Meet your new Online Radio competition: Newspapers

This past week I had to the opportunity to visit online radio studios under construction.

But here's the catch:

It was at a newspaper.

The San Diego Union-Tribune, to be exact.

And it will surely be another force fighting for online radio dollars with your stations and their streams.

Think about the implications of a front page banner ("What's on now") inviting 3 million unique monthly visitors to sample radio-style content from name-brand local columnists and legendary local radio talent – hear their talk shows and even call in!

Live and on-demand.

Here's a unique peak inside Ron and Marc's plans in a Q&A I did with them this past week from their very radio-like studios down the hall from the printing presses.

I STRONGLY recommend you give this interview a listen, because it may be the model many other newspapers follow in medium and large markets nationwide.

Their online radio effort has not yet launched, but when it does it will live at signonradio.com.

Even now they have a streaming Alternative station online which features Indie tunes. And listen to this: Its average daily traffic is about 75% of San Diego legend 91X's.

Pretty amazing.

You will be hearing much more about this. And you heard it here first.