BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Online radio ratings firm Webcast Metrics has released ratings for the month of August.

August's numbers show two different stories among the panel. The top five webcasters stayed close to their July numbers, dipping just slightly  below the previous month on average. A notable addition to the top five webcasters is the first appearance of ABC Radio Networks in the group, who vaulted into the top five with solid gains from last month after joining the panel earlier in 2006.

Almost all of the remaining paneled webcasters enjoyed solid growth compared with their numbers from the rest of the summer.

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' August 2006 numbers is here. Webcast Metrics is one of two firms measuring Internet radio audiences; RAIN's coverage of comScore Arbitron's April ratings is here.

The rankings below are seperated by day part. Numbers that are bold and maroon either moved increased or stayed the same from the month before for that webcaster.

Monday-Sunday 6a-12m August 2006
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	AQH	Cume
1		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	28,479	n/a
2		202.fm (Multiple formats)	14,047	468,889
3		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	13,875	821,144
4		1.FM (Multiple formats)	13,747	n/a
5		ABC Radio Group (Multiple formats)	8,588	279,889
6		Club977 (Multiple formats)	8,178	n/a
7		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	7,847	636,303
8		EMF Broadcasting (Multiple formats)	7,370	231,933
9		ESPN Radio (Talk)	6,015	153,997
10		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	5,988	344,777
11		Air America Radio (Political talk)	3,931	231,014
12		Soma.FM (Electronic/Dance)	3,792	n/a
13		Beethoven.com (Classical)	1,756	74,436
14		WNYC (Public Radio)	1,612	95,339
15		GotRadio.com (Multiple Formats)	1,406	203,320

Monday-Friday 6a-8p August 2006
Rank	Station	Name (Format)	AQH	Cume
1		Digitally Imported (Electronic/Dance)	37,400	n/a
2		202.fm (Multiple formats)	22,797	330,333
3		1.FM (Multiple formats)	18,519	n/a
4		AccuRadio (Multiple formats)	16,988	490,549
5		ABC Radio Group (Multiple formats)	15,989	217,556
6		EMF Broadcasting (Multiple formats)	12,721	172,330
7		ESPN Radio (Talk)	11,654	141,447
8		Club977 (Multiple formats)	11,574	n/a
9		Big R Radio (Multiple formats)	9,788	225,777
10		RadioIO (Multiple formats)	8,799	394,354
11		Air America Radio (Political talk)	5,028	163,865
12		Soma FM (Multiple Formats)	4,720	n/a
13		Beethoven.com (Classical)	2,628	50,060
14		WNYC (Public Radio)	2,465	63,658
15		GotRadio.com (Multiple Formats)	2,194	21,498

Links to previous RAIN coverage of Webcast Metrics rankings can be found here:
August 2006
July 2006
June 2006
May 2006
April 2006
March 2006
February 2006
January 2006
December 2005
November 2005
October 2005
September 2005
August 2005

From Radio & Records: "Radio is a companion medium. Every time we aggressively engage in being a 'companion,' radio wins and increases the influence we’ve had for decades. If we don’t, we become less influential to a new generation of consumers who demand more interesting ideas.

"What can radio do on a local, regional or corporate level to generate more revenue, usage and listener participation through podcasts, the Internet and HD radio?

"Create podcasts that give listeners important information... Imagine having podcasts with your own personalities—who listeners trust—talking about ways to make their lives easier...

"The options are endless and should be focused on your audience. Find ways to make your radio station a 'companion' for listeners. It’s our strength...

"Radio should hire an entirely different sales staff solely compensated by commission to sell Internet and podcast opportunities. The  pricing would differ from radio ad sales... It would be treated as another business and not tied directly to the radio station’s ad sales team.

"This would allow stations to grow additional business from podcasts, HD channels and Internet sites that are linked to the local community. The cost will be low, and the potential revenue gains can be almost unlimited.

Read the entire article at Radio & Records.

From the Chicago Tribune: "Weina Scott answers about 100 tech support e-mails a day. The Web site must be perfect—one glitch, and 6,000 irate  customers will bombard her inbox. But first, she has to study her physics.

"At age 17, Weina is the chief executive of her own Web-based podcast hosting company and makes an annual salary of $40,000 for working 20 hours a week...

"She is the creator of Switchpod.com, which gives users space to upload audio and video programs as podcasts. She started it last year with the help of friend Jake Fischer, a 16-year-old living in Minnesota...

"Switchpod's success caught the attention of Wizzard Software Corp., which deals with speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies. Wizzard's chief executive, Chris Spencer, 36, was getting requests for software that can turn text in a blog to audio, such as in a podcast.

"After doing some research, he found Weina's Web site. By July the high school entrepreneurs were signing a contract to sell Switchpod to Wizzard for stock worth $200,000. Weina and Jake were each named CEOs with annual salaries of $40,000...

"Weina says Switchpod has about 10 advertisers, but they are not focused on luring more just yet. A top priority is to improve the Web site to increase downloads; they are now at about 800,000. Then they'll draw in serious advertisers."

Read the entire article at the Chicago Tribune.