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INTERNET “CAME TO THE RESCUE” FOR SALEM: Salem’s Internet revenue provided a bright point in an otherwise dreary second quarter report, growing 34% in the second quarter while the company’s radio offerings averaged an 8% drop. Altogether though, the “non-broadcast” portion of Salem grew 22%, thus rescuing the company’s second quarter as Tom Taylor reports. “Give Salem credit for consistently investing in the Internet, before it was popular for broadcasters,” he writes.

RAIN GUEST ESSAY: BELLIN SAYS BROADCAST RADIO DODGED BULLET BY NOT PREVENTING SAT CASTER MERGER:
By Bob Bellin
The radio industry fought the Sirius/XM merger with everything it had and threw the kitchen sink at it – millions of dollars, lobbyists, PR onslaughts, blog posts, you name it…and they lost. They should be glad they did. What’s odd to me is that it seems so obvious that had the merger NOT been approved, there would probably be more listener defections to Satellite radio, not fewer. And the radio industry should know that better than almost anyone…If the merger had not been approved, Sirius and XM would have likely been forced into some form of bankruptcy, which would have canceled out much or all of the big payments both companies had looming in the next 18 months. The result would have been two recapitalized companies that would retain their subscribers, but not the debt. So the marketplace would have two cash neutral (at worst) companies with nice sized subscriber bases, little or no debt and a chance to spend some real money on product development…
To read Bellin’s entire essay, click here.

EXPERTS SEE SPLIT AS SIGNAL TIME WARNER WILL SELL AOL: Time Warner has announced it will split AOL into separate divisions of dial-up Internet and advertising businesses by 2009, a development observers note will make AOL easier to be sold off. Indeed, AOL has reportedly been pulling down Time Warner’s profits as AOL second quarter revenue fell 16% to $1.06 billion. “A separation of AOL would eliminate what’s been a drag on growth and a management distraction,” said Christopher Marangi, associate portfolio manager at Gabelli & Co, a Time Warner investor. For more, read Reuters’ coverage here

15 CC STATIONS ADD EROCKSTER AS HD SIDE CHANNEL: Clear Channel’s indie rock webcast/HD-2 channel eRockster has been added to 15 stations, including WHTZ-FM (New York), KTBZ-FM (Houston), and KTCZ-FM (Minneapolis). Clear Channel launched eRockster earlier this year as an online music service and social network, as well as an HD2 side channel and on-the-air syndicated show (RAIN coverage here). For a full list of the stations added, read RBR’s coverage here.

CNET COMPARES 3 “TOP DOGS” IN HOME AUDIO STREAMING: CNet has published a detailed comparison of the top 3 home audio streaming solutions on its Crave blog, including the Logitech Squeezebox Duet, the Sonos, and the Apple TV. The Squeezebox (RAIN coverage here) is the cheapest option, featuring support for “a panoply of streaming services (e.g. Rhapsody, Pandora, Last.fm).” Sonos operates without bandwidth constraints, as it works separately to your home network, but CNet finds the price is too high for the amount of features. Finally, the Apple TV (RAIN coverage here) is obviously the only one with fully-integrated iTunes support, and can be wirelessly controlled with an iPhone or iPod Touch. Read the full reviews here.

SX CHIEF SIMSON CHAMPIONS RADIO ROYALTIES IN SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS: John Simson, SoundExchange executive director, has published an op-ed piece in The Mercury News calling for broadcast radio performance royalty fees. “While the radio industry rakes in $16 billion a year in advertising revenue, it is not paying artists even a fraction of a penny for the use of their music,” he writes, “It’s a simple issue of fairness. All musicians – from aspiring singers to well-known bands – deserve to be compensated for their music when it’s played over the radio.” Read his full article here.

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