BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Internet ratings service Webcast Metrics has released its "Internet Radio Top 20" rankings for August, with most of its subscribing webcasters showing significant month-over-month AQH gains in the key Mon-Fri 6A-8P daypart.

According to Webcast Metrics, "The leading stations in their rankings increased listenership by almost 15% in August from July's numbers. The reports show an increase in both unique listeners and the average listeners listening concurrently for almost all of the reporting stations during the month."

The "Average Quarter Hour" estimate, or AQH, is defined as the estimated average number of persons tuned to a channel for at least five minutes during a 15 minute period. It can more simply be understood as "the number of people listening to a station at the average moment." Cumulative listeners, or "cume," is the non-duplicated number of different people tuning in at least once (for at least five minutes) during the time period in question.

RAIN's report on Webcast Metrics's July 2005 numbers is here. Webcast Metrics is one of two firms measuring Internet radio audiences; RAIN's report on the most-recent release from comScore Arbitron is here.

Webcast Metrics August '05 (M-Su 6a-12M)
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	Monthly Cume	AQH
1		Net Radio Sales (Ad sales network)	n/a	67,286
2		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	n/a	17,721
3		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	844,594	9,104
4		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	528,934	8,468
5		Club977 (Multiple formats)	n/a	6,871
6		Air America Radio (Political talk)	365,850	5,962
7		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	332,246	5,344
8		GotRadio (Multiple formats)	199,531	2,336
9		Wolf FM (Hits radio)	65,687	2,228
10		Beethoven.com (Classical)	91,973	2,085
11		Energyradio.fm (Multiple formats)	157,902	2,076

Webcast Metrics August '05 (M-F 6a-8p)
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	Monthly Cume	AQH
1		Net Radio Sales (Ad sales network)	n/a	90,907
2		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	n/a	22,457
3		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	822,135	14,458
4		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	338,656	10,377
5		Club977 (Multiple formats)	n/a	9,914
6		Air America Radio (Political talk)	258,790	8,008
7		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	205,517	6,667
8		Wolf FM (Hits radio)	58,468	3,225
9		GotRadio (Multiple formats)	158,794	3,110
10		Beethoven.com (Classical)	60,573	3,040
11		BoomerRadio (Multiple formats)	35,034	2,864

...

... ... Webcast Metrics ratings this summer have shown consistent growth for most webcasters in the "at-work" daypart. However, since the full-week numbers are essentially flat, slight declines can be mathematically inferred for night/weekend hours, possibly reflecting changed summertime listening patterns. — KH

From MediaPost.com: "The Internet has surpassed radio as the preferred medium for music among youth in all countries, according to a study of 13- to-24-year-olds in 11 countries to be released today by Yahoo! and OMD Worldwide.

"While the preference is more pronounced in other countries, 47 percent of young U.S. consumers prefer the Internet for music, compared to 27 percent who prefer radio.

"Internet companies that have invested heavily in music -- including America Online, Yahoo!, and Intermix's MySpace -- should be happy to learn that 'music is possibly the single greatest mechanism by which youth facilitate their three needs,' according to the report, which specifies those needs as community, self-expression, and personalization.

"The study, 'Truly, Madly, Deeply Engaged: Global Youth, Media and Technology,' based on research conducted earlier this summer, found a remarkable degree of multitasking among today's youth. Globally, the generation dubbed 'My Media' by OMD and Yahoo! finds itself faced with more tasks than time to accomplish them on a daily basis, and as a result, has become highly adept at multitasking and "media meshing."

Read the full story at MediaPost.com.

From the Wall Street Journal Online: "Driven by fear

"Companies like Viacom Inc., News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. worry that they will miss the rapid expansion of Internet advertising while their own, more-traditional sources of revenue growth are slowing...

"In the past five years since the dot-com bust, the technology has improved. High- speed Internet access, or broadband, has attained critical mass, reaching 42 million U.S. households this year, says eMarketer Inc. That's more than half the 73 million homes that have cable television, according to the National Cable Television Association -- making the Internet a viable distribution platform for movies, TV and even TV-like full-motion video commercials for the first time.

"Viacom's [President] Mr. [Larry] Kramer says the traditional media companies are waking up to the fact that "Internet advertising is real. It's still a minuscule amount of revenue for this company, but we want it to grow and to grow fast and to make a lot of noise."

"Internet advertising sales rose 33% in 2004 to $9.6 billion, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. This is still a fraction of the $141 billion U.S. advertising market, which is directed primarily to television, newspapers and magazines, but what alarms the media companies is that it's eroding their traditional ad-revenue sources, from broadcast TV and radio to magazines and billboards.

Read the full story at WSJ.com.

"I think the radio industry is talking out of both sides of its mouth..."

First, with regard to the two-part story on the NAB convention, I think the radio industry is talking out of both sides of its mouth and acting more like Evan Harrison is saying than what the chief executives of the big companies are saying.

While it is true that Radio One has not resumed streaming of its stations, Clear Channel, Entercom, Citadel, and Viacom have all started or resumed streaming at least some of their stations in some markets. The radio groups that have not started or resumed streaming are by and large owned by smaller companies operating with budgets too small to pay the current licensing fees.

Why the difference between talk and activity? I suspect that it mainly boils down to the ongoing skirmishes over the rates and record-keeping requirements that will apply for 2006-2010.

Second, concerning the brewing war between satellite services and the RIAA over recording devices reported in the September 27th issue, I suspect that consumer desire is driving the satellite companies' demands (consumers can't understand why they cannot record digitally off of satellite radio when they have been doing so for years with analog radio). The RIAA, of course, is very concerned with keeping itself in business and sees the proliferation of these recording devices as a threat.

Given the comments made by Justice David Souter in the 9-0 ruling made earlier this year by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Kazaa case, I fully expect the RIAA to win the legal battle on this one. However, given consumers' ongoing demand for these kinds of recorders, I fully expect the RIAA to lose everything within the next 20-30 years.