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“When we hear news we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.” – Voltaire Many are referring to Nielsen’s PPM (aka Voltair) webinar on Tuesday as anti-climactic, a letdown, or simply inconclusive. For those of us looking for some closure and resolution of this gnarly issue, the message from the Nielsen team is that “It’s […]

If you saw the movie Moneyball starring Brad Pitt as Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane, you probably remember those classic scenes about how an old-line brand struggles with changing its entire way of doing business. Beane had to morph the way the A’s approached scouting, player evaluation, and the game itself due to small budgets and changing […]

We continue to read more and more about how big data will continue to dominate the business world, helping corporations and brands steer their ships, while collecting more info about their customers’ tastes, behavior, and purchases. But a recent article in MediaPost’s “Cross-Channel” by Stacia Hanley debunks some of today’s conventional wisdom about the process of […]

Today’s blog post is focused on one thing: imploring Nielsen to make one of the biggest events in radio history available to the entire industry. And to make my case, I’m going to use the words of the brilliant, witty, and sarcastic French philosopher, Voltaire. In an odd way, he’s the twisted namesake of this […]

In my travels, I get to chat with many radio personalities, more and more of whom are in the process of rethinking their brands, their material, and their outlets.  In short, more than ever before, they are considering themselves as brands and content creators. And more often than not, their programmers and managers are encouraging them to test […]

Last week, the Stones rolled into Detroit to play a crowd-pleasing stadium show at Comerica Park in downtown Detroit. Their Zip Code Tour has been extremely successful, despite the chronological ticking of the band’s collective age clocks. Somehow, it doesn’t matter to them or the 40,000 or so in attendance. This drone’s-eye view above the […]

In yesterday’s post, we grimaced at a Salary.com survey that listed “On-Air DJ” on their endangered job list.  Their “take” is that the clock is ticking for terrestrial announcers, presenters, and hosts, while digital and satellite radio are blossoming.  Support for this theory comes from Apple’s recent debut of Beats 1, a DJ driven “radio […]

We love lists.  That’s what they’d tell you at BuzzFeed, and we know all about this in radio because “countdowns” work just as well, thank you Casey Kasem.  And even though we sometimes want to kick ourselves for opening up the posts that count down the “12 Everyday Situations You Can Turn Into Rap Songs,” they often attract […]

When WRIF/Detroit (Greater Media) took the plunge and changed morning shows in the spring of 2013, it was a big risk. The station parted company with the perennially successful Drew and Mike Show which had long dominated the Detroit area. Dave and Chuck the Freak were the young guns working across the street at 89X, […]

How’s this for a shot across the bow? The co-founder of Lyft (a shared car service similar to Uber), John Zimmer, made the claim this week that in five years, most millennials won’t own a car.  If he’s right, the automotive industry would be revolutionized, and of course, massively disrupted. The digital revolution has changed our […]

Recently, my good friend and former research cohort, Jon Coleman, brought some sad news to my attention. During a very busy news cycle, you may have missed the story that the inventor of the plastic lawn pink flamingo, Don Featherstone, passed away in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. It turns out Featherstone was a classically trained painter and […]

You could hear the fireworks throughout all 50 states the other night.  And I’m not talking about Independence Day celebrations or the neighborhood kids shooting off Roman candles.  This was about celebrating an amazing victory for a team of young women competing at the highest level on the world stage. On Sunday night, a record TV […]

I have held off on commenting, posting, or bloviating about what is already the most uttered word radio in 2015 – Voltair.  Until now. Like talking politics at a dinner party, this topic about radio ratings on steroids is something that many broadcasters are tied up in knots about. And for good reason. Before all hell broke […]

From a radio standpoint, what does it mean to be “independent?”  How do you define it? Some radio stations position themselves this way, suggesting local, family-owned, free of corporate dictates.  Others believe that you can achieve independence even if you’re working for a global company with thousands of employees. For people working in radio, it’s the ability to […]

Everywhere we look, we see the same signs. Businesses that are serious about remaining relevant over the next five years turning the focus over to consumers because they are in control. The days when big institutions – banks, telecommunication companies, and media companies – operated in a top-down fashion where they dictated the rules are […]

The radio industry is going through tumultuous times accompanied by a cascade of conflicting data and anecdotal evidence that suggest the medium stronger than ever or as challenged as it’s been since the advent of television. On the one hand, Nielsen tells us that 93% of Americans listen every week, affirming radio’s amazing reach. A New York Times article yesterday […]

As radio stations and personalities have become more immersed in social media, there’s that side conversation about what it means to recognize and serve fans in the space. The essence of social is service and acknowledgment, and yet, this continues to be a conversation without a solid conclusion. So often, station staffers and personalities find […]