After the hasty departure of some Australian Internet radio stations, Net broadcaster TheBasement has seized the market with fervour determined not to follow the doomed path of those who went before it.
Launched in November last year - with a $1.6 million injection from Telstra - broadband Internet radio station TheBasement is gearing up for a more successful venture than the likes of Big Fat Radio and Talk Australia, which fell by the wayside just a few months after being in the market.
Radio personality Doug Mulray's Basement studio kicked off online four months ago, broadcasting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with both audio and video, including live band performances streamed from the Sydney nightclub, The Basement.
However, Chief Executive of Chief Entertainment - which heads www.TheBasement.com.au - told ZDNet the service was in development for 18 months before launching, and has a very supportive business model to keep it afloat in this somewhat temperamental environment.
So how is this Net radio broadcaster different from the rest?
Cameron believes the main difference between the latest casualties of dotcom broadcasters and TheBasement, is a strong business plan and the backing provided by Telstra right from the start.
"Big Fat Radio launched and only had enough money to last a few months, then they ran out and didn't get the second round of funding. We haven't been around for [four] months, we've been with Telstra since 1998," Cameron said.
Cameron also believes the key to success as a Net broadcaster is the use of broadband facilities rather than narrowband - which is supplied by Telstra.
Furthermore, the experienced group of radio broadcasters that help drive the business is a bonus, rather than a full team of "tech heads".
"We're also different because we're on broadband, using narrowband is just like listening to AM compared to FM," Cameron said.
Cameron said most of the Net radio stations in Australia and overseas do not use announcers. He explained that it is like listening to a juke-box which just spins through a play lists of songs.
"We wanted to make the experience of listening to Internet radio as familiar as listening to free to air radio."
Part of TheBasement's revenue stream comes from advertising, which it steams radio and TV commercials.
It also built an extra studio, which it leases as a production facility to other radio stations.
Another source of revenue comes from producing DVDs and CDs of artists that perform in the nightclub to on sell to users of the service.
According to Cameron, the "earthing point" of the venture is the the nightclub, which it streams live music to the world from.
