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WERV is now streaming live!

B

bigtim

Guest
I went browsing radio sites this morning, landed on 959theriver.fm and noticed "LISTEN TO THE RIVER LIVE!". I clicked that button and it led me to a page. I clicked the broadband stream, as I have broadband, and this is what I get:
This Abacast stream requires this FREE streaming plug-in UPGRADE. Abacast appreciates your assistance in helping us provide this higher quality stream connection, to more users, while keeping our costs controlled. You will only be required to perform this plug-in installation once. Abacast guarantees this plug-in is free of any spy-ware or ad-ware but it may use some of your available upstream bandwidth while you are actively connected only.

Is NM being cheap, or what?<P ID="signature">______________
Tim</P>
 
> I went browsing radio sites this morning, landed on
> 959theriver.fm and noticed "LISTEN TO THE RIVER LIVE!". I
> clicked that button and it led me to a page. I clicked the
> broadband stream, as I have broadband, and this is what I
> get:
> This Abacast stream requires this FREE streaming plug-in
> UPGRADE. Abacast appreciates your assistance in helping us
> provide this higher quality stream connection, to more
> users, while keeping our costs controlled. You will only be
> required to perform this plug-in installation once. Abacast
> guarantees this plug-in is free of any spy-ware or ad-ware
> but it may use some of your available upstream bandwidth
> while you are actively connected only.
>
> Is NM being cheap, or what?
>
Sounds like it
 
>
> Is NM being cheap, or what?
>

Looks like a simple codec download to me - no more no less. A lot of straming sites use that.
 
what is so cheap about it? are we charging anything for you to download it? no! are we secretly drawing money from an off-shore account? are we asking for personal banking information?

seriously, there are just too many people on this board for whom NextMedia can do no right. to those people, i say, please seek counseling.

we are ahead of many stations in providing options for our listeners. kudos to us. in fact, i believe nextmedia was one of the first companies to broadcast their stations in HD. that may not be a big deal to some of you. but with the price of HD receivers on the decline, i'd say we were ahead of the game. and when other stations are still working out the bugs and kinks, we'll be right there leading the pack.

thanks for taking time to stumble across our website. please keep stumbling!
 
> what is so cheap about it? are we charging anything for you
> to download it? no! are we secretly drawing money from an
> off-shore account? are we asking for personal banking
> information?
>
> seriously, there are just too many people on this board for
> whom NextMedia can do no right. to those people, i say,
> please seek counseling.
>
> we are ahead of many stations in providing options for our
> listeners. kudos to us. in fact, i believe nextmedia was
> one of the first companies to broadcast their stations in
> HD. that may not be a big deal to some of you. but with
> the price of HD receivers on the decline, i'd say we were
> ahead of the game. and when other stations are still
> working out the bugs and kinks, we'll be right there leading
> the pack.
>
> thanks for taking time to stumble across our website.
> please keep stumbling!
>
WIIL streams as well. At first they required no codec other then WMP. Now they do.

www.95wiilrock.com<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
> I went browsing radio sites this morning, landed on
> 959theriver.fm and noticed "LISTEN TO THE RIVER LIVE!". I
> clicked that button and it led me to a page. I clicked the
> broadband stream, as I have broadband, and this is what I
> get:
> This Abacast stream requires this FREE streaming plug-in
> UPGRADE. Abacast appreciates your assistance in helping us
> provide this higher quality stream connection, to more
> users, while keeping our costs controlled. You will only be
> required to perform this plug-in installation once. Abacast
> guarantees this plug-in is free of any spy-ware or ad-ware
> but it may use some of your available upstream bandwidth
> while you are actively connected only.
>
> Is NM being cheap, or what?
>

and I'm assuming it leaves people such as myself who are on Mac & Linux out in the cold...

-A<P ID="signature">______________

</P>
 
To Geno, a different outlook on the situation.

Geno,

I can relate to your frustration. But lets look at it another way.

You might want to explain to them how this works, instead of being understandably upset, and why NM is doing it this way. 100% wont be convinced, but if you hit a majority convincing rate, it is all good. =)

From someone in the industry, A MAJORITY of people are ignorant to the way P2P's work, or even the mode of streaming NM is providing, cost of streaming, how much bandwidth it takes etc...

Remember, a lot of visitors here know no better, so they are here to learn. And are not here just to slam NM, or the next company.

Thank you and take care.




