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  Today’s the day we’re presenting a deck of big findings to attendees at the Worldwide Radio Summit in L.A.  As any researcher who conducts expansive, national studies will tell you, the big dilemma often comes down to determining which results to include in a one-hour presentation – especially when there’s a lot of important news to […]

So the good news is that the wildly successful public radio podcast Serial has just nabbed a highly respected Peabody Award. That makes it the first podcast to pull that off. And that’s also the bad news, because now the Serial team may be feeling the pressure to recreate that success. At more than 77 million downloads, Serial has […]

You know that old Who lyric – “Hope I die before I get old.”  For Roger and Pete, Mick, Keith, Charlie, Sir Paul, Ringo, and many others, that wish has not come true.  The aforementioned are bigger than life in 2015, still touring, with no end in sight. And it’s that way on the radio, […]

OK, in the spirit of full disclosure, I did not attend the National Association of Broadcasters Convention last week in Vegas.  Paul and I drew straws and….well, you can guess the result. But I kept in close tabs with him and others about the comings and goings, those lobby bar meetings at the Wynn, and the other […]

By now, you’ve probably read about the Voltair audio processing system that has stirred up some controversy about whether or not this electronic box helps boost radio station encoding in the PPM system. The essence of this conversation revolves around the suspicion (and in some circles, the belief) that certain formats have an inherent disadvantage when it comes to […]

If you work in radio, chances are good that you have a closetful of logoware, representing your journey in the business from stations to station, and market to market.  Most radio pros proudly sport the colors – in the form of the station logo. But a tattoo that indelibly identifies you with your brand?  That’s a […]

Radio is an industry whose foundation is formats. It’s how stations are defined – by agencies and ultimately, by the audience. Radio has created a language and a nomenclature so that  listeners and marketers can understand the lay of the land.  In fact, it allows for us to do business with one another.  When we […]

Chances are good you saw that story from Forbes last week, strongly showing consumer demand for and usage of the AM/FM radio platform in cars and trucks. Broadcast radio, a platform? AM/FM radio is a legitimate platform, and according to Forbes contributor Christopher Versace, a new IPSOS survey shows that it’s the dominant choice in cars.  Overall, their study […]

Chances are good you saw that story from Forbes last week, strongly showing consumer demand for and usage of the AM/FM radio platform in cars and trucks. Broadcast radio, a platform? AM/FM radio is a legitimate platform, and according to Forbes contributor Christopher Versace, a new IPSOS survey shows that it’s the dominant choice in cars.  Overall, their study […]

It seems like every couple of days, there’s a story in the radio trades or a host of other publications about how the “connected car” is the hot new thing, the death of radio, unsafe at any speed, and the beginning of the end for personal driving. It’s part of the reasons why the last two […]

Lori Lewis sent another amazingly helpful memo to Jacobs clients earlier this week about strategically using Twitter analytics to measure the performance of tweets – and a station or personality’s social strategy. My fear is that very few managers will take the time to put it into use. And that points to a larger gap […]

These days at Jacobs Media, we’re all busily preparing slides and charts to present first to 200+ stakeholder stations – and then to conventions and conferences, starting with the Worldwide Radio Summit later this month in L.A.  But what we’re really working hard on is looking at the data to find stories that help better explain […]

Welcome to Opening Day for 28 of the 30 Major League Baseball today (barring rain or snow-outs). (Actually, the Cards and Cubs had their debut last nigh, and true to form, there was no joy in Wrigley Field as the home team lost its first game in the Joe Maddon Era.) That “Opening Day” spirit […]

Welcome to Opening Day for 28 of the 30 Major League Baseball today (barring rain or snow-outs). (Actually, the Cards and Cubs had their debut last nigh, and true to form, there was no joy in Wrigley Field as the home team lost its first game in the Joe Maddon Era.) That “Opening Day” spirit […]

It is truly a media oddity how the podcasting platform – once the domain of geeks – is now emerging as a media player after years of flying below the radar.  And yet for so many content creators, podcasts are very much a conundrum. Norm Pattiz’s Podcast One has taken a leadership position in on-demand audio, and […]

It is truly a media oddity how the podcasting platform – once the domain of geeks – is now emerging as a media player after years of flying below the radar.  And yet for so many content creators, podcasts are very much a conundrum. Norm Pattiz’s Podcast One has taken a leadership position in on-demand audio, and […]

A recent New York Times story about sports and journalism is packed with lessons for everyone in traditional media. It’s a cautionary tale about the growing value of real-time, the power of digital, and the ability for anyone and everyone to now have access and to even become a media mogul. Former Yankee superstar and shoo-in Hall of […]