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The fireworks started on Friday as Radio Ink’s Eric Rhoads ran a controversial blog post and emailed it to his database – “A Cold, Harsh Reality For Radio.”  It’s all about the “connected car” and Eric’s “intervention” at last week’s Convergence panel that dealt head-on with this issue.  Below, I’ve linked Eric’s post, and then […]

There goes another one – Michael Smerconish announced this week that he’s taking his radio show and moving to satellite radio. According to the Associated Press, here’s the rationale behind the move: And there goes another one, in the footsteps of a growing exodus of once-broadcast radio stars who have moved onto satellite radio, podcasts, […]

You have to love all those crazy predictions about the future – especially the ones that never happened.  Robots cleaning our homes and flying cars should have been here by now, right? And yet, technology has never been more remarkable.  It seems like almost every day there’s a new announcement about how the intersection of […]

You probably saw the news last week that Groupon CEO and founder Andrew Mason lost his job – and his company – last week. In an amazingly honest and transparent letter to his employees, Mason laid it out – missed quarters, bad calculations, and just lousy performance.  Sad as it is, you have to love […]

On a recent investor call, Radio One CEO Alfred Liggins said something that very likely resonated with other corporate honchos, as well as the rank and file of the industry: “We’ve come through hell, like everybody else in the business.” Or maybe, “The road from hell is paved with tears, hard work, and reinvention.”   Forget […]

Today marks the eight anniversary of JacoBLOG.  When Tim Davis first convinced me to take on this endeavor in 2005, we were in the process of conducting our first Techsurvey, YouTube was just coming online, Howard Stern was still on terrestrial radio, and there were no apps. Obviously, a great deal has changed during the […]

If you’ve ever done an Arbitron diary review before, you’ll know exactly where this post is headed.  Back in the day, as they say, you had to fly to Arbitron in order to sort through hundreds and even thousands of diaries.  Many companies and stations regularly scheduled these excursions to better understand how they were […]

Or:  “10 Things Radio Can Learn From The Oscars.” 1. Be ready for prime time. (Or “Don’t hesitate to turn down a bad gig.”) – Being host of this show is a high wire-no net act.  Most cannot pull it off, given the three audiences – egomaniacal stars in the room, millions watching at home, and […]

After last night’s Academy Awards show, you may be happy, sad, or surprised by the outcome.  Or maybe just a bit bleary-eyed.  But you may also be wondering why they can’t produce an Oscar’s ceremony half as entertaining as the films it celebrates. But that aside, the annual rite designed to honor the best of […]

My kindred spirit – and at times blogger partner – Alan Cross (“A Journal of Musical Things”) ran across something fascinating the other day about musicians.  I think there are radio applications to it, too, so let me explain. Below are two video clips, one from today featuring Trent Reznor in Dave Grohl’s Sound City documentary.  The […]

One of my favorite blues songs was made famous by Cream, but in fact, was written by Albert King.  Here’s the greatest line from a great song: “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all.” So when I read this quote from JWT Executive Creative Director Eric Weisberg, you can […]

A lot happened in radio last week.  All those Cox stations were finally sold, Lew Dickey announced an appearance at CRS, Todd Schnitt is taking Bubba to court again, and EAS was hacked. But something that might have happened didn’t happen – American radio didn’t observe World Radio Day on February 13.  In fact, it’s probable […]

If you’re a member of a minority, ethnic, or religious group, you’ll probably relate to what I’m going to talk about in this post.  That’s because when bad things happen in the world, you hope that your group, your tribe, or your people aren’t somehow connected to them.  You’re concerned that your “brand” will get a bad […]

Welcome to Presidents’ Day – a great excuse for some companies to give their employees a three-day weekend in February.  (Not Jacobs Media employees, sad to say.) So what better way to celebrate this important day but to hear from some Presidents – in this case, Presidents of Radio. Back in the fall of 2008 […]

So yesterday we took a look into how radio companies are – or aren’t – thinking about the development of business models for streaming and mobile. Today, we’re going a step backwards into the frightening world of print to uncover whether there’s anything we can learn from the Fourth Estate.  Often the lesson is about what […]

A year ago, the big media story was that Facebook couldn’t figure out its mobile revenue strategy.  While it was obvious that hundreds of millions of their users had gravitated to using the platform on their Apple, Android, and BlackBerry devices, Facebook was at a loss about how to monetize all this activity. As they […]

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in a spirited conversation about the debut of Nash FM, and why radio start-ups no longer are accompanied by a strong strategy, marketing, and a great plan.  Somehow, companies seem to assume that buzz will be self-generating, helped along by social media, the local newspapers, and other […]