Thank You

Google has released its new page view rankings and Inside Music Media has increased from a 4 to a 5. For those unfamiliar with this standard, a 7 would be a large aggregator of viewers such as CNET. I am blown away as it has all been done virally.

This is beyond our expectations and is possible only because so many of you forward my content to friends, message boards and post them on other web sites

Lee & Bain Channel

Clear Channel went private yesterday at long last.

Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners are in charge now. They are investment buyout companies and their business is buying companies to sell them for greater profit.

Clear Channel -- the Mays version -- ended as a colossal failure when shareholders lost confidence and eventually the founders saw privatization as the better option. Running 1,100 stations turned out not to be as easy or as accretive to investors as originally hoped.

Once $90 a share, the investors walked away with $36 yesterday.

We've all heard and read a lot about what went wrong, but&hellip

Thank You

Google has released its new page view rankings and Inside Music Media has increased from a 4 to a 5. For those unfamiliar with this standard, a 7 would be a large aggregator of viewers such as CNET. I am blown away as it has all been done virally.

This is beyond our expectations and is possible only because so many of you forward my content to friends, message boards and post them on other web sites

Lee & Bain Channel

Clear Channel went private yesterday at long last.

Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital Partners are in charge now. They are investment buyout companies and their business is buying companies to sell them for greater profit.

Clear Channel -- the Mays version -- ended as a colossal failure when shareholders lost confidence and eventually the founders saw privatization as the better option. Running 1,100 stations turned out not to be as easy or as accretive to investors as originally hoped.

Once $90 a share, the investors walked away with $36 yesterday.

We've all heard and read a lot about what went wrong, but&hellip

The Music Industry: Nine Inch Snails

So Universal signed the Rolling Stones.

Just great.

It's the latest installment in a sleepy record industry that has no answers and thinks with a calculator. After all, the Stones are a great rock and roll band but they are not exactly the future. The deal was made for the catalogue.

When Trent Reznor has to experiment with ways to sell Nine Inch Nails music in a digital world, you know the record industry no longer cares or no longer has any answers.

Live Nation is not the future of the record business. They sign the likes of Madonna and Kanye to guarantee that their concert venues will be full for years to&hellip

The Music Industry: Nine Inch Snails

So Universal signed the Rolling Stones.

Just great.

It's the latest installment in a sleepy record industry that has no answers and thinks with a calculator. After all, the Stones are a great rock and roll band but they are not exactly the future. The deal was made for the catalogue.

When Trent Reznor has to experiment with ways to sell Nine Inch Nails music in a digital world, you know the record industry no longer cares or no longer has any answers.

Live Nation is not the future of the record business. They sign the likes of Madonna and Kanye to guarantee that their concert venues will be full for years to&hellip

The Satellite Radio Outrage

Eighteen months after the Sirius/XM merger was announed, the FCC finally approved it.

The entire process was a joke -- and a not very funny one at that.

In a world where the Justice Department allows almost any two companies to merge, for some reason this merger was held to another standard. It was pure hypocrisy at best.

It's as if federal regulators, lawyers, lobby groups and traditional media executives fail to understand that it's over for all of them if they don't change. The next generation is calling the shots now -- like it or not. They have control of the delivery system -- the Internet -- so displays of&hellip

The Satellite Radio Outrage

Eighteen months after the Sirius/XM merger was announed, the FCC finally approved it.

The entire process was a joke -- and a not very funny one at that.

In a world where the Justice Department allows almost any two companies to merge, for some reason this merger was held to another standard. It was pure hypocrisy at best.

It's as if federal regulators, lawyers, lobby groups and traditional media executives fail to understand that it's over for all of them if they don't change. The next generation is calling the shots now -- like it or not. They have control of the delivery system -- the Internet -- so displays of&hellip

The Hannity & Farid Radio Show

While you may be out there worrying about the future of the radio industry without a new generation coming up through the ranks, Consolidation's Founding Fathers have been working diligently on how to work their "magic" on network syndication.

