During this week of Thanksgiving (and in the spirit of giving thanks), I wanted to share with you one of the most important conversations from the 2016 hivio audio future festival. If you’re a radio broadcaster, this will change the way you view contesting forever. Ryan Cummins is the Co-Founder/Co-CEO of Omaze, a cause marketplace that raises money and awareness for charity by offering the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Many of my clients know I’m a huge fan o

We all know the folks in the print business are being squeezed by digital. At the New York Times total revenue fell 1% while Gannett Co. reported revenues down almost 9%. And remember, those declines take into account any growth in digital. But this note from MediaPost is particularly telling: It’s worth noting that [circulation] revenues now make up 59.7% of NYTCO’s total, up from 41.3% in the third quarter of 2010. The proportion derived from advertising has fallen from 51.

The shape of Apple’s new live-streaming radio station Beats 1 is coming into focus, and it’s full of exclusive celebrity content: The New York Times reports that Elton John will have a regular show on Beats 1 titled “Elton John’s Rocket Hour,” and it will play old and new music. Other musicians with shows on Beats 1 include Pharrell Williams, Drake, Josh Homme, St. Vincent, Jaden Smith, and Disclosure. Pharrell isn’t just a presenting a show, though. His new single “Freedom”

There are few class acts in the radio and TV business classier than Barry Drake. After an amazing career leading a variety of radio and television companies, Barry has set down on paper the best lessons from those years, mixed with enough anecdotes and highlights for several careers. The book is 40 Years 40,000 Sales Calls: Thoughts on Radio and Advertising Based on a Lifetime of Customer Contact Broadcasters Foundation of America. Enjoy this wide ranging conversation with Ba

I’ve watched with some bemusement a debate in broadcasting circles: Does it makes sense for broadcasters to embrace an abundance of digital tools – including video – to tell their stories and reach their audiences across platforms? Or should radio folks simply do better radio? After all, can you really compete with Hollywood? With ABC and NBC and CBS? Well of course you can. Indeed, people are doing it every day. And they’re doing it without the benefit of the magnificent sta

Tongues are wagging about NAB keynoter and self-styled “ad contrarian” Bob Hoffman’s profanity-laced critique of online advertising. Wagging for all the wrong reasons. See, Bob conveniently chose convenient facts and then conveniently wrapped those facts with absurd conclusions. On Online Advertising Says Bob: “the advertising industry has become the web’s lapdog – irresponsibly exaggerating the effectiveness of online advertising and social media, ignoring the abominable res

What makes radio talent great? Where do you find it? And how can you leverage it? Those are just some of the questions tackled by Tracy Johnson, CEO of the Tracy Johnson Media Group in this Q&A from hivio, the audio future festival. Tracy has a long and decorated career as a broadcast executive, specializing in programming, marketing, talent coaching and management, and he’s the author of three books about developing on-air superstars that have been described as The Bible of

If your brand is a story, then how can you best bring that story to life? Who knows more about story that the artists who work at Pixar – past, present, and future? In this conversation from hivio 2014, the audio future festival, Mark Ramsey talks with former Pixar story artist Emma Coats. Emma got her start in story at Pixar Animation Studios in 2007 on the feature film Brave. While at Pixar she also worked on such films as Monsters University and Inside Out. Since leaving P

What do advertisers want from the audio marketplace in general and from radio in particular? Let’s ask an agency head! Or in this case, an “anti-agency” head: Ric Militi, CEO of InnoVision, a company that buys terrestrial radio, Pandora, and a whole lot more. This was one of the standout Q&A’s from hivio 2014, the audio future festival. Among the questions Ric answers: What kind audio do you buy? Why? What is the BEST thing about the audio space from the advertiser’s perspect

Once upon a time a radio station featured two opposing forces: The sellers who sold the ads that interrupted the content and the programmers who created the content to grow the audience that sellers interrupted. The system was built to do two things: Maximize the audience and then throw obstacles at them – spots – that blocked their ability to enjoy the content they came to the brand for in the first place. Sounds like a house of cards, doesn’t it? While each side – sellers a

