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When I started editing interviews /commercials on 1/4" tape with a blade at age 15 on a giant valve driven EMI 'monster' (2NX Ncle - 1967) I never dreamed I'd be running my own internet radio station exclusively for pet lovers in my 50's!! - I've also worked in the music industry with everything from 2" 16/24track, stuff right through to unlimited tracks using various digital media. My 'colourful' career also saw me at the beginning of FM radio in Australia 1980 (Triple-M Brissy)... having previously worked in AM only stations.... so what's my point?...In all this time that the transmission MEDIUM has evolved, very little of the transmitted CONTENT has changed - no I mean REALLY changed - think about it! Just like the push to widesceen / digital TV so called 'digital' radio in all its forms only makes the purists / manufacturers and polititians happy. People who thirst for GOOD CONTENT will ALWAYS seek it out no matter how it is delivered. CONTENT WILL ALWAYS BE KING!... there I've said.. thanks for the soapbox ;-)
I am all for Net Radio. Your audience isn't limited to a few kilometres and you have have a listening audience right around the world. I love what The Basement does.
My co-founder of www.netfm.net and I firmly believe that internet radio, for want of a better term, definitely has a future. We've been doing it for 5 years and during that time we’ve seen our audience grow every month. We receive comments from the world over praising the diversity of our station and also the style of it. It is unlike anything they have in their local region, where ever that may be.
Net stations biggest problem in Australia, is the cost of bandwidth. Unfortunately we will continue to be restricted until bandwidth costs in Australia become more reasonable, but, this will no doubt happen in time. Rates in other countries are dropping like hot potatoes, Canada is a prime example.
At netFM we have always said we are ahead of our time. Whilst we can deliver good quality sound, and content that listeners like, it has been difficult at times to convince local advertising agencies to spend their clients money on an audience that could well be mostly international. In time, this will change. Companies will come to realise that they can access an enormous amount of audience information that can practically pinpoint the listener and details of them and will either deal direct with the station or direct a portion of their advertising dollar from each market to a net “broadcaster”.
It is not terribly difficult to do, servers sitting in different ISP’s around the world taking the main stream but with targeted advertising for those locations. Its basic syndication. We are already in negotiation with a number of international ISP’s. That’s got to be a better deal for advertisers than 2000 people (or however many it is in other cities) filling in a book that supposedly reflects what they listened to last week or whenever, if they can be bothered to fill the book in at the time. I’ve done it! They came to collect the book and I hadn’t filled it in, so had to do it at collection time. And P.D.’s live and die by these statistics? It doesn’t matter what technology ratings agencies adopt, it will never be as accurate as what can be obtained from the net.
The beauty of net radio as such, is that it is, or can be, global radio, providing content that caters to a huge audience worldwide, perhaps not everyone, but what radio does? Sure it might not contain all the things that are relevant to your neighbourhood, but when you know what’s happening down the end of your street, many want to know what is happening in another part of the world or what interests people in other countries, and in this age of globalisation, that interest is becoming more and more enticing and interesting to people.
Digital radio may offer listeners more options, but at the end of the day, there are the same amount of advertisers out there, and an ad is an ad, digital or not. It will cost stations more... but it is really worth their while?
RE. anon. user 23 Feb. I tend to agree with you to a point. I entered the Internet broadcaster scene 3 years ago and it was a little too early in my opinion. I was working for one of the three broadcasters that folded in rapid succession. Hmmm. fingers burned with no pay. Although, Internet Broadcasting seems to be more healthier today than then. It's worked very well in Europe and North America for some time. There doesn't seem to be a lack of international sponsors wanting their name mentioned on air, whereas a local menswear store wouldn't see the benefit to advertise across the world. As for digital delivery, has anyone worked for a community station that has had to change their frequency to make way for a new commercial station paying a multi million-dollar fee for a spot on the FM band? I've read about such a case here in Australia. Even as far back as 1994, I contacted the Spectrum Management Agency for a copy of the FM band chart and was amazed to see how much of it was already taken up by Australian FM broadcasters with hardly any free FM space available for future allocation. Very conjested as compared to say, Canada, with their population of 25+ million people. With more future services, surely to be allocated to the FM band and more re-shuffling of community radio frequencies in the future to make way for them, (as they say 'you own the call-sign, not the frequency'), digital delivery is really the only option that I can see. Maybe some techies can offer some insight here?
Hey RadioInfo: - Why do you have 'anonymous' contributors.. are these guys/gals afraid to speak up?.. geez all you anonymizers..... are you all still so afraid of your boss / position you can't 'revea;' wjho you are??? .... anywat, to Anonymous., 23, Feb who wrote: THIS MESSAGE IS FOR EVERY ONE WHO HAS ADDED TO THIS FORUM. READ IT! I say.....
'Digital' radio is simply a means of 'compressing' numerous stations into ever limited bandwidth... it is not 'new' in that it will deliver anything perceptively better than currently exists (although technically yes I'd concur it is better)... but it is simply a means to an end.
