Station Hopes Well-Heeled Listeners Tune In on Web.

Local radio station Channel 103.1 FM thought its fate was sealed after its parent company, Clear Channel Communications and the AMFM Inc. radio network announced their merger last fall.

The merged entity, to comply with federal antitrust laws, must unload some stations. And the L.A. rock station's weak signal and fairly small audience meant it would be among the first sold.

By rallying its listeners, Channel 103.1 executives were able to convince Clear Channel owners to let the station try its luck online, making it the first station to transition directly from over-the-air broadcasts to on-the-Internet streaming. But that change opens up a host of complications -- the biggest of which is convincing advertisers that the radio station's well-educated, well-off listeners would follow it to the Web, a very different kind of medium.

(For now, Channel 103.1 is broadcasting over the airwaves and on the Internet, but will officially leave the air when the merger is approved, which is expected to happen before the end of the month.)

It's one thing to sell radio time to advertisers; after all, research companies like Arbitron provide a very clear picture of a radio station's listener numbers and demographics. But measuring users on the Web is still an inexact, somewhat frustrating science.

"Until there's some kind of number that people can put some reliability in, that's going to be one of the stumbling blocks," said Allen Klein, president of Media Research Graphics Inc., a firm that provides analysis of ratings reports for broadcasters. "Most of these (Web sites) are running on (viewer) hits. But does that relate in any way to sales? That's what it's going to come down to."

Making ratings advertiser-friendly

With that in mind, the station has no plans to bombard advertisers with complicated reports showing the number of viewer hits, unique visitors per month, page views, or other categories of data that have come to be measures of online usage. Instead, it will take that data, once it's available, and package it to look like the kind of reports that radio advertisers are accustomed to.

"We're taking all of the reporting, like the amount of people listening and the time they're listening, and putting it together so it looks more like Arbitron (ratings) -- how advertisers normally receive information," said Chris Peaslee, who is overseeing Channel 103.1's technological transition to the Internet.

Channel 103.1 is taking other pains as well to make its advertisers' experience with the online station, located at www.WorldClassRock.com, comparable to that of an over-the-air radio station.

Most notably, the online station will continue to ran audio advertisements between song sets, just like it does today.

What's new and, the station believes, a selling point to tech-savvy advertisers, is that Channel 103.1 is launching a worldClassRock.com player that will allow listeners to download an icon onto their desktops, which they can click on to listen to the station without having to navigate through an Internet browser. That player can be minimized so the music will still play without taking up much space on the computer screen, and users can work on other programs while listening to the music.

A feature in the works will allow listeners to access additional information about songs that are being played, or products and services being advertised. Links to an advertiser's Web site, video clips, contests, or other information could pop up on the player while the company's audio commercial is playing.

"The main focus is music, bet we want to add more interactive features," Peaslee said. "We have the opportunity to make this a little more like television, but that's down the road."

Though the station will lose its valuable drive-time listeners, some statistics have emerged in its favor.

A recent five-month study conducted by Broadcast Architecture showed that 80 percent of radio listeners have e-mail and Internet access, 44 percent of those people have viewed a radio station Web site in the past year, and 49 percent listen to the radio while online -- broadcast radio, that is.

Computer connection

Channel 103.1's core listeners have also been shown to be very Internet savvy.

"When you look at qualitative data, we rank up near the top for college-educated professional adults," said Nicole Sandler, program director at Channel 103.1. "They're smart, and they do tend to grasp the new technology."

Their comfort with technology was shown in a recent online petition the station conducted to gauge interest in moving Channel 103.1 to the Web. Since the petition was launched in late June, more than 21,000 people have signed up to support the transition.

"It's showing that people do have computers and they are willing to do what it takes to not lose us," Sandler said.

George Nadel Rivin, partner in charge of broadcast services at accounting firm Miller, Kaplan, Arase & Co. and an expert on local radio, thinks the station has a chance to make it, largely because of its format. Channel 103.1 is the only station in L.A. with the adult album alternative format, an eclectic mix of classic and modern rock, blues and reggae that appeals to an affluent young audience.