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BY KURT HANSON and PAUL MALONEY
Popular Raleigh, NC broadcaster WRAL-FM is scheduled today to become the first station to implement a new system called "Air-to-Web Broadcast Replication (AWBR)," designed by a Cedar Rapids, IA-based company called Decisionmark, that is designed to enable radio stations to webcast while hopefully not invoking royalty obligations for the music or commercials they play.

The technology geographically limits the area from which users can connect to the station's streams to the same area as the station's broadcast "footprint." Thus, only those who live in and around the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and can receive WRAL's over-the-air broadcast could connect to the stream. All other Internet listeners would be blocked.

Limiting webcast listeners to a "local" audience — just those who are within the station's regular broadcast range — has two benefits for the radio station:

First, it will reduce bandwidth costs by denying the stream to non-local listeners. (This benefit assumes that the advertisers on the station's audio stream are local advertisers who don't care about out-of-market listeners.)

Secondly, it gives the radio station a stronger argument that it should be exempt from the sound recordings performance royalty (i.e., the CARP royalty), as the webcast is simply a retransmission of the signal that stays within the station's coverage area.

According to WRAL's website, the station had silenced its streams "pending resolution of licensing issues."

"'We are excited to work with Decisionmark in proving its new patented 'Air-to-Web' technology,' said James F. Goodmon, president and CEO, Capitol Broadcasting, owners and operators of WRAL-FM in Raleigh, North Carolina. 'This technology is the solution to a problem that has been plaguing the broadcast industry for quite some time now. This sets the stage for us to take advantage of the Internet and keep the ears of our valued local listeners from car to desktop.'"

How does this system work? We haven't yet been able to gain access to the pilot project that WRAL began today, but Decisionmark Business Development Manager Jane Schlegel explained to me that, essentially, listeners must enter a mailing address within the station's signal coverage area to gain access to the stream. The system then sends a first-class-mail postcard to the given address, and if the postcard "bounces back," access to the stream is subsequently denied. Washington, DC-based attorney David Oxenford, an expert on DMCA-related issues, told RAIN, "There is language in the Copyright Act exempting terrestrial broadcasters from paying a fee...This language also exempts a 'retransmission of a broadcast transmission,' as long as it is not willfully transmitted more than 150 miles from the broadcast station's transmitter.' "This Decisionmark system would seem to strengthen broadcasters' argument that, where their streams are geographically limited, they should be exempt from the fee. I'm sure that there will be counter arguments from the RIAA on the issue, but it is a creative solution if it really delivers the results suggested by the press release." Although I suspect that a clever individual like you or I might find a way to spoof the system and gain access to the WRAL stream from, say, Chicago, it does seem like the station could argue it's making a good-faith effort to restrict the stream to local listeners. On the other hand, the Decisionmark press release also suggests that this system might be a way to get around the AFTRA fees issue: "In addition to those fees demanded by BMI and ASCAP, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a union that represents actors who voice radio commercials, is seeking 300 percent of their regular broadcast fee if radio stations retransmit their ads. These issues have been raised and extra money is being sought because the Internet has no geographic boundaries." Actually, whatever the rationale may have been during the negotiations between AFTRA and agencies, the contract is now signed and locked in...and I believe it says that any Internet usage of a spot that's cut for broadcast radio makes the talent eligible for the bonus. -- KH ...

From CNet News.com: "Microsoft on Wednesday introduced its long-awaited digital media software, Windows Media Player 9 Series, in an effort to establish dominance for its operating system in distributing high-quality digital content. Chairman Bill Gates formally launched the software on Wednesday evening at an extravagant party in Los Angeles...

"Windows Media Player 9, formerly code-named Corona, has been in development for nearly four years at a cost of about $500 million, Gates said. It improves on earlier versions of Microsoft's digital player and server technology on a number of fronts...

"Many of the biggest improvements were made to the audio and video performance. As expected, Microsoft released new audio and video codecs, which, like MPEG-4, use a smaller file, or bit, size. The company estimates that content creators can get 20 percent smaller files with the same quality that they get now. Another audio enhancement lets content providers stream in 5.1 sound, which would improve the quality of sound for concerts or movies streamed over the Web.

"Windows' latest audio with 5.1 surround sound, will be featured with the Sept. 25 release of musician Peter Gabriel's new CD, 'Up...'

"National Public Radio is planning to use Microsoft’s newest audio component to play several programs digitally."

Read this entire story in CNet News.com here.

From Reuters in the New York Times: "Consumer electronics giants Sony Corp and Philips said on Thursday they will join forces in very short-range radio technology for use in a wide range of products such as cellphones, TVs and consoles.

"Using their separate experience in contactless smart cards, the two companies will develop a single, open standard that will allow consumers to hop on a train, enter buildings or authorize payments...

"Consumers will be able to access personal information by waving their mobile phone or handheld computer in front of an office computer, an Internet terminal or Internet radio, a Philips spokesman in Amsterdam said...

"The technology should be commercial by early 2004, a Sony spokesman in Tokyo said."

Read this article in today's New York Times, or online here.




Arbitron is currently presenting the findings of their new study in a free live webcast today. The webcast began at 12 Noon ET (11a CT). You must register at Arbitron's website here to access the webcast.

The study is called "Internet 9: The Media and Entertainment World of Online Consumers," and found that "streamies" (defined as those who have watched or listened to streaming media online in the past week) bought an average of 21 CDs in the past year, compared to 13 for the average American.

The one-hour webcast is being conducted by Bill Rose, general manager and vice president of Arbitron Webcast Services, and Larry Rosin, president of Edison Media Research. It is also being made available via audio teleconference at (888) 566-5788 (passcode: Arbitron).