BY DANIEL MCSWAIN
Combining two media distribution methods hampered by decreasing revenues in recent years doesn't intuitively sound like a recipe for success.

Intuitively, an online radio station might sound like the cure for what ails a terrestrially-focused broadcast group, not a newspaper company. But it's the San Diego Union-Tribune that is putting up plans for a new initiative that radio industry analyst Mark Ramsey argues could be the "Next Big Thing."

During a trip to the newspaper's offices, where the project is being developed, Ramsey recorded a Q&A (posted to his Hear 2.0 blog) with employees Ron James and Marc Balanky who are set to head-up the station.

Both of the station's pioneers, who hope to have a full launch in October at SignOnRadio.com, seem confident that the paper's enormous resources will ensure the endeavor's success.

"We have resources [News/Talk radio stations] don't," Balanky said. "We have a news room that works 24 hours a day. That's power that small radio stations just don't have."

"We have over 300 reporters just for the print side." James added. "I have 20 people that report directly to me that do online content as well."

In talking with Ramsey, James said he sees the station as a logical move to harness the Internet's ability to reach increasingly fragmented audiences.

"[The Internet] has been a disruptive technology to all major media," James said. "So, we'd could site back and lose circulation, lose advertising... the Internet takes away but it also giveth. We were becoming a media company rather than just a newspaper, starting with the website, going into radio, and then video."

"Both James and Balanky said they are getting the Union-Tribune "ready to compete" with other news media resources, with an eye on wireless broadband technology that will increasingly deliver online media to consumers on-the-go.

The station's programming will be an eclectic but dayparted mix of old and new. The pair seemed particularly hopeful about SignOnRadio.com's plans to bring in veteran jocks from the San Diego broadcast radio scene to bolster the line-up's name recognition, in addition to shows hosted by people from the San Diego Union-Tribune newsroom.

In the evenings, SignOnRadio will feature material from local artists in formats like blues, jazz, and country — as opposed to the paper's local AmplifySD.com station which features a mostly alternative local line-up.

The station's pioneers are confident that the time for their idea has come, noting that other newspapers have begun to ask the pair for help with building their own online stations, and even say that the development of similar projects at other newspapers is "a given."

Read the entire blog post, including Ramsey's full interview in MP3 format, at the Hear 2.0 blog.

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