The Jacobs Media Blog

Maybe that’s what they’ll call it – political candidates and incumbents who use podcasts to communicate their messages.  More and more, politicians from both parties are getting into the podcast game.  The White House is now podcasting all of President Bush’s speeches from ’05.  The Republican National Committee now offers "BookCasts" (interviews with authors) and […]

Thanks to Mark Pennington of WRIF for the heads-up on a new Kenwood car radio that is moving in the right direction – under $150 and barely over $100 on some sites.  It would appear to have it all – CD and Mp3 playback, as well as being XM, Sirius and HD Radio ready.  It’s […]

Today it’s a guest blog from Jacobs Media’s Dave Beasing: That’s how John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, explains this summer’s box office slump in the LA Times.  Not unlike in other businesses, the tendency in the movie industry is to fix blame – elsewhere – whenever things go wrong.  That’s […]

Today it’s a guest blog from Jacobs Media’s Dave Beasing: That’s how John Fithian, president of the National Association of Theatre Owners, explains this summer’s box office slump in the LA Times.  Not unlike in other businesses, the tendency in the movie industry is to fix blame – elsewhere – whenever things go wrong.  That’s […]

The "crossroads" we’ve been long expecting for morning radio materialized big-time today. Infinity announced its post-Stern national plan (see www.ik9.5f7.myftpupload.com for the release), and Howard had one of his replacements, David Lee Roth, as a guest. While speaking to Roth, Stern said something very interesting. In discussing his Sirius network and the Infinity regional morning […]

The "crossroads" we’ve been long expecting for morning radio materialized big-time today. Infinity announced its post-Stern national plan (see www.ik9.5f7.myftpupload.com for the release), and Howard had one of his replacements, David Lee Roth, as a guest. While speaking to Roth, Stern said something very interesting. In discussing his Sirius network and the Infinity regional morning […]

Back in August, I used this space to talk about Jon Stewart’s great Wired interview that totally supports the notion that "content is king."  Well, at the end of the piece, he was asked about how people will be watching the show in 2008.  His reply?   "We make the donuts;  We don’t drive the truck." […]

Back in August, I used this space to talk about Jon Stewart’s great Wired interview that totally supports the notion that "content is king."  Well, at the end of the piece, he was asked about how people will be watching the show in 2008.  His reply?   "We make the donuts;  We don’t drive the truck." […]

A recent newspaper article about Katrina noted that during times of weather crises, it’s not uncommon for people to hear busy signals when attempting calls (whether to FEMA or not).  The writer also pointed out how the busy signal has become nearly extinct – thanks to cell phones, and services like "call waiting."  When you […]

Check out the new issue of Business Week.  The cover story is "Love Those Boomers," and it’s a fabulous rationale for why marketers and advertisers are going to be mining 50+ year old listeners.  As the feature article points out, both qualitatively and quantitatively, there’s so much money to be tapped with the leading edge […]

Last month, we wrote about Rupert Murdoch purchasing MySpace.com – an incredibly successful site that now has more page views than Google.  It’s essentially a social network site where teens and college students meet each other, make friends, and hang out on the Internet. Why is this a big story?  First, Murdoch paid $580 million […]

It’s great to see a morning show jump on the bandwagon, and put together a tour of the market.  We’ve long been fans of the "30 Bars in 30 Days" promotions when a new jock joins a station.  And readers of this space know we acknowledged the "50 States" promotion on ESPN. Now, veterans Tommy […]

OK, my math SAT score left a little something to be desired, but years of analyzing callout and extrapolated Arbitrends qualify me to raise an eyebrow over recently reported Sirius subscriber rates.  According to TheStreet.com, while Sirius reports adding 359,000 new customers in the third quarter, there are some questionable reporting practices in effect. – […]

OK, my math SAT score left a little something to be desired, but years of analyzing callout and extrapolated Arbitrends qualify me to raise an eyebrow over recently reported Sirius subscriber rates.  According to TheStreet.com, while Sirius reports adding 359,000 new customers in the third quarter, there are some questionable reporting practices in effect. – […]

Empowering listeners isn’t just smart radio – it generates buzz.  A couple of months ago, WMMR’s Preston & Steve ran a contest where listeners were asked to come up with the slug line for their upcoming billboard campaign.  Over 800 entries later, the winners were posted.  Looking objectively at this promotion, several things jump out: […]

It’s been another crazy week – video iPods, payola firings, the Lincoln Financial/Jefferson Pilot deal – but for me, the big story was the departure of Tim Sabean from Infinity’s WYSP to run Howard Stern’s Sirius channels.  A lot of terrestrial radio people have left in recent years to try other things, but Tim’s departure […]

Item 1:  Steve Jobs introduces the new video iPod. Item 2:  ABC announces that "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" (plus three others) will be available for downloading the day after they air, commercial-free from the iTunes store ($1.99 each). Item 3:  You can bet ABC’s affiliates will whine about this, but now we’ll absolutely find out […]

Phrasing and language is so important.  Over the past several years, listeners have gotten onto our game of creating music sweeps.  Whether it’s 45 minutes, 10 in a row, or other iterations, most of these old music guarantees are either wallpaper, or they simply cannot generate much in the way of superiority in the current […]

Phrasing and language is so important.  Over the past several years, listeners have gotten onto our game of creating music sweeps.  Whether it’s 45 minutes, 10 in a row, or other iterations, most of these old music guarantees are either wallpaper, or they simply cannot generate much in the way of superiority in the current […]