5 Moves Clear Channel Will Make Next

Clear Channel as we know it will not exist in a few short years.

The dismantling is already being planned.

This will help explain some of their questionable decisions lately that have little to do with running a successful radio station group.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Surprise!  Which big chunk of Clear Channel will be sold off to pay down debt.
  2. Why their recent sale of Australian stations is the template for how they intend to run the stations they keep in the U.S.  This will be you.
  3. The percentage of workforce that must go by the end of this year just to help pay the interest on their $20.5 billion in debt.
  4. The two exit plans on the table that would hurt a lot of employees – you won’t like either one.
  5. If Clear Channel can’t fire you, here’s their next best opportunity to “right size” you.

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Less than 1 month to my Philly Conference here.  See what is in the pipeline for radio.

The Tonight Show Starring YouTube

What a mess the NBC Universal changeover has been from Jay Leno first to Conan O’Brien and now finally to Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon’s ratings after two weeks are good enough for older skewing television.  He’s attracting 5.6 million viewers a night, which is higher than traditional late night numbers.

But the money demo 18-49 rating is a paltry 1.9 share and not likely to get better.

Media people are great at packaging shows, making stars bigger than life and promoting the hell out of them.

What we all need to learn to do better is discover how audiences actually consume our content.

Take The Tonight Show.

Is it a digital play or a network television show?

Are they thinking the popular YouTube video clips they do are going to attract younger audiences to traditional television screens?

If they are, they are wasting their time.

In the first week of Fallon’s new show, his YouTube videos attracted 37 million viewers – a lot more than his TV show commands.

Oh, no.

NBC Universal sees it as a branding effort.

Let’s try to all at once forget that dirty word branding and deal with the real issues.

Jimmy Fallon is funny.

His YouTube videos are more popular than the show.

What self-respecting young fan would watch Tonight when they could be binging on Netflix?

The young audience isn’t wired the way media executives are wired.

Same is true for radio.

Radio stations have zero digital products.

Zero.

They have on-air brands (uh oh) and extend them online so that all those people who won’t listen on-air can participate online.

Bad strategy.

Step back for a second.

If someone walked into your office and said, I want your content so I can put it on the web so audiences don’t have to listen to a radio, you’d throw them out.

That’s what we’re all doing to ourselves.

So it’s time to rethink what we do on the air and what we are offering as digital.

On-air should be so compelling, unique and addicting that audiences should want to listen.  They should want to find a radio or demand a radio in their hands.

Online digital content should be so in the sweet spot of how younger audiences live that they are equally inclined to consume it.

I have to laugh when I see studies like the Borrell study that claims an average radio station did $166,000 in digital revenue last year?

If so, that number stinks.

And in the radio industry stations decide what is digital so there is no industry standard.

I have a video strategy that makes millions of dollars for Gen X entrepreneurs and I’m going to share it at my Philly conference in March. 

Now that’s a game plan we ought to learn about.

Here are some other critical things we should get ahead of:

  1. Disrupting radio – Pandora is doing it.  Apple is doing it.  Netflix has done it by feeding the binge-watching monster.  Social media is in disarray right now but it has become a radio competitor.  No format change is going to be enough to take them back.  Time to disrupt radio before someone else does it.
  2. Master digital -- Target solutions to transform both your radio and digital power into something that will attract big money advertisers.  Radio has only limited resources to devote to digital, we’ll drill down on the ones that can make them count.
  3. Starting your own social media – Facebook, Twitter and all the other social media sites are becoming unstable.  Learn about how to build a social media platform around you and your fans.  I’ll share the evidence.
  4. Reinvent radio for the digital age – I’ll be going over a list of things money demo listeners object to about radio and offer ways to address each and every one.  And together we will brainstorm ideas that can fix or replace the old reliable things that are not working for audiences any more.
  5. Getting into video -- The best route to starting your own radio station video business – one that will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll play video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. Attracting younger audiences -- From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the four critical things Millennials expect of media.  Build the future around this checklist.
  7. Solving time shifted radio – Ways radio stations can get beyond real time broadcasting into the hottest media consumer trend of the last two decades – on-demand consumption of content. 

Less than a month until the Philly conference on March 26th and I’m getting excited to be with you and lead this seminar to transform the industry for the future.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Check availability for staying on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel where this conference is being held -- please mention that you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.

Clear Channel Spying on Employees

J. Edgar Hoover would be proud -- the FBI has now confirmed Clear Channel employee spying.

The eye in the sky (Bob Pittman) is now officially the spy in the sky.

But there are other privacy abuses that his employees are not aware of.

Revealed today.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. The complex and ugly program they wrote to read your email.
  2. How even “safe” ordinary emails can be tracked and read if employees make this one mistake in the email text. 
  3. How the Clear Channel spy network lets corporate automatically know each time you type certain things.
  4. How to protect yourself against this new level of corporate spying – 3 “safety first” precautions.
  5. Why the FBI confirmed Clear Channel spying as recently as Monday.

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If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve got your back.

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See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Cumulus Encourages Employee Birth Control

I thought that would get your attention.

Lew Dickey says it is “the right thing to do” to extend six weeks of maternity leave to new mothers.

The problem is when it comes to issues like maternity leave it turns out the only “mothers” are the Dickeys and I won’t share the suffix that some of their employees tack on to that word.

Guess what else they are secretly going to take away under the cover of “the right thing to do”.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. What the Cumulus definition of mother is for the purpose of qualifying for maternity leave.
  2. Why this new “benefit” that Dickey is bragging about precedes a corporate war on women.
  3. What other company benefits are likely to go bye-bye next for men and women employees.
  4. How Cumulus is targeting women employees who work in this one area.
  5. Revealed!  Second round of personality contract cuts and more stringent non-competes ahead.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

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If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve got your back.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Even Publishers Are Getting Into Binge Content

Netflix has done more to wreck traditional network television than anything.

House of Cards being released on Valentine’s Day reshaped the lover’s holiday for the first time ever as people stayed on their sofas and binged throughout the weekend to see all 13 of the much-awaited season two.

And that’s the world we live in.

The one that asks, “I’m only up to episode 5 so don’t tell me what happens”.

A world of spoilers lurking everywhere.

Binging is the new broadcasting and for broadcasters that could mean a lot of problems.

Broadcasting is in real time, but audiences want on-demand.

Time shifting is no longer a philosophical option.  It’s a necessity.

In radio, we love the bubble we live in that makes us feel like we can ignore something this earthshattering. 

Even book publishers are getting with it.

Did you see how they are directing their best selling authors to write their novels on a quicker schedule so the publishers can release the books in rapid fire order – for print that would be, say, every few months.

Radio is going to have to deal with this market game changer.

And that’s why it is one of the 7 critical issues we must deal with to remain viable at my March 26th Philly conference. 

  • Why it is possible to both broadcast in real time and offer binge content for audiences.  And it cannot be the same thing.
  • How you can even make money from developing binge content for your radio brand.
  • The worst thing you can do is to confuse your potential binge content as recycled programming that has already aired.  Do that and it’s game over.
  • One absolute major change radio stations will have to make to their online content if they decide to get into producing binge content.

We’re going to brainstorm together – develop ideas that you can use if you like and get started before it is too late.

Here are the 7 critical issues that will drive this conference  …

  1. Disrupting radio -- Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.  Pandora radio is already killing Clear Channel’s sales in the first quarter of the year in major markets that are off 5% -- ignoring digital competitors will not make this stop.  Disrupt them.
  2. Master digital -- as a second stream of free cash flow alongside a reinvigorated air product.  Even Facebook is changing its bet from mass social networking to smaller, more personalized group connection as witnessed by its recent $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp.  Master solutions to transform both your radio and digital power into something that will attract big money advertisers.
  3. Starting your own social media -- The first step to starting your stations own social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat or whatever else comes next.  A more sure footed way to grow your fan base.
  4. Adapting radio to the digital age -- Solutions to giving younger money demo listeners the radio that they want – a morning show that will take their breath away because no one is currently doing it.  Finally, an answer to how to fill their need for music discovery and your station’s need to gain ratings through repetition of the hits at the same time.  The only contest that will make their dreams come true and it’s not a trip or tickets to a concert.  I’m going to reveal it so you can do it.
  5. Getting into video -- The best route to starting your own radio station video business – one that will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll play video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. Attracting younger audiences -- From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the four critical things Millennials expect of media.  This checklist is so valuable, I am using it right here, right now – can you tell?
  7. Solving time shifted radio -- Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  It’s not just repurposing your morning show.  It’s grade A content that is irresistible and most in-demand by advertisers.

The Philly conference is just 1 month to the day.

I sure hope you will join us because this event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

The Rittenhouse Hotel where this conference is being held is almost sold out the night before the Philly conference so please mention that you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.

Scott Shannon Backstabbing Details Revealed

WCBS-FM, New York announces Scott Shannon today.