Farid Suleman, Citadel's $11 million man, has found a way to re-sign a talk show host he needs on several of his stations without spending much money -- a bean counter's dream.

The deal with the devil is with Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks for Sean Hannity.

I asked my colleague Joe Benson to help me look inside the Hannity deal and you probably won't be surprised to&hellip

The Hannity & Farid Radio Show

While you may be out there worrying about the future of the radio industry without a new generation coming up through the ranks, Consolidation's Founding Fathers have been working diligently on how to work their "magic" on network syndication.

Farid Suleman, Citadel's $11 million man, has found a way to re-sign a talk show host he needs on several of his stations without spending much money -- a bean counter's dream.

The deal with the devil is with Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks for Sean Hannity.

I asked my colleague Joe Benson to help me look inside the Hannity deal and you probably won't be surprised to&hellip

Free Listeners

Twenty-one Los Angeles stations have a cume of over one million according to the Arbitron Portable People Meter.

By comparison the diary method reports ten.

Twenty one -- or ten?

Which would you choose?

Don't ask Bob Neil or his band of die-hard diary proponents. They want the People Meter -- their way -- perfect.

And on their timetable - which seems to some as never.

The radio industry is in the tank -- along with other advertising-related businesses. If someone could show you a way to report larger audiences just by improving the methodology, wouldn't you be interested?

You'd think so. But&hellip

Free Listeners

Twenty-one Los Angeles stations have a cume of over one million according to the Arbitron Portable People Meter.

By comparison the diary method reports ten.

Twenty one -- or ten?

Which would you choose?

Don't ask Bob Neil or his band of die-hard diary proponents. They want the People Meter -- their way -- perfect.

And on their timetable - which seems to some as never.

The radio industry is in the tank -- along with other advertising-related businesses. If someone could show you a way to report larger audiences just by improving the methodology, wouldn't you be interested?

You'd think so. But&hellip

WBT Radio vs. the Music Industry

I love this.

Greater Media's WBT in Charlotte is standing up to the record industry.

Ever cost-conscious these days, WBT has had it with spending $30,000 a year on royalty fees for one show -- "Boomer" Von Cannon's "Time Machine" oldies show.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry to see the show go. Maybe, for now, the show needs to go to a music station in town.

WBT, except for that show, a non-music station, is giving the first indication of what it could be like for the record industry if the labels succeed at winning repeal of radio's performance tax exemption.

A House subcommittee has approved a bill that&hellip

WBT Radio vs. the Music Industry

I love this.

Greater Media's WBT in Charlotte is standing up to the record industry.

Ever cost-conscious these days, WBT has had it with spending $30,000 a year on royalty fees for one show -- "Boomer" Von Cannon's "Time Machine" oldies show.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry to see the show go. Maybe, for now, the show needs to go to a music station in town.

WBT, except for that show, a non-music station, is giving the first indication of what it could be like for the record industry if the labels succeed at winning repeal of radio's performance tax exemption.

A House subcommittee has approved a bill that&hellip

Facebook is the New Radio DJ

<

br />Last week Jupiter Research came out with some new research that pandered to the radio industry -- reassuring it that radio is the most powerful means of music discovery.

They assert that "Even among the 8% classified as trend setters because of their influence over other music users, radio, at 59%, is second only to recommendations from friends, 62%, in introducing them to new music" -- is just plain wrong.

And it's incorrect to think radio drives music sales the way it used to.

Radio still has a significant influence on Hispanic music and to some extent Hip-Hop. Hispanic listeners continue to love the radio&hellip

Facebook is the New Radio DJ

<

br />Last week Jupiter Research came out with some new research that pandered to the radio industry -- reassuring it that radio is the most powerful means of music discovery.

They assert that "Even among the 8% classified as trend setters because of their influence over other music users, radio, at 59%, is second only to recommendations from friends, 62%, in introducing them to new music" -- is just plain wrong.

