The rise or fall of Internet Radio

History 

The enigma of multimedia, the looming vulture that perches ominously over every terrestrial station, the rise of internet radio that has arrived like ‘District Nine’ and many are not quite sure what to do about it. Ironically 'Internet radio' first streamed into partial existence the year that Nelson Mandela took power in South Africa when ‘Whole Wheat Radio’ in Alaska launched its debut broadcast across the barren snow-capped mountains of the Rockies. Not quite at grips with their revolutionary momentum, ‘Whole Wheat Radio’ gave seed to grunge nurtured Seattle who transmitted the trans group Sky Cries Mary on Nov 10th, 1994, through Paul Allen’s digital media ‘Starwave’. Literally a week later the Rolling Stones concert was the "first major cyberspace multicast concert," but an air of negativity by Mick Jagger quoting” I wanna say a special welcome to everyone that's, uh, climbed into the Internet tonight and, uh, has got into the M –Bone and I hope it doesn't all collapse? So what is' Internet radio', some student sitting in a UCT residence with an Apple laptop transmitting the latest Kings of Leon or is their more to the mix than the IT fix. 

The Stats & facts

Internet radio is commonly known as web radio, net radio, streaming radio, web-casting, an audio service transmitted via the internet. The reason for 'Internet radio' has many dimensions, firstly Internet radio services are largely accessible from anywhere in the world, secondly are cost effective to start up, thirdly they are the very actualization of the present day multi-medium platform, i.e. as hip as it gets. Initially 'Internet Radio' provided a niche for specific genre’s that don’t get commercial radio play e.g. Prog Rock, Jazz, Surf Guitar, Grunge etc or more strategically a communication medium over great landscapes where repeaters are far and few between. Amidst predictions as much as they rise as much as they fall, but numbers mean nothing in the mouth of a revolution. More importantly Edison research, in 2000 found that three quarters (74%) of American teenagers and young adults regularly listened to radio, yet by 2010 that had dropped to 41%. At the same time, listening to audio on the Internet had grown from 16% to 42% – overtaking conventional radio in this segment.

South African Front (WP) So what’s happening on the WP local front, possibly the first on the streaming wagon was visionary Mark Shuttleworth’s educational station ‘Hip2B2Radio’ followed closely by local pioneers ‘2Oceans Vibe Radio’ under the sturdy arm of Richard Hardiman & Seth Rotherman, son of renowned McCulley’s Workshop pianist Rupert Mellor. ‘2Oceans Vibe Radio’ gives you the buzz of what’s happening on the hip front backed by Seth Rotherman’s bizarre yet colorful interactive Blog, singularly the largest in the country. These cyber cats don’t do jingles but all shows are sponsored while music may be Podcast at various times. Presently Cape Town Internet radio has mushroomed with ex KFM (The Unicorn) Richard Griggs’ ‘Zone Radio’ entering a non- political space by playing quality music, largely requests backed by capable presenters e.g. Justine Hoskins ‘the voice of Killarney racing’ etc. Richard has strongly focused on training presenters while oddly still presenting jazz on ‘Fine Music Radio’. ‘Zone Radio’’ flexes its Facebook interface as the tool to gauge listenership and entice audience. Ex Cape Talk celebrity Soli Philander veered back into his thriving community with the much pouted ‘Taxi’, an interactive talk radio with precise feedback from the community and its happenings, boasting the real story without blurring of the truth. In and amongst his comrades is jazz aficionado Eric Allan, another ‘Fine Music Radio’ exile. Over the mountain in another country yet so near is ‘R&R radio’ (Republic Radio in Houtbay) giving adult contemporary music to a refined listenership under the focused guidance of Tom Purcell, another FMR veteran.

The calculated cost 

The real question has the market and Ad agencies recognized the power of multi-media marketing, I think not and bandwidth although cheaper and faster, still not in line with US traction. The recent announcement by Neotel and its 8000.000 plus loss, with Telkom still owning the last kilometer paints a not so rosy picture for the expectant cheaper and quicker bandwidth. Ironically whether it’s the terrestrial BBC, SABC or even ‘Fine Music radio’ and ‘Cape Talk’, there is little audio broadcast content that cannot be accessed online. Globally Internet radio has taken off strongly in Germany /USA and Australia while (Aunty BeeB) BBC vanquished most with her regulation laws, ‘I guess still recovering from those pirates that rocked the boat, Luxembourg Radio / Radio London / Carolina etc’. Presently governing authorities AKASA / Sentech have remained distantly silent over the Internet Radio revolution while presently the only authority over Webcasting is ‘SAMRO’ giving royalty where royalty is due. Yes ‘Internet Radio’ does not have the admin and AKASA overheads of terrestrial radio stations but neither do they have the drive-time accessibility or amps documentation to prove their listenership to Advertising agencies. Sadly and predicted by myself confirmed by Shawn Dewberry- where he slates the listener statistics provided by local online radio stations in SA, saying that they are "complete fabrications, utter nonsense, lies, even", confirmed below

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/internet/53479-shocking-claims-about-online-radio-in-sa.html

With the rise of Blackberry way, a move that will jettison millions of young people into the cyber lifestyle of the MP3/ Eye pod revolution, audio streaming seems to be the way ahead but not without one major stumbling block ? A typical stream can suck up a 3 Gigabyte cap (typical for reasonable broadband connection) in 48 hours flat, which works out to roughly R15 per hour of radio. (40GB/month per listener) (Just the other day I could not help but notice that my 17year old niece on her Blackberry was mumbling that they actually warned her that that radio streaming was eating her bandwidth).

Prediction, prophecy or master of their own realty

The irony of present Internet radio stations is that not one have embraced the survival code of audio streaming as across the waters by providing a specific niche genre of music such as jazz, Prog Rock , Grunge, Blues, Folk Music, Heavy Metal, World Music etc. All present internet radio stations have tried to emulate a terrestrial Station and even though defining an individual character, not exclusive, due to presenters not knowledgeable to a particular genre of music. The reason , most stations are run by past popular radio presenters that have been given the boot and thus need a voice.

Two more posing threats lie brooding in the macro autocracy of SABC, opening up the AM frequency to small independent radios stations, presently only Cape Talk very alive and well, the last a Gandalf soothsayer to all said and done, the dreaded Pirate Radio Station, imagine ‘Robben Island Radio’, ‘The Flying Dutchman’ from some yacht or an acid beatnik from in his kombi parked off next to a mountain which is impossible to trace. ‘Cape Town calling to the underground metal heads, acid beatniks, Prog rock nerds and jazz aficionados, come out of your caves, communal flats and small town organic retirement and start the revolution’. About 10years ago Music Webmaster Brian Currin & Steve ‘Sugar’ Siegerman (Mabu Vinyl) launched SA Rock Digest to the disinterested attention of Music Giants and Ad agencies. This ignorance of the multimedia platform was disastrous and only now music shops race to fill their houses with Eye Pods / MP3 players. Will audio streaming be a threat to terrestrial stations? Hey it’s ‘District Nine’ all over and the prawns are rising?

Shiloh Noone (Radio Presenter/Rock Author)