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.