Special issue coming soon: Most indicators seem to be pointing (finally!) toward a more-successful 2003 for both broadcasters and webcasters. To help you in your planning process for next year, RAIN's upcoming "Planning for 2003" issue will showcase products and services that will help you reduce your expenses and increase your revenues in 2003!
For YOUR firm to be included, call RAIN at 1-312-527-3869 or e-mail kurt@kurthanson.com

BY KURT HANSON
In a wide-ranging interview in Chicago yesterday, departing ABC Radio Networks' VP/New Media Sales Jane Steinberg (pictured at right) offered a cornucopia of her observations and insights about the current and future opportunities that the Internet offers to local radio stations and to radio networks.

"In my 30-year career, this is the only thing outside of terrestrial radio that has ever interested me," Steinberg told me. "Not cable TV, not anything else. These last few years [of working in New Media] have been the greatest ride of my life!"

"It's so exciting because there's no book written yet on how to do this medium. Every day we wake up and discover new things."

In our interview, Steinberg discussed the prospects for ABC's FM stations to resume streaming, revealed ABC's plans to launch a new subscription service, and discussed her experiences with selling to interactive agencies and clients.


Disney lawyers planning to keep
FM music stations' streams down
When ABC's radio stations shut off their streams in April 2001 due to the AFTRA crisis — in which agency lawyers had negotiated a new contract with AFTRA voice talent granting bonuses if their spots were used on Internet radio, leading media buyers to demand that their spots not be played on station streams — it was with the understanding that as soon as an ad-replacement was developed, the stations would be brought back up. (For background, see RAIN coverage here. The image at left is from the WABC-AM/New York site in April, 2001.)

However, rather than working with an existing firm like Hiwire or Lightningcast, ABC chose to develop its own technology, with sophisticated features that would allow alternate spots, jingles, music beds, and more on the streams. That technology took over a year to develop and roll out, by which time the industry was in its CARP royalties crisis. As a result, ABC relaunched its AM talk streams earlier this year, but has yet to relaunch its FM music streams.

Steinberg revealed to RAIN that, in fact, ABC has no plans to bring the FMs back on line. "The Disney lawyers say that they see additional rights fees coming," she said. (ABC's parent company, Disney, of course, is in the vanguard of fighting for aggressive protection of copyright owners' intellectual property rights.)


ABC Radio Networks' Bob Brinker show
to launch subscription streams next month
Bob Brinker is a "fantastic" market timer, according to Steinberg, who hosts a three-hour live ABC Radio Networks talk show called "Moneytalk" on Saturday and Sunday afternoons on over 200 radio stations (and which is also carried on both XM and Sirius!).

His website, BobBrinker.com, which he owns but which ABC reps, until recently featured transcribed "hottest moments" of each weekend's shows (in text form). The transcription project, which Steinberg described as an "overwhelming" amount of work, was shut down a few weeks ago. However, Steinberg revealed, it will be replaced within the next few weeks by a new $4.95/month subscription service, which is in beta testing right now, that will allow Brinker's fans to listen to their choice of any or all of his last six programs, in their entirety and commercial-free, at the time of their own choosing!

Brinker's new service should be valuable for two reasons, Steinberg explained: "First, it's not always convenient to listen to the show live" during its 4-7PM ET airslot. "And second, it's often preempted by terrestrial stations for sports.

"Now his raging fans, which are legion, are going to be able to listen online at their own convenience," she noted.

With no on-air promotion and only a small text link on Brinker's site's home page, the site has generated over 6,000 requests for more information about the webcast in only two weeks, Steinberg said. Archived versions of each show will be available to subscribers 10 minutes after the live show ends, according to current plans. And although the show will be streamed commercial-free, ABC has billboards and banner space on the Windows Media Player which will be sold to "one smart client," said Steinberg.


Agencies and clients of ABC's
Tom Joyner Morning Show "get it"
One exception to the "no streaming" edict for ABC's music properties is its syndicated "Tom Joyner Morning Show," which bills itself as "the #1 Urban Radio radio show" and is broadcast in over 100 markets, with a weekly cume of over 5 million listeners. A stream of that show is available on Joyner's website, in the RealAudio format, both during the live broadcast and then, later in the day, as a rebroadcast.

From a network sales point of view, Steinberg says that Joyner's clients are among the most rewarding to work with: "Our African-American clients and agencies really understand how to use the Web to maximize that value with the consumer.

"Because the Joyner inventory is largely sold out, a lot of our advertisers want to see in-stream ads included in their package." She said that advertisers are typically paying a $12 CPM for in-stream ads and up to a $40 CPM for a gateway ad that could, optionally, include a video component, and that the site is currently generating over 180,000 stream accesses per month.

