Leading Online Radio Service AccuRadio Moving to Broadcast Radio Distribution to Increase Revenues and Reduce Music Royalty Costs

UPDATE: CHICAGO (4/1/21) - RETRACTION: AccuRadio to abandon AM radio, stay on Internet. Details HERE

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CHICAGO (3/31/21) -- AccuRadio, one of the two leading brands of pureplay online radio in the U.S. and featuring over 1,100 curated and personalizable channels of music, in a bid to increase spot revenues and address the high music royalty costs of Internet radio, will be transitioning away from Internet delivery effective next Monday (April 5^th), Founder/CEO Kurt Hanson and COO Ben Husmann announced today.

“Due to the high cost of music royalties for online radio, plus an opportunity we see for a significant revenues increase, we’ll be winding down our current online service and moving to broadcast radio, effective next week,” Husmann noted. 

Hanson noted that Congress and the U.S. Copyright Office have set radically different royalty structures for broadcast, satellite, and Internet radio.; with broadcast radio paying about 6% of its revenues for music royalties, satellite radio paying about 15% of its revenues, and Internet radio required to pay a per-performance rate that for some webcasters can represent up to 70% of their revenues. “Although we feel that there is inherent unfairness in this rate disparity, we believe if more online radio brands follow our lead, even companies like Pandora can find a way to achieve profitability,” Hanson noted.

For AccuRadio’s move to broadcast transmission next Monday, the company has already lined up handshake agreements with top broadcast groups similar to iHeartMedia, Audacy (formerly Entercom), Citadel, Beasley, Hubbard, and Mid-West Family Broadcasting (plus Slaight Communications in Canada), for signals that cover close to 38% of the U.S population (and 16% of Canada’s), making AccuRadio’s move to the AM band an easy transition for a large percentage of its listenership, AccuRadio Chairman John Gehron noted.

All AccuRadio Channels Will Be Available

All 1,100 of AccuRadio’s curated music channels will be available on the broadcast version of AccuRadio, although only one on any given day.

“Liberated from the conventions of online radio, which include a typical spot load of only about 4 minutes of commercials per hour, in its new competitive environment, AccuRadio on the AM band will be able to field a competitive product even while playing up to 22 minutes of commercials per hour,” AccuRadio EVP Music Programming Paul Maloney noted. [1]

AccuRadio was able to line up a strong network of signals for its launch as a result of recent events. “Thanks to Rush Limbaugh's passing, lots of AM stations have become available at affordable prices,” noted Hanson. “While some of us will miss Rush’s insights, perhaps AccuRadio’s diverse music offerings will similarly add to the public good.”

Initial Channel Line-Up Announced

Subsequent to the shutdown of its Internet-delivered product, AccuRadio will debut on AM radio on Monday, April 5th with its "Ukulele Unleashed" channel.  “If you love ukulele music, don't miss it, because that channel won't be coming up again in the channel rotation until Saturday, June 12th, 2025,” noted AccuRadio Senior Music Director and Social Media Manager Eric Bowden.

Other AccuRadio channels that will be featured in its first week of its new incarnation include “Magic Sunny Lite Hits Mix” on Tuesday, April 5, (available again on Sunday, June 13, 2025 and Wednesday, August 30, 2029), “Rock ‘n Stereo”  [2] (a tribute to the glory days of AOR radio) on Wednesday, April 6, (available again on Monday, June 14, 2025 and Thursday, August 31, 2029), and “Cocktail Jazz Trio” (inspired by the combos that play at Houston’s and Bandera restaurants) on Wednesday, April 7, (available again on Tuesday, June 15, 2025 and Friday, September 1, 2029). Dates in 2025 and 2029 are tentative and subject to change as they don’t reflect the fact that AccuRadio continually adds fresh new channels to its channel lineup.

Gehron noted that the small number of AccuRadio listeners who live outside of those 38% of U.S. markets that will have an AccuRadio AM signal can order, until Sunday (4/4), their favorite AccuRadio channel on a set of forty 90-minute stereo cassettes [3].

In-Car Listening Still Available

Starting Monday, in-car listening will be almost as easy as listening to AccuRadio on a smartphone, AccuRadio Director of Engineering Phil Vuollet noted: “For example, if you're driving from Minneapolis to St. Louis, just tune to AccuRadio AM 1240 until you get near Mankato, then switch to AM 830. At Mason City, change your dial to AM 1650; Fort Dodge AM 1280; then expect 20 miles of no signal; and then simply turn to AM 1550 in Des Moines. It's that easy!” Vuollet adds, “As a mnuemonic device, simply remember this rhyming couplet:  ‘1240, 830, 1650, 1280, 20 miles, and 1550’.”

Promotional announcements describing various popular driving routes in America, and the recommended listening frequencies for each route, will air on AccuRadio on a thrice-hourly basis during the remaining four days of its Internet streaming.

To enjoy AccuRadio’s final four days of online streaming – which includes such benefits as channel blending, a personalized “Five-Star Radio” channel of one’s highly-rated songs, and unlimited skips, visit www.accuradio.com.

[1] As a humorous and “tongue-in-cheek” reference to AccuRadio’s new spot load policy, AccuRadio brand manager Todd Manley noted that one of AccuRadio’s slogans, on days that AccuRadio AM’s featured channel is one of AccuRadio’s 38 world music channels, will be “Give Us 22 Minutes [of Listening to Commercials], We’ll Give You the World Music.”

[2] To be rebranded as “Rock ‘n Mono”

[3] Listeners can receive a $900 discount in the price of the cassette package by using promo code NOAM400, reflecting a 20% savings

About AccuRadio.

Launched in the summer of 2000 by radio researcher Kurt Hanson (with FM radio programmer Paul Maloney), who hoped to encourage broadcasters to embrace the variety and personalization made possible by Internet delivery of radio, AccuRadio has grown into an easy-to-use, curated for “tune in and leave it on” listening by a team of human music lovers, musicians, and genre experts (not algorithms). Now featuring over 1,100 personalizable music channels (which can be blended into over 47 trillion possible combinations), AccuRadio has online music's most upscale and loyal audience. 

Sources: The Media Audit (qualitative) and Triton Digital's Webcast Metrics (ATSL).