The Jacobs Media Blog

When I think about radio broadcasters keeping pace with new technology, I always see it through the programming lens.  

What type of content should we be creating in order to stay competitive?  And what distribution outlets should we be focusing on? But of course, there’s the all-important sales side.  And it’s another area where radio companies haven’t always kept up.  That’s the view of our digital revenue strategist and AI guy, Chris Brunt. And for today’s post, he’s got the keyboard and a post that should give radio’s revenue generators something to think about.

In our doom-scrolling world, it’s not difficult to run across headlines warning about the impending death of SOMETHING. And that happened when one of the most outspoken rockers came out with one of those earth-shattering predictions about the demise of a beloved music genre that’s enjoyed unprecedented success the last few decades. But rather than panic, let’s take a deep breath, collect ourselves, and click “READ MORE” below. Because everything is gonna be alright.

In what proved to be a fateful decision, a well-known corporate entity instituted personnel budget cuts that proved to be a catalyst for motivating their loyal customer base to revolt. Ultimately, the company reversed course and welcomed some of the pink-slipped workers back into the fold. But the incident raises the question of how these judgment calls are made. And BTW, did I mention those cut by the company in question were bots? Click on “READ MORE” below to get the jaw-dropping story.

By now, we all know about vinyl’s comeback. Consumers are buying physical records again, and the music industry is vibratiig with the renewed sales of albums. The most innovative of the music makers are leaning into their most fanatical fans – the collectors who have to own every vinyl variant they can get their hands on from their favorite artists. Colored vinyl, picture discs, and other innovations are changing the economics of the music game. Can radio benefit from this phenomenon? Click on “READ MORE” to check it out.

Imagine a 4-minute playoff that would pit all 32 NFL teams against each other in head-to-head combat. Well, that happened last week – but not on any football field. Instead, every NFL team competed hard on social media to produce the funniest, cleverest, and most viral video short to highlight the 2024-25 schedule. It’s a case study in creativity, celebrity, and humor. And there are great lessons here for radio stations and their personality shows. Are you ready for the “2024 NFL Schedule Debut Bake-Off?”

The restaurant business is littered with eateries that started with great promise, only to fizzle out. Kind of like radio station formats. For today’s blog, it’s a look at consumer food products and the lengths they now go to in order to stand out and grab attention – without compromising the essence of their brands. I hope that deep into my many analogies, you’ll walk away with a different way to think about the radio stations you program and market.

As research budgets continue to dwindle, broadcasters should recognize just how much free data is available. That’s what our Techsurveys have been all about over the past 20 years. And now a new research study focused on female radio consumers is out, and it’s loaded with timely and actionable insights. One of its conclusions? Radio could do a much better job with its mobile app efforts. That’s the topic of today’s blog post, along with some easy and free techniques any station can use to market its app.

Marketing, as we once knew it, has become an endangered species at most broadcast radio stations. But don’t think having a marketing budget means guaranteed success. We often think of the New Coke debacle when we recall epic marketing disasters. Proving that even the biggest, smartest, and wealthiest companies can be victims of disastrous decisions and bad judgment, we were witness to what may become one of the worst marketing decisions of all time this week – by one of our biggest and best brands – a “crushing” defeat.

In our effort to analyze whether the word “radio” should give way to more expansive terms like “audio” or even “media,” we might want to pay attention to a growing phenomenon: more and more “amateurs” are creating their own radio stations in their workplaces, often accompanied by much joy, enthusiasm, and passion. What does this say about how consumers value the romance of “radio” but also how they feel about us broadcasters?

April showers, May flowers, June PRTS.  Perhaps not romantic or even memorable, but for all of us at Jacobs Media and PRPD (now known as PMCC or Public Media Content Collective), June is the month where the fieldwork begins on the biggest study of public radio in America.  And this year’s effort will follow suit […]