Featured Station: Whitester Radio-The 70's

Whitester Radio-the 70’s, made its Live365 debut in July, 2001 with the intent to broadcast 1970’s Music 24/7.  DJ David White, a former terrestrial radio talent, was enthusiastic about showcasing his talent, and wanted to offer a new 70’s station for people in the Omaha, NE area. At the time, Omaha had a couple of radio stations that played 70’s music. However, their selection was limited, and the hours of broadcasting were minimal.

To David, the music from the 1970’s reminds him of childhood, and his station is meant to bring back the music that went with it.  “A lot of my friends that I went to school with have told me that Whitester Radio-the 70’s is their favorite Whitester Radio stream via Live365 and they love to listen to it as much as they can. These friends told me that they feel the same kind of magic that I feel from 1970’s music that takes them back to their childhood.” 

To enhance the 70’s feel, the station started a specific radio show called “Back to the 70’s” with one episode for each year from the decade. The shows include trivia tidbits about the songs and the artists, a medley of the top songs and news stories of 1970 in the first hour, and the top entertainment news stories.   In the episode “Back to 1972,” David had the wonderful opportunity to interview Beverly Bremers about her musical career and her 2 Top-40 singles from 1972: “Don’t Say You Don’t Remember” and “We’re Free.” In “Back to 1973” David had the opportunity to interview Rod Novak, the saxophone player for King Harvest about King Harvest’s career and the background to King Harvest’s big 1973 hit single “Dancing In The Moonlight.”  The “Back to the 70’s” documentaries have been an extremely huge project for David, but all for a great cause. 

So far, David has recorded, produced and mixed the episodes from 1970-1973 and looks to finish the episodes from 1974-1979.  Until then, David hopes to continuously stream great music from the 70’s so that listeners all over the world can enjoy his station.

This Week in Digital Media: Cracking down on Piracy

Will stricter enforcement against piracy lead to increased online radio listenership?

In a recent report by CNET, several major internet service providers have been in talks with the recording industry to help crack down on piracy. Although in the early stages, this looks as if the record labels may have finally convinced ISP’s to aid them in reducing the amount of illegal content online.

For over a decade, record labels and consumers have been in a constant battle over illegal file sharing. However, the method of protecting artists and their music has never been clearly and strictly enforced. Certain high profile suits have been filed between record labels and individuals, but for the casual user, the threat of the recording industry knocking on your door seemed like nothing more than a scare tactic.

Not anymore. With the ISP’s monitoring illegal downloads, the repercussions are instant, and users are easily monitored. Pirates of illegal material will be cited, and potentially banned from using the service altogether. As the internet becomes more involved in our daily lives, the thought of not having it might just be enough to prevent people from abusing it.

Does this mean that we will see an increase in online radio listenership? Probably. Another post from a few weeks back (see here) discussed the increase of internet radio among consumers due to mobile applications, and predicted major changes within the next few years. This will undoubtedly be a factor as well.

To read the full article click here.

This Week in Digital Media: College Radio Stations, Alternative Listening

On Saturday, The New York Times posted an opinion article that discussed the hardships of college radio stations and paid homage to many prominent universities whose radio stations have suffered from underfunding and under appreciation. The closure of these stations has caused quite a stir among avid music listeners across the country.

For a long time, college radio stations had been a place where new music could be discovered organically, and shared without the underlying desire to drive a profit. However, budget cuts, furloughs and other hardships have hindered these programs at thousands of colleges and universities and forced many to end their broadcasting tradition. As more stations close and more listeners are left stranded, where will consumers find their source for new music?

Many listeners have explored online radio options, but remain wary of the corporate agenda behind the broadcasting that they hear. Computer algorithms and beat synchronization can predict what you like from a number standpoint, but there is no telling who or what is profiting from your listening hours. Additionally, many music enthusiasts desire the aspect of “human touch”, and appreciate that someone like themselves put time into creating a set list and researching the artists and music they play.

The thrill of finding a new artist or hearing new music will never die among avid music lovers. There is an element of surprise obtained when a new song catches your attention; and college radio stations have long been the source of alternative and eclectic music from all genres. There is no telling where radio will go, as it is affected by so many other factors. However, we can only hope that “college” style radio will continue to exist.

To read the entire article click here.

This Week in Digital Media

In a recent study of online media listenership, eMarketing determined that 37.5% of US internet users ages 12 and older will listen to online content at a weekly basis this year.  These numbers rose to 44.7% when calculated on a monthly basis.  While much of this is attributed to the growing number of consumers with smartphones and data plans, there is evidence that music listeners are turning to online broadcasts to satisfy their listening needs.  Showing steady growth in listenership, eMarketing estimates that by 2015 as many as 68% of internet users will be tuned in to an online broadcast of some kind.  

With the rise of listenership, the amount of advertising has also increased making online radio advertising nearly a 1 billion dollar industry annually.  Though nowhere near the size of terrestrial radio advertising, online radio ad space will continue to increase in value as more listeners tune in.  

We have seen in the past few years the effect the internet has had on print media.  The ability for consumers to attain information faster, cheaper, and even automatically has diminished the need for a hard copy paper in US households.  As a result, newspapers have cut their staff significantly, reduced news coverage overall, and continuously struggle to retain annual subscriptions.  In short, the internet has caused one of the most profitable businesses to crumble right in front of our eyes.  To combat the recent struggles, publications like the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have adopted an online payment system to obtain dividends from print material online.  However, the general consumer has grown accustomed to getting their news for free, and in some cases, these pay-for-read schemes have backfired. 

This begs the question: With many bold predictions regarding digital media, combined with the recent changes to print media, what are the possible outcomes to the future of radio? 

To read the full eMarketing article, click here.

Featured Station: Astreaux World

Broadcast365 would like to welcome Astreaux World as our first featured station!  Astreaux is a free internet radio station broadcast on Live365.com featuring ambient music, space music, new age music, electronic music and sprinklings of comedy, science-fiction, and metaphysics. “It's a world constantly battling against implosion.”

Jerry Asher aka Astreaux the DJ, launched the station in December 1999 with the purpose of supplying himself with his favorite new age music, ambient music, and space music while he traveled. Instead of carrying CD’s with him, he thought it might be easier to just get online and stream the music over the internet.

Unexpectedly, he started receiving requests from listeners to his station. He had made the station presentable but didn’t expect to get many, or any, listeners. Often a request came for an artist unknown to Astreaux which was a treat as it exposed him to new artists and new music.

Due to the station’s popularity, Astreaux started devoting time to the station and the interaction with listeners and artists. For the first year and a half the station had no web site to call its own, and operated from a "Group" on Yahoo to handle communications. Finally he busted loose and built AstreauxWorld.com to host his devoted followers.

Reverend Dr. Rick assumed the responsibility of the station and the websites after the untimely passing of Astreaux on December 27, 2008. As a long time listener and frequent visitor on Astreaux World, he agreed to keep things going as a tribute to what Astreaux had created.

Astreaux World is 24 x 7 and 365 days a year (“Earth year or any other planetary time measurement”). The station is operational always, whether manned or on autopilot (“when we fold space to other locations frequently”) and follows the principle... "If you stream it, they will come."

Astreaux encourages you to look around, buy music from their artists, meet others, kick the tires, listen to the music, learn about the so-called company, and if you feel so inclined, help out by donating to support the station.

Additionally, you may stay up to date with events in and around Astreaux World by following their Twitter.com site @AstreauxWorld. It's free, fun and safe. Hear what is playing next, shout out to followers, and learn general information.

Listen to Astreaux World here:

www.astreauxworld.com