Audio4cast

More Broadcasters Not Streaming

August 5, 2009 at 6:36 pm Jennifer Lane Leave a comment

photo by Larry He's So Fine/Flickr

The number of broadcast stations that are streaming has dropped, according to a report by Radio-Info. According to Fred Stiening of StreamingRadioGuide.com, a site that tracks and tests stations’ streams, the number is down from 7400 to 7100. According to Stiening, none of the “big radio guys” have stopped streaming, but the independent ones have. (Take Jerry Lee for example). He speculates that it’s because they aren’t selling the online spots. Taylor’s headline for the article says it’s due to the royalty issue, but there’s no further explanation of this in the article.

Yes, the streaming royalty fees are expensive. But are they a reason to stop streaming? Well, only if you think the electric bill is a good reason to shut down your transmitter….

I apologize for beating a dead horse on this one, but I’d go so far as to say that we’ve now gotten to the point where streaming is essential to the survival of a broadcast station. And if you’re not selling the ad inventory, it’s probably because you have a sales team that doesn’t understand streaming. You may even have a program director that doesn’t. Maybe doesn’t even listen to the stream. So here’s what you do. Buy everyone a tabletop Internet radio, or if you can afford it, get them an iphone. Show them how to stream your station. Once they understand what it is, they’ll start to sell it.

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