TheBigA said:
Maybe I'm missing something, but this is just another version of TunedIn.com or Radio.com or any of the other sites that simply provide access to existing OTA stations nationally. Why aren't sites like this paying a fee to the stations for using their content? Or at least getting their permission. Isn't it like cable TV?
I agree. I never understood why radio allows these outside parties to get involved. It seems to me that if stations that stream wish to be listed among others, then the site should belong to the industry and promote only the streams of OTA stations. The third party sites should not be allowed. These third party sites may start with OTA stations, but will one day include streaming stations that the OTA sites have to now compete against.
There have been comments that these sites are beneficial to stations because they promote the station. I'm skeptical. While your station may be accesible to others, the same site allows your audience to find and become loyal to other stations. Your local advertiser doesn't care much that some person in another state has located your station, but that local advertiser definitely cares that the stations audience may now easily tune to a different station.
The point I'm trying to make is that I don't think OTA radio has truly thought out the streaming platform and found a way to deal with it. It may be too late now, but when streaming stations first appeared, OTA should have erected the proper "barriers to entry" to stop these stations.
I think this is especially true for the AM talk stations. As I listen to talk, I hear the network hosts promote all the different methods that the program can be heard--third party streaming sites, Live 365, and even the live stream at the hosts website. In other words, turn off the station you're listening to now and go elsewhere. Why did the industry allow this to happen? The industry should have made it clear that the stations were the one and only source and that if listeners wished to listen online, then the source would be the streams of the OTA stations, not a variety of third party sources. It's difficult to sell talk radio when the advertiser knows that the show he or she is buying can easily be heard from a variety of sources, especially when they're promoted on the station itself.