And another ex-employee that Cumulus didn’t value comes back to haunt them.

But what isn’t commonly known is that Shannon got knifed in the back.

It’s a dirty story that serves as a warning for anyone working for Cumulus.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Who stabbed Shannon in the back to oust him from his WPLJ morning show.  We name him.
  2. What were they thinking – the station other than WPLJ that Cumulus wanted to put Shannon on – a hilarious attempt to keep him from competing against them.
  3. If you’re ever negotiating with Cumulus, look what Shannon got them to do before he left.  Take notes.
  4. How the human wrecking ball himself John Dickey plans to beat Elvis Duran on Z100.
  5. What about those rumors that Shannon was going to WOR as a talk show host?

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,621 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve never revealed a source – ever.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Netflix Comcast Deal

I love Netflix.

It’s a great service and has reinvented the way we all consume video and TV content.

I love it for another reason.

I bought Netflix stock at $218 and it closed over $447 dollars a share yesterday.

But it’s a love/hate relationship.

I never cared for Netflix CEO Reed Hastings who tried to ram Internet service down the throats of snail mail customers a few years back.  It spoke volumes about Hastings.  He almost derailed a good thing.

Netflix arguably invented binge watching and getting into content creation has been a good decision.

Some 30% of all Internet traffic on both TV and computers comes from Netflix and Netflix with Google represent 50% of all U.S. Internet traffic.

Hastings has done what a lot of other greedy capitalists are doing lately – covering his ass at the expense of the industry that made him what he is.

Netflix did a deal with an empire more evil than even Clear Channel, Comcast, to guarantee no slow or pixilated streaming problems over Comcast and soon the monopoly it is acquiring, Time Warner Cable.

Netflix will apparently pay millions a year to Comcast for a multi-year agreement to become the poster child for doing in net neutrality.

That means Netflix will also have to pay Verizon and AT&T the same protection money.

Somehow this all sounds like the mafia to me.

Favoritism at a cost by sacrificing the very medium Netflix has pioneered.

I have heard stories that Netflix movies were getting pixilated on FiOS, the fast Verizon alternative to Comcast.

It’s like having your restaurant storefront window broken by the mob to get you use to their waste management “service”.

These guys play dirty.

My New Jersey home is in Moorestown, a South Jersey suburb of Philadelphia.  Verizon’s superior fiber optic FiOS is service is already in surrounding communities but not in Moorestown nor is it going to be in the near future because Comcast execs happen to live in Moorestown.  Wait until I give them an earful when I run into one of them at the Moorestown hardware store.

It’s always about gaining unfair advantage.

That’s why we can’t get beyond regulators because left to themselves you have Netflix and Comcast, Clear Channel and the other consolidators being given a free pass to monopoly by Congress and the FCC.

The FCC is going to take another bite of the apple called net neutrality by rewriting the regulations now that the courts struck the previous iteration down.

And so the greedy bastards are at it.

There will be another Netflix that comes along that will better and Hastings is quite capable of screwing up again.

If consumers think, good for Netflix – now I won’t have any streaming problems with my House of Cards binge watching session, think again.

Consumers are the ones who are going to pay for it.

Watch Netflix raise their monthly rate.

Watch Comcast increase their cable bill.  What?  You thought that was going down?

All of this to remind radio owners and executives how lucky they are to be broadcasting on free airwaves.  It doesn’t always sound like a good deal in the digital age, but that could change once these media barons ruin the digital landscape, as they will do.

Some day, if we put much better programming on the air, free radio may reengage an audience it lost to digital competitors.

Audiences want radio to innovate again.

Admit it, what passes for radio on most stations is not as good as radio used to be.  It’s a dumbed down, cheaper version across the board.

Last weekend while working on the content for my March 26th Philly conference, it struck me that we are capable of making important adjustments to what we do in broadcasting, digital, video businesses we should start and social media.

We’re going to brainstorm in person to generate ideas to take advantage of a media industry hell bent on shutting out competition, shutting down innovation and leaving audiences to their own devices.

We’ll focus on these critical issues …

  1. Disrupting radio -- Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.  Pandora radio is already killing Clear Channel’s sales in the first quarter of the year in major markets that are off 5% -- ignoring digital competitors will not make this stop.  Disrupt them.
  2. Master digital -- as a second stream of free cash flow alongside a reinvigorated air product.  Even Facebook is changing its bet from mass social networking to smaller, more personalized group connection as witnessed by its recent $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp.  Master solutions to transform both your radio and digital power into something that will attract big money advertisers.
  3. Starting your own social media -- The first step to starting your stations own social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat or whatever else comes next.  A more sure footed way to grow your fan base.
  4. Adapting radio to the digital age -- Solutions to giving younger money demo listeners the radio that they want – a morning show that will take their breath away because no one is currently doing it.  Finally, an answer to how to fill their need for music discovery and your station’s need to gain ratings through repetition of the hits at the same time.  The only contest that will make their dreams come true and it’s not a trip, contest or tickets to a concert.  I’m going to reveal it so you can do it.
  5. Getting into video -- The best route to starting your own radio station video business – one that will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll play video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. Attracting younger audiences -- From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the four critical things Millennials expect of media.  This checklist is so valuable, I am using it right here, right now – can you tell?
  7. Solving time shifted radio -- Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  It’s not just repurposing your morning show.  It’s grade A content that is irresistible and most in-demand by advertisers.

I sure hope you will join us because this event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

The Rittenhouse Hotel where this conference is being held is almost sold out the night before the Philly conference so please mention that you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.

The Exit Plans For 4 Major Radio Groups

Time to exit stage left.

Wall Street money never sleeps for much longer than 5 years.  So you were thinking, they would just keep losing money the way they are doing now?

These groups have their eyes on the exit no matter how they talk in public.

What would astound you is how they actually think they are going to cash out.

It’s all laid out here.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Clear Channel’s real exit plan is the most thought out – how they will get their money off the table.
  2. Why Cumulus radio ownership is temporary.
  3. How Entercom has backed themselves into only one way to go forward – and it’s risky.
  4. The game of poker CBS is playing.
  5. When these exiting companies start heading for the door.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,619 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve never revealed a source – ever.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Changes Younger Demos Want Your Station To Make

I heard a report on NPR last week that young children who have become used to playing with mobile devices and getting instant gratification are throwing fits when their parents “force” them to watch commercial television.

In fact, these young kids can’t stand the commercials and want them to stop.  Can you imagine?

I can.

Because our radio audiences are a lot older and they are wondering why we think they would want to listen to what passes for radio these days.

For the past ten years I have made it my business to study the patterns of generational media thanks to the time I spent as a professor at The University of Southern California.

I can tell you that the 95 million Millennials coming of age – some as old as 30 and in our money demo – are lost to radio unless we adapt and change.

Baby boomers cannot make radio a growth business again and Gen X, they are a much smaller generation in terms of numbers and, well -- they coined the phrase “radio sucks” – remember that gem?

Younger demos want us to change if we expect them to add radio to their many digital options for entertainment and information.

Bear with me here.

Say you had this idea before radio was ever invented and pitched it to investors of that era.

“We have this technology that can put audio programs into people’s homes and offer music, entertainment, news and local information.  And we can monetize it by running two 9 minute clusters crammed with unlistenable advertisements every hour”.

No one would buy that business model.

And take away the music, entertainment, news and local information as the big consolidators have and what are we offering again?

But I am more than confident that I know the way to reengage this critical audience.

  • A way to offer commercials in a more listenable form.
  • The one way younger demos would actually like to hear commercials (from my student labs at USC).  That’s right, they would listen and not tune out.  I can promise you, we’re not doing this – yet.
  • They want music discovery and we want to prune the playlist to the same repetitive songs over and over.  Bland, no discovery.  But I am going to tell those of you who are in Philly March 26th for my meeting how to do both from the mouths of this essential audience.  And they will love it.   If you’re in a disrupting mood, this is worth the price alone.
  • A contest so compelling to younger demos that they will actually carry your station around and listen live if you’ll give them this one thing that is an answer to their dreams.  Forget the other garbage that means nothing to them.  I’m going to ask you to do just this one thing really well – and I’ll answer all your questions on how to carry it off.

Our conference is only one month away.

It’s about solutions.

My mission is to be in the room with radio people and digital entrepreneurs who are of the mind to innovate.

In addition to the above, there are 7 key areas that I will offer solutions for that will reignite our ability to not just compete but to lead.

