Supporting WOXY
18 months ago, I posted about the signing off of WOXY.com, as the financial burden of running both a land and internet based independent radio station became too much. The air waves went sadly silently when they could not raise the money necessary to continue to be independent.
After a brief silence, the station received an anonymous donation that would allow them to stay online for 12 months - buying time for them to organize a new business model. They managed to stretch it for 18 months, but the advertising model they hoped for never took hold. There is some interesting commentary on why it did not work. Being an internet-only radio station, traditional advertisers were not hip on using internet only advertising, while - since the station is audio, traditional banner style internet radio didn't quite catch on due to the fact that people are not on the site per se. This is an interesting dilemma to those who study/think about the impact of technology.
So - they are turning to a subscription based model for the time being. For 33ยข a day (or $9.95/m) you can get crystal clear reception (although it says 2000 accesses a month ... so for now I am leaving it on all the time heh). If any of you who read this space, who enjoy independent radio and would like to support the station - please go here and check out how you can support and keep listening to a great station with great DJ's.
18 months ago, I posted about the signing off of WOXY.com, as the financial burden of running both a land and internet based independent radio station became too much. The air waves went sadly silently when they could not raise the money necessary to continue to be independent.
After a brief silence, the station received an anonymous donation that would allow them to stay online for 12 months - buying time for them to organize a new business model. They managed to stretch it for 18 months, but the advertising model they hoped for never took hold. There is some interesting commentary on why it did not work. Being an internet-only radio station, traditional advertisers were not hip on using internet only advertising, while - since the station is audio, traditional banner style internet radio didn't quite catch on due to the fact that people are not on the site per se. This is an interesting dilemma to those who study/think about the impact of technology.
So - they are turning to a subscription based model for the time being. For 33ยข a day (or $9.95/m) you can get crystal clear reception (although it says 2000 accesses a month ... so for now I am leaving it on all the time heh). If any of you who read this space, who enjoy independent radio and would like to support the station - please go here and check out how you can support and keep listening to a great station with great DJ's.
posted by Kelly at
11:09
2 Comments:
What I find interesting about this is how much it proves that the traditional offline capitalist-industrialist model of advertising products/services to consumers is not working in the "new" environment online. At the same time, the subscription based model makes me uneasy, because it once again discriminates against those who don't have disposable income. It turns media consumption into luxury, effectively silencing working class, student and social assistance groups. I am not sure how well their new model will work, as a result, because it would seem to me that their target audience won't be able to justify the cost, or even if they can, may well not have a credit card to use.
By
Sashay, at 10/2/06 12:57 p.m.
To be fair, they are only working on the monthly subscription base as a temporary solution. You can only subscribe for one month atm.
They have a forums board, and your comments of their target audience not having the disposable income (although there is much debate over how little 10 bucks a month is in the grand scheme of things ... a 6pack of beer even!)
And they have 4 ways to pay besides c.card - hell, they even have an "adopt a listener" forum sponsored by other listeners heh.
I would like hear more though about ideas how to redefine a business model to suit the medium. Much of the same problems occur in politics re: globalization.
By
Kelly, at 10/2/06 1:09 p.m.
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