Weekly Rant: Net Radio is the future! 6/7/200

The last few weeks I have saw people all over the local radio message boards and heard everyone preaching how INTERNET radio is the future. I hear PS A's on regular mainstream radio stations about the benefits of mainstream vs. INTERNET radio. I have saw banners and the like touting that INTERNET radio is here and we all better get ready. Now let me get this straight, I pioneered INTERNET radio and I was called a joke and a no talent but the people who are not working in the cushy radio studios with their next gen and all their WRN equipment are the future and it's here and now? WHAT A ****ING JOKE!

This past week when I was in Wichita Kansas for JJTV taping with Ashton Moore, I see a big sign for KKRDonline.com and then I see All Access{a trade radio publication on line} talking about it. I then see people on the boards talking about it. Excuse me did I miss something here, The future is now? So the future was not in 2000, when I started in net radio and the future was not now when in 1998/1999, my friend Mr. Frank Cotolo launched on Live365 and Ampcast? Well I think you all are a little short sighted with it being now...I have been yelling from the mt. Tops about net radio taking over but no one could find a way to get it to pay? It's just like anything, it takes awhile. For instance, I remember back when Napster and all the digital downloading started. Oh no, the record world was gonna be out of the biz in 2 years. Then I tunes,The new napster and others came along and now even Walmart is in the digital download game.

It's safe and fun and everyone is doing it!
Now the world of net radio has had fore fathers and now we have a race of net caster who believe they started it all. I would like take you all back to 2001, Steve Mills and I were chatting on line about my station and show, he mentioned to me how he was working in Wichita. I was told by him that I was going no where and net radio was nothing and could never catch mainstream radio. Back in the day Opie and Anthony were on New York radio and said that INTERNET radio and satalight radio are for no talents and hacks. Kidd Chris{whom I traded some e-mails and phone calls over the years} told me that INTERNET radio was a nice toy but it could never be what mainstream radio is. My close friend Brother Ken used to tell me the same thing. What makes all this just so god damn funny to me is...Guess what all these guys are in the biz now. The Biz of Internet Radio!

Steve Mills is doing KKRDonline.com and is bringing back a bunch of net stations he had then dropped. Mills is fighting it out on msg boards hourly with people saying Net radio is the FUTURE!. Mills is constantly saying he is got big things in store. Then you have O and A, who after getting booted by CBS radio, went to join XM radio years ago. Kid Chris has a new website and does a M-F radio show on line Of course my good pal, Brother Ken has brought back zoo92.com and is making big strides with it. What I am trying to say is most of these ass clowns{minus Ken, more on that later} have said one thing and done another. Ken on the other hand did not understand Net radio back in the day but now See's that this can do great things. However he knows that this will never make him a millionaire over night, the others think, they will be the next Don Lapree or something.

The past net stations have been fun to watch crash and burn as well, For instance years ago, big12radio.com and just recently Sky 7 were fun to see implode. Big12 radio was a station created out of Salina but 2 guys who spent a lot of money on start up and had little to no return and ended up fizzling out quick. Sky 7 was a station that had great website design, little to no content and high ad rates and dropped off quicker than Lacy Peterson's body to bottom of the ocean on Christmas eve. Now Live365.com was a cool experiment to watch implode in Hutchinson. Years ago, when I first got KJAG off the ground. Live365 saw what I and some others were doing in the area and the #'s we were getting. They thought that Reno County was the gold rush!. They opened and staffed and office and got great numbers of sales reps. When they had me come in and talk to them and talked to others in the area and found I was getting great things done on a low budget with no money coming in. They thought, **** what do we do now!

My view on all this is fairly simple, I have been here along with Big BOB from the Alternacast.com days and Joel from Behind The Mic and Frank Cotolo from Cotolo Chronicles. And we will be here when all the big time guys go back to their air chairs. We all know that the economy will improve in the USA. It always bounces back and we will overcome. Here's what I see happening, Kidd Chris will get a job with someone like a Clear Channel or with Stern over on Sirius/XM. Mills will go back to Wichita mainstream radio and Ken will go back to 92.7 when Rocking M loses their asses and have to sell everything or the banks take it. Myself and the rest will still be here but the only difference will be we will have found some new ways and new stuff to maybe help us market this place better.

Finally I love all the attention that net radio is getting. There is a lot of great programming available from talk to Indy artists,etc. However I think the big trend of saying INTERNET radio is the future is just crap! I talked with National Syndicated radio host, Rusty Humphreys a few days ago about where radio is headed and he said that people have to many options for music and for better or worse the future of radio is talk and entertainment. Which is cool, because then maybe I can get the air conditioned studio and be a big time guy like Steve Mills too.

Jiggy Jaguar
http://www.jiggyjaguar.com