MSN RADIO DROPS PANDORA AND SIMPLY SHUTS DOWN: Pandora and MSN Radio have ended their partnership, causing the latter service to shut down. MSN Radio had been powered by Pandora. Ending the partnership — which was enacted in November 2006 — was a “mutual” decision, reports Pandora founder Tim Westergren. He revealed that Pandora’s “limited resources” need to be consolidated in their flagship site, and that any partnerships “have to really be substantial…having been [on MSN Radio] for a while and been in front of their audience, it was no longer contributing that level.” For more on the story, read the Seattle Times’ coverage here.

RAIN ANALYSIS: Radio has not been easy for MSN. MSN Radio has had a checkered history: In 2000, Microsoft acquired a company called MongoMusic in a $65 million stock deal to build stations called “Sounds Like” that matched artists or moods. In 2003, MSN experimented with a $29.99 subscription service called MSN Radio Plus. In 2004, they launched a set of 900 “Local Sounds” stations that tried to mimic local-market FM stations (more coverage here). One flaw in the “MSN Radio — Powered by Pandora” plan may have been the fact that if an MSN user sampled and liked the product, it was probably easier for them to go to Pandora.com directly, rather than to radio.msn.com, thereafter. — KH

EDISON: FILLER DURING AD BREAKS ON STREAMS GETTING BETTER, BUT FAR FROM PERFECT: In a follow-up to their 2007 study, Edison Media Research reexamined how terrestrial stations in Atlanta handle covering on-air ads from being broadcast on their Internet streams. Edison reports “genuine progress” on some stations, who used to place repetitive PSAs or unsoundly filler music sloppily over their ads (practices that have picked up criticism, RAIN coverage here). While there was more variety in ad spots (some even coordinated with banner ads in the player), Edison still found “plenty of PSAs and lots of repetition,” along with some rough syncing. “It all figures into a listening experience that has gotten better, but could still stand to be improved in most cases…Their [online] stopset experience should, if anything, be better than that of the over-the-air audience.” Read Edison’s full study here.

LEE OFFERS FREE RADIO ADS TO PROVE POINT: At next week’s Advertising Research Foundation’s Audience Measurement 3.0 Conference in New York, Jerry Lee, AC WBEB (B101)/Philadelphia owner, will reportedly offer to create free radio commercials for anyone advertising in the Philadelphia area, in order to prove that radio ads can be more effective than their television equivalents. Offering the deal on behalf of the advocacy group Philadelphia Radio Organization, Lee believes the multi-layered, “conjoint analysis” research-centered process of creating ads at WBEB has been “perfected,” and he wants to share the process with the local radio community. “The PPM proves that radio delivers far greater reach, now it’s up to us to prove that we can deliver commercials with far greater selling power – and that’s just what we intend to do,” he said. Lee will reportedly provide all of the costs for research and production of the advertisements. For more on the story, read R&R’s coverage here.

DEL COLLIANO’S ADVICE: LAUNCH TEN 45-MIN MORNING SHOWS: Industry expert Jerry Del Colliano has outlined a plan for the future digital-integration of terrestrial radio’s morning show to capture Generation Y’s listernership, a plan that includes launching ten different morning programs—but broadcasting none of them on-air. Each show would target a different demographic (“Example: women 25-54”), would last as long as the average commute in the station’s metro area, and would download to listeners’ mobile devices “just in time for their morning commute.” He also recommends relying on “live read” advertisements rather than traditional commercials and bringing in new talent for the programs, rather than importing from the broadcast air-staff. “If you still want to be in the content business when the last baby boomer passes into The Hall of Fame, learn about the new radio – podcasting.” Read more of this thoughts at his Inside Music Media blog here.

SHAREHOLDERS APPROVE VIRGIN RADIO SALE: The SMG shareholders reportedly “overwhelmingly” approved the sale of Virgin Radio to a consortium including the Times of India Group for £53m. A top-webcaster and Internet innovator, Virgin Radio’s national UK AM and London FM stations will be taken over by the Indian media conglomerate by June 30, but the Virgin Radio brand will be kept by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group (RAIN coverage here and here). SMG bought Virgin Radio from Chris Evans in 2000 for £225m. For more coverage, read the Guardian’s article here.

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