  1. Disrupting radio -- Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.  Pandora radio is already killing Clear Channel’s sales in the first quarter of the year in major markets that are off 5% -- ignoring digital competitors will not make this stop.  Disrupt them.
  2. Master digital -- as a second stream of free cash flow alongside a reinvigorated air product.  Even Facebook is changing its bet from mass social networking to smaller, more personalized group connection as witnessed by its recent $19 billion purchase of WhatsApp.  Master solutions to transform both your radio and digital power into something that will attract big money advertisers.
  3. Starting your own social media -- The first step to starting your stations own social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat or whatever else comes next.  A more sure footed way to grow your fan base.
  4. Adapting radio to the digital age -- Solutions to giving younger money demo listeners the radio that they want – a morning show that will take their breath away because no one is currently doing it.  Finally, an answer to how to fill their need for music discovery and your station’s need to gain ratings through repetition of the hits at the same time.  The only contest that will make their dreams come true and it’s not a trip, contest or tickets to a concert.  I’m going to reveal it so you can do it.
  5. Getting into video -- The best route to starting your own radio station video business – one that will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll play video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. Attracting younger audiences -- From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the four critical things Millennials expect of media.  This checklist is so valuable, I am using it right here, right now – can you tell?
  7. Solving time shifted radio -- Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  It’s not just repurposing your morning show.  It’s grade A content that is irresistible and most in-demand by advertisers.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.

Clear Channel Orders 2014 Bonuses Slashed

What kind of a screwed up company brags about 4th quarter profits and does emergency cutbacks at the same time?

Now this.

SpongeBob Pittman is drastically cutting bonuses to the salespeople he claims have put Clear Channel in the black.

Are these guys just playing with numbers or playing with something else?

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. How much pay Clear Channel sellers will have to give up in 2014 compared to last year. 
  2. The new rules on who decides if you get a bonus at all even if you make your numbers.
  3. What they don’t want anyone to know!  The new approach to laying people off.
  4. What percentage increase in sales is now going to be mandated to all but ensure that their sellers won’t make any bonuses at all.
  5. Clear Channel’s new policy if you decide to up and leave the company now.
  6. Plus!  What just happened to those draconian new travel rules issued last month.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,618 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve got your back in my Witness Protection Program

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference one month from now here. 

5 Weeks Until My Philly Conference

My upcoming fifth annual Media Solutions seminar is March 26th.

I want to thank all those who have already registered and those of you who are also sending groups of attendees including the delegation from Hubbard and Radio One that just signed up.

This year can be a great one for you if you plan to work in radio and digital media.

So much is changing almost by the month and there are many additional skills sets to acquire to be at your best.

I’m planning to start by laying out the most critical areas we need to work on.

For example, the move to on-demand content consumption when radio does real time broadcasting.

Then, with your permission, I would like to walk you through the future we can choose if we are willing to adapt.

I will share how to program a music station so differently that no one currently does it this way but younger listeners would put down their digital devices and get hooked.

The contest that would make them come back that picked up 700,000 cume over three months on one station that did it.

How Millennials would like you to deal with those unlistenable stop sets – and amazingly how you can do it.

Item by item.

Objection by objection.

We will recraft the radio station that we are capable of doing.

And, yes – the morning show you must have or you will perish. 

I’ll share the 4 values that Millennials audiences adhere to that we can use to make our stations attractive to them and even older listeners.

Jerry Lee will talk with us about how he has increased revenue to be the market leader year after year at More FM in Philly by helping advertisers write and test emotionally packed copy.  And he has promised to share his secret with you.

Sean Hannity is the only talk show host who is attracting the money demo.  The rest are and pulling on unsellable numbers.  Sean will share live and in Philly.

Michael Harrison who is the one industry exec that the consumer press and media turn to when they want to understand today’s radio will help us get out ahead of the next trend.

This conference is worth it.

And you’ll leave with the answers to these 7 critical things we need to be working on now:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

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What Lew Dickey Is Hiding

Another masterful job by Lew Dickey putting lipstick on a pig.

I guess he doesn’t know that even some analysts are privately laughing at him when he spins the latest quarterly underachievements.

But Lew is actually telegraphing his next moves if you read between the lines.

And they aren’t pretty.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Which formats will be branded, removed from local control and local employees dismissed.
  2. Which formats will not make the cut.
  3. The future of the Cumulus partnership with the low rated CBS Sports Radio Network.
  4. The fate of the Right Now Traffic revenue Dickey failed to provide figures for in the fourth quarter of 2013.
  5. No padding!  The real performance numbers for Cumulus when comparing apples to apples courtesy of a Wall Street analyst.
  6. That Cumulus debt!  How it compares to Clear Channel’s $21 billion and in relation to the best run radio groups (also named).

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,616 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference one month from now here.

Radio’s Answer To On-Demand

Radio broadcasters are used to building content in a hot clock – an hour of programming with certain elements built into it.

But now, an hour is a long time.

And those elements – music, traffic, comedy, news, contests, commercials – don’t seem to fit in.

Anyone with a DVR knows that all of us want what we want when we want it.

But the 95 million Millennials who make up the next generation – some who are already old enough to be in the money demo – will never respond to the way radio presents its content.

To make matters worse, we aren’t doing the best radio we’ve ever done as an industry and any honest radio person knows that.

It’s about cutting expenses and standardizing programming today.

Who mentions audience?  It’s best practices or right sizing.  No wonder we’re losing our edge.

We want to sell commercials for whatever we can get and dump them into two stop sets an hour.

Listeners want no part of it.

To show you how dumb advertisers have become, they should want no part of it.

We don’t care what the commercials sound like.

Advertisers should care and both of us should care if they work because that is the best way to get renewals.

We do weather.

Listeners have an iPhone.

Ditto for traffic and transit and news in the unlikely case that we do that anymore.

We play only the hits.

But listeners want music discovery and they have the digital tools to get it on-demand.

Name something we’ve innovated in the past 20 years.

Look, Chevy is coming out with an onboard audio DVR that will allow drivers to record 30 minutes of programming.

Record what?

I’m thinking.

Maybe parts of NPR programming.

Not Kiss, not Power, not Amp, no music format. Why would we do that?

So as that misunderstood digital dashboard comes of age, radio is stuck with nothing noteworthy to record.

So one of the things I will challenge those attending my March Philly conference is tell me what you offer that a listener would value enough to record and play back on-demand for 30 minutes.

Not to worry.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

I’m going to share lots of ideas you’re going to like and hopefully we will get out ahead of perhaps the biggest story of the year – the compelling popularity of on-demand content.

Even real time broadcasting will have to adapt to on-demand.

The groups and independent stations doing great local content and starting a separate digital revenue stream are already in. 

I’ve got the content divided into 7 critical things we need to be working on:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

Firing Personalities Backfiring on Clear Channel

Pittman down!

Bob “Eye in the Sky” Pittman is involved in a corporate pissing match over who is responsible for their morning shows falling apart.

The company that thought they could live without personalities is getting a Nielsen wakeup call.

But unfortunately the fix is just more screw-ups on the way.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Revealed!  Clear Channel’s plan to stop the ratings decline.
  2. What becomes of the current Clear Channel fatwah on talent now?
  3. The Clear Channel honcho on the hot seat for firing personalities and tanking ratings.  Well, it sure as hell isn’t Bob Pittman.
  4. Why Pittman is now being watched by his venture capital owners and who it is.  Pittman now has a nanny.
  5. How much of firing personalities will stick to Tom Schurr.
  6. Truth or dare – is WOR going to get Scott Shannon after all now that their morning show took gas? 
  7. If not, which New York station will sign Scott Shannon.  The call letters.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,614 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  I’ve always got your back.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Jimmy Fallon’s First Night

What’s not to like about Jimmy Fallon?

He’s young, clean cut, respectful and funny.

He’s the digital age’s Johnny Carson.

Except, the 95 million Millennials in the digital age have no idea who Johnny Carson was and they aren’t going to turn on a television to see his desk, his studio or an imitation of his show.

Fallon had a big first night as producer Lorne Michaels predicted.  And he’ll have a big night tonight.

Interestingly, Fallon’s first show did not exceed Jay Leno’s last show for ratings clout and to be fair, the Olympics on NBC held up the start time of the show.

I chose to make a dent in House of Cards instead of seeing Fallon’s show live.

What don’t we get about the audience we must have – the next generation?

Radio folks are guilty of this, too.

We are romantically involved with the radio industry.  I left TV to return to radio with few regrets.  Radio people can’t think straight about the changes they are going to be forced to make – eventually.

So Jimmy Fallon will do fine, but he will have to appeal to older people because only older people watch broadcast TV.

Some Millennials prefer the edgier Jimmy Kimmel on ABC but not enough to stop everything and watch every night as Tonight Show viewers did in the past.  And Kimmel’s median audience is still over 50.

This handoff from Leno to Fallon is a big hit with baby boomers – especially the ones running NBC Universal.

But don’t try this at home. 

It misses the point.

The unthinkable has happened.

Even young people can live without TV – not smartphones and tablets – TV.

They binge watch and want to be the program director.

This standoff between baby boomer media executives and the Millennial audience will probably go on for a while.

Millennials will win.

I’m thinking we need to cooperate with the inevitable.

Don’t shut down your radio stations, but if you don’t have a plan B that takes you where Millennials will reside, you’re on the wrong path to survival.

And they’re not coming back to broadcasting.

