Monthly Archives: March 2009

The Year Of The App

March 31, 2009
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The Year Of The App

That guy you see in the boarding area, frantically downloading another app on his iPhone, would have to be our Keith Cunningham.  Enjoy his guest blog: There’s a recession going on, but you’d never know it by looking at what’s going on in the mobile device world.  The iPhone app model has totally changed how people use and perceive these gadgets.  Technology research company, In-Stat, predicts that these devices will grow five-fold by 2013, reaching the 140 million mark.  And mobile ad aggregator, AdMob, estimates that the Apple Store...

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$40 Billion Dollars

March 30, 2009
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$40 Billion Dollars

Today's guest blog from our own Paul Jacobs mentions how radio should seize the opportunity to grab advertising dollars from the sinking newspaper industry. I knew today's blog post title might get your attention.  No, it's not a new TARP model for banks.  And it's not what GM hopes to get during the next round of loans. It's the ad revenue generated by the newspaper industry, according to Imran Khan, J.P. Morgan managing director and web analyst.  During a presentation last week, he noted that the newspaper industry "is a...

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Cry Me A River

March 27, 2009
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Cry Me A River

We all like to think that if or when disaster strikes a city or town, local radio will step up and do the right thing.  But oftentimes, stations are too busy or caught up in their own agendas to really recognize the need to "break format" and speak directly to their market. >Click here to read the story and see pictures Take a bow, Rock 102 in Fargo.  From the sandbags on your website to your on and off-air support of your community, you underscore the value and importance...

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Call Letter Change

March 27, 2009
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Call Letter Change

What do you do when your image sucks, and consumers associate you with all the wrong perceptions? Well, you can always change call letters. That's what AIG has done.  Can you imagine telling friends, family, or even new people that you meet that you work for AIG?  So, in order to repair its horrible rep, AIG has dumped their old sign outside the New York City entrance of their property-casualty offices, and replaced it with "AIU Holdings." Maybe calling it The Bear or Z93 would work better.  Or as...

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Crumblin’ Down

March 26, 2009
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Crumblin’ Down

I have heard from many broadcasters during the past week or so since we initiated our "Going for the Gold" campaign.  Not surprisingly, radio professionals pretty much line up on the same side of the fence on the performance tax issue – perhaps one of the few instances where this is the case.  If you didn't read promotional pro, Jim Cahill's wonderful piece about the record and radio relationship, I have it below. >Click Here To Read The Blog Post But today's blog comes right from the heart of the recording...

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(Throw) Back To The Future

March 25, 2009
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(Throw) Back To The Future

It is more than a little interesting that during the same week that Greater Media's Buzz Knight praised FMQB's U2 3 Nights event, one of his own stations was pulling off another historic moment of their own. I am obviously a shameless fan of Greater Media, especially in the current environment.  (Yes, I work for them in several markets, but there are reasons why.)  In the midst of radio industry downturns and cutbacks when it seems like we can't catch a break, it gives me hope when I watch the...

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2 Guys & A Dilemma

March 24, 2009
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2 Guys & A Dilemma

As the media industry continues to try to understand where it really stands, some very smart analysts are taking their shot at interpreting the present, and what it means for the future.  It is easy to blame our current media woes on the recession, but harder to develop an accurate vision for life after a recovery.  Will media rebound when the economy gets back on its feet?  Or is the recession just a smokescreen for a larger systemic problem that is facing all media? In radio, we have a...

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Reality Bites

March 23, 2009
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Reality Bites

With research budgets moving from sparse to virtually non-existent, radio stations are hard-pressed to keep in touch with audience tastes and trends.  As we've discussed in this blog, web polls are an outstanding way to track the tastes and attitudes of core listeners.  But whether it's a perceptual study or a web poll, the output is still statistical.  I'm here to tell you that there are things going on in your listeners' worlds that have nothing to do with data.  That's why I've always been a fan of Listener...

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It’s A Classic

March 20, 2009
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It’s A Classic

You may have missed the announcement, or perhaps you haven't looked too closely at the red can lately, but Coca-Cola has ceased using the word "classic" to brand their venerable beverage.  After 24 years, their recovery campaign after the New Coke debacle is apparently complete.  For Coke, it's been a textbook story of coming back from a marketing disaster.  For me, it was all about the validation of a format. Back in April 1985, I signed on my first FM Classic Rock client, WMMQ in Lansing (actually a Class A...

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What A Twit!

March 19, 2009
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What A Twit!

Hey, if anyone can say it, I can.  I am the older brother after all. But our Twitter experiment at the RAB using Paul as a guinea pig worked well.  It was a challenge for Paul to summarize the goings-on in 140 characters or less.  But it occurs to me that once you get beyond your Senator or Shaquille O'Neal or Dave Matthews, do you really care all that much about who's sending out tweets? Clearly, however, this application – coverage from a convention that more people shoulda coulda...

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