Issue 209 June 2010

e-business, including website design and op - Nox Solutions takes leading role in erations, paying for bandwidth, hosting, net - working and equipment, purchasing merchandise for sale on the creating revenue-generating site, marketing the site on - line, providing credit card processing, order manage - websites for talk radio ment, subscription manage - ment, customer support and even video equipment TALKERS INTERVIEW: A conversation with Nox Solutions and video production for some clients. Every Nox Eric Marston principals Payam Zarabi and Eric Marston client updates their site with fresh content at least two to three times per week and men - tions their website URL on air every hour by By Kevin Casey lishing and e-commerce company based in referring listeners to their site to see news TALKERS MAGAZINE Los Angeles and founded by Payam Zarabi stories or links to guests who appear on their Managing Editor and Eric Marston in 2002. The company’s show. primary clients are syndicated radio talk The company’s size enables it to provide shows, television shows, internet radio/TV its clients with enterprise-grade infrastruc - OS ANGELES –– The holy grail of producers and authors/lecturers. Nox ture. As an indication of size, Nox’s infra - web-based talk media is the “for - builds and operates websites and e-busi - structure managed the following activity Lmula” to monetize internet con - nesses for each of its clients. Revenues are levels in 2009: 255 million page views, tent. While just about everyone in the talk generated from the sale of premium mem - 850,000 merchandise shipments, 3.5 million radio industry agrees bership subscriptions in e-mails sent per month, and 5 million that the internet is play - which fans pay a monthly streams and podcasts served monthly. ing an increasingly im - subscription of $5 to $7 per Nox recently launched a new initia - portant role in the month to access exclusive tive –– Radio WebTV. Radio WebTV enables nature of modern members-only content local news/talk/sports radio stations that broadcast delivery and posted and updated by have local in-studio talent, to generate addi - branding –– and could each show's host and pro - tional revenue for their station. Nox installs someday even sooner duction team. Additional video cameras and an encoder in each sta - than later replace the traditional “stick”-ori - revenues are generated Payam Zarabi tion and then builds a premium member - ented system –– the question heard most at from the sale of downloadable content, mer - ship subscription website and links it to the the recent New Media Seminar was, chandise, books and newsletters. Ever station’s existing website. “Sure…but how do you make any money since its founding, the company has been a Listeners are invited to be - with it now?” With necessity being the trusted partner with some of the biggest come a member of the site proverbial mother of invention, abundantly names in broadcasting, including West - and get commercial-free visible at that same NMS were representa - wood One, Salem Radio, Talk Radio Net - video podcasts and tives of a company called Nox Solutions… work and Glenn Beck. The company’s streams of every local and attendees who had the opportunity to current clients include Bill O’Reilly, Laura show along with other meet with them were happy to learn that Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, Westwood One’s members-only content they provided meaningful answers to the Dennis Miller Show and “Loveline,” Alan Nox and the station pro - Rand Bleimeister big questions about generating revenue on Colmes, Peter Greenberg, Warren Eckstein vide. There is no cost and their websites. and many more. no risk to the station. Nox creates and Nox Solutions is an online content pub - Nox operates all aspects of each client’s builds the “members-only” website, sells TALKERS MAGAZINE June 2010 the membership subscriptions, hosts, Our first client was Bill O’Reilly. Today tionally syndicated talk show has a website streams and podcasts the members-only we continue to work with Bill and other that generates revenue from subscriptions, content, and provides a simple web publish - clients including: Westwood One, Laura In - ads and e-commerce. The new trend today ing platform stations use to upload content graham, Dennis Miller, Lou Dobbs and is video. More and more hosts are putting as needed. many more. video cameras in their studios so subscribers The TALKERS magazine interview with We reach listeners and subscribers when can watch their shows live. Rush Lim - Nox Solutions founding partners Payam they use PCs, and iPhones. Mobile usage baugh was the first to do this. Glenn Beck Zarabi and Eric Marston was conducted by has really grown in the last 24 months, de - has taken it to new level. We offer it to our Kevin Casey. spite the recession. clients. It’s an idea that works. With radio station websites, most offer TALKERS: Tell us about the people who TALKERS: Who are the key people at Nox live streaming, local news and information started Nox Solutions and how the com - Solutions, beyond the two of you, and about their programming. We think every pany was started. what do they do? station should put video cameras in their studios so listeners can be invited to sub - ZARABI: Eric and I met during the dotcom MARSTON: Rand Bleimeister is our COO scribe to their site and watch the radio sta - boom in 2000 working at an internet com - and is responsible for business develop - tion over the internet. We think most pany called FirstLook.com. After that com - ment. David Parod is our director of devel - stations can generate additional six-figure pany was sold, we partnered to start Nox opment, responsible for putting together revenue levels, and Nox Solutions has de - Solutions. The premise for Nox Solutions and launching all our sites. In all we have veloped a “Radio WebTV” subscription was to solve this problem…how can content 20 people, including web producers, pro - service for this purpose. We install the cam - producers make money online? We built a gramming engineers, customer support eras, the encoders, build the website, sell the scalable and secure enterprise-grade plat - people and a video production team. memberships and manage the customer and form that helped content producers mone - technical support. We take all the risk and tize their material online. TALKERS: Speak to the issue of where the pay the station a substantial share of the rev - We make money for our clients from radio station and/or talk show host website enues each quarter. subscriptions, sales of downloads, books has been over the past 10 to 15 years and and merchandise. We provide our clients the direction Nox Solutions believes it TALKERS: What is your philosophy re - with a complete end-to-end e-business so - needs to head. garding the idea of content being fee based lution, handling everything from website versus being free. operations and customer support, to sub - ZARABI: When we got into this business scription management, merchandising, nearly 10 years ago, most talk show websites MARSTON: For us there is no debate. warehousing and fulfillment, video produc - were “home grown” sites that promoted the We’ve learned from direct experience over tion and online marketing. host and his show. Today, nearly every na - the last 10 years that there is content that should be free to a broad audience and there is content that a subset of that audience will pay for. We work with our radio clients to develop what we call “the allure of member - ship.” The type of content varies from client to client, but examples of members-only subscription content would be things like commercial-free, on-demand audio (and video) streams; podcasts of a radio show; and key segments from the show, like inter - views, the opening monologue, the call of the day. It can also include live video streams of the show. Then there is “content beyond the show.” This can include the host doing an extra hour of his show just for members or video of the host answering member questions that are e-mailed in. Our platform allows radio personalities to stretch their talents to include video, ex - tended interviews and discussion of topics that didn’t make the show. So, from the con - sumer’s standpoint there is terrific value here. For $6 per month on average, the lis - tener gets a lot of great, exclusive content, The image above shows part of the home page for Fox News Channel star Bill O’Reilly. TALKERS MAGAZINE June 2010 plus discounts on books and merchandise on the site and advanced ticket purchase op - portunities whenever the host goes on the road. The possibilities are endless.

