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A much-discussed article in USA Today this week – “Consumer Reports: Cars better, Infotainment Not” – presents an interesting dichotomy for car makers.  Ratings on the overall reliability and quality of many cars are exceptional.  But conversely, their infotainment systems frequently drag down their scores. They name Ford, Honda, and Cadillac as auto brands especially […]

This year marks the 10th anniversary of a Jacobs Media initiative that was a total failure.  Or maybe it was a total success.  And that’s why while recently reading an article about the impact of social media on brand marketing, some of the NEO memories came rushing back to me in a torrent. For those of you […]

The illogically crazy topic of demographics, ad agency demands, and radio’s game of chicken with its own formats speaks to a world where sanity is fleeting and chaos abounds. What do advertisers want when it comes to demos, lifestyles, generations, and targets, and why should radio jump through hoops to herd demographic cats? This has been […]

One of the more difficult challenges as a manager, consultant, or researcher in this environment is keeping up with the onslaught of data.  As radio broadcasters that report to Wall Street release their Q4 2013 results, the trades are inundated with numbers, nuanced to tell stories about what worked – and what didn’t. And so […]

There are a lot of radio loathers out there – notably people who worked in the business at one time but left (their choice or someone else’s).  And some are still employed in radio but don’t use their real names when they comment on posts.  It’s been a tough several years for the rank and file of radio.  […]

Last December, you may recall a cranky post I wrote following the Nielsen Client Conference/Jacobs Summit about of all things, politics. At the event, Edison’s Larry Rosin and Joe Lenski moderated a panel with two mega-politicos, Mark Mellman and David Winston. The lowlight of the session was Mellman explaining how broadcast radio had failed to […]

We all know the consumer’s attention span is shrinking because we have our own personal experience to draw from.  Everything’s getting shorter, to the point, and truncated (except baseball games), and that’s part of the reason why platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, and Vine have caught on in a big way. Tweets and snaps require very […]

A recent opinion piece in The New York Times has made the rounds in radio circles these past few days.  Written by Beth Boyle Machlan, “Driving to the Music of Chance” sums up the charm of FM music radio, even amidst a smorgasbord of digital options and gadgets. Driving with her family, she talks about […]

Mike Stern works closely with Jacobs Media personalities and morning shows, melding the fundamentals of great radio with the new digital tools.  In today’s post, he harkens back to a recent conversation about what makes content go viral and writes a post that will probably bring a smile to Bob Rivers’ face.  For me, he […]

Those sports-radio analogies are just too tempting to pass up.  So Bill Jacobs – inspired by the Seahawks’ lopsided Super Bowl victory earlier this month – takes a look at conventional wisdom, media pundits, and the truth of the matter in this guest post. – F “After one of the worst picks in the first round […]