Inside Music MediaJerry Del Colliano

There’s something I want to share with you.

Over ten years ago I had the then just-retired CEO of American Airlines, Robert Crandall, speak to one of my media conferences.

Keep in mind, radio consolidation was very new and he was giving advice from the perspective of a hard nose CEO who came up with the Sabre system for booking airfares using thousands of changing prices in real time.

After his talk, he said to me, you (that’s me) should have many more prices for the ads you sell in Inside Radio, which I owned at that time.  I thought he was crazy.

But I’m the one who was crazy because I was just like our other brethren in radio – we do things a certain way and we’re not about to change.

Now look at the airline industry.

It has nothing to do with service (not a good thing).

Everything to do with nickel and diming its customers to death (good for them).

And profits they were never able to make before thanks to consolidation and bareknuckle tactics.

Ryanair in Europe talked about charging for bathroom use and while that idea was quickly dropped, don’t forget it because it might be back.

Airlines make their profit by selling things that were previously included in the ticket prices.

Now we’re paying for Internet and meals and blankets, seating position, legroom, but it worked.

I think an airline that does service and safety will kill these airlines but there are so many restrictions to getting in the game that it is unlikely. 

In radio, we need to realize the painful truth.

Radio will no longer be a growth business compared to digital.  In fact, we see it dramatically each year as digital grows and radio revenue barely treads water.

But that doesn’t mean we can’t increase our revenues without being a growth industry.

Jerry Lee, the owner of B-101 in Philadelphia, does this with ease.

His one station – a perennial market leader year after year in revenue – really doesn’t need digital because B101 is too busy helping their radio advertisers succeed. 

It’s not a promise but a well-thought-out strategy.

In other words, the guy who shut his top-rated radio station stream down because streams aren’t profitable has a patented way to make advertisers happy in ways that consolidators and their followers cannot do.

That’s why I have asked Jerry Lee to teach along side me at the 2014 Media Solutions Conference in Philadelphia March 26^th.

He will invigorate you to grow radio even in the digital explosion.

And I will be focusing on 7 strategic areas that should help radio stations rethink their opportunities in the digital world in which we live.

Two streams of revenue growth!

Great radio stations and operators devote one day each year to attend this inspirational learning seminar. 

My goal is to help you turn this inspiration into content and revenue when you return home.

That’s an immediate return on your investment.

Check it out.