Front Page story how INTERNET radio is going to be the hottest thing...as a matter of fact it was the #1 draw at the most recent Electronics show (past few days).....It's coming. The big radio groups better get smart and start making radio INTERESTING and ENTERTAINING for the audience. This is going to be huge down the road

Radio will watch IR development then offer their own watered down version. They will think they can compete via streaming. Radio refuses to do what they can do best.

I can see this in the home or office but not so in vehicles. Broadband mobile coverage is far to sparse to be a factor. Sat Radio will make moves to counter it with lower subscriptions and free equipment to sign up. And from a business standpoint streaming of any sort is not permitted in the office due to the number of employee's and the amount of business critical bandwidth it would consume. That said, yes this media will grow but it is still a molehill and has some major obstacles to overcome before becoming a mountain.

So far radio thinks it can just take the usual radio programming of today and simply put that on the internet. They are way wrong. Radio is just like the record industry, they just can not let go of their old model of success.

They see no problem with loading up the broadcast with lots of "promotions" which are really just bonus spots. They have no regard for the listener. Just like regular radio. They're doin' business, not entertainment.

Broadband is the future! My internet station is now almost totally serving people at work, in almost every country on the planet! But as wireless gets set up on freeways and elsewhere that will change.

Until IPV8 is in full swing you will not likely see this happen. You are talking about billions of IP addresses needed to take this into cars and onto the roads. Also there is no way in hell this will ever be "FEE FREE". The fiber and equipment needed to put this on the highways will be huge. I really don't think it will explode into that market. Satellite radio will prevail there for quite some time. Who do you expect will belly up to the bar and put out that kind of gear for free internet radio? Satellite is already there and it's available everywhere you go.

Nuff Said bout diz

PS...But I do agree that Radio station's need to approach their internet streams differently. Do radio station's face the same problems from the FCC about swear words or is that media open for say un-edited original tracks from artists played as they were meant to be? I have never been a fan of slice and dice tracks....either play it or don't!

Internet radio will the the final step in the commoditization of radio. Commoditization occurs in businesses when their model switches from "premium service/premium price" such as the old 'liveandlocal' stations with name personalities, to treating their product as a commodity. Who can make it the cheapest and sell the most.

Intel chips used to be a selling point, now they are just a commodity.... computer makers will use the cheapest decent chip.

Internet radio is the ultimate in commoditization. The barriers to entry are virtunally non-existant. Almost everybody on this board could become a streaming station for a few thousand bucks if not less. With thousands and thousands of streaming stations to choose from, no one will be hiring anyone but the Geek Squad.

Satellite will maintain a presence by holding on to its combo of premium service-personalities/premium price.... because they can do so on a national platform. And then, its only the top tier names making big bucks at the satellites. A very close friend who consults Sirius mentioned that almost all the jocks on Sirius are paid $100 PER WEEK, and track their shows from home.

I spent the weekend partying with my radio pals (belatedly celebrating John Williams birthday - his 35th, I think). There wasn't a soul at the party who didn't want to see radio return to its glory days. We even tried clapping our hands and believing a la Peter Pan -- but I don't think anyone thought the golden age of 'liveandlocal' would ever return. Local DJs have joined blacksmiths, elevator operators, projectionists, and family doctors who make house calls. Rare and dying breeds with little prospect of survival.

....."Damn, And I thought I'd improve my skill set by going to school for elevator operations.

Oh well, maybe I can get on at one of the local steel mills........

Teri, a post I can finally agree with!

can someone pull that up from yesterdays Journal & post it. Article is facinating. I'm an idiot when it comes to computers...so if someone can copy that & post it...I think it will be worthwhile for this great web site. Dave

With all this internet buzz... I wonder if it would be possible for somebody to think of some way to send signals, like, through the air or somethin', and then people could receive it in their cars and trucks and stuff and listen to them there.

commoditization - n. The act of putting something in the commode

There is "startup" interest in a company that provides "wireless" service covering 98% of the us Population. It is estimated it can be done with a $2-3 Billion capitalization.

Think AOL. Your monthly subscription cost to this ISP could be used anywhere in the US via your Laptop, Vehicle, etc.

The concept would totally make transmitters & towers for which the big groups spent all their money a moot point.

Broadcasters still have a huge cume, and should be training their listeners where to find them on the internet. That is a key advantage.

However, consider the price broadcasters paid for individual stations in their clusters. $35 million??? If the signal footprint is there...a launch could be facilitated for far less than that....especially in a PPM world where 30 day turnarounds can become possible.

That said all audio delivery is about "content."
Build it and they shall come.

Build it and they shall cume.

Hmm . . . an entire thread about how internet radio is gonna be the "next great thing" and NOT ONE WORD about how internet radio is gonna get pretty much killed off next month unless Congress acts to reduce the outrageous royalities fees due to take effect.

Boys and girls, you've not been paying attention. Big Radio is trying to nip internet radio in the bud. The royalties rate for internet broadcasters are gonna be multifold higher than terrestrial radio and will be retroactive back to last January.

