FROM CONVERGENCE: HANSON, PANEL TELL RADIO TO “WAKE UP!” Radio Ink’s “Convergence” conference on new media technologies and broadcast radio wrapped up yesterday in San Jose, and the Radio Ink website has lots of summary coverage of keynotes and panels (see links below). RAIN publisher and AccuRadio founder Kurt Hanson delivered a brief presentation yesterday, leading into a panel he moderated. Kurt characterized the decrease in time Americans spend with broadcast radio as simply an evolution in the way people are accessing audio content. With the explosion in listening options over the past decade (streaming, satellite radio, cable radio, podcasts, mobile networks, etc.), and the “customization” they offer, the audience isn’t disappearing, it’s simply shifting. Kurt encourages broadcasters to emulate “brands with great depth within a narrow focus, along with great design” (Starbucks, Home Depot, Chipotle) in repositioning the radio product for streaming, “because that’s where almost all the growth opportunities are.” (More from Radio Ink on Kurt’s speech here.) In the panel discussion that followed (named, naturally, “A Slap in the Face: Wake Up!”), Kurt worried that radio isn’t embracing the customization of content that technology now enables, and that radio is stuck in a “one-to-many” broadcasting philosophy. TheRadio.com President/CEO Reed Bunzel concurred, saying, “Radio has to start believing that the Internet is for real,” and that those counting on radio’s core business model surviving just like it did when television and cassettes came along are “really wrong.” (Get more on the “Wake Up!” panel in Radio Ink here.) There’s more on the Convergence conference from Radio Ink, links are below.

ABRAMS TO LEAVE XM FOR TRIBUNE Lee Abrams, who The Washington Post calls “the creative heart and soul of XM Satellite Radio,” is leaving XM to become the Tribune Company’s first “chief innovation officer.” He’ll develop business strategies for the company’s television, newspaper, and online properties. The Post reports, “Abrams was hired at Tribune by longtime friend and radio veteran Randy Michaels, a former Clear Channel executive, putting two radio lifers near the top of a sprawling media company that owns only one radio station.” Read more of the paper’s coverage here.

FROM CONVERGENCE: MORE PANEL SUMMARIES FROM RADIO INK The first panel of the conference centered on how radio could get a share of the exploding online advertising market. Get the summary of “The Revenue Gap: What You Are Losing Today, and How to Save It” here.

Another powerful force online the past few years has been social networks. Details on the “Social Networking: The New Radio?” panel are here.

RAIN contributor and industry attorney David Oxenford co-moderated the panel “Legal Eye-Openers: Digital Rights Management and Other Legal Issues You Need to Understand,” which you can read about here.

The panel called “Digital Media Trends Radio Needs to Embrace” focused mainly on radio sales efforts evolving to attract interactive dollars (the summary is here.)

Mercury Radio Research President (and Hear 2.0 blog author) Mark Ramsey moderated “Revitalizing Stodgy Old Media,” which revisited the theme of radio adapting to Internet-age expectations of listeners and advertisers (summary here.)

Panelists focused on data-mining listener e-mail lists and allowing listeners to “rate” online content for “Online Revenue Strategies: A Website Is Not Enough” (the Radio Ink summary is here)

On the final panel, called “Radio Groups: Their Collective Online Strategy,” Clear Channel Online Music & Radio VP/Content Marketing Paul Miraldi described his company’s “online program directors” who manage site content, just as traditional PDs manage on-air. Emmis Interactive co-President Rey Mena described his division as “a software company,” designing Emmis online technology in-house. And CBS Radio Digital Media Group VP/Operations Andrew Lindenauer, referring to his company’s recent streaming arrangement with AOL, predicted the day when listening online eclipses over the air may come “pretty quickly.” A summary of the panel (moderated by Entercom SVP/Digital Division Sandy Smallens) is here.

Links to Radio Ink summaries of the Steve Wozniak/Eric Rhoads “fireside chat” and “Tech Guy” Leo Laporte’s keynote are here and here (respectively). Finally, check out brief video highlights of the event, Day 1 and Day 2.

NAB FILES CRB APPEAL BRIEF As expected, the National Association of Broadcasters filed its brief with the D.C. Circuit Court yesterday as part of the process of appealing the Copyright Royalty Board determination on webcast royalty fees. Party to the NAB’s brief are Bonneville and National Religious Broadcasters. The NAB states as its ground for appeal: “The CRB failed to follow the statutory standards for rate-setting and ultimately adopted a rate structure founded upon flawed methodology.” Read the NAB press release and brief summary here.

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