On 26 Mar 2005 18:42:00 GMT, (Garrett Wollman)
wrote:

Now that Mel is gone, all of the Infinity N/T outlets are doing it.
They did a trial in New York on WCBS and reportedly got very good
response.

One reason they're doing it on the all-news stations and the big
market news/talkers: There are very little rights and blackout
issues. WCBS, for example, has to black out the Yankees, and WBZ in
your hometown would have to do the same with the Bruins (if there was
a hockey season, natch). KFWB in L.A., the same with the Dodgers.
KDKA in Pittsburgh will have to black out Bill O'Reilly, unless
Infinity corporate sibling Westwood One has less problems with
streaming nowadays.

But that's about it, really. Most of the big market Infinity
all-newsers produce their own programming almost all the time.

The other reason: It extends the brand. All-news stations,
especially, want to appear ubitquous. By showing up in your office
computer (especially with those AM in-building signal problems), and
all over the world, they assure P1s that they're connected to the
station no matter where they are.

They'll make some change off of selling the stream insert ads... my
old home of KFBK/Sacramento is selling them with some success. But
it's almost a secondary thing.