From MSNBC: "All the big names were there. P. Diddy, Beyonce, Justin, Jewel, Avril, Tim McGraw, and yes, even old-timer Tom Petty, to name a few, came out Monday night for the Radio Music Awards...

"All seemed well in the radio industry on its special night. But, at a time when reality TV shows create pop stars, music is downloadable from the Internet with a click of the mouse and Carson Daly is arguably the most important deejay (vee-jay?) around — is radio even relevant anymore?

"With Apple’s Internet downloading service, iTunes, now available for PC users, and Napster back up and running, there is a library of music available out in cyberspace, that has nothing to do with AM or FM or what you hear while channel surfing in your car. With a virtual jukebox of music at your fingertips why would anyone tune in to their local radio station, where a limited play list, abundance of commercials and cookie-cutter deejays flood the airwaves.

"There was a time when deejays could play whatever they wanted, and the radio was the place to go to hear a variety of music and discover new artists. But, as the play lists shrink and become more of the same, the Internet is quickly becoming the place to go for music lovers of all kinds. Many big radio stations have even caught on, and have started streaming on the Internet. Who would have ever thought that there would be a time when people would listen to the radio on their computer?..

"So will radio still be around in 15 years? It is still one of the only places where you can discover new music for free. Although it’s minimal, Napster has started to charge for downloading music. Big market, Top 40 stations are still a prime place for exposure for up-and-coming artists. They just might not need that exposure as much as they would have 10 years ago...

"Now back to the Radio Music Awards. It begs asking, would anyone have really 'listened' or cared about the awards if they were broadcast on radio not television?"

Read this entire article in MSNBC.com here.

From The Wall Street Journal: "Web surfers may disagree, but bigger or bolder seems to be better when it comes to making an ad stand out on the Internet.

"A DoubleClick survey finds so-called rich-media Internet ads -- which include pop-ups as well as ads that fly across the computer screen -- in addition to larger formats are becoming more popular with advertisers than smaller, more traditional ad sizes. Rich-media ads accounted for nearly 37% of the roughly 172 billion third-quarter ads DoubleClick delivered to Web sites...

"One new-media consultant suggests that the Internet is coming into its own as an advertising platform. 'Online advertising has the ability to turn a 30-second ad into a 300-second ad,' says Joseph Jaffe of Jaffe Consulting in Westport, Conn., and a former interactive media director at Omnicom Group's TBWA\Chiat\Day.

Read this entire piece in The Wall Street Journal here (subscription required).

From MacWorld's MacCentral: "Audio Hijack developer Rogue Amoeba LLC is using this week's O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference in Santa Clara, Calif. to debut Nicecast, a new Mac OS X application that enables users of Mac OS X-based audio players to 'broadcast' their own Internet radio station.

"Nicecast combines Internet-based audio broadcasting and service into one application. It can play audio from virtually any Mac OS X application, including Apple's own iTunes software. It incorporates features like real-time effects, adjustable quality levels and more.

"Rogue Amoeba has released a 'preview version' for download from their Web site; it costs US$30 to register ($40 after December 31, 2003)."

Read this entire piece online here.