Everybody loves AM radio, right? Everybody needs AM radio, right? Hmm. Maybe not. Imagine a world where a new auto model dispenses with AM radio, but even so experiences blockbuster consumer demand. Of course, I’m talking about Elon Musk’s forthcoming Tesla Model 3: Elon Musk, during a conference call hosted by Goldman Sachs a few days ago, articulated that annual demand for the Model 3 could eventually surpass 700,000 units. As a point of reference, the cumulative number of

From Radio Ink: While the radio industry grapples with what it should be doing about the connected car, there may be some comfort in knowing consumers are still a bit baffled by the connected car as well. Nielsen’s new AutoTECHCAST report shows that nearly one-third of consumers have never heard of these technology-enabled vehicles. “These consumers don’t know what connected cars do, and are not associating vehicle brands with infotainment badging.” Both the auto and radio in

It’s not about having a voice, it’s about being heard. This is the fundamental truth being lost on the tribe of progressive activists in Milwaukee who bemoan the lack of opinions from other-than-conservative voices on the local airwaves. As anyone familiar with the dynamics of radio (not to mention the history of progressive radio network Air America) knows, there is a strong symbiosis between the slant of political talk and the available audience for political talk. Both lea

The BBC will reportedly abolish its radio and television divisions. BBC-produced radio and TV will still exist, of course, but they will be reorganized to reflect changes in audience behavior and in media definitions that I and others have been articulating for years. From Tubefilter: [BBC] director-general, Lord Tony Hall, believes an organizational overhaul is necessary as digital media continues to blur the lines between television, radio and online. In a speech before Eas

Now I am as pro-technology as anyone you’ll find in the audio space, but the reason to be pro-technology is to be pro-consumer. Because any technology that doesn’t serve the interests and desires of consumers is a solution that, by definition, nobody wants. And the only thing worse than not being wanted is being UNwanted. So it is with the ridiculous decision of BMW and Tesla to dispense with AM radio in some of their recent EV vehicle lines. Not surprisingly, some consumers

In a November survey by Morgan Stanley (released this week and reported in Quartz), more than 2,000 American adults were asked what audio platforms they used. Their answers: Now this question is roughly analogous to what broadcasters would call “reach.” It does not really address frequency of usage or “time spent listening.” Radio tops the list with 86% of respondents saying it’s part of their usage routine. That’s by far the highest number (although not as high as Nielsen wa

On the surface there are a zillion differences between radio brands and Netflix. One is local, while the other is national, even international. One is free (for the most part) while the other is by subscription. One is audio and the other is video. And so on. But the similarities are more important than the differences, because like Netflix, yours is a media company competing for the attention of consumers in a marketplace facing blistering changes and blossoming alternatives

If there’s one book this year that best sums up what the radio industry has to do to compete in a world of infinite choice, it’s this one: Blockbusters: Hit-making, Risk-taking, and the Big Business of Entertainment I talked with Anita to test some of my own theories about radio’s future in the presence of her research. The result is a clear strategy and plan of action. Now the rest is up to you. Click here to listen to my interview: Download Audio Or here for the sharable So

In this short video, I spell out what AM should do to continue to thrive. Hint: The answer’s not going to come from our friends in Washington D.C. What does it mean to be in the “AM Radio Business” – and is that even the one you’re in? I think we’re asking ourselves the wrong questions and, as a result, getting the wrong answers. Prefer audio? Try this: Download Audio (You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else. You c

Last week one of the radio industry’s big headlines was the preliminary deal struck between Sprint and various players in radio to provide over-the-air FM on Sprint devices via the Emmis/HD Radio NextRadio platform.  I haven’t seen much thoughtful analysis on this yet, so here goes nothing. On the surface, this is good news.  After all, it means more ways for listeners to listen to the stations they love and more ways to interact with those stations. Looking deeper, however,

Radio Ink made a classic mistake last week when it celebrated the strength of AM radio by trumpeting the financial success of the top radio brands, many of which happen to be on AM. Why is this a mistake?  Because it confuses the band with the brand. AM radio is not what makes stations like WFAN so successful.  WFAN is what makes WFAN so successful. Indeed, the trajectory for AM radio in general is not pretty. We generally assume that AM, like FM, is universal simply because

Barry Leffler says you can. Barry is CEO of WCHL in Chapel Hill, NC, and Chapelboro.com, WCHL’s community-oriented site which is exploding in revenue and earning WCHL roughly twenty-times what a typical AM station might earn in digital as a percentage of total revenue. How does Barry do it? And how can you? Those are the questions we cover in this important conversation. Watch: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play th

Rumors are rumors, but patents are real. Whether the technology produced by these patents arrives in the forthcoming iPhone 5 or a later version is anybody’s guess, but it sure makes sense to me that we’ll see this sooner rather than later (although it’s also possible that we’ll never see this). Back in December, Apple quietly submitted a patent application that altered the radio experience for its users and introduced three new elements to the iPhone:  FM, AM, and Satellite