When 2SM was #1, (ah yes way back when!!....they had the most heavily compressed sound ever heard in Sydney...ROCKTOBER RULES!!! but it was technically shit.... but they stayed that way (sounding shithot) for many years AND won the rating across the board.... at the same time, 2UE had Lawsie...and THEY were #1... why?? hmmm.. maybe it was the 'golden microphone' that made him 'sound' better???...
so all this 'digital' nonsense is simply that... puffery!!!... it is the C O N T E N T...that makes it 'work'.. for listener and advertiser alike.
As an old muso mate of mine once said (Keef)... if it aint happening man , it aint happening and no amount of f'ing fairy dust is gonna make it happen!! ..deep I know but oh so true ;-)
I think that digital radio is the way of the future weather we accept it or not. If we take the example of other forms of digital technology we can see that there will be a strong cost saving to be had relative to the technical advancements that can be achieved. I agree with Mr. Pickering Content will always be king however in just the same way as the FM revolution changes the face of Radio I believe the digital revelation will also affect it and it already is with internet radio.
Maybe the older punters will not see any difference but there is an audience out there who will see the difference in exactly the same way as I did as a lad of 15 when Eon FM first came on the air in Melbourne all those years ago. It’s the way of the world folks and when you couple the thrust of the technology machine with the obvious cost down advantage as the technology matures we are going to experience it as station owners try to increase there profit margins and increase there revenue streams.
Hi to 'ANONYMOUS USER 24/2' (who seems to be shouting for some reason - ALL CAPS...)
Do you know of any radio station in OZ that puts totally 'anonymous' callers to air? - Radio always (or should) have call backs or access to the caller's profile etc.. little is left to chance! Anyway - this forum is about DIGITAL RADIO - unless you have some pecuniary interest in this medium, why would you even WANT to be anonymous - it's hardly a contentious issue - I'm already suspicious of you 'ANONYMOUS' - have I worked for you?
Anyway, I digress.. Digital delivery is NOT the future.. it is now - has been for a while actually.. we all know that - BUT - and here is the crux of my thoughts - FM broadcasting in OZ in the 80's only changed the 'style' of music we were playing and how we presented it.. eg; slightly more album skewed for a few years, and all those LIVE TO AIR concerts - even the crap bands got up somehow!! (I know.. I helped pioneer them - the concerts, NOT the bands..) and man - we woz sooo coool with all them laid back 'whispering jocks' ;-)) but then we discovered we could sound LOUDER with 20:1 ratio COMPRESSOR/LIMITERS on the TX line (gee that's new) and sound just like... wait for it... *AAA MMMM* but in Stereo!.....
Why?.. because focus groups showed listeners still liked the 'punch' of AM... Now THAT was (and is) a commercial reality and technology is ALWAYS about commercial reality (Bill Gates)
And to Tony Fitzsimmons (please call me Brian) - yes I agree that the 'now' generation WILL embrace Digital Radio just as we embraced B&W TV in the 50's, Colour TV in the 70's and FM in the 80's.
Digital Radio / delivery methods are a cool technological development that will help showcase future CONTENT - but if we promote technology over content... geeez I just.....(sob sob.. sounds of crying... heartbreak... throwing in the towel etc).. I just wonder where we will all end up... anonymous perhaps?
I personally believe that radio or more to the point CONTENT will find their place as have cinema and dvd/vhs with other media. At the end of the day how this CONTENT gets to the listener is all that is going to change.
The basics of a radio station is to supply entertainment and information to the listener (it must pay it's way too). Now say your an AM radio station and you demo leans towards office workers. These guys are on the computer all day and we all know about office noise (both acoustic and eletronic) when playing the radio. If this station offered a stream, would it not make sence to listen on the pc????
The point here is this is already digital and not really RADIO!!!!!!It's netcasting!!!!!
The same thing is with Pay Tv. Why would you pay for it when you can get it free?? Answer the pay tv boys can offer a more comprehensive selection than one FTA ch.
Also as one who runs a netcast the listener you get is completely different to radio. They are right in front of thier computer and you can see 100% how many there is on line. Netcasting at this stage is no match for mass media broadcasting ----but times are advancing.
At the end of the day the average person likes QUALITY and variety. If that comes out the speaker clear and clean who cares how it got there!!!
Just please people let's not make the mistake of doing a lipstick job like the US and the IBOC system. Australia needs a digital system for a BIG area. Let's get our thinking caps on!
There is a lot of great technology coming out on the market sure it might be expensive to get into but it is cheep to run once you in. The versatility and power of applications like the stuff David is making in Germany or what LAWO are producing leave the competition for dead. There is a lot of really cool toys out there and they will defiantly help make the content more creative. Sure the government needs to decide what format of digital we use but that will happen and they really need our help as an industry to get it right but in the mean time anyone who is at the pointy end of content development needs to get across what they will be able to do with the new range of toys out there. I know that’s what I will be doing as I plan to be in broadcasting for some time yet its so much fun don’t you think. If its not fun as someone said in one of the other forums it might be time to change careers.