The Jacobs Media Blog

Bad things keep happening at inconvenient times for radio. Whether it’s untimely deaths (Whitney Houston and Clarence Clemons both died on Saturday nights), or last weekend’s earthquake in Napa, radio’s inability to provide coverage when these emergencies occur – in either pop culture or real life – stands out.  Twitter continues to be first, usually […]

This morning, a reminder that radio no longer operates in a vacuum.  And important to note that this post is NSFW. It starts with a “news” item from The Onion (actually, it first appeared back in 2011) that came through my email box last week: Radio DJ Invites Whole Town To Some Bullshit News in Brief […]

In the past few years, we’ve devoted time in our Techsurveys to better understanding the threat that is Pandora, as well as other pure-plays, satellite radio, and even the iPod.  Debating whether Pandora is “radio” or not is beside the point.  The key is in assessing how consumers use these digital platforms, how they are […]

So when you think of things that move really fast, what comes to mind? Of course, there were those amazing Concorde SSTs that flew from New York to London in around 3 ½ hours. Or the new Chevy Corvette with a 0-60 time of 3.8 seconds. But when I think about speed, the image that […]

Before you know it, the old pigskin will be tossed around, and soon, commercial radio broadcasters will head off to Indianapolis, while public radio programmers will make the trek to Portland, Oregon.  And that means that DASH 2.0 is right around the corner.  As you begin to plan out Q4, take a look at what’s planned […]

It’s one of the worst lines you’ll ever hear: “It’s not you, it’s me.” And the equivalent in the world of radio today: “The problem isn’t with our ratings, it’s with our sales.” How many radio stations – great ones, mind you – are hitting their ratings goals, are top 5 25-54 performers, are consistent […]

It’s one of the worst lines you’ll ever hear: “It’s not you, it’s me.” And the equivalent in the world of radio today: “The problem isn’t with our ratings, it’s with our sales.” How many radio stations – great ones, mind you – are hitting their ratings goals, are top 5 25-54 performers, are consistent […]

You may be thinking that it’s “Seattle DJ Week” on this blog – and you wouldn’t be wrong.  But it turns out the most fascinating stories in radio last week weren’t about the whereabouts of Casey Kasem’s corpse or what happened to radio’s Q2 revenue – they were about Bob Rivers hanging up his headphones and […]

Yesterday, outgoing Seattle morning star Bob Rivers talked about his career path and his three families in what’s turned out to be a revealaing exit interview. Bob’s career exemplifies all those old school values – hard work, a belief in the team, a commitment to the community, and an understanding of what’s important. Of course, it wasn’t […]

Last week, another radio icon walked out of the studio for perhaps the last time.  Bob Rivers is hanging up his headphones, but plugging in his amp – lots of them – to tour with Heart By Heart – at least for now.  While some former radio stars go the podcasting or satellite radio route, […]

As radio competes with digital platforms for revenue, and as the agency community re-evaluates everything, a recent New York Times article about Facebook’s advertising efforts caught my attention. You may recall that when the Facebook IPO launched a little more than two years ago, there were serious questions about its ability to connect with consumers and successfully sell them products […]

Did NPR just disrupt itself? It’s always breathtaking when a megawatt brand has that realization that there’s an even greater opportunity beyond their core product – and has the (schweddy) cojones to act on it. We’ve seen Apple do this several times. They disrupted the iPod with the iPhone and then disrupted the iPhone with the […]

If you think the radio industry is at odds with itself at times, perhaps you can take solace in what the music business is experiencing. This hit home for me last week when Buffalo radio veteran, Jim Pastrick, referred me to an article in Forbes about how the music industry has been essentially trumped by the technology […]

As Lori and I make the final preparations for our Morning Show Boot Camp presentation later this week at Don Anthony’s historic conference, I can’t help but think about how the role of personalities in radio has changed over the past few decades. Our session for MSBC utilizes our ten years of Techsurveys to lay out […]

As smart as automakers are when it comes to marketing, they are frequently surprised by car sales demographics that often defy logic – or certainly go against the grain of why a model was designed in the first place. Consider this list of vehicles that represents the best sellers among a specific age group. So […]

No, today’s blog post title is not an oxymoron despite what you hear from naysayers in and out of the radio business.  But as an industry, I think we all can agree that when it comes to innovation, we could do more and we need to do better.  And that’s why today, Jacobs Media is introducing […]

In case you’re wondering, today’s blog post acronym means “What Would Anita Wadd Do?”  And if you don’t know, that was Lori Lewis’ air name when she was on the Bubba the Love Sponge Show back in the day.  Yes, it’s Throwback Thursday here on JacoBLOG, a perfect excuse to run this old picture of […]