All Classical Portland, an independent, nonprofit radio station with an FM presence in several Oregon markets, celebrates its 30th anniversary on the air this year.
Streaming media and its monetization is key for Director of New Media Alexander Bighill, who joined All Classical Portland in 2011. Bighill has since expanded to eight streams using Internet services provider StreamGuys’ cloud-based streaming architecture. Online and mobile listeners can choose from two AAC+ and two MP3 streams, supported with redundant streams via StreamGuys’ architecture.
The station also added AdsWizz’s Digital Advertising Monetization Platform for audio pre-roll injections, a platform which StreamGuys offers as an integrated service for broadcasters and audio publishers seeking to generate revenue and monetize streams through targeted content delivery.
Bighill explained, “Online streaming can be fun and exciting, but sometimes that’s not enough of a reason to justify the money that goes into the technology.”
Bighill says that the AdsWizz service is reliable and hassle-free, with new audio files added over a simple interface. The station is currently injecting in-house-produced pre-rolls as users initiate streams.
All Classical Portland also utilizes StreamGuys’ SGMon and SGReports analytical tools, with the former producing weekly listenership overviews for comparison to Arbitron terrestrial audience reports. Bighill says that SGReports offers “an insane amount of detail” about when and how listeners tune in, and AdsWizz brings additional value with pertinent information on pre-roll impressions.
“The ability to deliver our broadcast worldwide is a huge advantage because the ratio of terrestrial listeners versus online listeners will inevitably continue to shift,” said Bighill. “To help offset technological investments, new ways of generating revenue are also needed. The average Internet user realizes that a 10-second message is preferable to a subscription service, and that’s where services like AdsWizz are helpful.”
