This week I was called by a radio industry trade and asked an interesting question: How should radio stations hire differently in this new age? In other words, what qualifications should we be looking for in talent, programming, and sales that are different from today’s conventional qualifications? This is a great question, so let me […]
Video goes viral, but what about audio? I have never even heard the expression “viral audio,” have you? “Going viral” means “being shared.” So why is it so tough to share audio online? In some cases the sharing capability is clunky or nonexistent. But even where conventional sharing functions exist there are two larger problems: […]
There’s much interest and much consternation about the entry of Google and Apple into operating-system extensions for the car dashboard with Android Auto and CarPlay, respectively. According to BI Intelligence: By 2020, nearly 40 million cars will be using Android Auto and 37.1 million will be using CarPlay, and that will cover nearly all cars […]
Recent research indicated the surprising (to some) result that a relatively small fraction of consumers have a radio by their bedside, meaning it’s functionally impossible to “wake up to radio.” The solution: Get more radios in the bedroom, right? Actually, no, that’s not the solution. All technology is transitional, you see. And that includes that […]
With a great flourish, the powers-that-be behind the NextRadio app have announced that this week shall begin a thunderous effort to enlist one constituency so far utterly lacking in enthusiasm for NextRadio’s product: Consumers. And so begins an onslaught of over-the-air radio spots designed to lead consumers to download an app that will not work on most […]
There’s been lots of attention in the radio industry trades lately about the lack of audience momentum for many broadcasters in the streaming space, even as so-called pure-plays like Pandora and Spotify grow by leaps and bounds. Tom Taylor writes: iHeart’s not the only terrestrial operator with flat or negative growth over the period from […]
Never let it be said that the automakers don’t listen to feedback, because when it comes to Ford’s clunky Sync platform, they got an earful. And guess what? Ford responded. This week the automaker introduced the latest and greatest version of its Sync infotainment system, and it looks great. It will make its debut on […]
In an article aptly titled “Young People Don’t Care About Newspapers, Old People Don’t Care About Smartphones,” Business Insider quoted an Ofcom study contrasting the responses of persons 16-24 to folks 75 and over. The question? “What media would you miss the most?” And here’s the chart: BI writes: People between the ages of 16 and […]
On the surface there are a zillion differences between radio brands and Netflix. One is local, while the other is national, even international. One is free (for the most part) while the other is by subscription. One is audio and the other is video. And so on. But the similarities are more important than the […]
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has been the owner of the Washington Post for a year, and while his experiment at the Post remains a work in progress, the brand is experiencing the highest digital traffic in its history and is even modestly increasing print circulation in a time when most newspaper brands are continuing to […]
