Tim Davis will want to take some credit for the discovery of singer Leslie Feist, known just by her last name. But the reality is that until she showed up in that iPod Nano ad, singing "1234," nobody knew who she was. Since that spot started airing nationally, Feist and "1234" are bona fide hits. And once again, radio has had little – if anything – to do with it. And as the incessant Danny Buch emails keep telling us, Old Navy ads are making a star of Ingrid...
Much has already been written about these new satellite radio ratings numbers released by Arbitron from the Spring ’07 survey. Some are questioning the accuracy of the data, suggesting that listening levels are understated, given the challenging task of recording channel numbers from XM and/or Sirius stations, and other methodological aspects. I will leave this discussion to the ratings research mavens to haggle over, but the thrust of these numbers and their implications are obvious. As we have been pointing out over the past couple of years, satellite radio...
As this amazing baseball season ends, two unlikely teams did battle in the World Series – the come-out-of-nowhere Colorado Rockies and the comeback kids themselves, Boston Red Sox. Redsox Nation was convinced, of course, that their team should have been in the Series by virtue of fate. But the Rockies story was truly remarkable. But did it all go to the Rockies’ head? They tried to cash in on all this serendipity by trying to "own" the copyright on "Rocktober" – which is what they named their amazing phenomenon. ...
As this amazing baseball season ends, two unlikely teams did battle in the World Series – the come-out-of-nowhere Colorado Rockies and the comeback kids themselves, Boston Red Sox. Redsox Nation was convinced, of course, that their team should have been in the Series by virtue of fate. But the Rockies story was truly remarkable. But did it all go to the Rockies’ head? They tried to cash in on all this serendipity by trying to "own" the copyright on "Rocktober" – which is what they named their amazing phenomenon. ...
Jacobs Media’s Ralph Cipolla talks about the potential writers strike & CVC: A work stoppage looms, one that will impact nearly everyone in the mainstream of contemporary American society. No, it’s not the UAW – they’ve struck a deal with GM, and are now well into finalizing discussions with Chrysler. I’m referring to the Screenwriters Guild; the brethren of New York and Hollywood-based men and women who pen the scripts for TV and film. These are the people behind the one-liners used by Jon Stewart and Jay Leno, the...
The drama surrounding the Joe Torre situation last week finally came to a head. The Yankees – proving once again that legendary achievements don’t necessarily translate into class – gave Torre a substandard offer (a reduction in pay, no less), and the manager did the right thing, and walked. This ends an incredible era in Yankees history – and that’s saying a lot given the team’s accomplishments. You can look up the Torre record of World Series appearances and victories, not to mention that he had the Yankees in...
At Lincoln Financial Media’s FM 94/9 in San Diego, they proudly say, "It’s about the music." But when over 300,000 people have been evacuated and everyone else in the county is "on standby," it’s about vital information. So when the local public radio station that has a big reputation for news coverage had their transmitter go up in flames, FM 94/9 Program Director Garett Michaels and VP/General Manager Darrel Goodin acted quickly to air KPBS’ continuous coverage. As DJ Tommy Hough explained before throwing the switch on Tuesday morning...
At Lincoln Financial Media’s FM 94/9 in San Diego, they proudly say, "It’s about the music." But when over 300,000 people have been evacuated and everyone else in the county is "on standby," it’s about vital information. So when the local public radio station that has a big reputation for news coverage had their transmitter go up in flames, FM 94/9 Program Director Garett Michaels and VP/General Manager Darrel Goodin acted quickly to air KPBS’ continuous coverage. As DJ Tommy Hough explained before throwing the switch on Tuesday morning...
In yesterday’s blog, we previewed a new TiVo/Rhapsody service that puts 4,000,000+ songs in the hands of the consumer. As we saw in the Arbitron/Jacobs Media "Bedroom Project," CVC – or control-variety-choice - are major attributes that separate desirable media devices and technologies from the rest of the pack. The other innovation that is worth your attention is from – of all companies – Ford. You may have already seen ads for their new Sync service, where they’ve teamed up with Microsoft to bring the Internet (streaming radio and...
In "The Bedroom Project," we identified CVC – or control-variety-choice as major attributes that separate desirable media devices and technologies (iPods, for example) from those that lack many of these same qualities. Radio – as it exists for most consumers today – often fails the CVC test. And as we also saw in "Bedroom," music is rapidly becoming a commodity. Consumers have many different ways to control and arrange music. Thus, for younger people, in particular, listening to it on the radio has become tertiary to their overall entertainment...
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