EMMIS SPINS OFF INTERACTIVE DIVISION: The new company, Emmis Interactive Inc., will market its services to other broadcasters and media companies. For instance, Emmis Interactive now has Renda Broadcasting as a client, “to set up their entire interactive operations, including consulting on the organizational setup; designing the web sites and providing the technology to power the sites; and training and developing the entire Renda sales and station management team,” according to a press release. Read more here.

CBS RADIO UNVEILS DIGITAL NETWORK: The CBS Digital Radio Network is reportedly the integrated presentation of the company’s terrestrial and Internet-only programming via a single online media player, which will launch at Play.it (where you can currently sign up for an invitation to the beta test). In addition to navigating and listening to station streams, users will be able to create and share “personalized stations,” receive graphical newsflashes for local information and links to relevant content on other CBS stations.

RAIN SUMMIT RECAP: PANDORA EXECS ON MOVING NET RADIO OFF THE PC: “All of us recognize that over the next 3 to 5 years, transitioning Internet radio from a mostly ‘at work in front of the computer’ experience is the single most important thing… other than getting a royalty structure that enables us to survive,” said Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy (right), to begin the second keynote of the RAIN Las Vegas Summit. “But we have to be real about this transition. It’s inevitable, but there are real challenges and work ahead.” Also addressing the room, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad (left) illustrated just how challenging Pandora’s migration to mobile devices has been. “We’re on 50 different phones on 4 different operating systems, every single phone has unique streaming and firmware bugs that take weeks and weeks to iron out before we can launch.” Any single device “can be a tremendous amount of work to funnel through” to small audiences for a particular platform. And what’s vitally important will be for Net radio to match broadcasting’s enormous convenience advantage, what Kennedy called “push a button sound comes out.” And while they said they’re excited about developments and potential in the auto industry (pointing to BMW’s Connected iDrive program), “we’ve always thought the home is really the best near-term opportunity to get off the PC and get into the living room and kitchen,” explained Kennedy. There’s lots of activity in the home device/wireless market for Internet radio, and Conrad stressed the role content companies like Pandora should take in shaping the future. “We have a role to play in making the consumer electronics industry understand the opportunity of radio style listening in the home and the things our industry needs to keep it simple,” he said. Concluding with points about the unprecedented power of personalization, insight into listener behavior and tastes, and the resulting potential for crafting powerful messages and brands, Conrad offered this: “The core set of competencies to compete in an IP-connected world are different than those that were required to succeed in broadcasting, so it’s likely a whole new set of top players will emerge. We’ve gotta get good at these things as an industry.”

NET RADIO-RELATED TECH TAKES 3 OF COLUMNIST’S “5 TECH GADGETS THAT STILL ROCK”: San Jose Mercury News columnist Mike Cassidy doesn’t mind being behind the curve when it comes to technology. He’d rather his tech be time-tested and affordable, so he doesn’t mind being “unhip.” And Cassidy’s “5 Tech Gadgets That Still Rock” include Internet radio service Pandora, Major League Baseball’s game audio streaming subscription service, and Apple’s AirPort Express (which makes Internet radio and computer audio files playable over a home stereo). The other two, by the way: Dish Network’s DVR and the wireless mouse. Read the column here.

THIS MAY BE THE FIRST SIRIUS/XM RECEIVER: The not-yet-released Sirius Starmate 5 (currently undergoing FCC testing) may be the first satellite radio receiver capable of both Sirius and XM Satellite Radio reception. Satellite Radio blog OrbitCast points to a comment made in a leaked FCC correspondence with the firm testing the device. Readers can judge for themselves, of course. The line reads, “We need you to do another bandwidth test. You need to put a real radio signal and not a tone. We used the satellite radio signal coming from either XM or Sirius.” Read OrbitCast here.

Comment

1. Transitioning Internet radio (to wireless devices) should be a priority, as Pandora’s Joe Kennedy (and others) emphasized at the RAIN summit, and will evolve with or without a coordinated effort by the emerging medium’s principle participants. The NAB meanwhile, in its convention next door to the RAIN gathering was deliberating a similar measure under study by a group dedicated to achieving standardization for the delivery of video programming to these same hand-held devices. Audio-only programming should take a cue from the Open Mobile Video Coalition, and seek common agreement on interfaces for Internet Radio growth outside of what Kennedy calls the “work in front of the computer” experience.

   Kennedy also points out that RAIN members and readers see “real challenges” in “getting a royalty structure that enables us to survive”. Royalties are certainly a major issue for everyone offering music to listeners through the internet, but another, more insidious issue lurks in the shadows. Programming controls now established by the Sound Exchange and the Recording Industry Association of America might eventually prove to be a much greater threat to the development of Internet Radio. Quite frankly, it should be scaring programmers out of their wits. To veteran radio programmers, it seems unconscionable to permit the RIAA to establish such requirements as no pre-announcing of song titles, limits on the number of songs from CD’s within given time periods, and other conditions that Internet Radio operators must accept to be granted licenses for playing copyrighted music. Yet, this seemingly small concession has passed almost unnoticed, while everyone’s attention is focused on the incredible fees that Kenney, and nearly everyone involved recognizes as having the potential to simply put streamers out of business.

   It will be interesting to see if broadcast radio will be so willing to let the RIAA dictate programming rules now required of Internet Web-casters. Unfortunately, with the lines of ownership blurred almost beyond distinction between over-the-air radio and huge corporate controlled music industry, the loss of content control over music programming may well have already passed well beyond the point of no return.

   — Rick Crandall · Apr 29, 02:11 PM · #

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