Kaitlin: just looking around...

*** All sites are easy to find: type in the name of the school and radio in your toolbar if you want to take a look.

The UCLA Radio site is awesome. They are terrestrial, but the site's still gorgeous and they've taken on podcasting (though I wasn't "allowed" to access them from my computer... which is silly. There's a lot of music on there schedule, not much news, they have a sports division, and you can't really tell too much from the show titles that aren't obviously under these categories. I haven't decided between whether that makes me wonder or sort of just not care. The site and content is really geared towards the younger people in the community - it's brightly accented (black and yellow and neons) and grungy and very pop-inspired. Overall, this is a site to admire. They have videos and pictures throughout, it's easy to navigate, the blog is part of the webspot, and they have giveaways... very cool. Obviously, they're safe to spend - but these are some cool things to look into doing as we are able.

KUSC is different. The site is more zen - with moving images of older men and women happily listening to their classical music, trees and sunsets... the word "Relaxation" coming in and fading out periodically. They also have podcasts available, and they are easy to access. I liked how simple they made it look - geared towards people who are not as technologically knowldegable. I would say this site is more geared towards families, and they have information on activities that are going on for kids in the community. I would say the website isn't as fancy as UCLA's because their terrestrial listeners are not mainly college students who are constantly online and expect that - it's really supplemental. The site is clean, well organized, easy to navigate, there's not too much stuff to click on (which can be confusing) - it's tasteful.

WKCR has cool site - the colors are appealing and the layout isn't too linear. It's very clear - you know where you need to go to get the information you want. Again, this is a supplement to a terrestrial station, but it's somewhere between UCLA's site and USC's because there's a broader listenership, or at least it seems that way. Music is the main component, and the word "PLEDGE" is in bright red on the blue background. That may help. They tell you what's playing now, you have the option of whether to listen to it now on your computer or visit the archives later - it's all there. They have news, arts, sports, many different types of music programs and something called "In All Languages." I didn't see a lot of multicultralism represented on the other sites, but Columbia seems to have a specific place for it... I don't know whether that's helpful (in conjunction with the easy navigation of the site - everybody knows where to go to get what they are looking for) or too contained (example of their philosophy: "Many stations offer world music, yet few offer the authentic, traditional music from rich heritages throughout the world that you will hear on WKCR. No matter which of our programs you tune into, you will appreciate the fact that the music is presented to you in an honest and straight-forward fashion, and is not subject to the throws of political correctness and current trend." Once again, don't know how honest it is, but it's a nice idea) . Anyway, the site is great, and great to draw from for ideas.

The newighbors at NYU have an awesome site, too. It's boxy with strange gloomy colors, but there's movement and like the Columbia site I can see how it would be appealing for many different age groups, etc. within the school community. They keep it simple with their "About the radio" in a small section on the main page, all the updates are there and their playlist and archives links are on the top of the page in a well organized and clear manner. Basically what I'm saying with that is that you know where you're going when you click on something. It's very direct and well categorized.

Overall, what I think WNSR can take from these sites is the sense of movement that they present: images are moving, they have video content, lots of color and pictures, the text is really easy to read, when you click on something you know where you're going and what's going to be there without having to click around wondering (and that's a big accomplishment, b/c it's hard to know the best way to go with it depending on the content). Those are really the main things that we could try to apply for now to the site. The site looks nice right now, but there's not doubt we need to make it come alive, and so these are somethings that might help with that (and for the things are already are changing, it's just motivation to keep tweaking things in a good direction).