> what is so cheap about it? are we charging anything for you
> to download it? no! are we secretly drawing money from an
> off-shore account? are we asking for personal banking
> information?
>
> seriously, there are just too many people on this board for
> whom NextMedia can do no right. to those people, i say,
> please seek counseling.
>
> we are ahead of many stations in providing options for our
> listeners. kudos to us. in fact, i believe nextmedia was
> one of the first companies to broadcast their stations in
> HD. that may not be a big deal to some of you. but with
> the price of HD receivers on the decline, i'd say we were
> ahead of the game. and when other stations are still
> working out the bugs and kinks, we'll be right there leading
> the pack.
>
> thanks for taking time to stumble across our website.
> please keep stumbling!
> <P ID="signature">______________

"Z"
Music Coordinator/Technical Support</P>
 
> > what is so cheap about it? are we charging anything for
> you
> > to download it? no! are we secretly drawing money from
> an
> > off-shore account? are we asking for personal banking
> > information?
> >
> > seriously, there are just too many people on this board
> for
> > whom NextMedia can do no right. to those people, i say,
> > please seek counseling.
> >
> > we are ahead of many stations in providing options for our
>
> > listeners. kudos to us. in fact, i believe nextmedia was
>
> > one of the first companies to broadcast their stations in
> > HD. that may not be a big deal to some of you. but with
> > the price of HD receivers on the decline, i'd say we were
> > ahead of the game. and when other stations are still
> > working out the bugs and kinks, we'll be right there
> leading
> > the pack.
> >
> > thanks for taking time to stumble across our website.
> > please keep stumbling!
> >
> WIIL streams as well. At first they required no codec other
> then WMP. Now they do.
>
> www.95wiilrock.com
>

Heh.
Our 64K/Windows Media streams require Windows Media Player and the Abacast plugin. The only function of the plugin is to optimize the stream. It is completely safe, no spyware, no nonsense! We strongly recommend the most recent versions of Windows Media Player and the Abacast plugin. The first time you access this stream, you will be presented with an installation screen to obtain the plugin.

How is supplying them with our bandwidth that we pay for "Optimizing"?<P ID="signature">______________
Tim</P>
 
> How is supplying them with our bandwidth that we pay for
> "Optimizing"?

Y'know, now that you mention it - when I listen to the radio, my electric bill increases. I have to pay for it!

Cheapskates, all of 'em.
 
> and I'm assuming it leaves people such as myself who are on
> Mac & Linux out in the cold...
>
> -A

Yes, but... It leaves me out in the cold too, on Windows, because I will not load some bullcorn codec that "uses upstream bandwidth."
 
> I went browsing radio sites this morning, landed on
> 959theriver.fm and noticed "LISTEN TO THE RIVER LIVE!". I
> clicked that button and it led me to a page. I clicked the
> broadband stream, as I have broadband, and this is what I
> get:
> This Abacast stream requires this FREE streaming plug-in
> UPGRADE. Abacast appreciates your assistance in helping us
> provide this higher quality stream connection, to more
> users, while keeping our costs controlled. You will only be
> required to perform this plug-in installation once. Abacast
> guarantees this plug-in is free of any spy-ware or ad-ware
> but it may use some of your available upstream bandwidth
> while you are actively connected only.
>
> Is NM being cheap, or what?
>
I can't even get to their website, let alone listen.
I never liked it when energy92 used software, and this is at least a little better.
 
> > How is supplying them with our bandwidth that we pay for
> > "Optimizing"?
>
> Y'know, now that you mention it - when I listen to the
> radio, my electric bill increases. I have to pay for it!
>
> Cheapskates, all of 'em.
>
LMFAO. This is completely different, as some people may have a LIMITED upload speed, like I do. I have AT&T Yahoo High-Speed Internet (should be calling it Lo-Speed), and I only get 128kbps up.<P ID="signature">______________
Tim</P>
 
> > > How is supplying them with our bandwidth that we pay for
>
> > > "Optimizing"?
> >
> > Y'know, now that you mention it - when I listen to the
> > radio, my electric bill increases. I have to pay for it!
>
> >
> > Cheapskates, all of 'em.
> >
> LMFAO. This is completely different, as some people may have
> a LIMITED upload speed, like I do. I have AT&T Yahoo
> High-Speed Internet (should be calling it Lo-Speed), and I
> only get 128kbps up.
>

Here's a simple solution. DON'T USE IT! If it's so much of a hassle, get your tunes somewhere else. It won't sound as good as The River, however.<P ID="signature">______________
</P>
 
> > > > How is supplying them with our bandwidth that we pay
> for
> >
> > > > "Optimizing"?
> > >
> > > Y'know, now that you mention it - when I listen to the
> > > radio, my electric bill increases. I have to pay for
> it!
> >
> > >
> > > Cheapskates, all of 'em.
> > >
> > LMFAO. This is completely different, as some people may
> have
> > a LIMITED upload speed, like I do. I have AT&T Yahoo
> > High-Speed Internet (should be calling it Lo-Speed), and I
>
> > only get 128kbps up.
> >
>
> Here's a simple solution. DON'T USE IT! If it's so much of
> a hassle, get your tunes somewhere else. It won't sound as
> good as The River, however.
>
LOL, I just felt like ranting.
</end rant (at least for a while).><P ID="signature">______________
Tim</P>
 
What is the Big Deal?

