A Brief History of Time

My name is Jordan Mendell and I'm the CTO of a company called Ando Media.  I started the company in my living room in September of 2001.  Since then, it has grown to be the dominant software and services company to the Internet radio industry.  We now have offices in 3 states, manage inventory and ad insertion for 46 of the top 50 radio companies in the United States.  We inject more than 7 million seconds of ads into radio stations every day.  If you are the world record holder for solving the Rubik's cube, you'd be able to solve it 636,363 times in that amount of seconds.

 

I've been involved in radio streaming since July of 1998 when Internet radio streaming was in its infancy.  It's funny to think back to how the technology world was back then.  Streaming radio was virtually non existent because bandwidth costs were so high.  My first negotiation with a bandwidth provider was with a company called "@ Lightspeed", terrible name I know.  But they were the largest colocation and bandwidth facility in Denver.  I was able to negotiate a $100 per Mbps rate.  At the time, that price was very low.  Now, you can get wholesale rates through providers like Cogent for under $4 per Mbps.  Amazing how 10 years and a glut of fiber optic cabling will bring prices down.  

 

At the time, it was virtually impossible to get a highspeed Internet connection at your home or office.  DSL wasn't really around, and that was years before cable modem was prolific so everyone was stuck using dial up modems or ISDN connections from the phone company.

 

Things were much different then.

 

Anyway, this is "Volume 1" of a newsletter I'll be sending out weekly.  I've had the opportunity to be intimately involved in the digial radio industry since these days.  I have watched and contributed to the advancement of the industry by developing software and working with radio networks to define and evolve their businesses.

 

There are many interesting things going on in radio right now. In this newsletter, I will write my candid thoughts about where I believe digital radio is going both from a technology and business perspective, where Ando is going, and how we will continue to innovate and educate the world to drive up revenue and increase awareness of this medium.