Steinberg said the same is true of the advertisers behind conservative talk show host Sean Hannity, whose show is also streamed on the web. "They also get it."


"This reminds me of
network TV in the '50s"
"I've quit even calling on the interactive agencies," Steinberg told me. "I wasn't getting anywhere up against CNBC, MSNBC, and Google. They just go to the top NetRatings website in a category and to the search engines. People who are delivering specific targeted marketplaces don't get heard.

"Right now, it's not those agencies but their clients who are the ones who understand how to use the Web.

"This reminds me of network TV in the '50s," she said (obviously meaning stories she's heard about that era). "The interactive agencies are probably understaffed. Back in the '50s, if you were a 'G.D.I.' — a Goddamned independent [i.e., not an affiliate of one of the three networks] — you weren't going to get heard at the agencies."

Of course, that situation eventually improved for those TV stations and should improve in this space as well, Steinberg noted.


"Internet allows radio stations
to bust the hour-clock wide open "
Drawing on her years of background in local radio, Steinberg noted, "Clients always have great ideas, but even with the best promotional idea, there's not always space on the station — there's not enough time on the hour-clock. But the Internet allows a radio station to bust the hour-clock wide open by shooting people over to the Web, where you have virtually unlimited time and space.

"We are no longer shackled to that circle... that obscure concept of 'time,' that once it's gone it's gone. We're now able to enjoy all those delicious aspects of publishing... We can add more pages anytime we want to!"

As for stations' streaming, Steinberg said, "I think that streaming is an incredible medium, but not as a stand-alone at the moment. I believe in offering advertisers a package right now, in which streaming is an important part but not the only part."

BY PAUL MALONEY
Industry news sources report that XM Satellite Radio has begun some "across the board" downsizing -- and the first victim is apparently VP/Program Operations Dave Logan (pictured right).

This news comes one day after an analyst warned the company needs to cut back sharply on spending to survive. XM's stock price fell sharply on Monday. XM shares were down 9.7 percent, or 33 cents, to $3.10 on Monday. In early trading this morning, the stock had fallen to $3.01. The Q3 earnings conference call is scheduled for tomorrow at 9am CST (10 EST).

Sanders Morris Harris analyst Steve Mather warned XM's spending -- $90 million per quarter -- would need to be nearly halved in order for the company to survive.

Logan was one of the company's first hires and, along with Chief Programming Officer Lee Abrams, launched the company's programming.

Abrams commented, "We are simply streamlining the management. Dave Logan is a fantastic guy who did great work here, but not unlike literally every media/music company on earth, the economy has forced some management consolidation. Dave has been an incredibly valuable person at XM and his departure no way reflects on his talents. It's strictly economics."

According to Abrams, VP/External Program Steve Harris will be named VP/Music Programming and run music format programming. It has not been reported how many other staffers will lose their jobs.

One upbeat note for the company this week was its naming by Scientific American magazine as one of the "Scientific American 50," a list recognizing contributions from the past year to science and technology.

BY PAUL MALONEY
At least two leading Internet radio stations are leveraging their listenership in apparent bids to be added to XM Satellite Radio's programming offerings.

Both Paradise, California-based RadioParadise.com and radioio.com of Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida are urging site visitors to sign a petition saying they want their favorite radio service available in the car. One of the main selling-points of satellite-delivered radio is its portability and availability in the automobile.

"At this point, XM does almost all of their music programming in-house, so convincing them to accept an outside music channel like RP won't be easy," RadioParadise founder Bill Goldsmith (left) writes on the station's site. "I'm hoping that if enough RP listeners show their support for the idea it will help pique their interest. Thanks a lot for your support."

Several listener responses are posted on the site. One reads: "I am an XM subscriber and am so far very disappointed with your eclectic, alternative and modern rock offerings. Radio Paradise is the kind of station you should have."

Apparently independent of RadioParadise's efforts have been those of radioio's founder Mike Roe (lower-left), who on his station's site writes, "We have received literally 100's of emails from listeners like yourself expressing their desire to listen to radioio in the car. Satellite radio makes this possible. Radioio is currently working for you to make your station a channel on one or both of the new satellite radio systems -- XM and Sirius (Satellite Radio) -- by the end of THIS year."

Roe told RAIN, "ioMediaPartners is in the business of creating content. Radioio is a product. We are interested in making this product as widely available as possible -- and this does include satelitte delivery."

RAIN readers will recognize Goldsmith and Roe as two of the most "front-and-center" champions for Internet radio in its efforts to secure reasonable royalty rates for use of copyrighted sound recordings.