And it's incorrect to think radio drives music sales the way it used to.

Radio still has a significant influence on Hispanic music and to some extent Hip-Hop. Hispanic listeners continue to love the radio&hellip

The Radio Voice Tracking Conspiracy

I was just blown away when I saw the front page of Inside Radio Friday in which they described the results of their special survey on voice tracking.

Now, you know I love Inside Radio.

But the results are from another planet. I know they are telling it like it is so I have to assume that the participants in the study are not really being honest.

Let's break down the findings:

The Radio Voice Tracking Conspiracy

I was just blown away when I saw the front page of Inside Radio Friday in which they described the results of their special survey on voice tracking.

Now, you know I love Inside Radio.

But the results are from another planet. I know they are telling it like it is so I have to assume that the participants in the study are not really being honest.

Let's break down the findings:

An iPhone Is Not a Radio

The radio industry gets excited at even the mere thought that radio will be included in the Internet and mobile future.

Remember the high-fiving over HD radios that dock an iPod and allow music heard on HD sub-channels to be purchased by listeners on iTunes? It was going to be the next big thing.

It wasn't.

Now that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has introduced iPhone 2.0 with applications that enable a consumer to easily dial into AOL (powered by CBS) or any other station through other apps, many industry execs think this will mean new life for terrestrial radio.

Not so fast.

We're leaving out the sociology -- as&hellip

An iPhone Is Not a Radio

The radio industry gets excited at even the mere thought that radio will be included in the Internet and mobile future.

Remember the high-fiving over HD radios that dock an iPod and allow music heard on HD sub-channels to be purchased by listeners on iTunes? It was going to be the next big thing.

It wasn't.

Now that Apple CEO Steve Jobs has introduced iPhone 2.0 with applications that enable a consumer to easily dial into AOL (powered by CBS) or any other station through other apps, many industry execs think this will mean new life for terrestrial radio.

Not so fast.

We're leaving out the sociology -- as&hellip

Radio, Internet and Mobile Game Changes

I've got some ideas for broadcasters, new media companies and record labels with regard to the growth industries of Internet and mobile content.

1. Don't confuse a terrestrial radio station's Internet stream with Internet radio. Young listeners aren't confused. There is certainly nothing wrong with a branded commercial radio station distributing their signal via Internet radio. It's helpful for at-work listening where FM reception may not be strong. But it is not Internet radio to many in the next generation.

2. Internet radio could be the radio of the future but not without a stable and fair royalty agreement with&hellip

Radio, Internet and Mobile Game Changes

I've got some ideas for broadcasters, new media companies and record labels with regard to the growth industries of Internet and mobile content.

1. Don't confuse a terrestrial radio station's Internet stream with Internet radio. Young listeners aren't confused. There is certainly nothing wrong with a branded commercial radio station distributing their signal via Internet radio. It's helpful for at-work listening where FM reception may not be strong. But it is not Internet radio to many in the next generation.

2. Internet radio could be the radio of the future but not without a stable and fair royalty agreement with&hellip

Live & Local Radio Sunday Nights

Recently I spoke to the broadcasters who attended my teaching seminar at the Conclave in Minneapolis that young listeners want to hear new music -- and that they wished that djs would play their own music.

This corporate record list stuff -- the fabric that runs through all of us -- is overrated.

We know what's best, right?

The playlist must be controlled by a program director. After all, ratings are a factor, aren't they? And what insures against payola like a program director in charge of the playlist?

While radio was out regionalizing and nationalizing its music, the next generation won control of today's&hellip

Live & Local Radio Sunday Nights

Recently I spoke to the broadcasters who attended my teaching seminar at the Conclave in Minneapolis that young listeners want to hear new music -- and that they wished that djs would play their own music.

This corporate record list stuff -- the fabric that runs through all of us -- is overrated.

We know what's best, right?

The playlist must be controlled by a program director. After all, ratings are a factor, aren't they? And what insures against payola like a program director in charge of the playlist?

