Web Surfers Become Radio Hosts

April 6, 2001 -- About two weeks ago, an Ohio boy using the moniker "Advice Man" began counseling strangers on his own talk show.

But Advice Man, a middle schooler whose first name is John, didn't need access to the airwaves. Instead, he sat at his home computer and broadcast his show on the Internet, taking calls from listeners all over the Web.

Using a service called Lycos Talk Radio offered by the Internet company Terra Lycos, Advice Man became an instant Internet talk show star, broadcasting a show nearly every evening and consistently ranking as one of the site's top 10 "talk jockeys."

"It's been fun," says Advice Man. "But I do have a lot of stupid people that call in. Most of the questions are stuff like, 'My girlfriend doesn't like me anymore, what should I do?'"

Host Controls Caller Access

Since its debut last week, the service has broadcast more than 5,000 shows, according to Maggie Battista, director of personal publishing at Terra Lycos, a company produced by the merger last year of Terra Networks and Lycos.

Battista says Lycos Talk Radio, created by the Seattle software company Wonderhorse, is the first service of its kind. Other voice chat technologies on the Web operate like telephone "party lines," where people speak together, but often end up talking over one another, she says. Talk Radio hosts can determine who is on "air" and for how long.

To become a broadcaster or listener, one downloads free software from the Lycos Web site, which takes a few minutes and only works on the Windows operating system. A listener can call in to a show by pressing the "Talk" button on a square browser window, if the listener has a microphone on his or her computer.

If the host chooses to take the call, the caller is put on the air. Hosts also have an array of sound effects at their disposal.

Making the Top 10

Mark Consuegra, CEO of Wonderhorse, a company started by Microsoft veterans that invented the Talk Radio technology and licenses it to Lycos, has grand expectations for the program.

"The next Howard Stern, Dr. Laura or Matt Drudge might emerge on the Internet," he says.

The top talk jockeys — or "TJs," as Lycos calls them — are ranked by popularity.

"There's a formula behind the rankings," says Battista, but the company won't give details for fear TJs will focus on manipulating the top 10 instead of on their shows. The formula includes such factors as how many listeners tune into the show and for how long, and whether listeners call in.

A talk jockey can promote his or her show with a Web page profile and a mailing list that will remind listeners to tune in. Because hosts don't compete for time on the airwaves, they can schedule their shows any time.

The Lycos program is currently supported by banner ads. But Battista says the company plans to feature 15- to 30-second audio ads at the beginning of shows in a few weeks. In the future, Lycos might also allow advertisers to sponsor specific talk jockeys.

Advice Man Attracted by Ad

Advice Man, who says he's a 13-year-old "radio freak," found out about Talk Radio when he was working on his Lycos home page, where he saw a banner ad touting the service. Since then, he has doled out advice to the online world nearly every weekday.

For now, Advice Man will continue giving advice, but he says he hasn't ruled out changing to a more generic talk show format, debating news or issues of the day. One topic he says he'd really like to discuss are the merits of tattoos and body piercing.

And what do his parents think of his show?

"My mom doesn't like it because I'm on the show all the time and she wants to use the phone," he says.