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News From Audio Graphics:
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Radio, Meet Your New Local Competition |
It was on September 13 that Mel Taylor posted these words to his blog: "FOX Interactive Media and a few FOX O&O’s have launched a few local music websites in connection with MySpace." Mel and I spoke later that day. Fact is, we've spoken many times over the past ten years about how the radio industry is continually missing opportunities. Mel understands the internet landscape and how it relates to radio. Mel, also, doesn't understand why people he's worked with over the years don't understand this ongoing change.
Hopefully this next quote will be a wake-up call for radio managers to make a move. It comes from Editor & Publisher (the newspaper industry's main trade publication): "AmplifySD, which launched in 2006, mixes the power of the Internet with the local impact of a daily paper, giving those who log on a musical experience not found on any other local Web site." This local online radio station is a creation of SignOnSanDiego.com, owned by the San Diego Union- Tribune.
Now, I know that later today Mel will call, and we'll discuss how FOX Interactive Media is creating local music channels for its television stations. We'll also cover this new report that the San Diego Union- Tribune is offering a local radio station and that it's planning to expand with a second online radio station. Then, we'll both ponder why the radio industry isn't taking this approach to internet radio. That is, why is radio so enamored with placing its current broadcast programming online when it should be using the internet to create new formats for the next generation?
Then we'll laugh, because we both know the answer; the radio industry is so caught up in promoting HD Radio that it's not listening to what consumers are saying. It's the equivalent of standing with friends at a party and always having that one person in the group who keeps trying to get their idea across without listening to what the rest are saying.
Newspapers are in trouble, as newspapers. Revenues are flat and falling. The situation for newspapers is similar to that for radio, but at an accelerated rate.
Radio - local radio, online - is the logical step for any local newspaper. Newspapers understand the internet (publishing), they understand what constitues local content, and they know what the radio industry has been ignoring over the past decade (local music).
This combination of newspapers producing online radio programs is not new, only rejuvenated. It was first attempted about seven years ago by former radio owner Lee Zapis in affiliation with EverStream. At that time, the concept was to create news programming for newspaper web sites. It was ahead of its time and failed to attract attention.
Another approach to localizing internet radio was first attempted in 1999 by Mike Hilber, former GM of Lee Zapis' Cleveland station group (sold to Radio One).
ClevelandHits.com was an effort in futility, too far ahead of its time, but very similar to what the San Diego Union- Tribune is doing today. Mike's concept was to place a full-blown radio station studio in each city and broadcast - online - local music and content.
Broadband only had about a 13% penetration at the time - but ClevelandHits.com studio was still the envy of many local radio stations. Everything was state-of-the-art (studio, production room, computers, encoders, etc.) because Mike was a radio man doing radio on the internet.
Now that newspapers are coming to realize that the void in the local radio market can be easily filled online and that they have the capacity to fill that void, you'll be seeing more newspaper-backed internet radio stations.
And, as Mel Taylor mentions in his blog, Fox Interactive is also pursuing this "local" approach to placing radio online in conjunction with its television stations.
So, for broadcast radio stations that are promoting listening to their on-air signal online, here's a warning:
Unless that online content is different from what's presented on-air, your new competition in this environment is from newspapers and television, and they'll win the fight for local internet radio audiences.
Internet radio has arrived, there's no doubt. What's in doubt is if the radio industry is going to take advantage of it by doing internet radio in their community the right way - by localizing its content. Or, if the radio industry is going to continue its practice of regurgitating on-air programming online.
If it's the latter, meet your new competition for local radio advertising dollars. AmplifySD.com is the template for local internet radio success, and newspapers seem to have created it - with FOX TV stations not far behind.
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Related Story:
Editor & Publisher
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