In and out

Group, Sep/Oct 1999

in stock-car garb chinese-character tattoos gross-out humor time capsules radio waves Corporate conformity may have homogenized most on-air radio, but radio's raving online with an estimated 2,000 stations. Tuning-in is simple: Just download a piece of software known as a player to access audio streamssound that's transmitted through computer speakers instead of over the airwaves. Net radio companies, such as Broadcast.com and Spinner.com, offer hundreds of channels containing commercial-free programming that features artists and genres not heard on conventional radio. Underground radio's thriving too-any teenager with a PC and a Net connection can host an Internet radio channel with the help of Shoutcast, a plug-in for the Winamp MP3 player.

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Hey, hey, they're the S Club 7-another British pop band manufactured by Spice Girls creator Simon Fuller. The group's taken the U.K. by storm with its weekly BBC show, Miami 7, and now Fox Family Worldwide has purchased the zany 13week series for US. cable. The show, set to air this fall, follows the fictional escapades of the four-girl, three-boy group as it searches for stardom in Florida. Like the Monkees, each band member plays himself or herself-but on Miami 7 studio musicians play the show's upbeat pop tunes.

captive audience

High school assemblies are the latest marketing venue for record companies seeking to publicize new releases. Labels link up their recording artists with an intermediary company, such as L.A.-based Earth Jam, which offers schools free live concerts coupled with a short environmentaleducation message. "It's a great opportunity for the artist," says Earth Jam's Jamie Yarrow. "because you're getting to the kids who are going to buy your albums." Earth Jam's been around since 1994, when it put together a high school tour for a then-unknown artist named Brandy.

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