Power Player Interview: Jerry Lee's B101 Still Winning Without Streaming

Jerry Lee

Legendary radio icon and WBEB (B101)/PHILADELPHIA  owner JERRY LEE is doing anything but rest on his laurels. The top-rated music station in town is set to assume the overall market crown as it jumps on its annual all-holiday music menu -- even though LEE remains insistent that station not stream its music over the web.

"We’re still not streaming -- and it’s not that I’m happy we didn’t do it," he told ALL ACCESS in this week's Power Player feature interview. "It’s just a bad business model. The royalties that we have to pay to the Royalty Tribunal, together with the cost of streaming, would cost us about 35 cents on the dollar ... that percentage will be going up and up and up with every new contract. The Royalty Tribunal can charge more and more money because they have no restrictions on how much they can charge, so there’s really nothing to negotiate.  I don’t want to encourage my audience to go to another platform.

"In retrospect, when you look at the steaming ratings, less than one-half of 1% of a station’s revenue comes from streaming, so there’s essentially nothing there," he concluded.

This is just part one of a two-part interview with LEE; the second one, posting next week, will spotlight his innovative new proposal to increase radio revenue through traditional -- but more effective -- on-air advertising. Until then, check out part one of the interview here.

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