Tuesday, April 16, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
The Internet should be viewed as a tool for increasing radio listenership, not as competition.
That's what a group of panelists told radio station operators attending a seminar at the National Association of Broadcasters convention.
People in the broadcasting industry have traditionally thought of the Internet as something that will compete for audience share. Instead, broadcasters should use it to bolster business, said Jan Genzer, marketing manager for OnLine Today.
OnLine Today, part of the WOR Radio Network, is the first syndicated show of its kind carried on the Internet using RealAudio.
Nick Frost, president and owner of SILK-FM in Kelowna, B.C., decided after attending NAB last year to start an Internet service provider for the station's coverage area. He recalled his experiences of the last year for seminar attendees Monday.
Silk Internet updates its HomePage, silk.net, with subscriber information and the morning newscasts daily. After every Silk FM newscast, announcers say: "For more news check our Home page at Silk dot Net."
So far, the service, which started in September of 1995, has 800 subscribers at $15 a month. It's a simple set-up and takes only one person to operate. The start-up cost was $120,000 and it will reach the break-even point by August.
As a result of the innovation, Silk will be the leading Internet provider in the 130,000-person town, the station has extended its advertiser reach and "we've gained experience for the Internet future," Frost said.
Panelists stressed the importance of keeping information fresh, entertaining and interactive.
One station in Los Angeles, KCBS-FM, a classic rock station, has started putting "sexy things (on its HomePages) to make them (the audience) come back and have a good time," said program director Tommy Edwards.
If they do, chances are they will tell their friends about what a good time they had and word-of-mouth advertising is very powerful, he said.
One KCBS feature is a rock trivia quiz, another is called "This Day in Rock," which outlines different things that happened in the world of rock on that day. Another is the Beatles Page, including Beatles trivia, which was inspired by the group's "Anthology 1" and "II." albums.
Another feature is a game similar to television's "Concentration." When a subscriber matches two album cover pictures, a song from that album plays.
It keeps score to tell you how many tries it took to do the matches and then "it tells you what it thinks of you," Edwards said.
One of the most innovative things KCBS is doing is four freeway billboards, called music boards, hooked both to the station and the Internet. The billboards have a constantly running reader board that tells what group is on the radio at that moment and what song is being performed.
The same information appears on the computer screen when the user goes into KCBS' Home Page, Edwards said, demonstrating on a personal computer screen that was projected onto a large screen in the seminar.
Edwards termed the billboards "the most effective promotion you've ever seen" because people, not believing that the billboard can tell what's on the radio station at that moment, change their stations to find out.
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