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These are fightin’ words, and they’re from the lips of "The Tech Guy," Leo Laporte.  Leo will close out our Summit 13 on Thursday afternoon, and then Tim Davis and I will appear with him at an NAB panel, "60 Digital Ideas in 60 Minutes." In this week’s R&R, Talk Editor, Mike Stern, interviewed Leo […]

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Last week, Clear Channel got together with its market managers, and promptly cribbed a slogan from Lee Abrams – AFDI (or "Actually Friggin’ Doing It").  (As an interesting aside, isn’t it ironic that Tribune rips off Clear Channel’s brainstrust, and what’s left of it rips off Tribune’s marching orders to its troops?)  While AFDI may […]

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It’s difficult to find a lot of happy Arbitron stories these days, but today’s announcement that "cell phone only" measurement is going to become standard operating procedure in the diary system starting with the Fall 2009 survey period is great news for everyone involved in under-34 formats. This has been a major Jacobs Media initiative […]

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At this past summer’s Morning Show Boot Camp, Triton Media’s Mike Agovino was quoted as saying: "Radio has got to get past the protect-the-status quo-at-all-costs mentality, to a point of technological acceptance, comfort and competence."  He says it needs to happen very quickly and involves "re-inventing some roles so that the new blood understands not […]

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Remember that fictional town of Mudville?  It’s the place where a struggling baseball team comes up short when the Mighty Casey strikes out.  That Mudville disappointment is reminiscent of how the inside of many radio stations and clusters are feeling right about now.  While there are many bright, motivated radio professionals out there who still […]

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The political season is heating up, the competition was fierce, the rhetoric was sharp, and the internal debate at Jacobs Media was intense.  But at the end of the day, the winner of our "Citizen President" competition is B96 night personality, Julian Nieh. It wasn’t easy.  We got some great submissions (thanks again to everyone […]

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It’s PPM Day (that’s how we may start referring to it), as monthly numbers roll out for August in the PPM current and pre-current markets.  If you’re in one of these major cities, you’re getting used to receiving weekly numbers on Mondays, and monthlies on Wednesday. The cruelest day of all will be December 31st, […]

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I know – today’s post title sounds like the opposite of a Sally Field speech at the Oscars.  But these days, it’s a little rough out there in Radioland. We’re not feeling a whole lot of love from anyone – the agencies, the press, and even one another. This is why I drew some gratification […]

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As we approach Summit 13 and our "President of Radio" session, we are an industry looking for answers.  iPods are cool and everywhere.  Sirius has their valued merger.  Phones continue to become the portable devices of choice.  So how does radio compete in this environment?  Especially with rapidly falling revenue, rapidly rising layoffs, and marketing […]

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Every day, new emails blast my in-box with predictions about what’s coming, where it’s headed, and what’s next.  Sometimes it’s like watching MSNBC and Fox News guessing what’s going to happen at the conventions.  Or ESPN prognosticating about who will be the wild card team.  Entertaining, at times, but often incorrect. When a new Q&A […]

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Did you catch that Redskins/Giants game last night that kicked off the new NFL season?  Well, if you saw it on an NBC affiliate, you watched the game in an old-school format.  Because the NFL is figuring out that the more distribution outlets, the better.  That’s why the game was streamed online on NFL.com.  And […]

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With apologies to Pat Travers, a new TV Land study – "Generation BUY:  A Close Look at the Boomer Consumer" – makes the case for why marketers should be chasing consumers in their forties and fifties.  In radio, an interesting resurrection has occurred, thanks to PPM.  It was just over three years ago, when WCBS-FM […]

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One of the more interesting sidebars of the upcoming Presidential election relates to computers and technology.  Barack Obama regularly is seen checking his Blackberry, chills with his iPod (he likes Classic Rock, by the way), and is very in-touch with his Internet fund-raising efforts.  In contrast, John McCain is essentially techno-phobic.  He’s not "into" email, […]

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Thinking back over the last dozen years of consolidation, it’s easy in retrospect to identify many things that just haven’t worked out very well for radio.  Operationally, the idea that one manager can oversee a half dozen radio stations has clearly not been ideal for many clusters.  Or that combined sales staffs have frequently come […]

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JacoBlog will return on Tuesday, September 2.  Have a safe and fantastic holiday!

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Today’s guest blog is from Keith Cunningham, our AM Show & Talent Development Specialist, who provides insight on the importance of keeping your shows fresh and making them better for your listening audience. It was widely reported this week that American Idol has added a fourth judge – Kara DioGuardi – to the show.  Mike […]

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I knew something was up when I walked in the house a few months back, and my 17 year-old son and I got into one of those new music discovery conversations.  He was telling me about Kaiser Chiefs, and I was trying to remember the song he was talking about ("Ruby").  So, I suggested he […]

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