So let’s say you’re a radio station that attracts a male audience, but when play-by-play airs on another station, BOOM – off go listeners from your station to theirs. What do you do when your fans want to hear that play-by-play and they leave your station to hear it? Well, consider this: What if they […]
In radio, we are always talking about digital strategies, but how about seeing some actual strategies in action and the real audience and revenue results they generate? That’s why James Derby spoke at hivio, the audio future festival held a while back in LA. James has led the development of some of the boldest, most inventive, […]
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 […]
If there’s one book this year that best sums up what the radio industry has to do to compete in a world of infinite choice, it’s this one: Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment. It’s a heavily researched and highly readable book by Harvard professor Anita Elberse. I talked with Anita to test […]
Why did ESPN acquire Nate Silver and his hugely popular NYT blog FiveThirtyEight.com? Was it just to lay odds on sports events? Or was it for a much bigger play? This past weekend on CNN’s Reliable Sources, ESPN Chief John Skipper spelled out the strategy: …We had launched Grantland, [where we] allowed Bill Simmons to […]
Why does any consumer behave in the way that she does? It’s because she has a problem and she wants a solution. And the more effective, convenient, and simple that solution is, the more she will gravitate towards it. A “problem” doesn’t necessarily mean some vexing dilemma. It could be as simple as the desire […]
Conversation about sports makes great radio because sports is all about sharp, informed opinions. And God knows there is no shortage of those among fans of whatever game we happen to be talking about. Sports is, after all, an obsession. It’s why ESPN is the jewel in Disney’s crown. It’s why Sports stations are generally […]
Communicating the FOX Sports TV Way
Recently I was given a slim but potent handbook made for FOX Sports’ TV commentators. It was created by FOX’s David Hill in 2010. Every one of their commentators gets a copy of this terrific little gem, and I wanted to share some of its highlights with you, since the lessons apply to communicators in […]