EarthLink Gets Vocal with RadioCentral

One of the top national ISPs decides to keep its subscribers sticky with Net-based radio stations requiring no downloads or external media players.

by Michael Singer of internetnews.com [June 1, 2001]

National ISP, EarthLink, this week says it inked a deal with a Silicon Valley Internet radio programmer to launch its EarthLink Radio.

RadioCentral will power the free interactive online radio station. The San Francisco-based company's president and CEO, Eric Rhoads, is legendary in the radio sector. Rhoads has programmed more than 25 leading stations, owned and operated his own stations. He also founded Streamline Media, which publishes Radio Ink, back in 1989.

"We blend the efficiency of terrestrial radio with the accessibility of the Internet to create high-quality, leading-edge radio stations that listeners can't always get locally," says Rhoads.

The pop-up screen Internet-based station requires no downloads or external media players. The site uses RadioCentral's "High Definition Audio along with some proprietary software to give the site a "radio style" sound.

The tuner is broken up into five categories: Today's Hits, World Class Rock, Pop Alternative, Rock Alternative and Classic Alternative. The music is professionally programmed and the site promises more music with only brief mentions of products, services and promotions between every few songs.

"This latest feature enriches our user experience while giving us a great avenue to promote our products and services," says EarthLink VP Erika Jolly.

Linking with Earth
Atlanta-based EarthLink says it decided to move into the Internet radio space because it was looking into something that was a proven success, now its 4.8 million subscribers, give itself some stickiness and drum up more business.

The company's timing into Internet radio is good. An Arbitron report released in January 2001, says regular streaming audio and video users—streamies as they are sometimes known—represent 44 percent of all Internet users and 27 percent of Americans overall.

According to the report, the percentage of all Americans who have listened to online radio stations in the last month has risen 38 percent since January 2000. The report also says that, compared to non-streamies, streamies spend far more time online and are twice as likely to make online purchases.

RadioCentral says it is working on adding more formats and live talent to EarthLink Radio.

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