Radio stations scramble to post video online
Cory Bergman February 14th, 2007
Radio station sites have been overlooked for years, but many of them are now racing to add video in an effort to draw new advertising dollars in a flat radio growth market. Beyond music videos, stations are shooting their own material and syndicating it to partner sites. “This is no longer the age of ‘having a face for radio,’” said Dianna Jason, the senior director of marketing and promotions at Power 106, a Los Angeles hip-hop radio station. Today the station’s site will provide a live stream of a Valentines event called, “Trash Your Ex,” in which participants can put momentos from past relationships through a big wood chipper. While radio sites will not drive online audiences as large as most full-featured TV sites, their sales efforts are beginning to go after the same online video dollars.
Adds Jack in comments: “Not sure why you don’t think radio sites are going to drive audiences as large as TV sites - there is no reason why they can’t equal if not beat them. In this space everyone is on an equal playing field. Radio might even have an advantage due to their very targeted and loyal audiences.”
19 Comments Add your own
1. Jack N | February 14th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Not sure why you don’t think radio sites are going to drive audiences as large as TV sites - there is no reason why they can’t equal if not beat them. In this space everyone is on an equal playing field. Radio might even have an advantage due to their very targeted and loyal audiences.
2. astowns | February 14th, 2007 at 8:47 am
Newsradio KIRO 710 in Seattle is posting video versions of a new feature series from Heather Bosch. http://www.710kiro.com
3. BillNYC | February 14th, 2007 at 10:25 am
WCBS880.com in New York has a video up that DrudgeReport is linking to….
4. thedetroitchannel | February 14th, 2007 at 10:51 am
looks like the prevailing mistake radio stations are using involves both their call letters and their dial position.
if this is how “everyone is doing it”, and none of them are setting the world afire, why would you follow?
radio, like tv, has to grasp the concept of becoming worldwide.
5. Anony Mouse | February 14th, 2007 at 5:35 pm
Jack N is right. We trumpet every time some stodgy old newspaper site starts posting shaky, out-of-focus boring video. What puts radio so far behind? Nothing.
6. Antibush | February 14th, 2007 at 7:59 pm
Watch subject. Bush goes ballistic about other countries being evil and dangerous, because they have weapons of mass destruction. But, he insists on building up even a more deadly supply of nuclear arms right here in the US. What do you think? How does that work in a democracy again? How does being more threatening make us more likeable?Isn’t
the country with the most weapons the biggest threat to the rest of the world? When one country is the biggest threat to the rest of the world, isn’t that likely to be the most hated country?
Our country is in debt until forever, we don’t have jobs, and we live in fear. We have invaded a country and been responsible for thousands of deaths.
The more people that the government puts in jails, the safer we are told to think we are. The real terrorists are wherever they are, but they aren’t living in a country with bars on the windows. We are.
7. David Martin | February 15th, 2007 at 8:29 am
Broadcasters, TV and radio, enjoy a somewhat unique advantage over others: the ability to promote their online assets using “free” on air promos. While broadcast has been found to be a very efficient way to drive online traffic the major issue remains: what are you driving them to? Getting the right content up in a way that is easy for non-IT folks to play and really easy for viewers/listeners to share is the challenge.
8. thenewdelhichannel | February 15th, 2007 at 9:26 am
“what are you driving them to?”
and WHO are you driving to it?
if you’re only driving what would be your otherwise tv viewing audience to your online offering then the age old cannibalization arguement works.
what about anyone outside your tv or radio broadcast signal? be it 100 miles outside or 10,000 miles outside, if there were an application that would “network” these world wide web channels then you stand to GROW your business…otherwise you’ve merely shifted them to another platform.
this week’s snow storm would be a prime example; take a look at the alexa numbers for cities from (mid) west to the east coast. you can almost TRACK the storm. which i contend is what many “out of market” users did.
9. David Martin | February 15th, 2007 at 12:01 pm
It seems fair to suggest broadcasters should first optimize performance in their DMA. The argument that online eats into main channel viewing is flawed in the following regard. Broadcast fights for share of online time in the same manner the big four fight for share of TV viewing time. At present, time spent online and time spent viewing TV are apples and oranges and, at times, concurrent media behaviors. Local online revenue upside is real just ask the dead tree guys currently eating the breakfast, lunch and dinner of broadcast. While I appreciate the veracity of your outside the DMA weather exhibit (as a former resident of Portland and Dallas I find myself checking the respective Belo sites in those DMAs to learn more about a breaking or developing story), the first and most critical priority for broadcast must be capturing the greatest share of local media behavior. No doubt, traffic and usage by national and international visitors will serve to enhance the value and utility of a station’s online assets but as a practical matter the home DMAs are still in urgent need of development.
10. thedetroitchannel | February 15th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
no disagreement there.
i have nevered argued anything less than to be THE channel in your own dma.
once that is gospel the only place to GROW your business is from the outside.
why not build your local with an intuitive premise; almost everyone has a “portland and dallas” in their lives and will find the information one way or the google.
why would a station group not try to capture that?
if i was a solid user of “belo” and trusted their content, would it not make sense me first click would be “belo-portland”?
11. ipodder | March 29th, 2007 at 11:45 am
It would all need to be real time I think.
12. Andonios | June 13th, 2007 at 8:11 pm
Nice…
13. Athanasios | July 9th, 2007 at 3:02 am
Cool…
14. Giorgos | July 9th, 2007 at 3:10 am
Sorry
15. Vassilios | July 9th, 2007 at 12:19 pm
Nice…
16. Demetrios | July 9th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
Nice…
17. Hermes | July 9th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
Interesting…
18. Matthaios | July 10th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Nice…
19. Kosta | July 10th, 2007 at 3:44 pm
Cool!
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