One of the reasons this is a big topic at my media conference in March is that there are ways broadcast stations can do better on-air with available audiences and attract new audiences through on-demand and time shifted content.

In fact, I’m going to dazzle you with some ideas and I am sure you will hitchhike on them.

Watching NBC foul up its airwaves in the hopes of getting younger viewers is therapeutic. 

There are much better ways.

The conference is worth it.

The groups and stations doing great local content and starting a separate digital revenue stream are already in.  The big three already know everything so this is not for them.

I’ve got the content divided into 7 critical things we need to be working on:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference”.  The hotel says there is only one room left at the special discounted rate.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

Scott Shannon’s Payback to the Dickeys

Scott Shannon is about to teach us a valuable lesson in dealing with the Dickeys.

He’s ready to resurface in a way that will make John Dickey wish he had been negotiating with Jillian Barberie.

It’s not nice to humiliate a very proud ratings gorilla in public in front of his legions of fans.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Who Shannon was negotiating with before Cumulus forced him to “retire” from mornings on WPLJ.
  2. Where I am hearing Shannon will land – a big gig that would haunt the Dickeys forever. 
  3. The 4 things Shannon is doing that abused radio people should also be doing to fight back.  I’d take notes.
  4. How Shannon is standing up to this favorite impediment that the Dickeys like to use to hurt talent they discard.
  5. What everyone who has ever worked for Cumulus wants to know!  How do you beat these guys at their own game – his formula.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,612 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Happy House of Cards Day

You know you have trouble when your wife says at the stroke of 12 midnight Valentine’s Day, “I wonder if we can watch the new season of House of Cards yet?”

Whatever happened to flowers or candy?

As Shakespeare said in The Tempest, we are experiencing a “sea change” in on-demand content.

Binging on content.

Face it, some of you are going to write to me today and say you’ve already watched all 13 new episodes when this piece hits.

And binge watching seems to be transcending generational boundaries.

Everyone regardless of age does it and loves it.

Poor Les Moonves.

He only has so many more years before even he has to make CBS content available when viewers want it.

Poor Barry Diller who thinks Aereo is a winner at the Supreme Court, but I tell you it’s a loser in the court of public opinion. 

Who wants to pay almost $10 a month to watch local TV on your smartphone?

Case closed.

Local and network TV sucks on the wall for free or for whatever cable companies have managed to snooker us out of.  And if Diller wins at the Supreme Court, the old baby boomer media barons will stop broadcasting over the air and go to cable shutting Aereo down before it gets started.

Look, House of Cards is a compelling, well-written, well-acted show and the original version was also good. 

Good content is good content.

But now, we must make content available to our audiences on their schedule – quite a disruption for broadcasters who air content in real time.

Still, on-demand is the future.

No, I’m wrong.

It’s the present.

So I want to discuss ways we can do this in the radio business at my Philly seminar in March.

And it’s time for radio people to take it seriously.

Yet, there are dazzling ways for us to get into the binge content business.  Things no one has ever done before.  And content that I promise you will wake up an audience that wants to be in control.

To be sure, I am not talking about repurposing content that has already been aired.  So consider this a lifeline to new revenue.  And there is a way to tie the station into the on-demand content that makes more sense that even trying to stream your signal. 

It’s better than that.

And I know radio people.  We will hitchhike on ideas that will allow the medium to participate in perhaps the greatest change in content consumption than we have seen before – binging.

The conference is worth it.

The groups and stations doing great local content and starting a separate digital revenue stream are already in.  The big three already know everything so this not for them.

I’ve got the content divided into 7 critical things we need to be working on:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to see if they have any rooms left in the special rate block.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

Pittman Orders 11 Monthly Clear Channel Cuts

Rolling cutbacks every month until the end of the year.

Big numbers.

It turns out Bob Pittman was just warming up with that 0.5% one-time early January cutback.

Market managers are under the gun.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. How much even markets that are turning a profit now have to cut back every month – that’s right, every month – in expenses.  Eye-popping numbers.
  2. How it could be even more if local clusters continue losing money -- Market managers are up in arms.
  3. Which markets are exempt. 
  4. Where these drastic monthly cutbacks will come from.
  5. The unbelievable order Pittman is threatening to issue to all Clear Channel market managers that would in effect cut off their private parts.  He’s serious.
  6. Why Clear Channel’s new rate plans will guarantee no one makes their bonuses producing in effect yet another way to save money. 
  7. Payback?  Someone is now watching Pittman’s every move for the owners.  The new man pressuring Pittman.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,609 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

If you have news, memos or emails, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

The Time Warner Comcast Deal

What?

Overpaying for Time Warner Cable to become a bigger monopoly in an industry that Millennials will soon kill off.

What a strategy.

And as The New York Times reports, this deal was a field day for financial advisors who somehow always make their money.

Cable is dead.

I know.  I know.

Everyone else thinks it’s alive and well since Les Moonves snookered Time Warner into paying CBS double the retransmission fees for his network’s programming.  In doing so, CBS gets an extra lifeline for their dead business – network television.

So Brian Roberts gets bragging rights over that nasty cable baron John Malone who originally tried to steal Time Warner Cable for his monopoly, Charter.

Nowhere in any of the coverage will you see anything substantial about the customer.

I hated cable as soon as it was first available.

The installation. 

The service interruptions. 

The classic customer service failures.

But that’s nothing compared to bundling.

Cable bundles everything.

High speed Internet with landline phone service that no one really wants anymore.

And forcing customers to pay for ESPN (and now CBS) even if they don’t watch sports or any of the shows Les Moonves’ aging network has to offer.

I’m telling you – you think I’m wound up on this topic?  Don’t bring bundling on cable up to a Millennial.

Since there are 95 million of them and only a handful (and growing fewer) of cable and satellite operators, cable is a dead man walking.

That never stops radio from attracting venture capital to play monopoly and overpay for its excessive egos, but it certainly has nothing to do with a viable business that customers want.

They want time shifting.

They want cherry picking.

They want content on demand so they can binge on it.

And if you think I’m just talking about television here, think again.

Radio will have to get into time shifting.

At my March 26th Philly conference I’m going to show you what some automakers have in the pipeline that will allow drivers (and listeners) to time shift radio programming.

Question.

Time shift what?

Nash FM?  KISS?  Michael Savage?

Cut me a break.

Time shifting is here and we had better look at alternatives to make all types of content available on that basis.

Some of the possibilities are dazzling and I know you’ll hitchhike on these ideas. 

Here’s a sampling of the 7 critical areas that matter most to broadcasters and digital entrepreneurs in the year ahead:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to see if they have any rooms left in the special rate block.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

How Much Radio, How Much Digital

The dirty little secret of radio is that they get to define what digital is and determine how much revenue they derive from it.

Even if it is nothing.

It’s kind of like ratings – if Nielsen says you have one million listeners, then damn, it, you have one million listeners.

You may not have any influence over that audience, but who cares, right?

Radio is still paying the bills.

Digital is an add-on and largely not making money unless radio groups can slip some spot revenue and call it digital or vice versa.

Radio has this mentality that digital is an add-on to radio – an add-on they would rather not do and it looks that way.

I mean if I kept doing the same thing year after year and not making any money from it while having to pay the expenses (as radio groups are doing with streaming), I’d do something else.

Quick.

And that’s my point today.

Wait until you see all the exciting “something else’s” that are waiting to be discovered.

In preparing for my March 26th Philly seminar, I’ve uncovered some alternate forms of revenue that I’m going to do.  That’s how much I want to get in on this.  Willing to share, but I’m not going to be the one to hesitate.

Throw out the old radio/digital formula, it not only doesn’t work, it distracts from doing good radio.

Let’s be clear.

Above all, do good on-air radio first.

And as an industry, we’re not which is why I am going to share the first really new listener radio preferences for the kind of radio they would actually listen to.

Even Millennials – the ones Nielsen would have us believe are happy as pig in you know what hearing Amp and Kiss play the same songs over and over again.

Really?

Let’s stop kidding ourselves and step up.  So, we’re going to disrupt the way radio connects with audiences in the hope of attracting more fervent listeners and more younger money demos.

Next, start separate streams of digital revenue.

Notice I said separate.

Not brand extensions.

Not your morning show “lite”.

Adventurous initiatives that can start a separate revenue stream to make up for any ups and downs in spot radio or add to the profits if you’ve got your radio act together.

I’ve said that I’ve convinced Jerry Lee, the innovative owner of More FM in Philly to come teach at this seminar.  Since I once worked for him, I threatened to go back on the air if he didn’t accept my invitation.

Lee is bringing with him information for all those who attend to do the same things he does in Philly to help advertisers get better results.  Not words.  Testing their commercials.  That’s how he does it.  No need to be replacing advertisers to make your nut.  They will actually spend more which is why he is the market revenue leader with one FM station.

There is so much we could do to make it real and make it profitable.

