Dave E. Crockett talks to Mike McGuff about the state of webcasting

Dave E. Crockett is a big name in Houston radio and now he is back on the terrestrial airwaves at 107.5 K-HITS (formerly KLDE). I've been following Crockett's online career for a few years. First with his podcast, then to his Internet radio station DXSRADIO.COM. Any reader of the mikemcguff blog knows the trouble for webcasters as of late (READ MORE HERE).

Crockett was nice enough to answer some of my questions about webcasting and turning off his web stream.

Mike McGuff: What was it like having to shut down DXSRADIO.COM?

Dave E. Crockett: The new gig at K-HITS came at a really good time because DXSRADIO.COM was proving to be a liability due to some unfavorable proposed licensing issues. Those have still not been resolved and it could really deal a huge blow to Internet radio. Especially if they want to make the music fees retroactive back to January 2006. Looking at what income I was able to generate versus what the potential licensing fees could be, it just made better business sense to count my losses and move on.

The hits to the website indicated that we were on the right track and our average time spent listening was over 3 hours. People seemed to enjoy the country/rock music mix and I feel DXS had great potential, even though it was a hard sell to investors, bankers and even advertisers. But who knows what will happen in 8 or 9 months. I might be in a position to bring it back on-line.

McGuff: Ruling aside, after doing it yourself, is the world ready for web radio?

Crockett: As far as web casting goes; I think I was a little ahead of the curve. I know I wasn't the first to try it. Rowdy Yates had Radio Sugar Land and Todd Nixon had a station in The Woodlands. And there are thousands of streaming station all over the world. But I do think that I was the first in Houston to put so much personality into a daily broadcast.

We had callers on the air on a regular basis and DXS was the first station to actually have
Stevens & Pruett back together with Laurie Kendrick. That was a fascinating show because the guys didn't hold back anything. Mark was as sharp as ever and Jim got in a few shots as well. DXS also developed regular weekly features that gave our audience something to look forward to.

The truly great thing about Internet radio is that it is not regulated by any agency. Which means that it will truly be the survival of the fittest when it really gets going. Unlike satellite that charges, and terrestrial radio that is run by huge conglomerates, web radio will be done by radio pioneers and you will have some amazing choices in what you want to hear. We just need to get the average Joe to recognize the relevance of Internet radio in their lives.

Good luck to Crockett and hopefully DXS can come back online. Listen to him weeknights from 7pm to 12am on 107.5.