While radio was out regionalizing and nationalizing its music, the next generation won control of today's&hellip

Terrestrial Radio Game Changers

Yesterday I wrote about the coming of flash drives and factory installed hard drives in automobiles as yet another threat to the radio and record industries.

I asked at the end of my piece (scroll down to read it, if you like) -- game over? To which I answered - game changer.

So, let's build upon this latest "opportunity" disguised as more bad news to see if we can come up with a list of action steps that might be helpful.

1. Try not to confuse terrestrial radio with new media. Terrestrial radio was damn good for many years and, although it has suffered from corporate budget cutting and lack of leadership, could be&hellip

Terrestrial Radio Game Changers

Yesterday I wrote about the coming of flash drives and factory installed hard drives in automobiles as yet another threat to the radio and record industries.

I asked at the end of my piece (scroll down to read it, if you like) -- game over? To which I answered - game changer.

So, let's build upon this latest "opportunity" disguised as more bad news to see if we can come up with a list of action steps that might be helpful.

1. Try not to confuse terrestrial radio with new media. Terrestrial radio was damn good for many years and, although it has suffered from corporate budget cutting and lack of leadership, could be&hellip

Radio: Jumping Jack Flash Drive

Young people tell me they love two things that we should keep an eye on:

1. Cars that have large hard drives built into their on-board entertainment center -- allowing them to download music from other sources for personalized listening.

2. Portable flash drives that hold whatever they want -- use your imagination. In fact, the students from one of my labs last year brought in a flash drive that looked like a guitar and held lots and lots of entertainment. Very cool.

Then, a few days ago, one of my readers wrote:

Recently I met a man who frequently travels to China and attends trade shows. He told me the&hellip

Radio: Jumping Jack Flash Drive

Young people tell me they love two things that we should keep an eye on:

1. Cars that have large hard drives built into their on-board entertainment center -- allowing them to download music from other sources for personalized listening.

2. Portable flash drives that hold whatever they want -- use your imagination. In fact, the students from one of my labs last year brought in a flash drive that looked like a guitar and held lots and lots of entertainment. Very cool.

Then, a few days ago, one of my readers wrote:

Recently I met a man who frequently travels to China and attends trade shows. He told me the&hellip

Grading the Radio Groups

There is a military term for a situation caused by too many inept officers -- clustering -- referring to the insignia worn by majors and LT. Colonels, oak leaf clusters.

In Clint Eastwood's 1983 movie about the invasion of Grenada (Heartbreak Ridge), Eastwood, who played Gunnery Sergeant Highway had this dialogue with a colonel during a readiness exercise.

Col. Meyers: What's your assessment of this situation, Gunny?

Highway: It's a cluster f@#K, sir.

Col. Meyers: Say again?

Highway: Marines are fighting men. They shouldn't be sitting around on their sorry asses filling out request forms for&hellip

Grading the Radio Groups

There is a military term for a situation caused by too many inept officers -- clustering -- referring to the insignia worn by majors and LT. Colonels, oak leaf clusters.

In Clint Eastwood's 1983 movie about the invasion of Grenada (Heartbreak Ridge), Eastwood, who played Gunnery Sergeant Highway had this dialogue with a colonel during a readiness exercise.

Col. Meyers: What's your assessment of this situation, Gunny?

Highway: It's a cluster f@#K, sir.

Col. Meyers: Say again?

Highway: Marines are fighting men. They shouldn't be sitting around on their sorry asses filling out request forms for&hellip

If Steve Jobs Ran Clear Channel …

(Pictured left, front, then clockwise next to John Sebastian, Bill Gardner and Todd Wallace)

At our monthly lunch out here in Scottsdale, John Sebastian, Bill Gardner, Todd Wallace and I kicked around a lot of topics as is our custom. But the one that I'd like to share with you today is what the radio industry could have been if Clear Channel had not become the largest owner and radio's default industry leader.

