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It is fascinating that at a time when there are real signs that streaming is working – in both PPM and in sales revenue – some broadcasters are pulling the plug.  I'm not talking about Jerry Lee's B101 because I believe his cessation is about protesting musicFIRST, rather than trying to save a few bucks. […]

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Jonathan Knee is an investment banker who has lately been advising the newspaper industry about bankruptcies and selling off failing newspapers.  He is also director of the media program at the Columbia Business School and has co-authored a soon-to-be-released book called Curse of the Mogul: What’s Wrong with the World’s Leading Media Companies? He recently […]

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What should a personality do when he/she moves to a new town and needs to learn the lay of the land?  Most would advise him to get out, see the city, show up in as many places as possible, and get to know the people and the market.  For some reason, however, it's often difficult […]

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That guy you see in the boarding area, frantically downloading another app on his iPhone, would have to be our Keith Cunningham.  Enjoy his guest blog: There’s a recession going on, but you’d never know it by looking at what’s going on in the mobile device world.  The iPhone app model has totally changed how […]

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Today's guest blog from our own Paul Jacobs mentions how radio should seize the opportunity to grab advertising dollars from the sinking newspaper industry. I knew today's blog post title might get your attention.  No, it's not a new TARP model for banks.  And it's not what GM hopes to get during the next round […]

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We all like to think that if or when disaster strikes a city or town, local radio will step up and do the right thing.  But oftentimes, stations are too busy or caught up in their own agendas to really recognize the need to "break format" and speak directly to their market. >Click here to […]

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What do you do when your image sucks, and consumers associate you with all the wrong perceptions? Well, you can always change call letters. That's what AIG has done.  Can you imagine telling friends, family, or even new people that you meet that you work for AIG?  So, in order to repair its horrible rep, […]

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I have heard from many broadcasters during the past week or so since we initiated our "Going for the Gold" campaign.  Not surprisingly, radio professionals pretty much line up on the same side of the fence on the performance tax issue – perhaps one of the few instances where this is the case.  If you didn't […]

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I have heard from many broadcasters during the past week or so since we initiated our "Going for the Gold" campaign.  Not surprisingly, radio professionals pretty much line up on the same side of the fence on the performance tax issue – perhaps one of the few instances where this is the case.  If you didn't […]

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It is more than a little interesting that during the same week that Greater Media's Buzz Knight praised FMQB's U2 3 Nights event, one of his own stations was pulling off another historic moment of their own. I am obviously a shameless fan of Greater Media, especially in the current environment.  (Yes, I work for them […]

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As the media industry continues to try to understand where it really stands, some very smart analysts are taking their shot at interpreting the present, and what it means for the future.  It is easy to blame our current media woes on the recession, but harder to develop an accurate vision for life after a […]

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With research budgets moving from sparse to virtually non-existent, radio stations are hard-pressed to keep in touch with audience tastes and trends.  As we've discussed in this blog, web polls are an outstanding way to track the tastes and attitudes of core listeners.  But whether it's a perceptual study or a web poll, the output […]

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You may have missed the announcement, or perhaps you haven't looked too closely at the red can lately, but Coca-Cola has ceased using the word "classic" to brand their venerable beverage.  After 24 years, their recovery campaign after the New Coke debacle is apparently complete.  For Coke, it's been a textbook story of coming back from […]

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You may have missed the announcement, or perhaps you haven't looked too closely at the red can lately, but Coca-Cola has ceased using the word "classic" to brand their venerable beverage.  After 24 years, their recovery campaign after the New Coke debacle is apparently complete.  For Coke, it's been a textbook story of coming back from […]

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Hey, if anyone can say it, I can.  I am the older brother after all. But our Twitter experiment at the RAB using Paul as a guinea pig worked well.  It was a challenge for Paul to summarize the goings-on in 140 characters or less.  But it occurs to me that once you get beyond […]

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Jerry Lee started a firestorm.  But his B101 no-stream protest may be causing more ripples in the radio community than in the music biz.  Part of this is due to the fact that the folks running the music show lost their sense of direction years ago.  Their snub of radio and denial about its impact […]

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Jerry Lee started a firestorm.  But his B101 no-stream protest may be causing more ripples in the radio community than in the music biz.  Part of this is due to the fact that the folks running the music show lost their sense of direction years ago.  Their snub of radio and denial about its impact […]

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What a long, fun week it’s been.  We have happily concluded our very successful “Going For The Gold” initiative.  What started out as an experiment has turned into a major statement about radio combating musicFIRST’s efforts to slap broadcasters with royalty fees/taxes. “Going For The Gold” was an idea that originally came from Emmis/St. Louis’ […]

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What a long, fun week it's been.  We have happily concluded our very successful “Going For The Gold” initiative.  What started out as an experiment has turned into a major statement about radio combating musicFIRST’s efforts to slap broadcasters with royalty fees/taxes. “Going For The Gold” was an idea that originally came from Emmis/St. Louis' […]

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The royalty debate (or debacle) continues to play out in radio circles.  Now WBEB's Jerry Lee has become even more involved by canceling his station's stream, saying that "the excessive SoundExchange rates don't work for artists, for local stations, or for listeners." This is not an empty statement nor is it a cheap attempt to […]

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