Thursday, February 23, 2012

HealthyLife.Net – Back In Time Capsule 2002


HealthyLife.Net Radio Network 2002-2012
10 years of Positive Talk

Back into the Time Capsule: 2002

In September 2002, after planning and with equipment bought, Linda Mackenzie Founder of HealthyLife.net Radio, went out to find a streaming provider. After looking high and low a fellow broadcaster asked if she knew about Earthchannel. She called Earthchannel and it just so happened that Cliff Johnson wasn’t just a random start-up broadcaster in this fairly new world of internet radio. Oh no! He was one of the original designers of streaming servers and had been involved in streaming service and technology from the beginning. After explaining the remaining little known pieces to the puzzle about Internet broadcasting, Linda in awe at his knowledge remembers asking Cliff jokingly, “Did God send you?” He promptly answered, “You bet He did!”

Linda decided that EarthChannel was her streaming provider of choice – and she has never been disappointed with service, price and availability. Cliff still proves to be a dear friend, the voice of reason and one of the most knowledgeable broadcast providers on the planet.

So on October 2, 2002, Linda began beta-testing the network. Not wanting to waste anyone’s time until everything was perfect her radio show was the only show on the network broadcasting 5 days a week. By the second week of broadcasting Linda was out looking at golf putter at a sports store. This incredible voice came out of nowhere and said, “Can I help you?” After a couple of minutes of conversation Linda asked, “Have you ever been in radio?” The guy was a little shocked and said, “Yes. In major markets in San Francisco for 15 years, until I got laid off.” Linda responded by saying, “Would you like to be in radio again?” After explaining what she was doing in Internet radio he decided he was interested. And that was what started a 10 year fruitful and beneficial business relationship with Dennis Glines, now the Program Director on the network.

During December Linda was still not satisfied with the sound quality of the station. So after several attempts with many computer people who didn’t know sound and many music people who didn’t know computers she put an ad in Craigslist. Sean Fodor came into the studio and Linda, who was frustrated by this time, turned on KABC from the radio and said to Sean “This is what I want to sound like.” He cocked his ear at the sound for a moment, said a simple “Okay.” Then made 2 or 3 adjustments on the sound equipment, which took about 2 minutes, and the sound was perfect.

With the streaming perfect, the sound perfect, the production engineering taken care of and Linda’s show getting call-in audience response, Linda started marketing to get other radio hosts onto the network. Not just taking anyone the criteria that a radio host had to have to be on the network was previous TV, radio, or national lecturer experience with an audience following. With the lay offs in terrestrial radio occurring, and still occurring to this day several hosts jumped on board …until…

More next month when we go…Back into the Time Capsule: 2003
.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Types of Internet Radio

by Linda Mackenzie

1. Internet Radio Show - an individual radio show with one or more hosts, which can be aired live or pre-recorded, and is broadcasted either on a radio station or as a podcast from an individual website.

2. Radio Station - A group of live and/or prerecorded scheduled programs that are grouped together and broadcast through a single channel of distribution.

3. Radio Network - A 24/7 individual radio station which is linked to other radio networks and broadcasts a common program theme in a specific format (e.g., Music, Talk, News/Talk) and is in syndication (contracted by another media channel for play) or simulcast (Simultaneous broadCast on other media channels) or both on many channels of distribution.

4. Radio Aggregator - A radio streaming service provider that provides streaming service for a single radio station or where 100's or 1000's of many different radio programs without one specific theme are grouped together and share streaming services as one station which may or may not be linked to other radio networks to syndicate/simulcast its stream.

5. Radio Syndicator/Simulcaster - An individual broadcast entity that picks up, links and broadcasts many radio stations/radio networks streams to broadcast them on their site.

6. On Demand Radio Archive - An individual Internet Radio Show or an individual radio program from a Radio Station/ Radio Network which has been archived and made available for listening at any time directly from their specific website.