What a day for this conversation!

Citadel's stock closed at just 87 cents! I mean, that's not possible. You'd have to work at making a company with so many assets and talented people worth less than $1 a&hellip

If Steve Jobs Ran Clear Channel …

(Pictured left, front, then clockwise next to John Sebastian, Bill Gardner and Todd Wallace)

At our monthly lunch out here in Scottsdale, John Sebastian, Bill Gardner, Todd Wallace and I kicked around a lot of topics as is our custom. But the one that I'd like to share with you today is what the radio industry could have been if Clear Channel had not become the largest owner and radio's default industry leader.

What a day for this conversation!

Citadel's stock closed at just 87 cents! I mean, that's not possible. You'd have to work at making a company with so many assets and talented people worth less than $1 a&hellip

Radio’s Performance Exemption Solution

Shane Media's Lee Logan is a smart fellow. After I wrote about the ingrates at the record labels who are trying to get radio's performance royalty exemption revoked, he contacted me with a genius idea.

Pay it.

That's right, pay the labels their extra tax -- the rights fee.

Oh, but it gets much better that. Here's Lee's premise:

Let

Radio’s Performance Exemption Solution

Shane Media's Lee Logan is a smart fellow. After I wrote about the ingrates at the record labels who are trying to get radio's performance royalty exemption revoked, he contacted me with a genius idea.

Pay it.

That's right, pay the labels their extra tax -- the rights fee.

Oh, but it gets much better that. Here's Lee's premise:

Let

Newspapers Are the New Radio

I'm kidding -- just kidding.

A little.

Let's say some of you are right and I'm wrong -- Tribune CEO Randy Michaels is raiding Clear Channel for radio talent to reinvent -- newspapers.

That's what some people believe.

Now Randy has hired former KIIS-FM, Los Angeles GM and later Clear Channel market and regional exec Roy Laughlin as a Special Consultant. Former Jacor employee Jana Gavin is now Senior Director/Business Development for the Tribune Interactive division.

This adds to the many former Jacor (and Clear Channel) employees who have joined Randy & the Rainbows in their effort to reinvent the&hellip

Newspapers Are the New Radio

I'm kidding -- just kidding.

A little.

Let's say some of you are right and I'm wrong -- Tribune CEO Randy Michaels is raiding Clear Channel for radio talent to reinvent -- newspapers.

That's what some people believe.

Now Randy has hired former KIIS-FM, Los Angeles GM and later Clear Channel market and regional exec Roy Laughlin as a Special Consultant. Former Jacor employee Jana Gavin is now Senior Director/Business Development for the Tribune Interactive division.

This adds to the many former Jacor (and Clear Channel) employees who have joined Randy & the Rainbows in their effort to reinvent the&hellip

Radio’s Unfairness Doctrine

Back in the Reagan years the move began to repeal what was thought to be radio's burdensome Fairness Doctrine.

No need for a provision requiring equal time for other sides of the issues -- so the thinking went. The marketplace would take care of itself. There were enough voices.

What followed was some of radio's best talk franchises -- The Rush Limbaugh's and the Sean Hannity's and many, many others in between that led to the golden age of political talk radio.

A lot of stations made money and the value of radio properties grew -- in part because talk radio thrived. Talk radio (all news and later sports) helped to&hellip

Radio’s Unfairness Doctrine

Back in the Reagan years the move began to repeal what was thought to be radio's burdensome Fairness Doctrine.

No need for a provision requiring equal time for other sides of the issues -- so the thinking went. The marketplace would take care of itself. There were enough voices.

What followed was some of radio's best talk franchises -- The Rush Limbaugh's and the Sean Hannity's and many, many others in between that led to the golden age of political talk radio.

A lot of stations made money and the value of radio properties grew -- in part because talk radio thrived. Talk radio (all news and later sports) helped to&hellip

CCU: The New Less Is More

You've got to hand it to Clear Channel CEO John Hogan. He could teach President Bush a thing or two about how to handle the quagmire in Iraq.

