Everybody loves AM radio, right? Everybody needs AM radio, right? Hmm. Maybe not. Imagine a world where a new auto model dispenses with AM radio, but even so experiences blockbuster consumer demand. Of course, I’m talking about Elon Musk’s forthcoming Tesla Model 3: Elon Musk, during a conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs a few […]
For years now, many in the radio industry have viewed the challenges they face from technology and consumer trends all wrong. They have seen it from the perspective of the radio industry, not the consumer. The latest example is illustrated in this article, titled: “As TuneIn Continues Subscription Push; Where Does AM/FM Go?” Setting up […]
FX Networks boss John Landgraf has never run a radio station so far as I know. But maybe he should. Faced with a withering onslaught of content from over-the-top providers like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and others, Landgraf is the guy who coined the term “peak TV,” and since then the glut of TV has gotten […]
Gordon Borrell has issued his latest report benchmarking local media’s digital revenues, and it’s another eye-opener. Here’s my full conversation with Gordon about this report, the consequences for the radio industry, and what radio can learn from it. Part 1 publishes today, Part 2 tomorrow. What’s the biggest way this report is different from your previous […]
This one is going to upset some of you, so get ready…. Recently I did some research where listeners were asked what platforms they listened to and where they listened to them. One respondent, a 40’ish woman with a teenaged son, indicated that her son would never listen radio “because he’s always wearing those headphones […]
So I’m reading a headline predicting a 4% decline in radio advertising over the next year and another 4% decline the year after. Meanwhile we are constantly reminded about clients pushing for lower rates or for tech-enabled solutions which risk commoditizing radio altogether. The solution? Well, remove ownership caps, of course. That way we can […]
There is a sense of inevitable satisfaction in the idea that we can get from digital platforms exactly what we want whenever we want it, right? We lean forward with Netflix and find precisely what we want or what Netflix tells us we will like because of what we have watched previously. We want that […]
I’m not in the business of crafting ads for clients. Let me get that out of the way right up front. And maybe that’s what permits me to see the world in ways many folks in the trenches selling radio don’t. I hear lots of terms: “Non-traditional revenue,” “integrated selling,” the “events business,” and so on. […]
YouTube has announced that they will no longer support 30-second ads that viewers can’t skip, starting 2018. No more. Nada. Zip. Why? A YouTube spokesman said… We’re committed to providing a better ads experience for users online. As part of that, we’ve decided to stop supporting 30-second unskippable ads as of 2018 and focus instead […]