I am using the River stream right now and had to download no codec or anything...

There are two versions of the stream...if you don't want to give up bandwidth use the lower version....it doesn't sound that bad.

And as for giving up bandwidth to get better quality...what is wrong with that?
 
>
> > Here's a simple solution. DON'T USE IT! If it's so much
> of
> > a hassle, get your tunes somewhere else. It won't sound
> as
> > good as The River, however.
> >
> LOL, I just felt like ranting.
>

I am only an occasional reader here, but i just can't let this one go without comment. You see, I am the guy that put those streams up! We shopped around for a streaming provider, and Abacast gave us a price that was too good to pass up. We are very early in our online efforts and we have to keep the costs down until we can show some revenue to pay for it. So the 64 kbs stream is a modified P-P set up. If you don't like it, use the 32 kbs one. On your typical $10 computer speakers from WallyMart, I doubt you'll hear much difference.

And yes, I did express my reluctance to using a Windows only stream. I am a Mac guy at home and the only Windows machines I use are at the office. But after you visit the 32k one once and launch it in WMP for Mac, it works just fine. I'm willing to bet that the geeks that run the flavor of the week 'nix can hear it in MPlayer or some other player if they are worthy of their duct taped glasses and Mountain Dew. (no flames please, just an attempt at humor)

Having said all this, we will likely not be using Abacast again for our other stations. Not because of the "plugin" issue, but because their ad insertion software is, putting it gently, ...lets just call it in the early alpha stage. It just doesn't get the job done for what we want to do and has little ability to report plays to our internet only clients.

We have just done a deal with a different provider for our 4 stations in Joliet and those will be coming online in due course this year. The hold up is getting clearances from Jones/Premiere and others for the syndicated programming we carry. Some have already said no. One has said yes but it costs $xxxx a year, which we are not prepared to pay at this time. So then it becomes a matter of what do we fill the time on the stream with?

Keep a close eye on our websites for further launches of streaming. I am not prepared to say which one, but one more is coming online within the next 7-10 days.

And when we launch the HD2 channels on WERV and WCCQ this summer, they will be streamed as well. (Yes, WCCQ will be in HD around June.)

Michael Dinger
Chief Engineer
Next Media Chicago South
 
That's great news that more stations will be streaming online soon. I think people should appreciate the plug-in free version of the stream NextMedia offer, since many stations using Abacast don't.

> I am only an occasional reader here, but i just can't let
> this one go without comment. You see, I am the guy that put
> those streams up! We shopped around for a streaming
> provider, and Abacast gave us a price that was too good to
> pass up. We are very early in our online efforts and we
> have to keep the costs down until we can show some revenue
> to pay for it. So the 64 kbs stream is a modified P-P set
> up. If you don't like it, use the 32 kbs one. On your
> typical $10 computer speakers from WallyMart, I doubt you'll
> hear much difference.
>
> And yes, I did express my reluctance to using a Windows only
> stream. I am a Mac guy at home and the only Windows machines
> I use are at the office. But after you visit the 32k one
> once and launch it in WMP for Mac, it works just fine. I'm
> willing to bet that the geeks that run the flavor of the
> week 'nix can hear it in MPlayer or some other player if
> they are worthy of their duct taped glasses and Mountain
> Dew. (no flames please, just an attempt at humor)
>
> Having said all this, we will likely not be using Abacast
> again for our other stations. Not because of the "plugin"
> issue, but because their ad insertion software is, putting
> it gently, ...lets just call it in the early alpha stage.
> It just doesn't get the job done for what we want to do and
> has little ability to report plays to our internet only
> clients.
>
> We have just done a deal with a different provider for our 4
> stations in Joliet and those will be coming online in due
> course this year. The hold up is getting clearances from
> Jones/Premiere and others for the syndicated programming we
> carry. Some have already said no. One has said yes but it
> costs $xxxx a year, which we are not prepared to pay at this
> time. So then it becomes a matter of what do we fill the
> time on the stream with?
>
> Keep a close eye on our websites for further launches of
> streaming. I am not prepared to say which one, but one more
> is coming online within the next 7-10 days.
>
> And when we launch the HD2 channels on WERV and WCCQ this
> summer, they will be streamed as well. (Yes, WCCQ will be
> in HD around June.)
>
> Michael Dinger
> Chief Engineer
> Next Media Chicago South
>
<P ID="signature">______________
Searchable list of stations streaming from the USA
www.thestreamcenter.com</P>
 
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