Audio Book Club, Inc. Announces Strategy to Leverage Classic Radio Content On Internet.

BOCA RATON, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 1, 1999--

Company Anticipates Increased Traffic and Revenue

Through E-Commerce and Ad Sales

Audio Book Club, Inc. (AMEX: KLB) announced today plans to leverage its classic radio content on the Internet, including development of a new fully featured website.

As part of this effort, the Company anticipates broadcasting a different program each day, or possibly numerous programs from different genres, which visitors can download directly to their PC. The Company believes that these programs will help draw visitors back to the Company's website on a frequent basis, while also providing additional revenues through ad sales and the sponsorship of individual programs. The Company believes that the potential popularity of the new website will allow it to continue to build on its database of approximately 1.3 million audio users and buyers.

The site will allow visitors to sample audio clips from many of the title selections before deciding to buy, run extensive searches through thousands of titles, make purchases online, and browse various micro-sites designed to appeal to specific genres, including comedy, mystery, detective, science fiction and westerns, among others.

Commenting on the Internet strategy, Norton Herrick, Chairman and CEO of Audio Book Club, Inc., stated, "The recent acquisitions of Radio Spirits, Adventures in Cassettes, Radio Yesteryear and Video Yesteryear gave us over 60,000 classic radio programs and 2,500 classic videos, and has provided us with a clear advantage in our efforts to continue as the premier audio content provider on the Internet. This great content combined with a sophisticated E-commerce strategy provides a mix which, we believe, will drive both sales and ad dollars over the long term.

"Given the recent surge in popularity of old time radio, we believe that visitors to this site -- whether long time fans of these programs or simply experiencing them for the first time -- will appreciate the ability to quickly access our tremendous selection of programs from the convenience of their homes or offices. This site allows us the opportunity to reach an enormous, and previously untapped, electronic commerce market which we feel should result in increased profitability as we continue to grow our customer base."

Mr. Herrick continued, "In addition to the ability to purchase these titles at excellent prices, our site will also allow visitors the ability to sample and download entire programs, as well as experience a number of unique features, including a photo library, daily email digests, radio trivia, and links to many of our 300 radio stations which broadcast "When Radio Was", a nightly syndicated classic radio program co-produced by the Company reaching more than 3 million listeners each week. We will also sponsor various contests and giveaways which can be promoted elsewhere on the Internet in an effort to draw new visitors to the site."

Through its recent acquisitions of Radio Spirits, Radio Yesteryear, Video Yesteryear and Adventures in Cassettes, the Company offers audio enthusiasts the ability to purchase popular titles from the early 1930's through the late 1950's on CD and cassettes. The programs are sold through mail order and major retailers including Costco, Sam's Club, Crown, Waldenbooks, B. Dalton and Barnes & Noble. The Company's extensive library includes such stars of yesteryear as Humphrey Bogart, Jack Benny, and Frank Sinatra; comedy teams including Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, and Martin and Lewis; hit series such as The Shadow, Gunsmoke, The Lone Ranger, the Life of Riley and Dragnet; as well as Superman, The Saint, Sam Spade and The Green Hornet, and exclusive worldwide rights to War of the Worlds, arguably the most famous radio broadcast ever recorded.

Audio Book Club, Inc. is a marketer of audiobooks through membership clubs which market and sell audiobooks via the Internet at www.audiobookclub.com and www.BooksAloud.com, and by mail order. Audio Book Club, Inc. is also a publisher of audio and video content including classic radio and video programs and markets and sells that content on audio cassettes, CDs and video cassettes via numerous distribution channels including the Internet, catalogues, radio shows, retail and other outlets. Since commencing operations in January 1994, Audio Book Club, Inc. has engaged in an aggressive membership recruitment program to establish a core Audio Book Club member base. With its recent acquisitions, including the Columbia House Audiobook Club, Audio Book Club, Inc. currently has a combined membership and audio buyer database of over 1,300,000 names.

Safe Harbor Statement Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements which are not historical facts contained in this press release are forward looking statements that involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to, the ability of the Company to successfully integrate the newly acquired businesses into its operations and the uncertainty regarding the actual effect of the acquisitions on the Company, risks relating to the Company's direct mail campaigns and its ability to retain members to its book club, risks relating to the Company's growth strategy, dependence on third party service providers, uncertainty of the scope of future product returns, collection and risks associated with selling products on credit, competition and other risks detailed in the Company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The words "believe" and "should" and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date the statement was made.