jacoBLOG

Speaking of "Radio’s Hot New Team," which that we talked about last week, one of my favorite quotes of the year came from Jeff Haley, CEO of the RAB: "Let’s agree here and now that our goal will be to have radio on every mobile phone, PDA, and MP3 player in the next five years.  […]

Read More

Many have complained about Eliot Spitzer’s vendetta against radio.  Today on the Arbitron PPM webinar, it was revealed that the Spitzer news translated into considerably higher ratings for both New York City all-news stations.  The Karma Train does it again.

Read More

The big news from the Democratic campaign wars in Pennsylvania this week was Sen. Hillary Clinton’s 10 point victory over Sen. Barack Obama.  But in the past couple of days, a story that was just as big surrounded Hillary’s quick ability to raise a lot of money in a very short period of time.  In […]

Read More

There’s no question that it’s hard to find good news in the radio trades these days, as well as in the general media about our business.  Declining revenues, competitive challenges, and the exodus of great talent have conspired to create a drumbeat of negative news that drowns out some of the good things happening in […]

Read More

No, it’s not a morning show in Atlanta on an Active Rock station, nor is it the new talk show in Cleveland.  But radio’s newest team, Rehr & Haley, may be the medium’s best bet for a reimagined future. At the recent NAB Convention, CEO David Rehr and RAB leader Jeff Haley worked together to […]

Read More

Our Tech Poll has provided us with some fascinating insights about the satellite radio threat during the past four surveys, and this new report is no different. As reported in yesteday’s New York Times "Drilling Down" feature, XM and Sirius have some challenges retaining subscribers. In the past, we’ve been able to track satellite radio […]

Read More

Recently, we saw more negative data about HD Radio from various surveys that have been conducted in ’08.  In pretty much every study, awareness is flat, sales aren’t great, and overall consumer interest is limp. Our Tech Poll IV data is no different.  We see year-to-year awareness and sales are up just a tick.  And […]

Read More

Burger King has provided us with a smart marketing lesson this year.  Their very successful signature burger, the Whopper, recently turned 51 years-old. But the company is not resting on the Whopper’s heritage, reputation, or laurels.  While the sandwich has always been a big hit, Burger King realizes that it’s easy for consumers to take […]

Read More

What an exciting time for the record industry.  Consider these recent news headlines: iTunes has now passed Wal-Mart and everyone else to become the top music retailer in the U.S. Universal, Sony BMG, and Warner Music Group will offer their catalogues in a joint project with MySpace This is big news for a business that […]

Read More

Three years ago, this news story from late last week would have created massive "water cooler talk" in and out of radio: "Stern Show Rocked By Lange Blowup" In case you didn’t hear (and you probably didn’t), Artie Lange walked off the Stern show last Thursday after an incident with his personal assistant.  This would […]

Read More

Today’s blog comes from our own Keith Cunningham providing us with ways to keep our websites fresh: Nielsen Net Ratings released a list of the Top 30 News Sites, based on February ’08 traffic.  The list is ranked by sessions per-person, not audience size.  In Radio terms, by TSL, not cume.  Check it out … […]

Read More

One major truth that jumps out at you when you peruse the results of our Tech Poll IV is the screaming speed at which technology and gadgetry are permeating the lives of Rock radio listeners.  That’s the purpose of these polls that we’ve been doing for four years now – to track the media and […]

Read More

Inspired perhaps by Bob Rivers and the famous Orioles "stay on the air until they win" stunt in ’88, Kevin Matthews (WLAV/Grand Rapids) spoke for all Michiganders this week when he personally took the Detroit Tigers’ 0-7 start on his shoulders.  If you know baseball, the Tigers have been picked by many experts to get […]

Read More

The RIAA continues to keep its war with broadcast radio at a high-pitched level.  Recently the CEO of the RIAA, Mitch Bainwol, applauded the XM/Sirius merger as "a powerful validation that competitors should play by the same set of rules.  On the heels of this decision, the logic for a performance right for terrestrial radio […]

Read More

Here is part 2 of the guest post from Paul Jacobs who offers his insight on how radio needs to invest in solutions to reach younger consumers: Assume for a minute that radio’s revenue growth via the traditional commercial platform is going to continue to be challenging.  And if your station specializes in lower demand […]

Read More

We are big fans of using blogs to interact with the audience, and to dialogue about programming.  A great example is K-Rock/New York (WXRK), where "Pete In Promotions" is doing a great job of bringing the thrill of victory and agony of defeat to "Bracket Brawl." (SEE BELOW) A strong writer with something to say […]

Read More

Take heart, radio programmers and general managers.  Major American industry may be following you, for a change.  The new Chrysler has just announced a new initiative that will allow their customers to advise their corporate types.  In a new program called an online Customer Advisory Board (or CAB), about 2,000 Chrysler owners will have the […]

Read More

One of the dumbest and smartest things I’ve ever heard a public radio station do occurred this past Tuesday – April Fool’s Day.  It was the brainchild of WQED/Pittsburgh’s Executive Director, Susan Johnson.  Proving that public radio stations can smile, too, Susan’s version of radio punk’d was to announce to her audience that WQED‘s Classical […]

Read More