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Is this common practice?

WODB (Oldies 107.9) is the first season I've ever seen that allows only locals to listen to their online stream. I've entered both my own zip code (a local) and a few from beyond the air to see what would happen, and when I entered the remote zips it said streaming was not available there. Seems to me that one of the novelties of streaming audio is to hear stations from beyond your area (I personally listen to Chicago and Texas stations on the Web) ... but is what 107.9 is doing common practice?
 
> WODB (Oldies 107.9) is the first season I've ever seen that
> allows only locals to listen to their online stream. I've
> entered both my own zip code (a local) and a few from beyond
> the air to see what would happen, and when I entered the
> remote zips it said streaming was not available there. Seems
> to me that one of the novelties of streaming audio is to
> hear stations from beyond your area (I personally listen to
> Chicago and Texas stations on the Web) ... but is what 107.9
> is doing common practice?
>

It has something to do with the commercials. Some stations that stream online effectively block out the local commercials whereas I suspect WODB does not block out the local commercials but restricts online listening outside the broadcast area. If memory serves, it has something to do with royalties being paid to the actors in the commercials when broadcast on the internet... or some such.
 
> It has something to do with the commercials. Some stations
> that stream online effectively block out the local
> commercials whereas I suspect WODB does not block out the
> local commercials but restricts online listening outside the
> broadcast area. If memory serves, it has something to do
> with royalties being paid to the actors in the commercials
> when broadcast on the internet... or some such.
>

Plus I am sure it also has a lot to do with marketing, WODB is probally marketing the webstream as a way to listen at work say downtown where 107.9's signal does not reach... They probally don't about outside market listeners.


<P ID="signature">______________
Lenks
Program Director/Music Director
X Music Online
The X
Today's Best Music
http://www.xmusiconline.com/</P>
 
The out of market audience means nothing...and for every out of market listener there may be a local listener who can't access the stream.
 
> The out of market audience means nothing...and for every out
> of market listener there may be a local listener who can't
> access the stream.
>

Now you're getting closer to the real answer. Fact is, every person that logs on to the stream costs the station money in fees to the stream provider. Out-of-market listening is never credited to the station, hence, does nothing to increase the station's market share or revenue. True, commercials produced by union talent (SAG/AFTRA) cannot be played on a national stream without increasing the royalty to the talent, so many stations do not play their commercials on the web...but the cost of streaming vs. its benefit is the real reason why out-of-market listeners are locked out at WODB.
 
> Now you're getting closer to the real answer. Fact is,
> every person that logs on to the stream costs the station
> money in fees to the stream provider. Out-of-market
> listening is never credited to the station, hence, does
> nothing to increase the station's market share or revenue.
> True, commercials produced by union talent (SAG/AFTRA)
> cannot be played on a national stream without increasing the
> royalty to the talent, so many stations do not play their
> commercials on the web...but the cost of streaming vs. its
> benefit is the real reason why out-of-market listeners are
> locked out at WODB.
>

I don't think zip code verification "locks" anyone out. They have no way to verify that you live or work in the code you enter.<P ID="signature">______________
Chris
202.FM</P>
 
All you have to do is enter a Columbus zipcode and you're in...but other than us radio geeks, probably few will bother.
 
> All you have to do is enter a Columbus zipcode and you're
> in...but other than us radio geeks, probably few will
> bother.
>

Maybe 18 months ago I read about some company providing a new technology that regulates access to out of area streaming requests based on analysis of the users' i.p. addresses. The article quoted some station as saying this technology finally made streaming economically feasible for them. I don't recall the exact technology, and I only kinda understood it anyway. It wasn't just for use by radio stations, but had other uses as well, including user analysis by some major sites (I think AOL was mentioned).

Obviously ODB is using a more rudimentary approach.

On the flipside, I still hear some stations, including BNS-FM, touting that you can listen to them anywhere in the world, and sometimes even mentioning an email they get from a far-away listener.<P ID="signature">______________
Nu_Roo_2 formerly Nu__Roo formerly Nu_Roo</P>
 
> Maybe 18 months ago I read about some company providing a
> new technology that regulates access to out of area
> streaming requests based on analysis of the users' i.p.
> addresses.


A logical idea but not very realistic for the stations --- it makes streaming unavailable to everyone coming from the national service providers such as AOL, CompuServe, and so on or any service provider or individual that uses a proxy of any kind.
 
> > Maybe 18 months ago I read about some company providing a
> > new technology that regulates access to out of area
> > streaming requests based on analysis of the users' i.p.
> > addresses.
>
>
> A logical idea but not very realistic for the stations ---
> it makes streaming unavailable to everyone coming from the
> national service providers such as AOL, CompuServe, and so
> on or any service provider or individual that uses a proxy
> of any kind.
>

I did a little Googling to jog my memory, and it turns out I must have been confusing a couple different memories. Decisionmark's "Radio Proximity" pilot test (for WRAL-FM Raleigh) was about 3 years ago, and did not use ip addresses to identify regions. Instead, it asked stream users to enter their home addresses, and then required return of a postal card sent to the user for verification that they really resided in the station's listening area. The link below describes the idea. I'm guessing this particular approach didn't go anywhere, as Decisionmark's website no longer lists "Radio Proximity" as one of their product offerings.

http://proximityradio.com/pr/extras/indexPage/AWBR-project-summary.pdf

<P ID="signature">______________
Nu_Roo_2 formerly Nu__Roo formerly Nu_Roo</P>
 
> I did a little Googling to jog my memory, and it turns out I
> must have been confusing a couple different memories.
> Decisionmark's "Radio Proximity" pilot test (for WRAL-FM
> Raleigh) was about 3 years ago, and did not use ip addresses
> to identify regions. Instead, it asked stream users to
> enter their home addresses, and then required return of a
> postal card sent to the user for verification that they
> really resided in the station's listening area. The link
> below describes the idea. I'm guessing this particular
> approach didn't go anywhere, as Decisionmark's website no
> longer lists "Radio Proximity" as one of their product
> offerings.
>
http://pro> ximityradio.com/pr/extras/indexPage/AWBR-project-summary.pdf
>

And who would go through all that hassle to listen to a web stream?<P ID="signature">______________
Chris
202.FM</P>
 
> WODB (Oldies 107.9) is the first season I've ever seen that
> allows only locals to listen to their online stream. I've
> entered both my own zip code (a local) and a few from beyond
> the air to see what would happen, and when I entered the
> remote zips it said streaming was not available there. Seems
> to me that one of the novelties of streaming audio is to
> hear stations from beyond your area (I personally listen to
> Chicago and Texas stations on the Web) ... but is what 107.9
> is doing common practice?

It is becoming more common. There is an easy work-around.... Lie! Enter a Columbus zip code (try 43215) when prompted.
 
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