 RAIN 2/19: Annual RAIN Summit hits Vegas April 20 ·Feb 19, 11:33 AM MAKE YOUR PLANS TO JOIN US FOR THE RAIN INTERNET RADIO SUMMIT 2009Sorry, but the Chinese character for “crisis” is not composed of those meaning “danger” and “opportunity.” Would’ve worked out nicely, though, as the double-whammy of continued uncertainty over Internet radio streaming royalties and the declining economy should make for some great fuel for radio’s inevitable re-invention for 21st century.
This year, the RAIN Summit will officially be a part of the NABShow. As a RAIN Summit attendee, you will get a free NAB exhibit hall pass as part of your registration. Over the coming weeks, we’ll announce the roster of panelists, keynote speakers, and special guests. Past RAIN Summit speakers include: Launch founder and former Yahoo! Music chief David Goldberg, Clear Channel EVP (and former AOL Radio head) Evan Harrison, Pandora founder Tim Westergren and CEO Joe Kennedy, DiMA executive director Jon Potter, Bill Freund of Triton Media, industry legal expert David Oxenford, and Tribune COO (and former Jacor CEO) Randy Michaels. We’d like to recommend that you finalize your travel and hotel accommodations soon, and we look forward to seeing you April 20th in Las Vegas! We’ll have more details on the Summit soon. NEW CBS/L.A. AMP RADIO WAS DEVELOPED AS ONLINE AND HD STATIONLate yesterday, news broke that CBS will flip FM-talk KLSX to CHR AMP Radio. Interestingly (as RBR reports here), the AMP Radio format was developed as an online “side channel” at AMPRadio.com and as a KCBS-FM HD2 channel. According to CBS press, “Amp Radio will combine the power of its on-air position with myriad online and digital applications creating a full 360 degree audio and visual experience for young adults.” Senior VP/Programming Kevin Weatherly is architect of the format. Weatherly says, “Incubating AMP Radio online and on HD 2 allowed us to experiment with different ideas, build brand loyalty, and analyze listener feedback.” CBS further describes the project as “an extensive online destination with blogs, music videos, widgets, photo galleries, celebrity gossip reports, in-depth artist pages, an embeddable and multi-functional streaming player, and a platform to create artist centric radio stations. Fans of the station can also stay connected through instant messaging, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites, as well as wirelessly via texting, and applications for the iPhone, and select Blackberry devices.”
SLATE COLUMNIST: SIRIUS NEEDS TO DITCH THE BIRDS, GET ONLINE“Sirius XM bet on a losing technology,” writes Farhad Manjoo in Slate (here). “Sirius XM offers what seems like a pretty great service… that has, in practice, been eclipsed by something far cheaper and more convenient: the Internet.” Manjoo describes how the more interactive services and broader range of choice of Internet radio — now appearing on portable devices — trumps satellite, and that’s even before accounting for Sirius XM’s financial woes.“My advice: Forget the satellites, the special radios, and the huge customer acquisition costs. Instead, focus on your content—and figure out a way to get it to the largest possible audience at very low prices,” he writes. “Make sure that Howard Stern and Oprah and Bob Dylan’s Theme Time Radio Hour and the NFL and Major League Baseball are available on every Internet-connected device on the market… And be sure to make it the cellular radio app, packed with features that allow for personalization—great enough that people will pay $5 a month for it… once you realize that your potential audience is everyone with a Web connection, the possibilities abound.” ANDROID RADIO DELIVERS OVER 70 CHANNELS TO GOOGLE-BASED PHONES Web Radio — the moniker of an application for mobile phones running on Google’s Android operating system — streams over 70 stations for free. More can be obtained by paying for an upgrade. The San Francisco Chronicle notes however, “Sadly, this program only hints at what it could be like to have access to the wealth and variety of Internet broadcasts…In many regards, it falls short of any reasonable expectations with a clunky interface, and touch-and-go reliability and slow response times when navigating the menus.” But it’s a start. Check out their coverage here.
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CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
We hope you plan on being a part of radio’s future, and we hope you’ll join us and the experts who’ll be creating radio’s tomorrow on April 20th, for the 
