 RAIN 6/21: RAIN to honor industry's best with 2nd annual Internet Radio Awards ·Jun 21, 12:31 PM WINNERS IN 4 CATEGORIES TO BE ANNOUNCED 9/13 AT RAIN SUMMIT CHICAGOWe’re very happy to announce that this publication is now accepting entries for the second-annual RAIN Internet Radio Awards, in conjunction with Triton Digital, AccuRadio, and Audio4Cast.
Kurt Hanson, RAIN publisher and founder of AccuRadio, said “These are exciting times for Internet radio, and we want to recognize those stations and services whose work has driven the expansion of the industry.” Broadcasters and webcasters are invited to enter the competition (here) for awards in four categories: Best Overall Online Radio Service, Best Streaming Broadcast Station, Best Single-Channel Webcaster, and Best Overall Digital Strategy. Last year Pandora won the “overall” award, CBS Radio for their “strategy,” 1500 AM ESPN/Twin Cities for “streaming broadcaster,” and HardRadio as best “single-channel.” The official entry page is here. We’ll accept nominations through July 31st, and winners (who’ll be selected by an independent panel of judges) will be announced at the RAIN Summit Chicago conference September 13th, at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, immediately preceding the RAB/NAB Radio Show. MICHAELS BUYS EMMIS STATIONS IN NY, CHICAGO; GEHRON TO CONSULTNews broke this morning that radio programming, management, and ownership vet (and ousted Tribune Company exec) Randy Michaels (right) has acquired WRXP/New York as well as WKQX and WLUP/Chicago from Emmis Communications. Michaels is calling his new company Merlin Media. Emmis will retain a minority share of the stations.
Reknowned Chicago-based industry veteran John Gehron (who’s also AccuRadio COO) (pictured left) has been brought on to consult for the Chicago properties. Gehron told RAIN, “I’m excited to be involved in this new Merlin Media opportunity, but I’m still committed to helping Interestingly, some industry observers noticed web domain name purchases likely reflecting Merlin’s intentions for the stations. Since December, reports RadioInsight (here), Michaels reportedly has owned FMNews1011.com (WKQX is 101.1 Mhz), FMNews939.com (perhaps referencing Emmis’ KXOS/Los Angeles), and FMNNews1019.com (sic) (reflecting WRXP’s frequency — not sure why there’s the extra “N”). “Just last week anonymous registrations for 1011FMTalk.com, 1019FMTalk.com, and FMTalk1019.com appeared as well,” says RadioInsight. Chicago media blogger Robert Feder has also been on this story all morning; see more from him here. A Merlin Media press release is here. STUDY SAYS TIME SPENT WITH MOBILE APPS HAS OVERTAKEN WEB BROWSINGA new report from mobile app analytics firm Flurry indicates daily time spent in mobile apps has now surpassed browsing the web.
TechCrunch reports the Flurry statistics show “the average user now spends 9% more time using mobile apps than the Internet. In June users spent an average of 81 minutes daily on mobile apps, compared to 74 minutes on the web.” The analytics company based the study on comScore and Alexa data (for the web), and its own analytics for mobile app use (“500 million aggregated, anonymous use sessions per day across more than 85,000 applications”), which it says accounts for about a third of all mobile app activity. Read more in TechCrunch here. WEB ADDRESSES ENDING WITH “.radio” MAY BE AVAILABLE SOONICANN, the global body that administers Internet domain names, on Monday announced it will open up “generic top-level domains” (the letters after the final “.” in a web address, like “.com” or “.org”) to nearly anything you might want.Radio-Info’s Tom Taylor (here) suggests “it’s easy to imagine a radio company claiming both its own name and some of its key call letters.” Jennifer Lane, in Audio4Cast (here), reports BRS Media, which already manages the “.fm” and “.am” gTLDs, “will apply for the .radio top level domain through the ICANN gTLD application process, once the window for new gTLD opens.” She includes video of BRS Media Inc. Chairman and CEO George Bundy discussing the “.radio” application plans. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
The awards are a way to recognize the achievements of webcasters of various sizes and business models. 
AccuRadio continue to grow as one of the leading Internet radio companies in the industry.” In addition to AccuRadio, Gehron will continue to consult the radio industry through his company Broadcast Wisdom.
