I used to work for a couple of radio stations. Our formats ranged from 'rock' to county to sports-talk. The rock station was all local. The country was all canned from a satellite network. The sports talk had some local programming plus programming from a couple other networks, including a sports team or two.
Well, hell...we damned the torpedoes and streamed 'em all 24-7 when I was there. However, soon after I left (and I knew this was coming) that the networks were going to start bitching. They want people to listen from their own sites...not from yours. Problem is, most of the non-do-it-yourself streaming services had the ability to automate turning off and on the streaming or providing a way that the streaming would automatically switch over to the network's stream.
There's tons of these companies out there that think they can make money on a model of providing streaming services for radio stations. I had 2 of them go bellyup on me while I was there. Pretty expensive for a radio station to do it on their own. Remember...this is radio where nobody makes money. You sell ads to the autoparts store and they give the GM 4 snow tires for his car.
It's only going to get worse. I hope MLB doesn't find out about this station, 'cause I think they still stream the games that their an affiliate for. Which rocks now that you have to PAY to listen to MLB on the internet.
The commercialization is beginning as the networks are also jumping on the bandwagon. They see potential profits.
Yet, I contend, someone's going to find ways to do it and make money and make people like AFTRA, the RIAA, etc. happy.
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By far some of the best writing on this event I have seen yet. A unique view and a fascinating perspective.
Peace.
I used to work for a couple of radio stations. Our formats ranged from 'rock' to county to sports-talk. The rock station was all local. The country was all canned from a satellite network. The sports talk had some local programming plus programming from a couple other networks, including a sports team or two. Well, hell...we damned the torpedoes and streamed 'em all 24-7 when I was there. However, soon after I left (and I knew this was coming) that the networks were going to start bitching. They want people to listen from their own sites...not from yours. Problem is, most of the non-do-it-yourself streaming services had the ability to automate turning off and on the streaming or providing a way that the streaming would automatically switch over to the network's stream. There's tons of these companies out there that think they can make money on a model of providing streaming services for radio stations. I had 2 of them go bellyup on me while I was there. Pretty expensive for a radio station to do it on their own. Remember...this is radio where nobody makes money. You sell ads to the autoparts store and they give the GM 4 snow tires for his car. It's only going to get worse. I hope MLB doesn't find out about this station, 'cause I think they still stream the games that their an affiliate for. Which rocks now that you have to PAY to listen to MLB on the internet. The commercialization is beginning as the networks are also jumping on the bandwagon. They see potential profits. Yet, I contend, someone's going to find ways to do it and make money and make people like AFTRA, the RIAA, etc. happy.