The Infinite Dial

I for one was thrilled to see the tremendous growth in online workplace listening revealed by our latest research from the Arbitron/Edison Internet and Multimedia Study. With the portion of at-work radio listeners who indicate that they most often listen to radio at the workplace over the internet growing from 12% to 20% over the last year, there can be no doubt that whether your station has figured out how to monetize its streaming or not, streaming is now an essential cost of doing business.

All of this means that it is now more urgent than ever to resolve the AFTRA/simulcast problem. The question is no longer "how do I monetize my stream," or "how do I get credit for Internet listening," but rather this--can you afford to lop off 20% of your at-work audience, and lose them to someone else, whether or not you have the details worked out? Let's hope that this finding gives radio even more leverage to force a resolution between AFTRA and agencies--and let's rescue our streams from the morass of PSAs and dead air that are killing our online brands.