Webstream goes mainstream
Internet radio industry expected to eventually soar like cable TV and FM radio

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By JERRY DAVICH Times Features Writer | Tuesday, February 05, 2002 | (No comments posted.)

John Bowles is confident that his current moonlighting gig in cyberspace is surfing a wave of popularity that will eventually reach mainstream waters.

The 26-year-old Web radio guru is the man behind the curtain of One Kind Radio (www.onekindradio.com), a locally-produced streamline music Internet site. Through an eclectic broadcast, with new shows debuting each month, Bowles has been featuring regional talents and independent music from his Hobart home since April.

"My initial aim was to focus worldwide attention on the great music scene right here in Northwest Indiana and Chicago. A lot of talented regional bands get overlooked by mainstream radio," the music journalist said.

Web radio, first introduced in the early 1990s, uses constantly evolving Internet technology to download "streams," or bits, of music to a computer-friendly audience growing tired of traditional (dubbed "terrestrial") radio stations that are increasingly long on commercials and short on play lists.

With a click of a mouse, visitors can trap an incredible array of online music, whether it's rap, folk, jazz, Brazilian mambo or cutting-edge power pop. Many home or work computers are equipped with either RealPlayer or Windows Media Player bundled into its software to access the technology. But if it's not, most Web radio sites allow you a free audio download.

"People are becoming more computer literate every day," said Bowles, who learned how to harness the technology while working at a Chicago marketing firm. "And kids today are growing up with this technology. This will be the norm for them when they're my age."

John Gorman, former programming manager for Cleveland-based WMMS, a progressive rock station, has spent the past few years establishing Radio Crow (www.radiocrow.com), an Internet radio/media outlet.

Gorman is convinced people are becoming fed up with the "McDonaldization" of traditional radio formatting, and they will inevitably turn to the Web. He also believes that the same resistance found now with Web radio was the same mentality that caused people to doubt the capabilities of FM radio back in the early 1970s.

"I hear the same arguments today that I heard then," he said.

Back then, people joked that FM stood for "find me," because it was so difficult to locate a clear station for long. And people who bought FM converters for their cars were considered geeks by their AM-loving friends. But as pop culture evolved, so did the mediums that reflected it, Gorman said.

"And it's only a matter of time before Web radio emulates the FM-band trend," he noted. "It will eventually take off because traditional radio is not talking the same language as today's kids."

Critics of Web radio say that the medium is not easily accessible, not mobile enough, or too expensive to tap into. Industry insiders say that will change in much the same way that cable TV has become a household staple in this country.

"I don't believe Web radio is a passing fancy," said Dom Caristi, a telecommunications professor at Ball State University. "It may never replace traditional radio, but I believe it's here to stay."

Caristi says as people become more comfortable with being online, more will discover the hundreds of audio channels available to them. And as for the comparisons to FM radio and cable TV?

"It's really in a class of its own," he said. "Internet radio is something available worldwide, but only to those who invest heavily in a computer and an Internet connection. It also requires a minimal level of technological savvy, which FM radio reception and cable TV subscription did not."

Fritz Messere, a New York communications professor and author of "Broadcasting, Cable, the Internet and Beyond" (McGraw-Hill, 2000), said there are several problems with Web radio taking on the kind of growth that sustained radio in the '70s and cable in the '80s.

"The Web has great potential but not in the near (future). The economics of supporting a large growth of program services hasn't panned out," he said. "The shift to FM was simply a shift in dollars to the new band, not a shift to a different medium."

The Internet is just 6 years old as a mass medium, Messere said, and like radio, it will take a number of years before it's clear what the nature of the service will be and how it will be funded.

But during these growing pains, "people are slowly getting hooked," said Sven Haarhoff, communications director for MeasureCast Inc., an Oregon-based firm that tracks Internet broadcasters, advertisers and media buyers.

Haarhoff said that although word of mouth is still the best form of advertising, the biggest obstacle between Webstream becoming mainstream is corporate backing.

"That's the next challenge for this year," he said.

Messere agrees: "The ad industry has not found that the Web can deliver the same bang for the buck as (traditional) mass media."

According to MeasureCast figures, there are roughly 5,000 Web radio sites operating today. And current advertisers include Bose Speakers, Target, U.S. Army, Priceline.com, Discovery Channel, Lexus, Sony, Slim Jim, Guinness beer, Bud Lite, Levi's and McDonald's. But many advertisers are only slowly dipping their toes into the Web stream waters, first seeing if a large enough audience is clicking onto the sites.

There are reports that streaming media ad spending will hit $3 billion by 2005, up from $44 million in 2000, attributing the sharp increase to a growth in residential broadband adoption during the next few years, according to The Yankee Group, which tracks Internet business.

The latest Nielsen/Net ratings report shows impressive industry growth, as the at-home broadband audience surpassed 21 million in November, a spurt of 90 percent from the year before. And one out of every five cyberspace surfers accessed the Internet via broadband connection, reaching a record 20 percent of the total 106 million active Web users.

"Web radio popularity is not a question of how or why or where. It's a matter of when," said Bowles, whose site offers links to many local bands.

Jerry Davich can be reached at jerryd@howpubs.com or (219) 933-3243.

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