MONETIZING CYBERSPACE REQUIRES BACK-TO-THE-FUTURE THINKING ABOUT YOUR RADIO SIGNAL
How do you get your radio? Eighty years ago, it was through a big console with a meaty speaker and beautiful wood cabinetry. Forty years later it was a transistor radio in your pocket or beneath your pillow. Twenty years ago: Walkman. Of course, car radios have been around since the 1930s. More recently, radio signals have been streamed on the Internet.
What’s the next primary device for radio listening? Your cell phone.
For an increasing number of radio listeners, cell phone reception of an Internet streaming signal is already the method-of-choice for daily listening. As more mobile device manufacturers roll out radio-friendly phones, iPads and whatever comes next, the number of people whose primary means of listening to the radio is their mobile device will increase exponentially.
Cell phone instead of transistor. Apple iPad in lieu of Sony Walkman. Blackberry rather than PC. Should this matter to local-market radio broadcasters? Sure. Because now we have more ways than ever to make money with our signals!
First, we have to get over the old way we think of our signal: console to AM or FM transmitter to radio receiver. Sure, that’s still here. It’s robust, mature technology and it isn’t going away for a long, long time. But even if you put out only one signal, consider what you can do with it now that you never could before:
- Extend your coverage area out to infinity
- Turn an AM daytimer into a 24/7 stereo station with exactly the same online coverage as a 100,000 watt FM
- Add print, photos and video to your output along with your radio programming
- Broadcast multiple events—even entire formats—simultaneously
The last item is where it gets really good: You’re not limited to one “signal” per station anymore! With Internet streaming, you can have as many signals as you have programming and advertising to place on them. Of course, you can create multiple signals for HD, too, but this has many drawbacks, starting with the fact that very few consumers own (or can even find) HD-capable receivers.
With Internet streaming, you’re tapping into cyberspace, baby—a wonderful depthless Wonderland where almost every citizen of North America and Europe already resides.
That all sounds wonderful for big-money, big-group operations. But how can a local-market station justify streaming its signal? Where are the opportunities to turn that Internet stream into a raging river of profit? Diversity: Offer more than one Internet stream. Call them WXXX-2, 3, 4, whatever, or anything you like. They’re your streams. You can run anything you want on them.
For example:
Play-by-play sports
With one signal, you’re limited to one live game at a time. What if you want to cover more than one area team? What about playoff time when you might well be able to sell half a dozen games a night if you only had somewhere to run them?
By offering multiple Internet streams, WXXX-1 (streaming your primary over-the-air signal) can cover the local team. WXXX-2 can simultaneously broadcast another game. WXXX-3 an additional tilt. You're no longer limited by your single over-the-air signal. And since nearly everyone has some kind of Internet access, every fan can listen to the game of his choice.
Seasonal specials
At one my first stations, we made a killing selling and recording high school chorus Christmas concerts. A lot more could have been aired if we had had the time to run them on our one and only signal.
Long-form news and special events
Don’t want to devote time to entire city council, board of supervisors or other meetings? No problem: We have a signal for that—on the Internet.
Niche Programming
Two formats come immediately to mind: Bluegrass and Polka. Both are wildly popular with their loyal fans. Both are also pure poison to programmers. Streamed on the Internet as fulltime formats or weekly programs, they’re moneymakers, often attracting sponsors that wouldn’t otherwise be available to you.
Specialty rock and country formats and all varieties of talk lend themselves to Internet programming separate from a station’s regular offerings, too.
What about local schools? If your high school or community college doesn't have a radio station or Internet radio, let them have a good chunk of one of your streams. You'll be amazed at the variety and quality of programming they'll provide.
Four Key Ingredients For Profitable Internet Streaming
You’ll need all four solidly in place in order to turn a profit.
- Promote – Cross-promote aggressively between your over-the-air signal and your stream(s) and on your main website.
- Legitimize – Thanks to the efforts of Google and other major online advertising providers, local retailers are now being made aware of the value of online advertising. Let them know this isn’t second-best or something provided as a bonus: It’s legitimate, targeted, advertising that works.
- Sell – Commit your sales force to selling the Internet stream(s). Remind them that they can include print ads as well as audio. Video, too, if you have the production capability. And don’t cut commissions just because it’s Internet streaming—pay the full load!
- Be consistent – Don’t just try streaming for awhile. Your Internet offerings must be available over a significant period of time if they’re going to make money.
Plant your flag in cyberspace and wave it proudly—and profitably—by looking at Internet streams as extensions of your brand. And at mobile devices like cell phones and iPads as the new transistor radio/Walkman/PCs of radio listening.
