I met Robert mackin (WIBN) a number of months ago, I was sincerely impressed with his enthusiasm and his desire to succeed in this industry. He is quite honestly "Mr. Media". he has vision that few people share, he and his son make a great team.
The market is "accepted" as being huge over the next number of years in this industry. It is quite obvious from a number of published and widely accepted numbers. Those numbers are in the $10's of billions. So what makes WIBN a competitor in what is perceived as a dead industry...."radio"?
Well the most imprtant part of this is, even I listened to internet radio while daytrading, so i see a big future in it. I see a future in Internet TV but only if it is done right. We all know what happened to IcraveTV.com
The failing was due to the fact they tried to circumnavigate the very people that provided the signal, so in some respects "steal the signal". This has never been Mr. Mackins approach, this company will be the "broadcasters" connection to the web, and hopefully WIBN's connection to streaming media for the TV companies.
What seperates WIBN/MyCityRadio from the herd is that Radio Stations are attempting to retransmit their own signal on their own website. This offers little in the way of diversification for the consumer. Other websites "retransmit" a multitude of radio stations, in the hopes of getting a sniff of advertising revenues. All of these approaches have proved thus far to be a complete failure.
So what is the way ahead? Well no one will argue the fact that trying to screw a network is not the approach, it has to be done with the idea of assisting the network by provising a wider audience. This is what WIBN/MyCityRadio will do. Couple this with a patent etargeting system and you have the makings of a great partnership.
There are claims that they will be positive cash flow within 2 quarters, which is extremely bold, but considering the impact they have made on the Vancouver market, the talent that have left top radio stations to come to WIBN, it wouldn't surprise me.
Problems
We have teething problems for sure! The system is going thru beta testing, I am glad they put it up on the web so we could watch it occur......we are their greatest asset, by tuning in and loading the system. My expectations is that they will declare themselves up and running within a couple of weeks.
As we progress thru the Beta testing we will have ample time to critique the system. The one thing I find is these guys are open to suggestions and are truly dedicated to what they are doing.
As always, because there are never any guarantees in life "We'll see"!!
In for the long haul!
the Chief |