When Hogan loses, he simply declares victory and withdraws.

That's what he did last week when Hogan circulated an ominous email around to Clear Channel employees to tell them that his personal crusade to lower commercial loads -- Less is More -- is so successful that in some cases Clear Channel stations will be free to -- ignore it.

Hogan describes Less Is More as an "unqualified" success. He's right about that choice of word -- unqualified.

The dictionary's preferred&hellip

CCU: The New Less Is More

You've got to hand it to Clear Channel CEO John Hogan. He could teach President Bush a thing or two about how to handle the quagmire in Iraq.

When Hogan loses, he simply declares victory and withdraws.

That's what he did last week when Hogan circulated an ominous email around to Clear Channel employees to tell them that his personal crusade to lower commercial loads -- Less is More -- is so successful that in some cases Clear Channel stations will be free to -- ignore it.

Hogan describes Less Is More as an "unqualified" success. He's right about that choice of word -- unqualified.

The dictionary's preferred&hellip

HD Bragging Causes ASCAP Royalty Push

Those HD advocates have gone and done it.

As Kurt Hanson reported in RAIN recently:

The ASCAP has proposed to the Radio Music License Committee that HD2 radio pay a music license royalty. Broadcasters maintain that since they're generating no revenue from their HD2 channels, a royalty isn't justified. In making their case, the ASCAP cited research, long ago debunked, that predicted 30 million HD receivers in the market by 2012.

It looks like the record industry is going to stuff the braggadocio that the HD Alliance calls promotion down their throats.

Hell, if I saw the radio industry bragging about HD's 30&hellip

HD Bragging Causes ASCAP Royalty Push

Those HD advocates have gone and done it.

As Kurt Hanson reported in RAIN recently:

The ASCAP has proposed to the Radio Music License Committee that HD2 radio pay a music license royalty. Broadcasters maintain that since they're generating no revenue from their HD2 channels, a royalty isn't justified. In making their case, the ASCAP cited research, long ago debunked, that predicted 30 million HD receivers in the market by 2012.

It looks like the record industry is going to stuff the braggadocio that the HD Alliance calls promotion down their throats.

Hell, if I saw the radio industry bragging about HD's 30&hellip

WiFi on Wheels — Radio’s Worst Nightmare

Chrysler announced recently that starting with many of next year's models, it will offer a new option that will include WiFi's capability to bring the Internet to the car as a dealer installed option.

Luckily for the radio industry the auto industry is also in the tank.

As a recent article in the LA Times put it:

Have you ever thought rush hour on the 405 Freeway might be more bearable if you could check your e-mail, shop for a book on Amazon, place some bids on EBay and maybe even, if nobody is looking, download a little porn?

Now, drivers and their passengers will have access to email while in the car as well&hellip

WiFi on Wheels — Radio’s Worst Nightmare

Chrysler announced recently that starting with many of next year's models, it will offer a new option that will include WiFi's capability to bring the Internet to the car as a dealer installed option.

Luckily for the radio industry the auto industry is also in the tank.

As a recent article in the LA Times put it:

Have you ever thought rush hour on the 405 Freeway might be more bearable if you could check your e-mail, shop for a book on Amazon, place some bids on EBay and maybe even, if nobody is looking, download a little porn?

Now, drivers and their passengers will have access to email while in the car as well&hellip

Radio Renaissance? Leonardo da Hogan

The shareholder vote is in just a couple of weeks.

All Access was reporting over the weekend that Clear Channel President John Hogan will be returning for at least another five years -- longer than either Barack Obama or John McCain will serve their first term as president.

You can't just sit dispassionately by when the largest radio group goes private because what they do still matters a lot to everyone else.

There are lots of folks out there who think the two buyout companies Lee Partners and Bain Capital are all of a sudden operators, but that's not realistic. Buyout firms don't make their money off of free cash&hellip