Net radio fans losing some favorites to red ink

By Greg Wright
Gannett News Service

"Video killed the radio star," according to the 1979 one-hit wonder by a group called the Buggles. Now the weak economy is killing some Web radio stations.

Popular sites NetRadio and RadioWave abruptly closed in October, joining at least seven other Internet radio services that laid off workers or shut down recently in the face of weak online advertising revenue. Internet radio services also face competition from new Internet radio services launched by Web giants America Online and Microsoft's MSN, analysts said.

The closures disappointed fans who went to the sites to find niche musical genres. Fans also said they liked the Web stations because they often have fewer on-air advertisements and less disc jockey banter.

"I have listened to NetRadio for a long time and when I am on the computer I always tune them in to '60s country music and listen while I work," Atwood Edwards of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., said via e-mail. "Last night, I went to them and received a message that they were stopping programming."

But Internet radio is not going extinct. More than 5,100 traditional radio stations continue to stream broadcasts on the Web, about 1,000 more than last year, according to BRS Media Inc. in San Francisco. And 20 percent of Americans are now tuning into streaming radio broadcasts on their computers, up from just 6 percent in 1998, Arbitron/Edison Research in New York said.

Has your favorite Web station gone off the air? Here's how to find a substitute:

• Use search engines or Web radio. They can be found at www.brsmedia.com, www.radio-locator.com, www.virtualtuner.com, www.internetradiolist.com or www.arbitron.com.

• America Online Version 7.0 offers a built-in Internet Radio service.

• MSN offers free Web radio. It features more than two dozen music genres.

• MusicMatch features Radio MX, which lets users listen to music from a variety of genres and eras. Service starts at $4.95 monthly.