It is very interesting how the group who have raised hundreds of millions into this deal have that worked out already. I agree with you, the person who has the passion set up in their basement will most likely be cut out of this technology....But the deep pockets always seems to win. Venture Cap groups were throwing money at this guy at the Electronics Show. BIG money.

People! People! Get a hold of yourselves!

Regardless of how you feel about the current state of radio, even the most evil corporate operators are still able to garner a certain respectable level of loyal, sell-able listening.

In the more product-oriented radio groups, like Bonneville and Cox and a very short list of some others, PDs are Brand Managers. One brand; multiple delivery options (on-air, online, even on-site).

Internet listening is not the death of radio. For most people, familiar, consistent radio brands are more attractive as on-line choices than something unfamiliar. People know what they like, and they like what they know. That especially applies to people over the age of 30.

What would you have done when TV came along in the 50s? Don't cave in 'cause it's not comfortable, look for the opportunities for yourself. It's all about entertaining the people, no matter how they're choosing to listen.

We professional entertainers have an advantage over the average schmuck with some tunes on a hard drive. We just have to keep striving to overcome the non-programming people who want to make programming decisions.

75% of old fashioned radio today is boring...loaded with T&T robots that can barely read a liner card without stumbling...Theres a few that have the magic with blessed talent like Chase-Miller-Larson-K103 AM team---but for the most part station clusters are CLUSTERING way too many spots....very little imagination...weak promotion teams that are split between too many signals....and PD's that sit in front on a computer screem looking at numbers all day. I would love to take the young folks in radio back in the day when we showed up early just to be there...meetings kicking around ideas how to stomp the guy across the street & gain listenership....and when there was a promotion ...it wasn't 2 kids in a van that sets up & nobody shows.

Skep......What congress does is sort of....well it won't matter. WHY? Well let's just say I find an out of country server farm to host my site. They can't control something that takes place outside of the country. So all this new royalty thing will do is to move web radio stations into foreign servers! To quote MC Hammer "Can't Touch This"! This may pose a few technical difficulties but in these situations those with the desire and ability usually overcome and prosper!

Side Note:
Have you ever traced the path of most SPAM! A good portion of it rebounds off some open UNIX box from a foreign country. Spammers do this to avoid prosecution. (Low Hanging Fruit) That term is used to describe people who do not secure their home networks. Hackers and ID theft criminals can easily find an open residential network and rebound everything off of it, basically kind of an anonymizer to hide themselves. One day when the FBI knocks on your door and asks what the hell you are doing you'll know why. Third world countries are rather low tech and as a result there is lot's of low hanging fruit to use and abuse for illegal purposes.

"This may pose a few technical difficulties"

This will be a hurdle that turns away many truly creative programmers leaving only the tech savvy or those with money actually getting "on the air".

The point is that everyone looking a bit far in the future when there are tanks firing at us today. We've already been hit with a law that will kill many, if not most non-terrestrial-based internet stations on July 15.

Has anyone called their Senator about this?

Gotcha......
It suck's for sure for the little guy trying to make a go of it. DAMN corporate goons anyway. They've screwed up free radio and now they want to "F" with free interent! I see your point in not worrying about what it will become when we need to just worry if it will even survive the "BORG" corporation! If this does come to pass you will see that I am right and there will be a migration to offshore servers for this service. The little not to techy types will die off for sure but there will still be plenty of survivors to carry the torch!

Well.....for what it's worth I just went to this site:
http://www.savenetradio.org/
I clicked on the link to contact my Senator and ask them to support the bill to save internet radio. It came back and said no need as your Washington state senator already support's it. Good site and good info......CHECK IT!

Add:
Well after double checking at least Senator Brian Baird is on bord but there are two who are not. Senator Patty Murray and Senator Maria Cantwell. If you live in washington state then maybe worth a jingle!

Skep&Dark:

Do you have any documentation that terrestrial radio has any involvement in the internet royalty debate? I ask seriously, because I haven't seen anything. With the big broadcasters working so hard to build up their internet presence, it would appear that they'd be working against themselves.

After googling -- the news stories I find note that Clear Channel would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of lower internet royalties... because it's the 3rd biggest provider of internet radio (after Yahoo and Microsoft.)

I was not necessarily pointing at Corporate Radio....just Corporate America in general. Probably more aimed at FCC and Record Labels more than anything. My post was just a knee-jerk. I just forgot the IMHO. Sorry I was not clearer man.

its true that clear channel would have a pretty hefty bill on july 15th, however, with the slate being wiped clean of most independent internet-only broadcasters, CC and friends will gain something that money can't buy -- no competition from indies.

more info is at kurthansen.com , one of the most popular internet radio news sites.

dark, I sure hope you're right about offshore broadcasting, but I'd just as soon do what I can to head off reaching that point.

YA....that would be more betterer for sure! "Born in the USA" would kind of lose it's meaning playing from a server in North Korea or Russia!

That's Hanson with an "O", http://www.kurthanson.com/.

I stand corrected! Thanks.

MMMMMMMBop!