Web radio gets DJs

From...

June 7, 2000
Web posted at: 11:04 a.m. EDT (1504 GMT)

by Michael Learmonth

(IDG) -- "Greetings, my fellow groovers!" That's how Egil Aalvik begins his daily five-hour Web radio broadcast from a small studio in Santa Monica, Calif.

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Grooveradio aficionados know him as "Swedish Egil," the world's foremost impresario of dance music, the man who played tunes by the Chemical Brothers, Fat Boy Slim and Moby long before mainstream radio did.

The dozen or so listeners in the Grooveradio chat room tap out their greetings. Egil sits in front of three flat-screen monitors, two keyboards, a mixing console and a microphone. He is both program director and engineer. His job requires him to cue up a song, pick a jingle and give station identification, often at the same time.

This is the second birth of Grooveradio, which began as a three-hour syndicated show in 1992 on MARS-FM in Los Angeles, then in 1996 migrated in an expanded form to its own station, 103.1 FM ö a station that was streamed onto the Internet and built a global cult following with fan sites and chat rooms. But in 1997, Groove's frequency was sold to a Spanish-language broadcaster, and the all-dance-all-the-time station became a memory.

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In 1999, veteran rock exec Bob Ezrin (producer of Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Kiss) approached Egil about bringing Grooveradio back. He was forming a startup, Enigma Digital, with Bill Hein, founder of Enigma Records. Enigma provides a studio and technology infrastructure for five online stations, or "communities" as Ezrin calls them, that are each built around a niche genre of music and an on-air personality. Grooveradio might not have worked over the airwaves, but with Egil behind the microphone, it might succeed at www.grooveradio.com.

"In a world where everyone is connected all the time, people will gravitate to affinity groups and look to tastemakers that they like and respect," Ezrin says.

So Ezrin took two stations with loyal fans that had recently gone off the air. Grooveradio was one, the other was KNAC-FM, a legendary L.A. heavy-metal station also bought out by a Spanish-language station.

Ezrin is launching three other stations from scratch: Luxuria Music, based in Santa Monica, Calif., devoted to ambient, surf and lounge music; Christian rock Acaza.com, based in Nashville, Tenn.; and West Coast rap station Curbserver.com, based in south central Los Angeles.

Unlike old-fashioned, terrestrial radio, a standard for measuring Web radio audiences doesn't exist. Most use a combination of unique visitors, registered users, number of streams served, or number of individual songs streamed.

In April, Enigma recorded more than 340,000 unique listeners for all five stations. Most of those streams came from KNAC.com and Grooveradio, since the other stations are just getting off the ground. This compares favorably with the top Webcast measured by Arbitron, U.K.-based Virgin Radio, which had 173,200 listeners in January, but less than America (AOL) Online's Spinner.com, which boasts millions of monthly listeners and broadcasts 19 million songs weekly.

Ezrin believes enough listeners will find their musical identity at Enigma to make the company profitable by year's end through a combination of advertising and e-commerce revenue.

But in the world of Internet radio, Enigma is an anachronism. Radio streamed over the Internet promises to free listeners from the annoyances of traditional radio: jabbering disc jockeys and incessant advertising. The most successful Internet-only broadcaster, Spinner, lets listeners tailor their music by choosing one of 140 genre-specific channels.

A host of other startups are customizing even further; some are negotiating with the Big Five record labels and the U.S. Copyright Office for an interactive license that would let listeners control the music they hear on Internet radio.

Enigma Digital isn't one of them, however. Its stations are programmed and hosted by DJs who talk on the air and in chat rooms, host live shows and select music for listeners. Enigma is building a business based on the premise that a strong personality, or "tastemaker," is essential to building a loyal following. That following might be small locally, but globally it could be huge, since the stations play a variety of music ö from dance to heavy metal to Christian rock.

But even if it built a global audience of listeners, how could Enigma make it profitable? Ezrin believes that an heavy-metal fan may want to buy an Ozzy Osbourne T-shirt at KNAC.com, and a fan of dance music may want to shop for DJ fashions at Grooveradio.

Advertising is a bit of a conundrum. The radio advertising market is a distinctly local one. No one has yet proven that a global audience made up of small listening communities can be profitable for advertisers.

Banner ads are not the answer. Many people tune in at home or at work while doing other tasks on the computer. Many listeners minimize their browser during this time, thus taking away coveted, revenue-generating ad impressions. The solution ö audio advertising ö could be enough to drive listeners back to on-air radio.

"Ultimately, the whole streaming-media world will depend on their ability to sell [air]time," says Bob Meyrowitz, creator of '70s syndicated rock show King Biscuit Flower Hour, and founder of Web talk radio broadcaster eYada.com. Meyrowitz is already selling airtime on some of eYada's more popular shows in 30- and 60-second blocks.

Meyrowitz believes in the power of personality-driven Web radio. In creating eYada, Meyrowitz built shows around strong personalities. New York Post tattler Richard Johnson hosts a gossip show. Johnny Rotten, former Sex Pistols front man, hosts an off-color talk show, and Bob Berkowitz, former host of CNBC's Real Personal, hosts a show about sex. "We were looking for people we thought would really work in this medium," Meyrowitz says.

Like Oprah and Howard Stern, the shows are all about the hosts: eYada's hosts have equity in the company, draw six-figure salaries and get a percentage of ads sold for their shows. Once listeners get used to the kind of interaction the Web offers, Meyrowitz believes it's just a matter of time before Don Imus, Rush Limbaugh and Dr. Laura keep at least one hand on the keyboard during broadcasts.

So what makes a successful Internet DJ? A face made for the Internet doesn't hurt. Backed by ClearChannel, FMiTV Networks is bringing terrestrial radio brands to the Internet. When an online version of KIIS-FM radio was launched, the fortysomething DJs were replaced with twentysomething hosts who are more likely to inspire schoolgirl crushes. The success of the business, says CEO Laurence Norjean, may rest on their young shoulders.

"Radio jocks are a part of your extended family, your friends," he says. "What we are doing is banking on that to some degree." In April, FMiTV recorded almost 19 million hits, and Norjean promises profitability in 90 days.

The studios at Enigma Digital are under constant Webcam surveillance, which puts the DJs images on the desktop. This explains at least some of the popularity of a KNAC.com DJ known as "The Rack," who has a preference for tank tops and skimpy shirts.

"She has finesse, an attitude," says KNAC general manager Rob Jones. "She generated quite a following pretty quickly."

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