TALKERS: What do you think is the most important element hosts and/or stations must incorporate into their websites in order to keep drawing people in and main - tain the subscription base?

ZARABI: They need to update their free and members-only websites every day with compelling content and they need to talk about that compelling content on air during every show. If they give people a reason to go to their website and remind people that they should go to the site and give the mem - bership program a “free trial,” they will find success. The other thing we do at Nox is market - ing. We market our clients’ sites online, leveraging social networks, YouTube, search engine optimization and, in some cases, Above is a portion of USRN talk host Lou Dobbs main page. paid advertising to drive internet traffic to our client’s sites. Often, we attract new peo - 3) Publish e-newsletters which include spe - is very different from our World Football ple who haven’t heard the show on the cial offers from advertisers and links to com - Daily website. There are no “templates” radio. They interact with the show exclu - pelling content from their website and here. Every site is unique. That said, the pur - sively from the show’s website. across the web. pose of the website is to make money, and in most cases this means selling membership TALKERS: Where are radio people wast - 4) Build and operate a mobile site accessible subscriptions. We have learned from experi - ing their time and effort with regard to on iPhones and Blackberries. ence that there are certain design elements their websites? that work for all our clients to convert web - 5) Market their website and its content on - site traffic into customers for our member - MARSTON: We think it’s great that radio line , using search engine optimization, social ship programs and merchandise. stations provide free, live streaming from networks, YouTube, Twitter and digital syn - their websites to their listeners. But listeners dication partnerships. TALKERS: What type of broadcasters are want more. The station’s website should Most stations don’t have the personnel you looking to partner with? provide listeners with compelling content –– to do all these things themselves. We do. not just news about the station and its Nox Solutions is in the business of provid - ZARABI: We would like to present our shows. Subscription-based membership ing each of these services for our clients. Radio WebTV subscription program to content can be part of this mix, but there radio stations. We think this can work for should be fresh, free content added to the TALKERS: Does the host/station/network news/talk/sports radio and certain music home page every day. You need to reward working with Nox retain ownership of all formats. We would also like to extend our people for visiting your site every day. Their of its content? roster of talk shows to include successful reward should be interesting content that local shows in major markets where we can you can consume with your eyes. ZARABI: Yes! Our clients are always in com - make our membership subscription pro - Radio stations need to do five things to plete control of the content on their websites. gram work. Digital syndication is the next be successful online: And of course, they retain ownership of it. thing. We believe local talent can reach a much bigger audience if they have a partner 1) Update their site daily with compelling TALKERS: How customizable is the like Nox who can provide them with the content and talk about these updates on the client’s webpage? right tools and branding online. air so their listeners visit their site. ZARABI: Our sites reflect the brands of the TALKERS: How does your proprietary 2) Add a premium membership subscrip - shows we work with and the design prefer - platform compare to some of the open- tion program to their existing website so ences of our clients. The Laura Ingraham site source products out there like WordPress? they can earn an additional $100,000 to looks completely different from the Dennis $400,000 per year. Miller site. And our Sylvia Browne website ZARABI: WordPress and similar open TALKERS MAGAZINE June 2010 source solutions are a great tool if you are writing a small blog and don’t expect to make any money with it. But if you are a media professional, like the majority of our customers, you really need the security, re - liability, scalability and customized e-com - merce features that only come with a proprietary content publishing and e-com - merce platform. There is a reason that every Fortune 500 company, the military, state and local governments and all major e-com - merce companies don’t use open-source. Our clients get a trusted solution built on an enterprise-grade platform that works under enormous traffic loads and provides them with many different methods of making money with their content.

TALKERS: What would you say are the top three most important advantages that differentiate your firm from the competi - tion? What is special about “the Nox So - lution?”

ZARABI: First, we have a proven track record and are trusted by some of the biggest names in media. Second, our sys - tem works. We have made a huge invest - ment in systems and infrastructure to assure our site pages load fast and our sites enjoy 100% uptime –– making money for our clients 24/7/365. Third, our size is our strength. Our clients’ ideas and requests, get translated into real changes instantly. There’s no big company red tape at Nox.

Payam Zarabi and Eric Marston of Nox Solu - tions can be phoned at 310-444-5562.