[Dixielandjazz] The next Radio Revolution?

[Stephen G Barbone]

Heard an interesting talk by the founder of a LOCAL internet radio  
station yesterday which I will try and paraphrase as it may prove  
helpful to some of the activist band leaders. The station is  
Brandywineradio.com and is out of Kennett Square PA. They have a niche  
target audience,  the 25 to 50 year olds within a 50 mile radius of  
their location. An area known as the Brandywine Valley.
Southwest Suburban Philly and Wilmington Delaware. That area happens  
to be Barbone Street's main performance area hence my interest. There  
may be stations like them formed, or forming in some of your areas if  
the founder is right.

RADIO REVOLUTIONS

MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC

By 1952 radio as we knew it the was in serious trouble. The major  
programs, like Jack Benny, Fibber Magee and Molly, et al were all  
defecting to a new medium, television. The days of radio dominance,  
(you remember them, when groups of people would gather round the radio  
and listen) were rapidly ending.

Two young radio entrepreneurs were bemoaning this at a local coffee  
shop in the mid west. The tipped their waitress and noticed she  
scooped up the change and fed it into a juke box. Same thing happened  
over and over. And she usually played the same song. They asked her  
why and she said because she liked to listen to music.

So the contacted the juke box company and found that this was  
happening all over the area. How did they know which records were  
popular? Because the machines had a counter each time a coin was  
deposited for each song. How many songs on most Machines? Forty (Yep  
that's where the top 40 came from)

So these two guys invested in music radio stations and made a fortune,  
playing top 40 songs over and over.

TRANSISTOR RADIOS

A few years later, transistors and AM portable radios became very  
popular. And all of us kids back then took our music to the beach with  
us, or to the ball game, or camping etc. And music radio stations grew  
more rapidly.

FM

In the 1970s, FM loomed large and once again the music station market  
grew.

FAST FORWARD TO TODAY.

Conventional radio today is rapidly losing market share among the  
young. Why? Because of computers and internet radio. But so far,  
internet music radio stations seem to have been targeting a world-wide  
audience, or exist in someone's basement targeting a narrow audience  
segment in a particular genre. Without thought of becoming commercial.

Brandywineradio.com is thinking differently. They target a broad local  
audience with a view to making a profit through advertising and other  
promotional tie-ins. They do some local sports, list local arts  
events, along with playing a varied music program, 24/7. And they make  
a profit doing so.

They also fill the listener gap left by conventional radio stations  
which have bowed out of the local market here.

Best of all, listening to internet radio has become portable. Heck,  
you can buy portable internet radio receivers, or hear internet radio  
on several brands of cell phones, etc. And the new generation is doing  
just that.

How do you become involved? How does this help you? Well, it helped me  
in that I just got interviewed on this station today . . . and they  
play my CDs . . .AT NO COST TO ME except for 2 donated CDs and a 22  
mile round trip drive to their studio in Kennett Square.

Plus, they love what my band does and have asked to broadcast our  
Annual New Orleans Funeral Service for the year 2008, to be held at  
the Germantown Unitarian Society in Philadelphia on Jan 4. Plus they  
are interested in broadcasting snips from some high profile gigs, like  
swing dances, mardi gras, etc. FREE. They think they can get local  
sponsors to pair up on these broadcasts.

I'm hoping they are right and that these local internet stations will  
spring up in other markets in the USA. If they do, I suggest you seek  
them out. I note with interest that two of our local venues are  
already on their sponsor list.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone
www.myspace.com/barbonestreetjazzband