The Jacobs Media Blog

Radio professionals must have laughed – and then cried – when they heard Craig Ferguson's rave at his network bosses over their obsession with youth.  In a monologue last week, dubbed "Why Everything Sucks" – Ferguson went off on CBS sales executives and their clients for their narrow focus on the youth of America. Of […]

Here's a quote that may have a ring of familiarity to it: "Everything we're doing starts with the digital property at the center of the program.  Whether it's a traditional media site or an entirely Web-based site, the entire program is developed around a digital platform, and then if there's a promotional opportunity to take […]

I did something last week that I had never done before during my radio career – I attended Don Anthony's Morning Show Boot Camp, this year in Nashville. It was an eye-opener.  First, the sessions were on par with anything that you'd see at the NAB or other radio conventions.  The "ops guys" session featured […]

As the performance tax debacle continues to drone on, and each side digs in deeper, the ongoing state of the music business and its alleged "strategy" gets curiouser and curiouser.   Consider an article in a recent issue of Billboard predicting that the coming Christmas season will be just as "un-merry" for the labels and their […]

It's been an interesting month for Amazon.  First, there was the debacle with 1984 and the Kindle.  You probably read the well-circulated story about how Amazon botched a situation where customers had bought 1984 (and Animal Farm) only to find that one day, these books were mysteriously deleted from their digital readers.   It turned out […]

As if Pandora hasn't caught enough of a break by getting its music royalty fee situation together, founder Tim Westergren (or just plain, folksy "Tim" in his recent email to customers) is going after broadcast radio in a blatant, sleazy, and not-so-nice way.  In an email to Pandora customers, "Tim" asks them to contact members […]

We all know those narcissistic people who can't go anywhere without being distracted by mirrors, or for that matter, any surface that provides a reflection.  But for too long, many radio stations have been guilty of just that – being self-absorbed at the exclusion of listeners.  To address that issue, Alan Burns has come up […]

We all know those narcissistic people who can't go anywhere without being distracted by mirrors, or for that matter, any surface that provides a reflection.  But for too long, many radio stations have been guilty of just that – being self-absorbed at the exclusion of listeners.  To address that issue, Alan Burns has come up […]

What do you do if you’re broadcasting a quality product that while valuable to consumers, is so boring, repetitive, and basically wallpaper that most people have essentially tuned it out? Before you get paranoid that I’m talking about your station, my example is actually those safety videos the airlines are all required to run while […]

A few weeks back, Allen & Co's media conference took place in Sun Valley, Idaho.  On one superstar panel were some of the biggest brains in media – Liberty Media's John Malone, IAC Chairman Barry Diller, and Disney CEO Bob Iger.   As they talked Twitter, and other major web phenomena, it became clear there is no […]

Album Oriented Rock – a phrase that no one uses anymore, but it once described the most popular rock format of the '70s and '80s.  AOR lost its mojo for a variety of reasons – the fragmentation of the format by Classic Rock was one culprit.  But the other main driver was that these stations […]

Do any of us really understand the physiological impact of how songs, jingles, and advertisements somehow get stuck in our cranial cavities – sometimes over decades or more?   That's the case with me and those old Tareyton cigarette ads that were designed to promote customer loyalty.  "I'd rather fight than switch" became a powerful slogan […]

If you've ever attended one of our Summits – first with Gavin, then a long run with R&R, and in recent years, being co-located at the N.A.B. – you know that our focus has always been on presenting sessions that are in-tune with the issues of the day facing radio.  (Selfishly, we have always booked […]

Radio-Info's Tom Taylor and I exchanged emails after his story ran about how the Sirius XM iPhone app passed the 1,000,000 downloads milestone.  But there's another angle on apps that most of us in radio aren't used to facing – continuous, accessible, transparent listener reviews.  In Sirius XM's case, their app's bulk download stats are illusory because […]

Yes, they look innocent enough, but these young media types are killing radio, a medium that continues to provide entertainment to millions of Americans, as well as results to thousands of advertisers. Do they hate us?  Is it something we did?  Is it the result of bad parenting? Well, not really, not really, and perhaps.  […]

Our own Paul Jacobs provides insight on the popularity of iPhone apps and how fans of radio stations want their favorite station to be a part of the growing trend. I've become famous among my daughter's friends because my name is frequently found in the iTunes Store (go ahead, search me).  Is it because I've […]

It seems like broadcast radio is almost always overshadowed by other media – whether it's TV, Internet, satellite radio, or movies.  Too often, radio is either overlooked or it's a putdown story about how radio is tight-listed, predictable, voice tracked, or slashing more staff.   The anti-radio press has been exacerbated by the fact that so […]

iBiquity is doing something right.  Realizing that part of the HD Radio solution is to get inexpensive, cool-looking hardware into the hands of consumers is a key factor.  Now the Insignia portable at $50 is on the market, available at Best Buy, and it's a chance to flood the market with inexpensive, portable radios.  There […]

You know the scenario all too well. Cluster A has a dominant Country station, so to counter it, Cluster B takes one of its loser FM signals and goes right at it with a Country spoiler of its own.   Cluster A won't take that lying down, so they deploy one of their dog FMs, changes […]

In a recent RBR email "Opinion Box," the Tribune Company's COO, Randy Michaels, posed the rhetorical question to Arbitron about the diary versus PPM: "Since the results are so different, which time were you wrong?" And his answer: "Both times." Which raises some other questions. Why is the COO of the Tribune Company wasting his […]