From Variety: "Key Capitol Hill politicos on Wednesday sent a letter urging colleagues to reject legislation that would force recording labels to offer the same price and terms when cutting licensing deals with Internet ventures.

"The measure in question was introduced this summer by Rep. Rick Boucher (D-Va.)," (pictured) "who's concerned that the major labels will control the flow of songs on the Internet by giving special permission to those online services they back. But some of Boucher's colleagues on the House Internet Subcommittee say it's far too early in the game to regulate the Internet...

"(A) significant name on the document was Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.), past chairman of the influential House Judiciary Committee, which has ultimate jurisdiction over Boucher's bill...The Recording Industry Assn. of America and the Motion Picture Assn. of America are preparing their own letters to Capitol Hill urging rejection of Boucher's measure, which is co-sponsored by Rep. Chris Cannon (R-Utah)...

"The House Internet subcommittee was also planning to hold a hearing Thursday on the recent Copyright Office report dealing with music and movie downloading. That hearing was postponed in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks and has not yet been rescheduled. Scheduled to testify were Mary Beth Peters, head of the Copyright Office; Cary Sherman of the RIAA; and representatives of the Digital Media Assn. and the National Music Publishers Assn."

Read this entire Variety article in RadioHorizon here.

RAIN is brought to you today by:
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From the press release: "RealNetworks announced Real Conference 2001 -- will be held on September 24-25, 2001 in Seattle at the Washington State Convention & Trade Center -- and will be available live on the web as well.

"Real Conference 2001 Online will be the first live and on-demand complete webcast of the annual Real Conference and one of the first industry conferences to be streamed live in its entirety. For $199.95, online participants will have access to Real Conference content including live and on-demand streaming of all the conference sessions and keynote panels, as well as interactive participation. Real Conference content will be made available to online participants for three months following the event...

"For each paid online or in-person participant, RealNetworks will donate $25.00 to the New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund...Featuring three comprehensive business solutions tracks and two technical training tracks, the event will bring together top executives and experts from many converging industries..."

Read the press release here.

Reprinted from earlier today...



BY RICH RIEMAN
for RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter
Back when we were both young hotshots, my WMAQ Radio Program Director, Bob Pittman (now, of course, a major AOL Time Warner honcho), ran a promotion -- answer your phone "WMAQ's Gonna Make Me Rich," and you could win $10,000. Soon, thousands of people -- most of whom never even listened to WMAQ's country music -- were answering their phones that way. The one-to-one connection had been made -- if the phone rings, remember WMAQ.

That's what's missing from most radio Internet sites! The Internet has something important in common with radio: that one-to-one "theater of the mind" connection. One person hearing your programs, one person sitting at the keyboard.

At the late, great RKO Radio Network, Dave Cooke told us to "talk to Fred" -- just one listener at a time. Not all listeners...you're not a stadium PA announcer, no matter how many people are really out there listening! It's just Fred (or Frieda), a few feet away from the radio speaker. Radio stations need to use the Internet to talk to Fred. Fred's too busy to sit down in front of a radio, just listening. He's driving, he's reading, he's working. You gotta make it easy.

Web sites are not easy. You have to remember they're there, click to them, look for something you want. Sorry, not enough time for that.

What's easy? E-mail. How important is it? Let's put it this way -- if you have a choice between having a fancy web site and having a loyal listener e-mail system, choose e-mail. It's easy, cheap, and creates the one-to-one connection you want.

Some suggestions for what should be in your e-mails:

1. Offer content that is valuable to your listeners. Don't make your newsletter one big sales pitch! Make sure you have special offers, such as a web-only contest, or helpful information, such as how to get tickets to a local concert.

2. Offer incentives to sign up. A Boston radio station I once worked with offered the chance to win a free station t-shirt, and got over 16,000 entries. Over 16,000 listener names, addresses, and e-mail addresses, for one T-shirt!

3. Keep your listeners interested in your programs -- link them to highlights of the previous day's show, some blooper audio clips, the "joke of the day" -- whatever you consider the best content you have to offer from your web site. If you are streaming your station, make sure to include a link to "listen now" to that live stream in every listener e-mail.

4. Don't overdo it. Once a week is usually enough to stay fresh in the minds of your listeners. Remember, you don't want to irritate the people you wish to attract. The exception could be if you offer listeners the chance to get daily updates on a specific program.

5. Don't send spam! The key to e-newsletter success is a friendly, receptive audience. Invite people to join. Do not use lists from other sources, no matter how tempting that might be. You must build a trusting relationship with your listeners if you want them to open and read your e-mails. Permission Marketing is the key. Any abuse, and you not only lose an e-mail address, you can lose a listener.

6. Never sell your e-mail list(s). Promise your listeners that you will keep their information private. Add a strong privacy statement to each e-mail and your site.

7. Sponsor your e-mailings. Sell these text sponsorships ("This e-mail has been made possible by William's Hardware. Click here to get $1 off your next purchase.") No pop-up or banner ads!

8. Offer a text-only alternative version of your newsletter for users of e-mail software that does not fully support HTML (including AOL). Keep it short and simple -- tiny graphics, no fancy bells and whistles.

9. Send your newsletter on Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning to benefit from a surge in Web usage that occurs mid-week.

10. Use a professional e-mail software program, not just a mass e-mailing from an e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook. Trust me, you don't want to have to deal with the thorny issues of e-mail publishing, such as weeding out bad e-mail addresses, avoiding multiple mailings of the same content, having spammers steal your list, etc. There are some very good software programs targeted for radio, including FirstMediaWorks' E-Media Suite, RDG's E-Mail Director, PopMail's EnewsNotifier, Bigfoot Interactive, DMR's Unity Mail, and Presslaff Interactive's DAT-e-BASE.

E-mail can be a powerful tool, if used properly to keep your station at the top of "Fred's" mind -- even if you're not "gonna make him rich."

Rich Rieman, rrieman@att.net, is a management consultant for radio and the Internet. His clients have included Bonneville International, SurferNETWORK and Global Media. As VP of CMGi's Magnitude Network and VP of Radio Data Group (RDG), Rich helped create over 500 web sites and streamed the audio of hundreds more.