Talk about a perfect bit of radio and digital synergy: “.Radio” web addresses will soon be available. After a four-year process, the European Broadcasting Union was awarded the right to administer all “.radio” top level domain names (TLDs) by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN). The EBU will begin assigning the new web addresses to eager radio broadcasters in early 2017.
The EBU says 65,000 radio stations and 60,000 web radio companies are interested in “.radio” addresses and that it will hand out the TLDs to “licensed broadcasters, radio stations from across the world, unions and related organizations, trademark owners, licensed radio amateurs, web radios and radio professionals.”
To manage the new space in partnership with radio groups, the EBU is forming a governance body, the World Radio Advisory Board, with representatives of groups that helped push this process forward.
Eight international radio groups supported the EBU’s bid to administer the TLDs, including the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) and the Association of European Radios (AER). Competition was so fierce that ICANN took an additional 18 months to review applications, pushing back its initial timetable. ICANN previously awarded e-commerce firm BRS Media, headed by CEO George Bundy, rights to “.FM” and “.AM,” and BRS Media was also a contender for the “.radio” addresses.
via Inside Radio