The Net Untangled is a weekly column looking at the Internet side of the Radio Industry. You can read the Introductory column for a look at how to approach site design, and how to think critically about your site’s presentation.

Since then, we’ve looked at email addresses, domain names and some quick fixes to handle easy to solve problems with big returns. This week we’re going to start a new process to keep the site up to date.

On the Outside Looking In

Unfortunately for many webmasters, “On the outside, looking in” is the position in which they often find themselves. At major market clusters, they are often given a desk in a corner and either not invited to promotional and jock meetings or forced into the wrong ones. In smaller markets, the webmasters either have multiple hats as on air talent or engineers – or they work off-site as part-time contractors. They don’t have the time or the access to stay in constant touch.

Either way, communication is often the first part of the break down that keeps sites behind the on-air product in terms of being up-to-date.

Websites are there when you’re not

Radio station websites primary purpose should be as a promotional tool for the radio station. Now, I’m not saying that station websites should be money-losers, but rather that step one of building a radio station website is to make it reflect and bolster the image of the radio station while offering asynchronous information about what’s going out over the air.