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Before my trip to Israel, I sent out a call to some friends to help out with the blog during my travels.  Happily, I’ve had a good deal of response and am excited to share some postings over the coming days from guest contributors. To kick things off, I’d like to Welcome Buzz Knight of […]

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Paul Jacobs and Tim Davis went to the 30th annual Conclave seminar last week.  Both headed out to present on panels, but they also both came back with some interesting observations: We hit the 30th annual Conclave seminar by participating in the sessions.  Here are some of our observations from the event: 1.  There are […]

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Thanks to Steve Goldstein for bringing an article in the Arizona Republic to our attention.  They report about a new Federal study that shows that cell phones have passed standard land lines in both Arizona and the rest of the U.S.  The article notes that Quest Communications lost more than 1 million land line subscribers […]

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And we wonder why radio has a PR problem?  It’s not just that XM and Sirius are doing a great job.  Terrestrial radio continues to shoot itself in the foot.  Case in point is a story from a few weeks back about WLTO in Lexington, KY.  According to the news story, a DJ offered “100 […]

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Glad to post a guest blog today from Paul Jacobs: This week, one of the best things about radio will be taking place in Minneapolis – the 30th Conclave.  As someone who knows what it takes to put on a substantive event (shameless plug for The Jacobs Media Summit), we truly admire how this industry […]

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One of the brightest promotion guys out there doesn’t work in radio, but certainly "gets" how to generate buzz.  Son of legendary baseball owner and showman, Bill Veeck, Mike is the brains behind some of the wildest promotions that take place between innings of major and minor league games.  Remember the "Disco Demolition?"  That was […]

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Here’s a little quiz about the media business: Who recently made this statement:  "The age of the conglomerate is over." While it might seem like something that Michael Moore or Ralph Nader might say, the quote’s author is none other than Viacom chief, Sumner Redstone.  Of couse, he was making the statement to explain/justify his […]

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Apple’s new quarterly earnings report surprised many on Wall Street, as 6.1 million iPods were sold – a 16% increase quarter to quarter.  Compared to a one year ago, iPods sales leapt 343%. Jacobs Media clients couldn’t have been surprised.  Our Tech Web Poll (conducted in late March/early April) indicated that 36% of those who […]

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Seth Godin’s latest book, "All Marketers Are Liars," is out and fits in nicely with his previous writings.  While nowhere near as strong as "Permission Marketing" or "Purple Cow," Godin’s key message is that your product/brand has to give consumers a story – something positive and desirable they can believe, carry with them, and communicate […]

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A Rocker DJ friend of mind (who would prefer to remain anonymous for reasons you’ll figure out shortly) told me about a great article in the June edition of "O" (Oprah’s magazine).  It’s called "How To Interview a Brick Wall," based on a conversation with New York Times contributor, Seth Kugel.  A few of Kugel’s […]

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We’ve talked a lot in this space about how podcasting – audio on-demand for mp3 players (or just making radio segments available for download) – is a great avenue for terrestrial radio to follow.  While so many new technologies (think satellite radio) either exclude us or attempt to outdo us, podcasting utilizes radio’s natural asset […]

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I’d like to welcome Jacobs Media’s Dave Beasing back again for a guest blog: Thanks, MTV, for 4 things: Providing an excellent commercial-free/VJ-free replay of Live 8 this Saturday.  It may have come a week late, but it was fantastic.  Like many people, I TiVo-ed every bit and got chills of the kind that this […]

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The Jack session at the R&R Convention was well-attended, and had people talking.  Here’s the last observation from this session: This issue of "no DJs" may be central to the continued growth of Jack.  While the panel circled around the issue of a second act for Jack, no one was willing (or able) to say […]

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We’ve been talking about the Jack session at the R&R convention.  Here’s the third basic observation from that session: It was great to hear from Bob Sinclair who has launched successful "Bob" stations in both Norfolk and Austin with the programming help of Joel Folger.  Bob was self-effacing, honest, and very compelling in his assessment […]

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At the R&R Convention, there was a great panel all about Jack, hosted by Saga’s Steve Goldstein.  Here’s the 2nd installment of observations about this session. This "no DJs" policy is interesting…and probably shortsighted.  While there’s no question that creative liner-writing is important, there’s going to be a point reached where the lack of a […]

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At the R&R Convention, there was a great panel all about Jack, hosted by Saga’s Steve Goldstein.  Recovering from the Jacobs Media Summit, I enjoyed my role as a quiet member of the audience, but after thinking about this panel, I’m going to devote four blog entries to discussing and addressing some of the points […]

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Today, we’ve got another guest blog from Jacobs Media’s Dave Beasing, and his feelings on Live 8: Congratulations, AOL.  Out of all the media covering Live 8, you seemed to realize the importance of capturing every major performance in its entirety.  Live 8 will go down in history as one of the first big events […]

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How do you launch something new in an industry where hundreds of similar products come out every week?  That’s what the publishing industry goes through.  Doubleday has a new book called "The Traveler," which they’re now promoting in very compelling ways.  First, they’re using "street teams" – groups of young women who look like the […]

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How do you launch something new in an industry where hundreds of similar products come out every week?  That’s what the publishing industry goes through.  Doubleday has a new book called "The Traveler," which they’re now promoting in very compelling ways.  First, they’re using "street teams" – groups of young women who look like the […]

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Here in radioland, we struggle mightily to find ways to make our young male audiences attractive to advertisers.  And the salespeople continue to throw up their hands in frustration. Meanwhile, Marian Salzman, trend expert at J. Walter Thompson and author of the upcoming book, "The Future of Men," predicts that targeting real guys is going […]

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