Monthly Archives: April 2021

Friday, April 30, 2021

Disney+ Shows Radio How to Fix Itself

The way Pittman, Berner and Field talk about the radio business (or audio as they call it) you’d think that there was something inherently wrong with the broadcasting

Turns out that there is something very right that stations who work for them will not be able to get to, but everyone else can.

Radio is the original content and distribution platform. 

The meteoric growth of Disney+ streaming video service which is fast catching up to Netflix is one of the few other examples of one medium that has both the content and distribution advantage.

Netflix doesn’t, they have to spend $17 billion a year on original programming.  Spotify is the world’s most successful streaming audio platform of other people’s work.  There are many examples like this but few like radio or now Disney+ with their catalog of owned programming.

Which is why radio should stop listening to the “three blind mice” CEOs and start taking advantage of not only what they are but what they create – just like Disney+.

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Thursday, April 29, 2021

Radio’s Gift from Apple

Digital advertisers like Facebook, Google and others have been killing the radio industry with their targeted, cheap ads. 

Just yesterday Facebook blew out their first quarter predictions with a 48% rise in revenue and (hum-hum) higher priced ads – and no talk about podcasting on their conference calls the radio CEOs are forced to do these days.

They’ve driven radio rates down, drained radio budgets by redeploying what had been targeted radio ad money redirected to digital alternatives.

They’ve made a mockery of broadcasting which admittedly has a lousy audience measurement system while they have hard data mined by invading the privacy of consumers and surreptitiously tracking their data usage.

Until now.

Apple has handed the radio business a big fat weapon to fight ad erosion at the hand of digital and I’ll bet you few know about how to deploy it and even fewer are going to do it – except you.

Actionable ideas for selling radio against Apple’s new “opt out” for digital ad tracking including a forensic tool you can use against digital ad tracking (the link to that tool is  enclosed).

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Thursday, April 22, 2021

Cumulus to Crack Down on Air Talent

The inconvenient truth is that this is a bad time for a company that could be returning to bankruptcy court to so blatantly look and sound racist – but somehow Cumulus is doing it.

  • Bankruptcy seems more important than freedom of speech when previously Cumulus tolerated and perhaps by their unwillingness to take action passively promoted racism.
  • The company seems devoid of any operational standards that are easy for program directors and air talent to follow resulting in firings and then outrage from corporate about how they will not tolerate offensive things said on the air.
  • Cumulus among most other radio groups is run by powerful people with white privilege who appear to be tone deaf to programming that offends audiences of color leaving their talent confused.

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Wednesday, April 21, 2021

A Warning About the New Talk Radio

Rush Limbaugh’s death certificate lists his occupation as “the greatest radio host of all time” but it could more accurately read “the last radio host of all time”.

No one can replace Rush Limbaugh not just because he has died but because owners have been relying on him for decades to keep their AM stations alive appealing to older listeners – now changes are coming.

  • Erosion of Limbaugh’s audience has rubbed off on other stations not just Rush affiliates and group owner’s are just guessing at what to do next.
  • Listeners are being siphoned off by the oddest programs – an unexpected and dangerous consequence to the talk format and AM radio.

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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Audacy May Be Planning Another Stealth Surprise

Audacy brain trust is rumored to be working on a major stealth move that could start generating positive radio revenue even as they pivot to podcasting and digital.

  • It has to do with programming where decisions made by a very tight group of people around David Field have plans to disrupt one of the biggest sources of revenue – for their competitors!
  • A major market is abuzz with conjecture about a potential stealth surprise that they think could happen in the next few months.

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Monday, April 19, 2021

The Dave Ramsey Mess

Radio’s last great syndication hope is under attack for alleged discrimination and “cult” workplace practices.

What are Dave Ramsey’s chances of survival and what’s at stake for radio stations that already lost their top syndicator, Rush Limbaugh, with a bare cupboard of backups.

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