The Jacobs Media Blog

How happy are you these days? That’s what researcher/blogger/podcaster Alvin Chang sought out when he launched a big, bodacious worldwide research study about happiness levels and what drives them. This is a brilliant study, and is especially well designed and presented. I hope you find it as fascinating as I do.

This will come as no surprise to many of you—especially you avid JacoBLOG readers—but I’ve been on a “local kick” lately. I recently had the honor of speaking at the National Religious Broadcasters Convention. The title of my presentation—“How Christian Radio Can Meet the Moment With a Smart Local Strategy”—was premised on the idea that […]

There have been many rock star deaths, especially in recent years. Over the weekend, 84 year-old Country Joe McDonald left this earth and left us with vivid memories of the 1960s protest era. Today’s blog post pays tribute to him and talks about why it’s unlikely a similar cultural figure is unlikely to break out in today’s media environment.

For nearly two decades, radio broadcasters have wondered why smartphones weren’t being used to record radio listening. Finally, Nielsen has announced the coming of mSurvey in the Spring 2026. How it works and why it matters in today’s blog post.

Mainstream media brands find themselves jockeying for position in the expanding hyper-crowded ecosystem. NPR is one of them, but a bold new campaign has the D.C-based public radio network on the offensive for the first time in a long time. And I have a few questions.

The vinyl album has made a remarkable comeback over the past decade or two. Albums impact how hits are made as well as how music is consumed. In today’s blog post, a data scientist who’s a wonderful storyteller explains what’s going on.

It may not be a favorite topic, but much like death and taxes, politics is becoming unavoidable. The events of the past decade and the last year have crystalized its seismic impact. As radio continues to navigate an uncertain 2026, today’s blog post tackles some controversial but essential political ramifications.

Twenty-one years ago, JacoBLOG launched. Today, we let ChatGPT pick out some of the most insightful quotes from the archives. What could possibly go wrong?

New media trends dominate news coverage as well as the millions of square feet of exhibit space at CES each January at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There’s no telling what effect tariffs—real and imagined—may have on European and Asian companies craft exponential displays and interactivity designed to generate more usage—not to mention, buzz. It […]

Programming a radio station has never been a simple task, made more challenging by today’s environment where staff and budgets are at a premium. When I originally wrote this “Best Of” post about one year ago, Barrett Media was in the process of handing out awards to the best program directors in America, a worthy endeavor. Problem is, IMHO they may have missed the best one. He’s the subject of today’s post.

Yesterday’s blog post broke down a new Deloitte analysis about media. In its discussion of radio, it referred to radio’s 3 R’s – revenue, reach, and resilience. We know the first two very well, but resilience is a more complicated concept. And it’s precisely what broadcast radio needs more of to fight the good fight in an increasingly more complex media world. It’s the focus of today’s blog post.