Here’s a sampling of the areas that matter to most radio stations.

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Join the radio executives and digital entrepreneurs who have already reserved their seats.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, there are now two rooms left (two were reserved yesterday afternoon) and 10 others at full rates.  Mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to get the best room rate available.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

Cumulus Using Nash as a Decoy

And all this time you thought that Nash FM was just another Cumulus excuse to cut more jobs.

How wrong we all were?

Nash FM, the failed New York country branded prototype, is not just a canned format. 

It’s the future of Cumulus.

And, sadly, almost every other major radio group.

Here’s why.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Why Nash FM is the prototype for more to come except for one major format.  And what is replacing it has never been done on radio before.
  2. How many Cumulus formats will eventually be rebranded and replaced by Nash imitations.  
  3. How it is possible that branded Nash-type formats are exponentially worse than existing to replace a few air people.
  4. What the Nash FM format is hiding – a massive plan to fundamentally change the radio industry like never before.
  5. Why the decoy?  Why are the Dickeys trying to psyche out their competitors and buy time.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,607 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Sources from my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs exposure to the light of day, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.  You can also call me directly at (480) 998-9898.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Pittman’s Plans For Regional Markets

Jeff Smulyan buys stations.

And Bob Pittman has selling on his mind. 

Go figure.

But before Pittman sells, he’s got to mix up a portion of Dr. Good’s special potion and lotion.

If you’re working at a Clear Channel regional station, this means that this is going to be a rollercoaster year.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. The one job that is really a goner at Clear Channel regionals this year.
  2. What is Pittman’s plan to make the company’s $21 billion debt disappear in thin air.
  3. Great News!  Clear Channel is hiring again, great jobs.  But you need not apply if you have this one thing on your resume.
  4. How Pittman’s plan will undermine local station sales.
  5. Pittman’s sneak attack: you won’t even remember that $21 billion debt once you see this.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,605 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

I was helped by sources now securely in my Witness Protection Program who contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs exposure to the light of day, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.  You can also call me directly at (480) 998-9898.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

Nielsen Lies About Millennial Audiences

The company that now does PPM ratings which records listening that occurs by accident when meters randomly pick up an encoded radio signal is now weighing in on Millennials.

Millennials, an audience that clearly has no use for what consolidators put on the radio these days.

But the big consolidators are paying Nielsen hundreds of millions of dollars to report audience estimates that the company itself admits in a legal statement are not reliable.

Here’s what else is not reliable.

That Gen Y has not abandoned radio.

Maybe they’re paying some meter wearers to walk around and pick up encoded radio signals but no self-respecting Millennial is listening to broadcast radio.

Ask them.

So when Nielsen says Gen Y spends 11.5 hours listening to over the air radio you’re going to have to take it on their good looks.

Go ahead believe it if that works for you, but it isn’t anywhere near true.

Go find Millennials who actually know the name of a radio station they like.

Or anything that might be on that station.

Millennials have iPods, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube (the hit music station for today’s teens) and hard drives programmed with their own music.

And have you listened to a talk station lately?

These kids are not interested in Michael Savage’s personal dislike of his competitors or even politics that emphasize confrontation instead of conciliation.

All news radio?

Why?

Millennials have all the news they need in the palm of their hands – they don’t have to give radio news 20 minutes to get the world.

This stuff and things Mark Kassof is saying is self-serving and wrong.

I like Mark.  He’s done some good stuff but lately Kassof has his head up his butt with this one:

 “We’ve heard all the doomsayers. 'Listeners don’t care about radio,' 'Millennials hate radio,' 'Pandora will kill radio as we know it,' etc. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!"

And you wonder why radio can’t even break even and will never be a growth business again.

But wait.

The locally focused companies, many of which don’t even subscribe to ratings, are posting profits.

Saga for one.

And Hubbard, Bonneville, Cox, smaller regional companies, and independently owned stations.

No ratings.

No bullshit.

Because these local broadcasters know that ratings are an expensive way to have to talk some media buyer into not driving down their spot rate.  When it’s only numbers and not influence, radio stations get beaten up on rate.

More important than ratings or the tripe that is being circulated about how kids like radio is that your new mission is to create influence not emphasize ratings. 

That’s what Jerry Lee does at More FM in Philly.  True, his station is number one but it also outbills everyone else because he spends tons of money to test advertisers commercials and make them work better on the air.  He has a system that no other radio operator uses.

So there’s local radio and everybody else.

The everybody else’s in the industry have their game of monopoly to play where they run up the debt, fire their talented people and rely on Nielsen and others to prop up a dying business.

When I meet with you at my Philly seminar March 26th, it’s built for local operators who want to do the best radio they can within today’s financial constraints and start a second and separate stream of digital revenue.

Not add-ons or glorified streaming of their signal that costs money and never makes any real money.

New ripe ventures that are worth investigating.

Here are the 7 critical areas we must master this year to remain viable in a changing industry along with the bonus action plans you will receive:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Jerry Lee will be there to give you the edge in helping advertisers do better so they spend more with you like they do with him in Philly.  He’s even bringing valuable handouts that only you will receive. 

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, there are now two rooms left (two were reserved yesterday afternoon) and 10 others at full rates.  Mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to get the best room rate available.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

FBI Investigating Alleged Clear Channel Email Hacking

Even The Evil Empire wouldn’t go that far, would they?

One ex-employee has had it up to here with the reported snooping of Bob “Private Eye In The Sky” Pittman’s company so he went to the FBI and turned them in.

For real.

And even hired a private company to answer one gnawing question for him. 

Is Clear Channel hacking into my email?

Here’s the amazing story that once again proves it’s not nice to screw with an ex-Clear Channel employee.

And, of course, as I always do – this source is being safely protected in my Witness Protection Program.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Why the FBI is now investigating Clear Channel.
  2. How this ex-employee had email contact with CEO Bob Pittman and another Clear Channel executive only one day before the alleged hack attack.
  3. Revealed:  the name of the person’s computer at Clear Channel an outside security company reportedly said may have been the source of the hack.  
  4. What a second security company – one that works for the government in China – said about the company’s alleged intentions.
  5. Most importantly!  How The Evil Empire got caught and what this ex-employee is now doing to protect against further breaches of personal privacy.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,604 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Sources in my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.  You can also call me directly at (480) 998-9898.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

HELP ONE OF OUR RADIO BRETHREN SAVE HIS SON’S LIFE

Mike Knarr, former Colorado Springs Market Manager and now station owner, is still working day and night to find a bone marrow match for his young son Aden to save his life.  Aden has been in and out of intensive care since January.  Mike needs our help.  A two-minute test without leaving home can be sent to you – swab your mouth, no poking, no blood to see if perhaps you are the person Aden has been praying for.  Contact Mike if you’re willing to take this simple test.  Mike’s email is mike@socoradio.com.

Start A Video Revenue Stream At the Philly Conference

Imagine this.

$3 million a year from a 5-minute weekly video.

Hardly any production costs – pennies.

No staff needed to sell ads because this model doesn’t sell ads.

Not even banner ads.

And no paid subscriptions, either.

I’ve discovered a bright entrepreneur who is doing just this by unlocking a source of revenue the rest of us have overlooked.

So when we get together face-to-face March 26th, I am going to play the short video, reveal the business plan and ask you this question:

“Forget $3 million a year, would you like to make $100,000 without having to give away on-air spots to support digital?”

You know the routine.

Radio stations do Facebook and Twitter-type things and call them digital.

They steal – I mean, aggregate someone else’s content and collect “clicks” and “likes”.

They stream their on-air programming but can’t make any money from it.

Then they have their radio sellers take it to media buyers and clients as an add-on to radio and often wind up leaving money on the table instead.

Those days are gone for you.

I like this model so much I’m going to do it.  So I’ve investigated it carefully and I’m going to tell all.

Radio needs to stop adding on meaningless digital projects that don’t make any real money and concentrate on doing radio that appeals to short attention audiences while simultaneously starting separate new revenue streams like this that can more than makeup for any shortfalls in revenue.

In other words, it’s an insurance policy on your business.

And if you don’t do it, someone else will.

I just think there are enough typical radio conventions, meetings and shows out there to regurgitate the same old ideas.

This conference (our fifth annual) is recognized in the industry for being especially relevant because it focuses on the two most important issues our industry faces:

  • How to do great radio when competitors are cheapening the brand
  • Unlocking better digital solutions that create an additional revenue stream

And I can promise you our game plan is specific.

Here are the 7 critical areas we must master this year to remain viable in a changing industry along with the bonus action plans you will receive:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station’s social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Plus, there’s More FM, Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee who has long said that his one FM station dominates his market even in recessions because he has a proven system to make advertising work better for clients.  Now, in a rare public appearance, Jerry Lee will tell you how to do it in your markets.

That’s right, Lee believes this is good for the industry and you’ll hear how he outperforms the economy by making advertisers happy enough to spend more – from this mouth.

