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Some feel there's never been a better time for a little religion in our lives.  Of course, that's never a topic in the JacoBlog, but the release of The Rock Bible is a reminder about how our favorite music genre is more than a collection of songs that test well. Written by Henry Owings (who […]

The official release (finally) of Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy will stand out as one of the most annoyingly memorable events in recent years.  Many PDs are more than likely fed up with Axl Rose, and the whole rigamarole this song/album has gone through. But it’s an opportunity for a Mainstream/Active station to take advantage […]

Perhaps you’ve seen both John McCain and Barack Obama in their tuxedos at the Alfred E. Smith dinner that took place in NYC last week (if not, you can see them in the videos below).  Both candidates were loose, out of the grind of the campaign, and hilarious.  (It makes you wonder why we don’t […]

We’ve now witnessed the impossible – the lowly Tampa Bay Rays with a minimum salary budget for players now find themselves in the World Series.  Deservedly so, there’s been a great deal of attention aimed at their quirky manager, Joe Maddon. Maddon started the season with a simple (?) philosophy he called "9=8," and bought […]

In this year’s Jacobs Media Tech Poll, we checked iPhone ownership at 3% in February – not bad for the rollout of a new gadget.  But for Apple, the disturbing news was that only 2% of those who didn’t own one said they’d be very likely to purchase an iPhone this year, while 9% reported […]

First, analysts of the radio business started getting fired.  Many of you remember Deutsche Bank’s James Dix, who was a fixture at radio meetings and conventions.  Yesterday, Citi let radio analyst Tony Wible go. Now, it’s the demise of radio columnists in daily newspapers.  Before this year is over, the famous Robert Feder (Chicago Sun-Times), […]

Amidst the financial craziness of the last several weeks, many media conglomerates – including most radio companies – have slashed marketing budgets, laid off more employees, and battened down the economic hatches.  Of course, this won’t lead to better or more compelling content.  But the bottom line is the bottom line, right? Contrast this approach […]

Perhaps your eyes have been peeled on the state of your 401K these days, so you might have missed the major announcement from Ringo Starr.  The formerBeatles drummer has announced on his website that as of this Monday (October 20th), he will no longer be accepting fan letters requesting autographs.  Citing that he’s too busy […]

Remember playing Monopoly with your friends and family?  The two holdings that were of the least value on the board were always the utilities – Water Works and Electric Company.  This was because you couldn’t build on them, no one ever seemed to land on them, and frankly, they were boring. That’s what utilities tend […]

In speaking with a number of clients about the Presidential election, we continue to confront some difficult issues.  Many stations are still asking whether they should even be talking about this hot race, while others are tackling it in many different ways.  Here are some things to consider when calculating your strategy during the final […]

The changing tides in music discovery and consumption continue to lead back to video games.  Viacom, emboldened by the success of Rock Band, is pouring it on.  Last week, they announced the AC/DC version of the game, AC/DC Live: Rock Band Track Pack.  Going to that next step, this game lets players experiment with 18 […]

Jordan Ayan, CEO of SubscriberMail, has written a great article about where the Obama and McCain campaigns are going wrong when it comes to their database marketing techniques.  Obama gets the lion’s share of credit on his use of the Internet to raise money and aggregate supporters, but Ayan’s criticisms of both him and McCain […]

I’m not referring to Barack Obama’s 1980’s job, but the growth of social networks, from MySpace and Facebook, to LinkedIn and Classmates.com.  More and more, these digital connectors are springing up all over the Internet. In fact, public radio now has its own official social network – NPR Community.  It’s a way for fans of […]