The Jacobs Media Blog

The political season is heating up, the competition was fierce, the rhetoric was sharp, and the internal debate at Jacobs Media was intense.  But at the end of the day, the winner of our "Citizen President" competition is B96 night personality, Julian Nieh. It wasn’t easy.  We got some great submissions (thanks again to everyone […]

It’s PPM Day (that’s how we may start referring to it), as monthly numbers roll out for August in the PPM current and pre-current markets.  If you’re in one of these major cities, you’re getting used to receiving weekly numbers on Mondays, and monthlies on Wednesday. The cruelest day of all will be December 31st, […]

I know – today’s post title sounds like the opposite of a Sally Field speech at the Oscars.  But these days, it’s a little rough out there in Radioland. We’re not feeling a whole lot of love from anyone – the agencies, the press, and even one another. This is why I drew some gratification […]

As we approach Summit 13 and our "President of Radio" session, we are an industry looking for answers.  iPods are cool and everywhere.  Sirius has their valued merger.  Phones continue to become the portable devices of choice.  So how does radio compete in this environment?  Especially with rapidly falling revenue, rapidly rising layoffs, and marketing […]

Every day, new emails blast my in-box with predictions about what’s coming, where it’s headed, and what’s next.  Sometimes it’s like watching MSNBC and Fox News guessing what’s going to happen at the conventions.  Or ESPN prognosticating about who will be the wild card team.  Entertaining, at times, but often incorrect. When a new Q&A […]

Did you catch that Redskins/Giants game last night that kicked off the new NFL season?  Well, if you saw it on an NBC affiliate, you watched the game in an old-school format.  Because the NFL is figuring out that the more distribution outlets, the better.  That’s why the game was streamed online on NFL.com.  And […]

With apologies to Pat Travers, a new TV Land study – "Generation BUY:  A Close Look at the Boomer Consumer" – makes the case for why marketers should be chasing consumers in their forties and fifties.  In radio, an interesting resurrection has occurred, thanks to PPM.  It was just over three years ago, when WCBS-FM […]

One of the more interesting sidebars of the upcoming Presidential election relates to computers and technology.  Barack Obama regularly is seen checking his Blackberry, chills with his iPod (he likes Classic Rock, by the way), and is very in-touch with his Internet fund-raising efforts.  In contrast, John McCain is essentially techno-phobic.  He’s not "into" email, […]

Thinking back over the last dozen years of consolidation, it’s easy in retrospect to identify many things that just haven’t worked out very well for radio.  Operationally, the idea that one manager can oversee a half dozen radio stations has clearly not been ideal for many clusters.  Or that combined sales staffs have frequently come […]

JacoBlog will return on Tuesday, September 2.  Have a safe and fantastic holiday!

Today’s guest blog is from Keith Cunningham, our AM Show & Talent Development Specialist, who provides insight on the importance of keeping your shows fresh and making them better for your listening audience. It was widely reported this week that American Idol has added a fourth judge – Kara DioGuardi – to the show.  Mike […]

I knew something was up when I walked in the house a few months back, and my 17 year-old son and I got into one of those new music discovery conversations.  He was telling me about Kaiser Chiefs, and I was trying to remember the song he was talking about ("Ruby").  So, I suggested he […]

If you watched Hillary Clinton’s speech last night, you joined millions of Americans who did the same thing.  After several days of hype and "What if" questions, Senator Clinton finally took the podium and confirmed some of the rumors, while dispelling others.  Still, her speech raised all sorts of questions: Was it enough to get […]

They may have been partying at the Morning Show Boot Camp earlier this month, but for the rank-and-file DJ, 2008 has been a difficult year.  Downsizing, voicetracking, longer shifts, and salary cuts are all part of the new reality for many on-air folks. And then there’s a recent article we spotted online by CareerBuilder.com‘s Rachel […]

Inside Radio’s Mike Kinosian was kind enough to interview me recently about the impact of video games on music sales and exposure.  We have also devoted a number of blogs to this topic, particularly as it relates to how radio can/should/needs to be involved in this process.  There’s more to the Rock lifestyle than listening […]

I continue to shake my head every time a Classic Rock sales rep (or manager) tells me the format is tired, the music has been heard too many times, or that the demos are skewing a little old. None of these seemed to bother the IOC when Jimmy Page was chosen to play "Whole Lotta […]

Most of us get pretty insignificant texts throughout the day – where to meet for dinner, reminders to pick up milk on the way home, or notes about running late.  But starting early Saturday morning, a huge number of texts were sent by the Obama campaign to cell phones all over the world, heralding the […]

No, this post isn’t about Michael Phelps (although that’s not a bad idea either), but about a new movie that has recently been released.  You may have to look hard to find it at a local theater, because unlike Dark Knight or Tropic Thunder, this is one of those "small films" (yes, there are some […]

As we continue to move through the exciting process of populating our "President of Radio" session at Summit 13 next month in Austin, filling that crucial tenth slot is looking more and more like a major challenge.  By opening up that position to anyone in radio, we have opened the floodgates of passion about radio. […]