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to get the best room rate.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

Cumulus Forced Scott Shannon Out

How’s this for Scott Shannon getting hosed?

The happy talk radio trade press reported the Friday “breaking news” that Scott Shannon announced his “retirement” from WPLJ, New York.

Retired, my butt!

He was forced out and it was ugly.

“Other Brother” John Dickey used hardball tactics that Cumulus employees will be seeing more of in the future.  If you’re interested in how he plans to neuter you, it’s all here.

When delivering the lion’s share of income for a radio station is not enough to keep you employed, what is?

You’re not going to like the answer.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. The dirty details of contract negotiations that went so wrong and led to Shannon’s “retirement”.
  2. How Cumulus tried to whack his salary – take it or leave it.
  3. Allegations that Shannon may have also been knifed in the back on the way out the door by someone close.
  4. Which New York radio station that secretly made a run at Shannon.
  5. The New Cumulus Negotiating M.O. Revealed – 3 brutal tactics that will be rolled out to other markets.  And their new salary sweet spot is.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,602 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

CALL FOR HELP!

One of our brethren needs our help right now.  Mike Knarr, a former Cumulus and Citadel market manager and current station owner has a seriously ill child.

His son Aden has been in and out of critical condition at Children’s Hospital in Denver since early January and is in need of a bone marrow transplant.  The family isn’t a match nor have they been able to find one worldwide but there is someone out there who is. 

If you’re a parent like me, you cannot imagine the prospect of not finding a match in time.  The test is a two-minute mouth swab, which can be set up fast without you leaving home, no blood, no poking.  You could save a life.

Contact Mike if you will take the simple test to see if you are the match that can save his son.  Mike’s email is mike@socoradio.com.

Radio people are great.  Thank you very much!

March 26th Philly Conference Bonus

Everyone who attends this year’s Media Solution Conference in Philly March 26th will get an extra, tangible benefit that they will really like.

For each of the 7 critical areas of focus that are most important to radio (listed below), you will receive specific action steps to take back home with you.

This year can be a great one for you if you plan to work in radio and digital media.

So much is changing almost by the month and there are many additional skills sets to acquire to be at your best.

Thanks to those of you who have already reserved a seat at this event.  I can’t wait to work with you in person.

This conference is especially relevant because it focuses on the two most important issues our industry faces:

  • How to do great radio when competitors are cheapening the brand
  • Unlocking better digital solutions that create an additional revenue stream

Here are the 7 critical areas we must master this year to remain viable in a changing industry along with the bonus action plans you will receive:

  1. Specific ways to disrupt radio and put an end to digital competitors interrupting your station’s revenue stream.
  2. Methods to master digital as a second stream of revenue alongside broadcasting.  Things like replacing your website with something better, eliminating podcasts for a product that will actually attract big money advertisers and a cost-effective, easy way to put your brand on every smartphone in your market without having to stream your station.  Just to mention three.
  3. The nuts and bolts of starting your own station social media network independent from Facebook, Twitter or some other flash in the pan alternative.  From there, how to grow your fan base.
  4. A well-defined strategy to change the sound and on-air approach of your radio station at one coordinated time.  You won’t want this to get in the hands of a competitor, for sure.
  5. What you need to know about starting your own radio station video business – one that will be unlike anything you’ve ever seen, will not need salespeople to unlock the revenue potential and that will more than make up for any on-air advertising shortfalls you may run into this year.  I’ll show video examples and reveal the winning game plans.
  6. From my work as a USC professor in the area of generational media:  the critical Millennial checklist.  This is what I use as my new business bible. You’ll get it.  Four things that the next generation of listeners must have in order to listen to radio in the digital age.  What they want from you.  On-air content you are not giving them that they would love.  A never before aired “contest” that would enthrall them. 
  7. Exactly how you can time shift radio and how not to.  Time shifting is the new broadcasting in an increasingly on-demand world.  Failure to embrace time shifting could prematurely make your stations extinct.  But you will have innovative key strategies to get started with.

Plus, there’s More FM, Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee who has long said that his one FM station dominates his market even in recessions because he has a proven system to make advertising work better for clients.   Now, in a rare public appearance, Jerry Lee will tell you how to do it in your markets.

That’s right, Lee believes this is good for the industry and you’ll hear how he outperforms the economy by making advertisers happy enough to spend more – from this mouth.

Sean Hannity will join us live not to talk politics but the opportunities ahead for radio with Millennial listeners.  He is doing some impressive work in this area you probably don’t know about. 

Michael Harrison is the most quoted radio person by the consumer press because he sees future trends before most.  Let’s ask him about the future of radio, digital, talk, news and music. 

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in Philly March 26th.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, mention you’ve registered for the “Media Solutions Conference” to get the best room rate.

Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Starting time: 8am.  Ends 4pm.

New Layoff Alert At Clear Channel

Market and sales mangers were called to meet with the Great Wise One in Miami this week to find a way to increase revenue.

The situation has deteriorated so much in the last few weeks that The Evil Empire went through the expense of flying all these people in.

And what did Bob Pittman do?

He personally showed them that he could out sell them.

The gloves are coming off.  Now it’s going to get uglier.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Why the next round of “necessary” layoffs will come from local not corporate.
  2. Heads up:  when the next layoffs start.
  3. How Pittman cut his managers’ private parts off by announcing a new initiative that spreads ad money to starving local stations for pennies on the dollar. 
  4. The conflict deep within Clear Channel that pits revenue managers against financial people – the one that got John Hogan’s ass fired and promises to cause more disruption.
  5. Why Clear Channel managers have seen the future by stealing this odious revenue tactic from CBS.
  6. How about a straight answer!  Are employees at least safe if they make it past March?

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,600 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Sources in my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

14 Steal-Worthy Radio Strategies

Ask anyone under 30 and they’ll tell you that radio is not very important to them.

How did we go from starting our listeners’ days and constantly following them around in the car to not very important?

I get that there are many digital competitors and that technology has changed but traditional media companies like radio have been too timid about taking back their listeners and advertisers.

We don’t do well when we try to be digital.

We’d be better to be ourselves and aggressively pursue a strategy of building stations for future audiences.

And simultaneously start additional and separate revenue streams for digital separate and apart from what goes out over the air.

Mobile content will soon eclipse radio advertising.  Radio is at $32.5 billion now and mobile will do $18 billion this year and a commanding $41.9 billion in 2017.

The biggest most powerful radio groups can’t figure out how to make radio a growth industry again.

My March 26th Philly conference is especially relevant because it focuses on the two most important issues our industry faces:

  • How to do great radio when competitors are cheapening the medium.
  • Unlocking better digital solutions that create additional revenue streams.

Here are some of the things you will learn at this one-day teaching event.

  1. How to disrupt your radio station before a digital competitor does it.  They are already disrupting spot ad rates and stealing local radio buys.
  2. What mistake not to make when extending your radio content and brand to digital.
  3. Drill down to the one digital initiative that is worth your time and money because it has a big financial reward.
  4. How to start your own social media network for pennies that will attract more audience and impress advertisers more than anything you are now doing with Facebook, Twitter, apps or even your own website.
  5. How to make targeted, key programming changes in a world obsessed with on-demand content.
  6. How to start your own radio station video business for next to nothing and reap big money within 12-18 months.  I’ll show you someone who is doing just that right now.
  7. How to attract young money demo listeners by following these four must-have things Millennials want from radio.
  8. The best way to time-shift radio in an era when listeners want what they want when they want it.
  9. The morning show of the future that doesn’t have any of the usual elements of current shows and why you want to be first to market with this prototype.
  10. Why you shouldn’t count on the digital dashboard to save critical out of home listening for radio.  Teen driver license applications are down dramatically in Florida suggesting a better strategic alternative.
  11. How to grow ad revenue with the same or fewer number of advertisers than you now have using this unique and tested formula.
  12. The one contest that has never been done on radio and that can instantly attract Millennials to not just listen but be glued to your stations.  Better yet, how to get an advertiser to gladly pay for it.
  13. For music stations – how to slay Pandora, expose your radio competitors weaknesses and rethink playlists and music rotation in a youth-friendly way.
  14. For talk stations – what is going to be the functional replacement for today’s talk radio.

I have several guest instructors who will join me.

More FM, Philadelphia owner Jerry Lee; Sean Hannity live in Philly and radio expert Michael Harrison.

The format is casual and interactive.  We will learn from each other and leave motivated to take advantage of the many opportunities ahead.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can hardly wait to be with you for the entire day.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, you will want to inquire about availability. Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included.  Conference starts at 8am with breakfast and ends at 4 pm. 

Jobs Vanishing At Exitcom

Entercom is coming to save your salary.

The company that is derisively called Exitcom by employees is previewing what’s ahead in a company that expects to miss revenue projections all year.

Painful cuts are coming.

