Internet streaming in is reaching more of an audience today thanks to the ability of smart phones, home wi-fi “IP” ‘radio’ devices. Several stations — as they have everything except an over the air signal — are carving niches for a radio audience.
Brad Martini built on a successful station, The Fabulous 570, and took the music idea to the Internet.
He calls it Radio Martini, and it’s a stiff drink of great music from the America Songbook.
SDRadio: Brad, what is Radio Martini?
MartiniInTheMorning.com is a unique RADIO STATION that happens to use the Internet as its “Transmitter.” Unlike services like Pandora that are really nothing more than a computerized juke box, we are a RADIO STATION. We have personalities, we have contests, we are deeply involved in causes like the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and others to come … causes that are important to our listeners and give them a chance to be a part of something bigger than themselves. That’s what made radio great over the years, a sense of companionship, a common experience…there were always those mornings when a popular local personality did something that made people say … hey, did you hear what so and so did on the radio this morning? I remember the days when people would say they were late to work because they sat in their car waiting for the conclusion of some story, some stunt or bit that their favorite morning personality was doing. There is that common experience thing, like back in the old days when people would gather around the water cooler in the morning and talk about Johnny Carson’s monologue from the night before. There is a need for humans to be connected. Radio has provided some of that connection for a long time.
The truth is, MartiniInTheMorning.com is more than a radio station … the fact is, we’re building a community … a community of like minded individuals who come together ostensibly around a common affection for a particular type of music. The community becomes united by the mainstream, the “Establishment” media’s failure to provide this music they love … in fact, the “Establishment” media has intentionally taken that music away from this significant pool of listeners. Over the years, radio has been at it’s best when it was serving its community…whether it was responding to a crisis…rallying its audience behind a cause, or getting the audience whipped up with some dumb contest….radio was best when serving, and connecting, its community.
What we’ve figured out is that to have a community, you don’t have to be defined by the reach of a transmitter or the city limits, county line or some other geographical point of reference. MartiniInTheMorning.com services a community that is spread across the USA and around the world…but do not allow yourself to think that is not a community..it is. It’s a community of like minded individuals coming together around a common interest. They are a community. Last week, Chip Galusha, a computer consultant from Farmville, NC, was in London on business. Chip and Danielle Chaso, a Human Relations professional with a London financial company, got together face to face for the first time. But…they felt as if they knew each other, and in fact, they did, because they spoke regularly through theMartiniInTheMorning.com “Chat Lounge.”
Two years ago, a group of young women from the USA flew to Dublin, Ireland, where they met up with a group of women from the UK. Together, these women went to seven Michael Buble concerts over a period of 10 days. They drove and flew from concert stop to concert stop, shared hotel rooms, dined together, and screamed at Michael Buble during those seven performances. Those women had never met before, but knew one another through the MartiniInTheMorning.com “Chat Lounge.”
So as much as MartiniInTheMorning.com is about playing “The Hits” for its genre … it is more about creating a community that, from a business, almost mercenary position, will be great candidates to purchase the products and services of the MartiniInTheMorning.com advertisers and sponsors. But it is more. Three years ago, MartiniInTheMorning.com was so moved by its involvement in the Susan G.. Komen Race for the Cure that we began expanding, encouraging listeners to create their own “Team Martini.” They recruited team members and participated in their local Race for the Cure. We provided the promotional support, hats, tee shirts, etc. Angela Bitetto founded the Tampa-St. Petersburg Team Martini to participate in the Race for the Cure. Angela created her team and led them to an award winning performance. One month later, this vibrant 29 year old found out she would be fighting a very personal battle against breast cancer – her own….it’s a battle that continues today. This is what radio does so well, and what we will do online.
SDRadio: You are based in California and broadcast world-wide … how do you explain your reach?
Frank Sinatra is universal. So is Dean Martin…and Ella Fitzgerald, and Bobby Darin. Listeners the world over love this music…but more importantly, Franco Micolli who has MartiniInTheMorning.com playing in his Lolly Shop (a men’s clothing shop) in Francavilla al Mare, Italy, wants to be part of a community. The same is true with Jasmina Blagojovic, a school teacher in Kragujevac, Serbia. We call Jasmina “The #1 Dean Martin Fan in the World,” partially because of the Dean Martin shrine in her apartment. Danielle Chaso in London is a big fan of British pop star Robbie Williams, formerly and again of “Take That” boy band fame, who did an album of “Standards” to critical acclaim with little or no sales success in the US. This most American of music is loved the world over.
SDRadio: Listener interaction takes on new meaning: web, email, and social media. How are you using each?
Wow…hot topic. 40 percent of our listeners come to us after visiting Facebook. It has become an integral part of our marketing and listener interaction. Everything we do is “Connected…” even our move into smaller studios … we’ve had our “Guest Cam” running …. our “MartiniVision camera…we’ve had folks in Chat, I’ve spent as much time as possible there, answering questions, allaying fears …
SDRadio: What is the best “thing” your listeners bring to you each day?
Our listeners bring us many things, most of all, their love…their friendship and their marketing skills. Since we’ve never had enough money to really effectively advertise MITM, our listeners are our marketing department in a very real way. One of our listeners, Harry Simpson in Sun City Center, Florida…one of our senior listeners at 84 (our average age is 49), Harry recognizes the struggler we’re in and offers encouraging emails almost every day. Our listeners bring us data … Ruben Helmstaeder, a student in Vienna, Austria, is an expert on this genre and in our “Chat Lounge,” Ruben offers little known factoids about the artists and songs we play. We have listeners who provide IT expertise. We have listeners who provide accounting expertise. Our listeners are clearly the stars!
Brad adds: Our biggest challenge is audience size. As anyone doing this will tell you, when a stand-alone Internet station has to compete with the aggregate audience compiled by someone operating dozens (or hundreds) of Internet “Stations,” they have a tough time getting the attention of advertisers. While we might have more listeners than many, if not most, of the individual “Stations” operated by those aggregators, they’re selling the total … a big bucket of listening. The difference though is that we’re building a loyal following, listeners who will move the moon and stars to support their station … a station providing programming they can’t find anywhere else. And with the addition of social networking and real interaction, interactivity, the community can easily be motivated to support a cause, an advertiser or a sponsor. The audience might be smaller than the aggregate total of listening to dozens of Internet Jukeboxes (what they really are), but when music becomes a commodity, what do you do to keep people from tuning out when commercials come on? And if you don’t run commercials, what’s the revenue model? Banner ads? We can take the best of broadcast radio, incorporate the plusses of improved targeting ability, loyalty marketing, community building and social networking, and have an audience that is actually EAGERLY AWAITING PROPERLY TARGETED COMMERCIALS, ADVERTISING FOR LIFESTYLE APPROPRIATE PRODUCTS, SERVICES, EVENTS AND DESTINATIONS.
