More Care And Feeding Than Some Terrestrial Stations
Written Feb. 9, 2007 by Sean Ross in Internet Radio with 1 Comment
Even as a proponent of the Infinite Dial, I'm not a big fan of telling disenfranchised listeners that they can still find a station's previous format on its Website. It still seems too much like a consolation prize. And with the debatable exception of WOXY.com, there's just no sign that it ever really works. In fact, it's rare that telling listeners that their favorite format will still be available on AM actually works.
But Allentown, Pa., with only a handful of viable FM signals, was one of the few markets where Oldies on AM had actually gotten traction. When Nassau's WODE went Classic Rock several years ago, Clear Channel's WKAP became, for several years, a regular player in the 3-4 share range with a deep-playlisted music AM. But recently, WKAP became Contemporary Christian WYHM (picking up yet another FM format vacated by Nassau). A few weeks ago, N/T sister WAEB began stunting, eventually leading to the unveiling of an Oldies stream on its own Website.
I wasn't expecting much. There are, after all, a lot of ill-tended Oldies streams and HD-2 channels out there. But for now, anyway, WAEB Oldies Online is getting a lot more care and feeding than most. It has its own jingles (although it also uses a lot of bumpers/stagers from WAEB's N/T format), it runs traffic and weather and network news updates. Most interesting, I've heard three actual stopsets over the last 40 minutes or so with various combinations of at least five local retail sponsors (two of which were Oldies-related).
Now, hearing at least three stop-sets an hour isn't an advantage if you're just looking for a pure music stream, but WAEB Oldies Online is a much better radio experience than listening to a terrestrial station on-line and hearing the stopsets blocked out clumsily by a combination of hard-sell PSAs, fill songs, and the same promo repeated several times in the space of a few minutes. As with all those HD-2 multicast channels launched a year ago, it's hard to say how long this will be the case, but, for now, WAEB Oldies Online sounds like it's getting more care and feeding than a lot of terrestrial stations.
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I believe another GOOD example of migration to the internet had to be Clear Channel's "Channel 103.1", Los Angeles. At least it was fun while it lasted.
And I give Clear Channel all the credit for trying.
But when you look at the total economic picture affecting even traditional over-the-air radio - why would streaming - a medium that is subject to increased licensing fees for every new listener - be a priority?