The Jacobs Media Blog

A tough topic in today’s blog post, but one that is the talk of the radio biz: job security and the industry’s changing economic realities. It’s a sensitive topic and one that is all around us. The trend is now raging throughout the TV business, and clearly impacting radio.

Radio has never been known as a stable career, but these days, job security is an oxymoron. And it’s just radio. Employees across the spectrum are less likely to work for the same companies before moving on to the next opportunity. What does all this mean to the overall forecast for radio as in industry? Fewer say they’ll spend the rest of their careers in radio, another factor that makes the business even shakier.

In a tough 2024, radio has quietly made something of a comeback this month – its version of an “October Surprise.” And when you total up some of the amazing things that have happened on the radio airwaves this month, it’s a great reminder about how impactful the medium can still be.

Anytime I see a legacy media brand stage a comeback, I don’t just get celebratory. Or nostalgic. Instead, I dig in to try to figure out how they did it. Once such triumph recently occurred for a magazine that was first launched in 1857 – before the Civil War. The fact it’s enjoying great success in 2024, a trying time for all media – makes it worthy of our time.

Where is the radio business headed? What are the KPIs – key performance indicators – that are reliable and for that matter, may be revealing. In today’s blog post, I pull out some of the data I rely on that helps me better understand where the proverbial puck is headed. What do YOU use?

Why would we be surprised to learn that one of the hot new applications of AI is the ability to create podcasts from basic input: books, research studies, movies – whatever? And that raises the question about whether we humans really want to listen to two bots discussing “War and Peace” or whether the human experience will win out in the end. That’s heady stuff for a Monday morning, but the examples I’ve included are worth the price of admission. Just click “READ MORE.”

No matter your position at the radio station – or your radio company – it’s about preparation. That’s especially the case in the air studio when it comes to producing and airing a competitive morning show, five days a week. 48 weeks a year. For inspiration, we turn to former star quarterback and now NFL analyst, Troy Aikman. He provides a great 6-pack of preparation ideas for whatever shift you work on the air. To enjoy today’s #TBT post, just click on READ MORE.

Everywhere you look, on virtually every gadget you own there is now a screen – often multiple screens. And yet, many consumers desire a return to the era where we controlled our machines with knobs, buttons, and physical switches. In particular, what are the automakers thinking and are we consumers getting what we want?

If you’re a baseball fan, October is the best month of the year. But getting there – that is, making the playoffs – is the hard part. Today in a guest blog post, Paul Jacobs takes us on an improbable journey of success that very much relates to what radio people are often dealing with. It comes down to this: the organization deciding on what kind of team they want to be.