Re: Why don't more stations webcast?

[mwaters@mail.wesleyan.edu (Martin J. Waters)]

>Matthew Owsborne wrote:
<snip>
>When I asked a friend of mine who is an Entercom employee why they have such
>a ban in place, the response I got was that realaudio streaming has little
>to no effect on the station's ratings in ITS own home market
<snip>

        At a minimum, though, as a big-chain station licensee, I would stay
on top of research about the internet radio audience and its growth, and
commission some if necessary. As another post said, getting the
$$##@@!!&**^%%$$ RA or other software to actually work remains a problem
for those of us who are all cyberthumbs, but that will be smoothed out as
time goes along. And, whatever audience does develop, IMO, will be mostly
for stations in the local market. Only radio geeks will sit in Florida and
listen to KGO :). And the radio ratings will start to reflect it when and
if it happens. It's also likely to be good demos for the sales
depts.--upscale people spending all day at fancy computers. And stations
aiming at generations X and Y, for example, ought to be very interested in
this.
        CBS/Infinity and other large groups with these bans are being
shortsighted (who's shocked?). It can't hurt to get out there now,
especially when there is this constant problem of people saying they cannot
receive the signals in large high-rise downtown areas and even steel
buildings in suburban office parks (where often the signal strengths are
lower to srart with). Good thing Mel wasn't around Westinghouse in 1920, or
KDKA wouldn't have bothered signing on and broadcasting those election
returns. After all, essentially no one was listening and no ads were sold.