7. On Demand Radio Download
- An individual Internet Radio Show or an individual radio program from a Radio Station/ Radio Network which can be downloaded to a listener's computer to be made available for listening at any time via one or more various formats (e.g., .mp3, podcast, ITunes format, RSS feed, mobile).

8. Podcast Aggregator - A podcast streaming service provider that provides streaming service for 100's or 1000's of many different podcast program providers without one specific theme which are grouped together to share streaming services.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

WHY INTERNET RADIO ADS vs. AM/FM OR CABLE TV ADS?

by Linda Mackenzie - GM, HealthyLife.Net Radio Network


1. MORE REACH

- Internet Radio has more Time Spent Listening (TSL)
72 million people in the U.S. spend an average TSL of 3-8 hours a day listening to a 24/7 Internet Radio network stream as compared to AM/FM radio's 3 hrs. 3 min. per weekday. For Podcast listeners TSL is usually 3 -5 minutes at the start of a broadcast.

- Internet Radio has longer Drive Time: 8 a.m. - 5 p.m
AM/FM radio's greatest listening time is 'drive time' on the way to and from work. In 2010 there were 11.3 million home based businesses in the U.S. and half of all businesses in the U.S. are home based. There is a greater and longer listening opportunity for home based businesses to listen to Internet radio. HealthyLife.net Radio stats, over the last 10 years, have shown our Drive Time to be: Weekdays, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

- Internet Radio's Footprint is Local, National and Global
AM/FM footprints are limited to 50w - 500w local terrestrial listening areas and although AM/FM stations do now stream on the Internet they came into the environment too late and latest listeners per station average below 300 listeners.

- Most watched Cable Stations Don't Allow Ads.
The Top 60 Cable TV channels (e.g., HBO) who are most frequently reached do not allow ads.

- 74% of Cable TV programs with a 2.0 or better rating are targeted to teens and kids.

- 27% of Cable TV Subscribers use DVR devices.
More than 1 in 10 Cable TV Subscribers record programs on a DVR and 42% watch these programs within 3 days after the original airdate. 21% fast forward through commercials or see ads after a promotion or sale date.

(Arbitron, Wall Street Journal, Neilsen, RAB, LA Market Ratings Estimates, Businessweek, SBA Office of Advocacy, Triton, Healthylife.net)

2. BETTER ENVIRONMENT

- Internet Radio is the Number 1 Position for frequent use of Internet by women at home, at work and at the University.

- Avg American spends 20 minutes per week shopping.
The Average American woman spends 30 minutes a week shopping. 70% of buying decisions are made before they enter a store.

- Radio Listeners react better to commercials. After hearing a radio commercial 46.6% of Adults (18+ ) and 51.8% Women (25-54) react later that day and 55.9% of Adults (18+ ) and 64.6% Women (25-54) react later that week.

- Internet Radio Provides One-On-One customer response.
Immediate customer response is available by click-through to your website for an immediate buy online.

(Arbitron, NAB)

3. GREATER AUDIENCE PERCEPTION

- Internet Radio and AM/FM radio less intrusive.
Radio ads are considered to be less intrusive than Cable TV ads because they are expected and do not seem to appear at inconvenient moments.

- Internet Radio and AM/FM is considered to have less repeated ads.

- Cable TV channels use their best ad positions for their own trailers and inventory.

- Internet and AM/FM Radio ads are:
  • Perceived more personally relevant than any other media
  • Connected to a higher emotional level and buy
  • Best of all media for branding
  • Associated more than any other media with trust, honest and reliability
  • Considered to be the most positive
  • Most listened to and your message is HEARD by 92% of audience
  • Best to improve unaided Brand Name Recall

(Arbitron, Media Audits Media IQ Study)


HealthyLife.Net Radio creates win-win-win advertising - for you, your clients and the station. We have professional radio copywriters and voice over people that will write and produce your ad for free with any of our ad campaigns.