I wish I could just leave it at that.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. Why ex-employees are saying Entercom is “firing until the morale improves”.
  2. The slight of hand trick used to make it seem to the public that they are hiring instead of firing.
  3. Where the next cutbacks will be.
  4. What’s the last thing a company failing miserably in sales revenue should do?  Entercom is doing it and will do more of it in the months ahead.
  5. My list of endangered radio companies – if you work for this companies, start looking elsewhere.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,598 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Sources in my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award available for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

See what is in the pipeline for radio at my Philly Conference here.

March 26th Philly Conference

My upcoming fifth annual Media Solutions seminar is March 26th.

I want to thank all those who have already registered and those of you who are also sending groups of attendees. 

This year can be a great one for you if you plan to work in radio and digital media.

So much is changing almost by the month and there are many additional skills sets to acquire to be at your best.

This conference is especially relevant because it focuses on the two most important issues our industry faces:

  • How to do great radio when competitors are cheapening the brand
  • Unlocking better digital solutions that create an additional revenue stream

That’s why I’ve created 7 modules of curriculum for the one-day teaching event.

  1. Disrupting radio before a digital competitor does (they’re already stealing local radio buys and are the largest ad growth sector).
  2. Master digital.  It’s not brain surgery but believe it or not, no one in radio is doing digital the right way.
  3. Becoming accomplished at social media.  Let Facebook and Twitter go, that’s not social media now.
  4. Reinvent radio.  On-demand is in; broadcasting is fighting the new trend, where does that leave radio?  Strategies, ideas and inspirations.
  5. Launch short-form video.  Just because you’re in the audio business doesn’t mean you can’t be an expert at profitable short-form video.  I will reveal how some are earning millions from a 5-minute weekly video.
  6. Attract Millennials.  No getting around this fact – without 95 million Millennials, the oldest of whom are already 30 and well into the money demo, radio is just spinning its wheels.  I’ve devoted the last ten years to generational media.  You’ll know what I know.
  7. Adapt to time-shifting radio.  Miss this opportunity and radio is mired in the past.  How to time-shift on-air programming (there are new rules to this game) as well as digital.

I’m making lots of time for questions, answers and plenty of interaction.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships

If you’d like to stay on-site at The Rittenhouse Hotel at special conference rates, inquire about availability ASAP.  Breakfast, lunch and all breaks included. Conference starts at 8am with breakfast and ends at 4 pm.

What Got John Hogan Fired

A year ago they gave Hogan a big raise and a $25,000 monthly stipend to move from San Antonio to New York.

Now he gets fired.

It’s time for the rest of the story.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. What was the final straw that lead to the falling out between CEO Bob Pittman and Hogan. 
  2. Did you know that Hogan fired his replacement Tom Schurr 3 times in his career – and he turned out to be the last man standing? Here’s why.
  3. The next rising star of Clear Channel – this empty suit’s career is now on the ascent.  Why he even poses a potential threat to Tom Schurr.  If you work for him, take note.
  4. The sketchy sales practices that started creeping into Clear Channel ahead of Hogan’s demise that may have sealed the deal.
  5. And what everyone wants to know!  How long will Tom Schurr last.  Here’s the time frame.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,595 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Sources in my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article.  If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

7 weeks until my Philly Conference.  See if agenda and reserve a seat-- 2014 Media Solutions Conference

Competing Against National Programming

I’ve always wondered why locally focused companies don’t have a much better strategy for competing against consolidators who fire their local talent to save money and use syndicated programming instead.

I’m working on this module now as I prepare for our March 26th Philly conference.

But I want to run some ideas past you here with the promise that we build a great game plan together.

Here’s the best information available on competing against a national syndication:

  • Immediately hire the best personality your competitor lets go.  But don’t put him or her on the air.  There is an even better way to use this asset once their non-compete is up.  And, it won’t cost you an additional dime.
  • Record your listeners saying why they prefer your station and put them on the air.  Resist the temptation to feed them what you want them to say.  This must be authentic and short.  It’s not what you want them to say, it’s what they want to say – warts and all.  So if they say you suck less, put it on the air.  If they say, you stayed on during the snowstorm (as Summit’s stations did in Birmingham), let them say it and run with it.  If you phony it up to sound better, it is not authentic.  You will lose.  Takes some guts.
  • Do this strategically potent contest on the air.  As I’ll share with you, the expenses for this will come from sponsors not your station and the contest is so powerful it will even make a Millennial who doesn’t regularly listen to radio listen to you.  Your national competitor will find themselves hamstrung.
  • Make your commercials sound better and work more effectively (we’ll have an entire segment on this at the event).  Even one less lousy commercial, makes your station different and better.  And the way I am going to suggest is cost effective.
  • Cut your commercial loads.  This is the radio killer.  If stations continue to ignore this listener irritant, even your best programming will not find its greatest audience.  There is a way to do this.
  • Reimagine your morning show to take these three elements out and add these powerful replacements in.  For example:  cheap gas instead of traffic reports.  Everyone has traffic on their phones.  We don’t need empty reports that say “no problems with mass transit”.  Tell listeners where they can get the cheapest gas but don’t just use a laundry list, power it up and present it this way.  Remind me to relate two other replacements for worn out radio morning show components.
  • Key strategic positioner.  You never say “local” on air.  You always say “live and local”. 
  • Eliminate starting and ending times on your key programs.  You are live and local so make the various shows end at different times.  And not just mornings, either.  We are no longer a top of the hour world.  Howard Stern did this decades ago.  If you’re onto something hot, keep it going.  Your canned competitor can’t touch this.  And it accentuates the fact that you are live and local and brand x is canned.

I’m just getting warmed up.

There are also mighty selling strategies that can hurt a competitor that does syndicated programming.   Ask and I will give them to you.

Find a way to get your buns in Philly.  I’ll feed your stomach and give your mind lots of food for thought in these 7 critical areas of radio:

  1. Disrupting radio before a digital competitor does (they’re already stealing local radio buys and are the largest ad growth sector).
  2. Master digital.  It’s not brain surgery but believe it or not, no one in radio is doing digital the right way.  In fact, they are wasting time and money.  Redirect it.
  3. Becoming accomplished at social media.  Let Facebook and Twitter go, that’s not social media now. 
  4. Reinvent radio.  On-demand is in, broadcasting is fighting the new trend, where does that leave radio?  Strategies, ideas and inspirations.
  5. Launch short-form video.  Just because you’re in the audio business doesn’t mean you can’t be an expert at profitable short-form video.  I will share how some are earning millions from a 5-minute weekly video.
  6. Attract Millennials.  No getting around this fact – without almost 95 million Millennials, the oldest of whom are already 30 and well into the money demo, radio is just spinning its wheels.  I’ve devoted the last ten years to generational media.  You’ll know what I know.
  7. Adapt to time-shifting radio.  Miss this opportunity and radio is mired in the past.  How to time-shift on-air programming (there are new rules to this game) as well as digital.

I’m making lots of time for questions, answers and plenty of interaction.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships   

Complimentary breakfast/check-in starts at 8 am. 

Conference begins at 9 am at the beautiful Rittenhouse Hotel and ends at 4pm for planning your return flight or departure. 

Breakfast, buffet lunch and all breaks included.  

Conference ends at 4 pm.   

CBS Acting More Like Clear Channel

In Sunday’s Super Bowl game, could you imagine coach Pete Carroll eliminating Richard Sherman and go without the team’s top cornerback.

Field just 10 players instead of the permitted 11 to save having to pay Sherman his salary.

Sounds foolish, doesn’t it?

CBS’ dirty little secret is out – that’s exactly what they are now doing.

As you’re about to see, cheap tricks and cruel cutbacks that had been previously off limits at CBS Radio are game on today.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. From big name personality one day to weekend part-timer the next.  The big market it happened in last week.  Thank you for your service, but you no longer exist.
  2. Why CBS is heading to “morning” shows instead of morning shows with actual personalities worth promoting.  I’ve got a link for you that shows you the future.
  3. Why you should beware of “interim” morning show hosts on CBS.  Remember that term – “interim”.
  4. 8 clear signs that CBS has changed for the worst and where it is headed.
  5. More Clear Channel-type commission cuts just last week – what’s that all about?  Didn’t they just cut commissions last year?
  6. Bad News!  CBS is now using digital to undercut its own rates to compete with cheaper buys.  Up to 50% in some markets. 
  7. Why CBS employees are getting the creeps knowing that CBS doesn’t have any debt and doesn’t have to act like Clear Channel or Cumulus to cut costs like this.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,594 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Thanks to sources who have entered my Witness Protection Program that contributed to this article. If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.   As always, I’ve got your back.

Or, talk to me privately here.

Staying on-site for my March 26th Philly conference, rooms are scarce.  Reserve a seat-- 2014 Media Solutions Conference

Super Bowl Commercials

The only thing I liked about the Super Bowl was that it was played just miles from my birthplace – Hoboken, NJ.

I appreciate Pete Carroll because he was coaching USC football when I was a professor there.  Great guy.  Great motivator.

