 RAIN 12/15: Reuters impressed with radio on the web this year ·Dec 15, 12:44 PM REUTERS: RADIO COMPANIES TOOK “GIANT STEP” ONLINE IN 20082008 was “a breakthrough year for radio on the Web,” according to a recent Reuters/Billboard article (here). According to the piece, Clear Channel and CBS Radio in particular “took giant step(s) forward in 2008 by embracing online and mobile applications like never before.” The iPhone in particular helped the move online.
ReadWriteWeb, commenting on the article here, said CBS’s moves this year (adding Play.It, AOL Radio and Yahoo! LAUNCHcast to their portfolio, which already included Last.fm) put them far ahead of even Clear Channel. TargetSpot CEO sees 2009 as even better. CLEAR CHANNEL “DE-LOCALIZING” HD SIDE CHANNELS ON STATION SITESClear Channel Radio sites are reportedly downplaying local HD-2 and HD-3 programming, according to Fred Stiening of StreamingRadioGuide.com (from Taylor on Radio-Info). That is, if you go to the “HD Radio” section of a CC station site (such as WMMS, here), you can’t tell what the local broadcaster offers via HD airwaves. Stiening told Taylor, “Clear Channel was probably the most aggressive company trying to raise consumer awareness of HD Radio… But about two months ago, Clear Channel restructured their entire HD lineup. Originally, each station’s website had the HD streams identified with that station and city… at least they made the pretense of localism. Now, if you visit the HD radio station of a Clear Channel web site, it just lists a selection of national simulcast streams, most of which have no correlation with the station’s own audience — with no identification of which stream is even carried on that specific radio station’s real HD channel.” Stiening’s site is here, read Taylor here.
REPLACEADS DEBUTS IN COMSCORE/ARBITRON AS THIRD LARGEST ONLINE RADIO NETWORKOnline media ad network ReplaceAds has announced that according to the October comScore/Arbitron Online Radio Ratings, they are the panel’s third largest online radio advertising network. ReplaceAds, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Jetcast, says its affiliates attracted nearly 1.8 million unique listeners during the average week in October. Read the press release here.
RAJAR RESPONDS TO RAIN, METHODOLOGY CRITICRAJAR research manager Christel Lacaze responded to our coverage Thursday of the latest RAJAR, Ltd. study of Internet radio and podcast listening in the UK (here). In our coverage, we mentioned criticism of the methodology behind the study from commentator Robert Andrews, who suggested a similar earlier report was “an attempt by Rajar to show it’s modernising, despite having ruled out electronic data gathering methods in favour of sticking with the humble diary entry until 2009.”
What we didn’t mention was that Lacaze had responded to Andrews’s criticism on his page (and you can read that response here). Finally, you can read the RAJAR report, with an explanation of its methodology, here. RADIOWORLD FREE WEBINAR TO TACKLE NEW TECH RADIO IN 2009RadioWorld will host a free 1-hour webinar this Wednesday at noon ET (11am CT) called “What to Watch for in 2009.” Attendees are invited to help determine the specific topics to be discussed via a short survey when they register. General topics may include HD Radio, mobile, online streaming, and new apps for consumer devices, as well as regulatory changes under the new administration. David Layer from the NAB Science & Technology Department, Greater Media VP/Radio Engineering Milford Smith, and VP/CTO of NPR & Executive Director of NPR Lab Mike Starling are the presenters. Register online here.share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
Comment Other stories RAIN 2/8: Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy to keynote at RAIN Summit North RAIN 2/5: Streaming music site TheSixyOne adds game-like features, visual beauty to Net radio experience RAIN 2/4: Apple enables desktop browser previews of iPhone apps RAIN 2/3: Karmazin addresses competing with Net radio, for in-car listening and for Howard! RAIN 2/2: Radio's battle with webcasters for local advertisers may have begun RAIN 2/1: Sixty million in U.S. will listen to Net radio this week, study says RAIN 1/29: iPad's limitations will challenge app makers, including webcasters, says WSJ RAIN 1/28: RAIN announces 2010 Las Vegas Summit RAIN 1/27: Apple iPad to run iPhone apps; CBS names Kucharz to head digital efforts for radio and TV RAIN 1/26: News format most popular online last year, says RadioTime |
Not only is Clear Channel de-emphasizing its HD channels online, it appears to have done away with most of them. A look at the former site for Format Lab (available at http://www.clearchannelmusic.com/formatlab/ ) shows that the site is now redirecting traffic to http://www.iheart.com where Clear Channel streams its local signals for a U.S. audience only. I found only 3 of the former Format Lab channels available through that site, and I suspect that, like Clear Channel’s local stations, access outside of the U.S. has been terminated.
— ted chittenden · Dec 15, 03:15 PM · #
Good point. It’s true that Clear Channel does block non-US listeners and has for quite a long time, to the degree that I identify Clear Channel stations in the directory and tell non-US visitors they probably can’t listen to those stations.
— Fred Stiening · Dec 15, 06:19 PM · #