Pandora is changing more than the way folks consume radio – it’s changing the way agencies view audio advertising. This was at the center of my conversation with Pandora VP Audio Sales Doug Sterne at the hivio audio future festival in San Diego in June, 2014. Among the questions Doug answers: What impact has online radio in general — and Pandora in particular — had on audio as a force among agencies? For online radio, audio is more than just audio. What creative opportunities

Podcasting, online radio, terrestrial radio, satellite radio….Do you think that all these audio silos have little in common? That podcasting is different from radio is different from online radio and Pandora, etc? You’re wrong. Do you think that ever-increasing choices in a world offering everybody their own personal customized experience means the end of “hits,” and – by association – the end of radio? No, in fact the more choices you have, the more important “hits” become.

Recently I was asked to speak to a group of broadcasters representing one format. “Tell us more about fans of our format,” I was asked. But wait, why limit insights to fans of any one format just because that’s the only format in the room? This is not a research study, after all, it’s a presentation to radio managers whose job is to corral and focus consumer attention long enough to monetize it. I don’t care what format your radio station chooses, your audience is still compr

Earlier this year, CBS was blacked out on Time Warner Cable in several major markets due to a dispute over content rights fees. CBS wanted more and Time Warner didn’t want to pay it. More than 3 million Time Warner Cable customers lost access to CBS-owned stations, Showtime, and three other cable nets for a month until the standoff was resolved. So what happened? The monthlong CBS blackout for Time Warner Cable customers in major markets was a key factor leading to the cable

You want your radio or TV station’s name to appear in a major motion picture, don’t you? What about your star personality’s or your morning show’s name? Of course you do. What broadcaster doesn’t? You want your name up in lights! Well you’re in luck. Since movies are one of my things, I’ve arranged with the producers of the forthcoming movie version of the web series phenomenon Fear Clinic to create a spot for your station’s name or the name of your star personality! And as t

I’ve been writing a lot lately about the tie-breaking value of doing the “unnecessary” – The idea that doing what’s not necessarily “important” (at least not yet) can eventually become the decisive difference making your brand more desirable than all the others. Doing what’s “unnecessary” means doing what you don’t have to do. Or do you? Witness the astounding number of “unnecessaries” in Jeff Bezos’ most recent letter to shareholders, including this: When we’re at our best,

I was listening to an interview with filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and a fan asked him what movies made an early influence on him. One of his answers was surprising – the movie was Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. I’m with you, Quentin – I have seen that movie hundreds of times (and yes, it still holds up). Why did this film make such an impression on young Quentin?  Because it was the first time he had seen a movie where two “different” genres collided:  It was both funny

Recently I was given a slim but potent handbook made for FOX Sports’ TV commentators.  It was created by FOX’s David Hill in 2010. Every one of their commentators gets a copy of this terrific little gem, and I wanted to share some of its highlights with you, since the lessons apply to communicators in radio, too. So I whipped up this handy little presentation to illustrate some of the key themes.  Enjoy! (And if you can’t see the presentation for whatever reason, click on the

Here are some stats from a brand new eMarketer report on U.S. digital media usage changes from now to 2013. I’ll focus on some highlights relevant to broadcasters: Facebook users:  147 million, up 4% Twitter users: 36 million, up 14% Smartphone users: 138 million, up 19% Mobile Internet users: 144 million, up 18% Mobile video viewers: 23% of the population, up 20% Smartphone video viewers: 22% of the population (and more than half of smartphone users): up 22% Online movie vie

Republican soul-searching followed the demographic slam to the gut from younger voters, African Americans, and Hispanics in the election earlier this month. And the reverberations from that punch have resonated through the ranks of News/Talk programmers and talent nationwide. While I can’t be specific about the research I have done in that area (it’s both extensive and proprietary), I can tell you this much: It should come as no great surprise. Interest in Talk per se – as e