The Jacobs Media Blog

Last December, you may recall a cranky post I wrote following the Nielsen Client Conference/Jacobs Summit about of all things, politics. At the event, Edison’s Larry Rosin and Joe Lenski moderated a panel with two mega-politicos, Mark Mellman and David Winston. The lowlight of the session was Mellman explaining how broadcast radio had failed to […]

We all know the consumer’s attention span is shrinking because we have our own personal experience to draw from.  Everything’s getting shorter, to the point, and truncated (except baseball games), and that’s part of the reason why platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, and Vine have caught on in a big way. Tweets and snaps require very […]

A recent opinion piece in The New York Times has made the rounds in radio circles these past few days.  Written by Beth Boyle Machlan, “Driving to the Music of Chance” sums up the charm of FM music radio, even amidst a smorgasbord of digital options and gadgets. Driving with her family, she talks about […]

Mike Stern works closely with Jacobs Media personalities and morning shows, melding the fundamentals of great radio with the new digital tools.  In today’s post, he harkens back to a recent conversation about what makes content go viral and writes a post that will probably bring a smile to Bob Rivers’ face.  For me, he […]

Those sports-radio analogies are just too tempting to pass up.  So Bill Jacobs – inspired by the Seahawks’ lopsided Super Bowl victory earlier this month – takes a look at conventional wisdom, media pundits, and the truth of the matter in this guest post. – F “After one of the worst picks in the first round […]

When Chuck Daly coached the Detroit Pistons back in those “Bad Boys” days, he was constantly in search of ways to inspire the 12 millionaires on his bench.  After several years of managing the same core group, Daly admittedly starting running out of answers so he started watching TV evangelists for inspiration. I’m not that […]

Last week was another series of radio news items filled with DJ stories – most of it in the department of not-so-good-news. The week started with the thrilling resolution to the Bobby Bones should-I-stay-or-should-I-go drama.  (He stayed.) And it ended with the abrupt announcement that long-time radio legend and PLJ mainstay, Scott Shannon, was ending his career […]

For several years now, Paul has been a driving force behind the growth of our mobile app company, jacAPPS.  Along the way, he has aggregated a wealth of experience about mobile handsets, platforms, software, apps – along with the people who run these companies and produce products that consumers purchase.  The demise of the BlackBerry […]

Where were you when the Beatles hit the shores of America back in 1964 on this day? For many of you reading this blog post, you weren’t even on this planet yet.  But for those of us of a certain age, the memory is as indelible your recall of where you were and what you were […]

Talk about put-downs. As he’s headed out the door and handing off the show to Jimmy Fallon, Jay Leno takes a final shot at rival Jimmy Kimmel: “He is a radio guy at heart.” Jay goes onto define what he’s talking about – Kimmel’s a competitor who uses tactics like “attack(ing) the guy on the […]

So it turns out I have something in common with Facebook.  We’re both Aquarians. I celebrated the anniversary of my birth last week, and it turns out that it’s in the same time frame as Facebook’s birthday as we covered in this space earlier in the week. You all know the Facebook birthday phenomenon.  When […]

Most people probably agree that only Seattleites enjoyed Sunday’s “Big Game.”  But as is often the case, the ads were interesting this year (especially the ones I remember before I fell asleep in the third quarter). The casting of Bob Dylan in the new Chrysler ad was inspired, especially for someone like me who’s connected […]

The worst thing about being on the receiving end of a lot of data is that it often conflicts with itself, making it even more challenging to get our collective heads around what’s really happening. You’d think that with a monolith the size of Facebook, its long-term status might look pretty clear.  But while the future may be […]

We’ve all been a part of this situation in radio station strategizing.  The research company comes to town to deliver the data, the consultant flies in, the corporate staff shows up, and the station team is in the conference room.  And collectively, they’re all supposed to figure it out. But while having lots of great […]

It is amazing how serendipity and luck always seem to occur just when you least expect it.  It didn’t take long for savvy observers to note that the two Super Bowl teams – the Seahawks and Broncos – are headquartered in states that have made pot smoking legal.  As we gear up for the “Big Game” […]

One of the worst offshoots of a struggling economy and a generation that is being punished as a result of it is a lot of misunderstanding about Millennials themselves.  We like to talk about entire generations as if they have common traits and characteristics.  On the one hand, most of us comprehend the dangers of […]

What’s just about the worst thing that can happen when you work in radio? Well, I’m sure that question triggered no shortage of thoughts, from format attacks to that big cancellation. But really the nuclear problem is when a station gets knocked off the air – whether it’s for five minutes or painfully, longer than […]