But I’m envious.

I kept getting this feeling that once – just once – I’d like to see the Philadelphia Eagles in a Super Bowl game where they are leading all the way through so I can text, email and shout about the victory that is coming for four quarters as Seahawks fans could.

With the Eagles – if they made it to the finals – they would have to have a come from behind victory to emerge the winners.  That’s tough on long-suffering fans thus my envy of Sunday’s game.

So that leaves us with the entertainment.

I noticed how the NFL announcer at half time sounded like he was cupping his ear and puking into the microphone.  I’m sure young audiences could not relate if the NFL even cares about young audiences to that extent.

That the Super Bowl is the only big real-time media event left thanks to Netflix, YouTube and our digital way of living.

And that they all look and sound the same as the previous ones and that is going to catch up with the NFL sooner rather than later.

Bruno Mars was an outstanding entertainer and he didn’t really need Red Hot Chili Peppers to bolster the show.  For some reason, people thought Mars was going to suck.  He didn’t.

And then, there are the commercials.

For the most part, they did suck.

It’s like they were done to attract attention to the agencies and creative people who put them together with little focus on being effective for the advertiser.

Sounds like radio, doesn’t it?

My wife was sharing some commercials she saw that I missed but she couldn’t always put the sponsor together with the spot – a problem most in the audience seem to have.

And in a week from now, the ad money will have been wasted and a rare opportunity to get to everyone missed.

Generationally, the Budweiser dog and pony commercial was rated number one by viewers polled because it had animals in it and made people feel good.

The Tim Tebow T-Mobile spot that poked fun at himself fit the now maverick brand of T-Mobile and resonated as one of the best in polls because it was authentic – a big prerequisite of Millennials coming of age. 

The 80’s throwback of the Radio Shack commercial made the top ten because of nostalgia and after all, Radio Shack is just history now.   Their name says it all.

Danica Patrick’s body must have lost that lovin’ feelin’ because even it could not get the once popular Go Daddy spot out of the bottom feeders.

What all of this suggests is that for media experts, we had all better go back to the drawing board and figure out what resonates with our target audience instead of what resonates with us.

What actually sells products or services?

Didn’t anyone test these spots for $4 million they paid for each? 

And who are we to judge – as The Pope would say.

Radio spots are awful.

We junk up unlistenable, long stop sets each hour almost as if we hate our advertisers and our listeners.

Time for some answers.

And we’ll have to become more expert at understanding the 95 million Millennials who are willing their way on the media industry.

This is our mission at my March 26th Philly conference in less than two months. 

There are 7 critical areas deserving of our attention and discussion:

  1. The most effective way to disrupt radio and not lose audience or advertisers.  On the contrary, gain more money demos and more revenue. 
  2. How to stop wasting money and people power on digital initiatives that don’t really increase your revenue.  If there is only one digital project to undertake, this is the project that has money written all over it.  I will share.
  3. How to create a social media network to replace Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever whim is next in social media.  The social network you are going to create can never be taken away from you and this one makes money in the first year.
  4. The 15-to-25 things that can transform an antiquated approach to radio to one that even the next generation can embrace.  Let’s not fool around, here are the handful of things that work in today’s market.
  5. Go to school on a media entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year doing a 5-minute weekly video that has no commercials, no product placement, no banner ads on the site and doesn’t charge subscription fees.  I’ll show you video and tell you all about the plan.
  6. What if someone actually could breakdown the 4 to 6 things that Millennials want in their lives – in fact, that define their preferences for media.  You’re going to get a checklist of things that you can use to make sure everything you do from now on attracts Millennials. 
  7. How to time shift radio and develop strategies to make radio more like Netflix, the popular aggregator of content that all generations love.  I’m here to tell you, radio can play by the same rules.  There is a Netflix model for radio.  Understand it and run with it.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships   

Complimentary breakfast/check-in starts at 8 am. 

Conference begins at 9 am at the beautiful Rittenhouse Hotel and ends at 4pm for planning your return flight or departure. 

Breakfast, buffet lunch and all breaks included.  

Conference ends at 4 pm.   

Clear Channel Employee Crackdown

Okay.

Those cheap bastards at Clear Channel will let Bob Pittman and his warlords travel private and live high off the hog while clamping down on legitimate employee expenses.

I’ve seen the outrageous memo from Richard Simon Legree Bressler and it’s a new low even for them.

If you’ve been thinking about subscribing and would like to access this story, let me tell you what you will get.

  1. What Clear Channel executives say is not being said in the just-released 33-page revision of travel and entertainment that’s even worse than what’s in it.
  2. What is likely to happen the first time these rules are obediently followed by Clear Channel employees.  The very first time!  You’ve been warned.
  3. What employees now get to spend on meals when visiting New York City and how they determined even lesser amounts for other cities.  Lunch in Fargo?  They have a new pull-down calculator for that.
  4. Why employees at Entercom, Cumulus and even CBS should be worried about Clear Channel’s new harsh T&E rules.
  5. Oh no!  What happens if corporate rejects a Clear Channel executive for a company credit card. 
  6. From the memo:  their idea of airport parking, refilling a rental car fuel tank, how they won’t accept your credit card statement as proof of reimbursement and the laughable section on baggage fees.

Access this story now and try a monthly subscription here.

Become an annual member and also access 2,592 previous stories, here.  Search Stories.

Thanks to the Clear Channel Sources in my Witness Protection Program contributed to this article. If you are aware of news, memos or emails from any company that needs to be aired out, report information in confidence and anonymously here.  There is a $100 award for best tip of the month.

Or, talk to me privately here.

The Philly conference in just 7 weeks.  Reserve a seat-- 2014 Media Solutions Conference

Jay Leno’s Last Day

Thursday.

Jay Leno goes into forced retirement.

Comcast is yanking him from The Tonight Show after 20 years in favor of the younger Jimmy Fallon.

To the end, Leno won the money demographic that advertisers covet even though he is full of gray hair and over 60.

Comcast, owner of NBC Universal, not only thinks the time is right to get rid of the old man but they are paying him an additional – that’s right additional -- $15 million to step down now instead of September.

Comcast obviously wants Leno out.

And that begs the question all media people struggle with – when do you go younger to attract younger audiences?

Or, do you even turn to a younger performer to attract younger audiences.

Music is a young artists business – I used to tell my music industry students at USC that when they turn 28, they’re officially old when it comes to the new generation of musicians.  And the labels always want the next big – young – thing.

Radio doesn’t seem to care about any personalities or djs because they just want cheap – the next cheaper thing.

But stations that care about audiences if they are to be honest will admit to wondering where the sweet spot is.

It’s worthy of a conversation.

Once Leno cashes his additional $15 million check, he is a free agent for Fox or anyone else that thinks his unique monologue will continue to please the money demo and the advertisers who covet it.

When we meet in Philly March 26th, I am going to share with you some new research on the four must-have qualities that 95 million Millennials are looking for from media.

Once armed with this list, we can look at talent in a new way.

Age, by the way, didn’t even make the Millennial list so Comcast obviously thinks they know something that Millennials aren’t admitting to.

But you will know and we’ll discuss because there is nothing worse than doing programming well that doesn’t need to be done at all.

Here’s the lineup for our day together. 

Hope you can make it. 

  1. The most effective way to disrupt radio and not lose audience or advertisers.  On the contrary, gain more money demos and more revenue. 
  2. How to stop wasting money and people power on digital initiatives that don’t really increase your revenue.  If there is only one digital project to undertake, this is the project that has money written all over it.  I will share.
  3. How to create a social media network to replace Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat or whatever whim is next in social media.  The social network you are going to create can never be taken away from you and this one makes money in the first year.
  4. The 15-to-25 things that can transform an antiquated approach to radio to one that even the next generation can embrace.  Let’s not fool around, here are the handful of things that work in today’s market.
  5. Go to school on a media entrepreneur who makes $3 million a year doing a 5-minute weekly video that has no commercials, no product placement, no banner ads on the site and doesn’t charge subscription fees.  I’ll show you video and tell you all about the plan.
  6. What if someone actually could breakdown the 4 to 6 things that Millennials want in their lives – in fact, that define their preferences for media.  You’re going to get a checklist of things that you can use to make sure everything you do from now on attracts Millennials. 
  7. How to time shift radio and develop strategies to make radio more like Netflix, the popular aggregator of content that all generations love.  I’m here to tell you, radio can play by the same rules.  There is a Netflix model for radio.  Understand it and run with it.

This event will not be available by stream or video – only live and in person. 

I can’t wait to share my enthusiasm and knowledge with you in person.

Reserve a seat

Inquire about group rates

Inquire about sponsorships   

Complimentary breakfast/check-in starts at 8 am. 

Session begins at 9 am at the beautiful Rittenhouse Hotel and ends at 4pm for planning your return flight or departure. 

Buffet lunch and all breaks included.  

Conference ends at 4 pm.