RAIN: Radio And Internet Newsletter: RAIN 10/13: FCC plan for free national wireless Net gets engineers' go-ahead

RAIN 10/13: FCC plan for free national wireless Net gets engineers' go-ahead
·Oct 13, 12:10 PM
Posted by: Paul Maloney

FCC TECHS GREEN-LIGHT PLAN FOR FREE, NATIONWIDE WIRELESS SERVICE

In a report, FCC engineers say they have found no technical reason

not to move forward on a proposed plan for a nationwide, free wireless Internet service. The FCC plans to auction spectrum to a bidder who agrees to offer free, national Internet access, and could begin hearing bids by early next year. T-Mobile, which uses spectrum adjacent to the bands in question, had argued against the proposal, suggesting the new service’s signals would interfere with the company’s 3G wireless network. The Wall Street Journal reports here.

VODKA MAKER SUES UK ABSOLUTE RADIO

Swedish vodka brand Absolut has filed suit against the former Virgin Radio, which now calls itself

Absolute Radio, for trademark infringement. V&S Vin&Sprit, which owns Absolut vodka, says, “consumers are likely to be confused over the use of the similar names and that Absolute Radio could be detrimental to its vodka brand.” There’s more from The Guardian here.

ONLINE REVENUE AT NEWSPAPER SITES IS FALLING

The New York Times reports that the nation’s newspapers are now dealing with the fact that their online advertising growth, which publishers “saw as their salvation has slowed to a crawl.” While overall online advertising remains strong, “after 17 quarters of ballooning growth, online revenue at newspaper sites is falling.” Read more here.

CBS RADIO ADDS LAST.FM-BASED “NOW PLAYING” WIDGET TO STATION SITES

CBS Radio has added a “Now Playing” widget to the sites of a handful

of major market stations Friday. The widget displays song information (title, artist) and a purchase link to iTunes or Amazon. Additionally, there’s a function allowing users to “dedicate” songs to others using Last.fm technology (the recipient gets a dedication e-mail message). CBS says it will add the widget to every remaining station website in the next 4-6 weeks.

RADIOTAGR ALLOWS RADIO TAGGING…WITHOUT HD

A new service called RadioTAGr allows

users to “tag” a song they’d like to purchase when they hear it on FM (or AM) radio. The service works on computers and hand-held devices (including the Blackberry and the iPhone), and is basically an aggregated “now playing” service for stations in many (but not all) U.S. markets. Users choose their market and station to find out what song is currently playing, and can immediately (or later) purchase the song from iTunes or the song or CD from Amazon.

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