Ready for Radio Stations on the Web

by Doug Smith and Greg Ausley

http://web.archive.org/web/19980215202236/wwwiz.com/issue06/wiz_f03.html

Copyright © 1996 Doug Smith and Greg Ausley. All rights reserved.

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Well, kiddies, here we go again—exploring the musical aspects of the World Wide Web. This episode will take a look at radio station sites online. With a little looking around, you'll quickly realize that checking out these sights is like getting a tour of the stations themselves. You can meet staff, read about programming and contests, and even give feedback to your favorite (or least favorite) station or on-air personality.

We'll be focusing on some of the more well-known stations in Southern California, specifically the San Diego and Los Angeles markets. We'll take a little gander at some radio station sites and a little peek at the sites of some of the on-air personalities popular in San Diego and Los Angeles.

First, there's 91X, the self-proclaimed "cutting edge of rock" out of San Diego. (We guess if Michael Jackson can call himself "King of Pop," 91X can call themselves the "cutting edge of rock"). When we didn't have problems loading it, we weren't blown away by the "cutting edge" of Web sites. The buttons have a cool font but lead only to more text. There's no cool background here, just a gray wallpaper serving as the pallet for this artistry. Some of the links include "DJs" (a list of DJs' names with a link to a Howard Stern page), "Top 91," "Music News," "Events," and so on. This site is almost entirely text-based.

Some cool things include the links to band sites and download possibilities under "Top 91," and the input form under "Shows" for the 91X show, "Musical Purgatory." Overall though, this is a pretty bland site with little substance. It needs some color, images and graphics; it needs to be more pleasing to the eye. Those "Under Construction" signs are so tedious and boring—they've got to go! In other words...it's got a good beat, but we had a hard time dancing to it.

Next we have the Dave Shelly and Chainsaw (DSC) Homepage, a site dedicated to the morning crew of Rock 102, also out of San Diego. Here we have a nice publicity photo of the crew, a history section, individual bios, San Diego radio news, scans of Rock 102 bumper stickers, and some features. The features include sections on show characters, games, sound files, pictures from station events, and some outside links. This is an okay page, pretty much designed for fans of the show. It's briefly amusing to browse around, but, like most art films, it gets boring quickly. More graphics! Backgrounds! More color! Catch the eye! It's better to look good than to feel good. Overall though, this is a great resource if you are already a fan of the show and want to learn all about the character, Skeeter...and download someone saying "boner."

Also out of San Diego is 92.5 The Flash. These guys play alternative flashback stuff, and some newer stuff, too. At first glance, this looks like a pretty small site, but once you dig around you'll find some substance. There are two cool sections called "Chat Cafe" and "Post It," which are like an IRC site and a newsgroup for Flash listeners. Just download the necessary software and you're ready to chat about the Flash!

They also have the typical radio-station stuff like DJ shots and bios (which actually are very quaint), a calendar, Top 10 and playlist pages that are a little behind, and a merchandise section. You can also download song samples using RealAudio. Overall, this is a pretty cool page with some interesting stuff. You could spend some serious time here chatting and posting about The Flash, and it's obvious that a whole lotta work went into this site. Once again though, more graphics, images and colors would make this site even better.

Now on to an eye-catching site with lots of backgrounds and graphics and color. Obviously a lot of money was spent on the Top 40 KIIS FM's site, out of Los Angeles. In this case, though, money gets you looks, not necessarily substance, we guess. This site has a cool banner and background with tons of buttons and links. We get the typical stuff here, nice DJ shots and bios, events, contests, and promotions. There's a link to the music retail site—1-800-Music Now—and forms available for listener input.

This page is kept up well and a couple of visits show it is updated often. This page is a little conformist for our taste, but a lot of time is put into it on an ongoing basis. Some of the pages are a little slow to load, but that's to be expected sometimes. The site is nice, looks pretty, but has no real edge or surprises. What is done is done well, though.

Once again we have another fan-oriented page for Mark and Brian, the popular morning jocks for KLOS. This page is a tribute to those wacky guys and looks pretty good. There's a cool banner across the top of the main page and lots of photos on subsequent pages. This page is also kept up, and changes after repeated viewing. There's plenty of info on Mark and Brian, their show, time together and contests. It's fun to find out about things like the time one of them had to "shave down there" to fulfill a bet promise. Once again though—good for fans of the show, nice on the surface, little substance.

Finally we have the "world famous" KROQ, the alternative giant out of L.A. This is not a fully functioning site yet—it's a Beta site! Just like the new Netscape, huh? We guess this is a way to say "under construction" and not look like dorks. If it's not ready, don't put it up! Cool buttons here and some decent links. Mostly the usual: song lists, shows, DJ bios and so on. The DJ bios are sort of cute here. Not a bad site. Maybe it will be better when it is fully functioning.

So, some advice to radio sites: color, graphics, backgrounds, listener input, something interesting. Many of the sites out there are pretty bland and conformist, but there are a few that stretch the confines of creativity a little bit. And get rid of those "under construction" signs!