Internet Radio, Interactive Radio, Visual Radio. Are You Considering Them in Your Modern Media Mix?

Bet you think Internet Radio is just for music. Or, maybe you've never even considered the possibilities of interactive radio in your modern media mix.

Think of it as your own niche broadcast channel: a marketing medium, Internet talk radio, a corporate intranet feature for internal communications, or an executive briefing "show." You might start out by replacing that excruciating user experience of the traditional IR conference call with the more sublime experience of Internet radio.

Internet radio is easy on bandwidth, while being able to include modern media features, such as personalization, chat, on-demand content, “side-channels,” polls, advertising, immediate downloads or purchase options, and onward into your imagination. No, it is not podcasting. It is real-time, streamed live audio, but of course, it can also be offered on-demand (and should be).

I am surprised at how “off the radar” Internet radio is with PR and other communications professionals, although advertisers are finally taking a serious look at it. Think about it: virtually everyone with a computer already owns the hardware they need to listen to Internet radio at their desk or on the move. Every mobile phone, laptop, PDA owner with a wifi card is already carrying around with them, effectively, a 10,000-channel receiver. Now add other advantages like virtually unlimited number of format choices, the ability of your audience to personalize listening, to easily add interactivity, well, Internet radio is not only rich and more convenient but is one of the most powerful modern media tools available.

Worldwide listening hours per month on existing Internet Radio is approaching 200 million. The BBC alone saw 11.2 million listening hours in February, accompanied by over 50 million page impressions on it’s Radio 1 service.

Arbitron – yes, the same company that gives us terrestrial radio measurement – has been tracking major Internet radio stations and networks for advertisers and broadcasters since 2002. Arbitron and Edison Media Research recently released it’s 13th study Internet and Multimedia 2005: The On-Demand Consumer, citing that 37 million Americans now listen to Internet radio every month.

But, the biggest news for communicators and marketers is that, by far, most of Internet radio is listened to during business hours (80%). This is when all other media usage falls short. Internet radio is the perfect medium to reach and satisfy the very people moving away from traditional media. It opens up the possibility of new content channels aimed at the “at-work’ crowd or niche content for professionals or employees. And, let’s not overlook that it is measurable.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Arbitron study is that Arbitron is beginning to measure modern media, going beyond tracking traditional terrestrial radio and studying usage of popular and evolving “what I want/when I want it” devices such as MP3 players, the iPod specifically, as well as TIVO, Satellite radio, DVDs and video-on-demand.

Music is the leading Internet radio content at the moment, but niche and successful news and talk radio shows are launching every week. NPR offers more than 16,000 hours of radio news and feature content on their site. Yahoo’s LaunchCast is a wildly popular music service, and is an excellent “best practices” case to look at for how to deploy Internet radio as a modern media tool. Rather than focusing on delivering music, LaunchCast recognizes music is simply the soundtrack to most of our life’s activities, therefore incorporating social networking, e-commerce, personalized playlists, and “what/when I want it” formats. They definitely get modern media.

Combine all this with the fact more and more standard electronic devices (even cars) are being built with wifi/always-on capabilities and Internet radio suddenly becomes more ubiquitous than traditional radio.

Visual Radio
Nokia and HP gave attendees a sneak preview of their concept of Visual Radio at the National Broadcasters Association trade show and conference way back in 2004. In March of this year KISS FM, Finland was the first to offer the combination of traditional FM radio and interactivity. Last week at NAB 2005, Infinity Broadcasting announced it will be the first U.S. network to deploy Visual Radio. And it will be debuted in Singapore at Broadcast Asia, 2005.

Visual radio is traditional FM radio delivered over your mobile phone handset or PDA. When you switch the service on, a two-way wireless connection is established between you and the station’s Visual Radio server, syncing the radio content with whatever rich content the station offers. See www.visualradio.com and Nokia for lots more information. By the way, watch for Nokia’s upcoming Mobile TV service currently undergoing a pilot in Finland.

Visual Radio’s web site welcomes you with “when you’re in the mode, you’re in the mood.” Sounds like modern media to me!