life of me I can't see any wisdom or justification in passing an arbitrary law that will only serve to shut down a lot of really cool and vital Internet radio stations."

Moby (left), recognizing the promotional power webcasters offer for music under-served by what he calls "conservative," "bland," and "homogenous" commercial broadcasters, says Net radio's role is "vital" in exposing "new and unconventional music."

The RIAA has often characterized their efforts to collect royalties from webcasters as being in the interest of the artists (the DMCA requires that the royalties, after SoundExchange administration costs, be split 50-50 between copyright owners -- most often the labels -- and artists).

Yet artists' displeasure with the recording industry -- from alleged underpayment of royalties to one-sided contracts that artists say hold them in "indentured servitude" to their recording companies -- is well-documented. Given this, some webcasters had hoped to gain sympathy from artists for whom Internet play may be their best promotion.

And while there has been some show of support from artists for music on the Internet in general (most notably from Janis Ian here and here), webcasters had yet to find a high-profile artist willing to stand up for Internet radio specifically.

Moby closes the journal entry with an entertaining (and insightful) quote from Broadcast.com founder and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban (right): "There is no law against an industry being stupid and killing off their customer base as the music industry is doing. The vast majority of (Internet radio) stations will either shut down or move to Canada or overseas."

RAIN was still awaiting comment from Moby or his management for this article at press time.

Special thanks to RAIN reader and Moby fan James Hughes of Esponsive Communications for the tip.