"Web Radio"
January 1999

Introduction
The convergence of radio with digital technologies is no more pronounced and potentially profound than in Web radio, the delivery of "radio" directly to individual listeners over the Internet. Web radio, growing both in the number of "stations" and in listenership, comes in three varieties.

The first is radio simulcast—traditional, over-the-air stations that are simulcast on the Web. Sometimes the Web-delivered signal is little more than the original broadcast recreated online. But more often, the simulcast includes additional information, for example the lyrics of the song being played, biographical information of the artist, and concert dates. Approximately 900 U.S. stations deliver their normal broadcasts over the Web. Simply search the Web using a station's call letters to see if your favorite is online or try Beethoven Radioemisoras, 96.5 FM to hear as an example what one small classical station out of Santiago, Chile is doing. Or tune in to San José State's award-winning college radio station KSJS-90.5 FM.

The second form of web radio is web-only radio—"radio" stations that can be accessed only over the Web. The 150 Web-only stations provide two distinct services. The first simply delivers digital sound via the Web. Sites like Spinner Music Service (formerly DJ) offer listeners a choice of over 100 different channels of music, everything from jazz to Celtic to New Age, all free of commercials and DJ chatter. All users have to do is click on the type of "station" they want to hear and they can hear it. There are also more narrowly-targeted Web-only stations. If you want all Grateful Dead, all the time, visit Dead Radio.

Finally, there is interactive web-only radio. This second type of Web-only station permits users to interactively personalize the Webcasts they receive. At Imagine Radio, for example, from a list of 20 categories listeners can identify: the type of music they wish to hear; whether there are certain artists they prefer over others; and, whether they want news and other informational content. Listeners can even skip tunes that they do not want to hear. To access Web-Radio, users must have the software Real Player on their computers. Real Player permits streaming (the simultaneous downloading and accessing—playing—of digital audio or video data), and is available for free downloading at http://www.real.com (this month's hot Web site). But even Real Player can't give all users the full Web-Radio experience. Users who have dial-up access to the Internet experience a hum when listening, a sound analogous to that heard on AM. Perfectly clear sound is possible only with very fast, ISDN-type modems.

Box Office Totals for 1998
These numbers have been released by Exhibitor Relations Company, a movie theater industry group. In North America alone, a record $7 billion in tickets were bought, a 9% increase over 1997. This means that 1.46 billion tickets were sold, itself a 5% increase over the previous year.

The Top 10 box office movies of 1998 were:

1. Armageddon ($201.6 million)
2. Saving Private Ryan ($190.4 million)
3. ThereÕs Something About Mary ($173.7 million)
4. Doctor Dolittle ($144.1 million)
5. The Waterboy ($140.9 million)
6. Deep Impact ($140.5 million)
7. Godzilla ($136 million)
8. Rush Hour ($133 million)
9. Lethal Weapon 4 ($129.6 million)
10. The Truman Show ($125.6 million)

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