Terrazzo / MembaMe

Content and Member Management Made The Radio Star

Client Profile: WBJC

WBJC is the only classical radio station to serve the Baltimore MSA, reaching 180,000 listeners weekly. WBJC’s program offerings include high-quality, world-class classical music and arts programming which is locally, nationally and internationally produced.

The Challenges

WBJC had many web issues it wanted to address, as its web site had not been updated in quite some time. In addition to the outmoded design and navigation, in which important information was often buried.

The station staff had no immediate control over content; it relied on a third party to update the site. Station staff was constantly barraged by phone calls and emails asking "What was that I just heard?" or "What song was playing at that time?"

The station wanted to solidify its role as community partner and enhance the “live arts events” section of the web site, without further burdening the staff.

Donations were taken via phone, mail or email, a very tedious process. Streaming audio was intermittent.

Although WBJC’s current target market is older adults, more and more baby boomers, are falling into that category. Station listeners are used to more advanced technology, and the station needed to keep up with their demand for web functionality.

And, the station wanted a common vendor to supply all the pieces to the puzzle while working within the financial parameters of the station, a community college entity.

Our Solutions

The ultimate goals of this project was to not only ease the burden on staff but to make the site more useful to the listeners, and Intertwine began by designing a sophisticated interface with logical navigation. Important information was well organized and easy to find - we opened up the popular "Arts and Music' Tours, station and program information was categorized and, most importantly, the play list and donation tools were front and center.

Once the look was finalized, Intertwine designed and built the site using Terrazzo, ISI’s content management system. Aside from enabling non-technical staff to update the site, Terrazzo also allowed for easy integration of the additional functionality the station needed. ISI’s MembaMe product added modules for creating membership accounts, paying donations online and submitting events. The streaming audio was upgraded and now launches a Windows Media Player or iTunes.

ISI built a custom solution to automate the play list, which was previously generated manually and subject to glitches. The new, dynamically generated playlist is housed in a sleek wrapper which allows listeners to scroll through the list, access previous playlists and email or print the list. Listeners can also subscribe to a playlist RSS feed.

The Outcome

WBJC's new web site now capitalizes on its excellent reputation to increase awareness of the station while better serving current listeners and members, and the design and web services finally reflect the caliber and sophistication of the station’s programming, hosts, management and audience. In fact, several hundred listeners have created user accounts since the site launched.

The web services have reduced staff workload in several ways. The station relies on listener and sponsor support, and the web site makes donations fast and easy. Staff posts the current playlist with one simple step and can approve and upload submitted events with the click of a button. Lastly, content changes can be made immediately instead of waiting several days for a third party to complete the task.

Looking ahead, the station knows greater interactivity and value – such as podcasts or a music rating system – can be seamlessly and quickly integrated into Terrazzo, so they will always be able to keep ahead of the curve in web site technology for radio stations.