How can radio and other media brands do social media right? Why not ask the expert whose clients include NBC Universal, News Corp, and several OTT video players? Todd Beck is CEO & Founder of Beck Media & Marketing, the agency dozens of TV, OTT, and Tech companies look to for potent digital strategies that get results. Beck Media’s areas of focus span content creation and exploitation on TV, web, mobile, and social media, and whatever medium comes next. Todd was one of the fe

Do consumers want radios built into their mobile devices so they can save on precious bandwidth? In other words, does the use of audio streaming itself push bandwidth past available data caps? Is audio a “data hog”? Is there a consumer problem here? I have previously argued that audio streams are, in fact, fairly economical. Even if you do all of your streaming audio consumption without the benefit of Wi-Fi, you’d need to stream about 4 hours on Pandora every day to hit a 2-g

In  a new report from Nielsen, the news for the traditional radio space is decidedly unsurprising, and not the stuff of holiday cheer. As Tom Taylor summarizes: AM/FM’s monthly reach gained half-a-percent – but Time-Spent fell 3% over last year. And the 3% drop is consistent across African-Americans and Hispanics, two groups that have traditionally shown stronger listening than the national average. Two charts display the contrast between monthly reach for Americans age 2+ an

You know the routine. Your radio station introduces a new morning show and you sit back and wait for the magic to happen. And you wait…and you wait. Still, the audience doesn’t know them, doesn’t care about them, or knows them and still doesn’t care about them. Why is this happening? Six reasons: 1. Because they’re just not that good It’s true! Radio managers are not famous for spotting and nurturing talent. And a corollary: Being good is hard! There’s a reason why Howard Ste

[A longer version of this post appeared in NetNewsCheck] “Podcasting” is the term describing the creation and consumption of on-demand video and especially audio. It was the “next big thing” – about six or seven years ago. And today? Not so much. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of podcasting going on out there. It doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people making and listening to them. It doesn’t mean podcasting lacks a place in our media portfolio. But podcasting is most

It has been a day of dazzling conversations for me on behalf of one non-radio client. From emails and conversations with movie studios, a TV network, major entertainment blogs, and even a Hangout with the folks at Google, it’s all about drumming up action surrounding an event – a piece of content. It’s a reminder that stars align around worthy content – worthy ideas made real. Activity and ideas and passion and interest are attracted to activity and ideas and passion and inte

Comic-Con opens this week in San Diego. It’s ground zero for media and popular culture and one of the biggest star-studded events this side of Oscar. What better excuse to talk to Rob Salkowitz, author of Comic-Con and the Business of Pop Culture Comic-Con is a melting pot for media content and platforms. So what lessons should broadcasters take away from an event as likely to attract movie stars as Klingons? Watch: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (v

Agita swept over the radio industry at the end of last week as Clear Channel announced that “Clear Channel Radio” is now “Clear Channel Media and Entertainment.” This is something that should surprise no one.  I first noticed this “new” name in the email signatures of several Clear Channel execs over the past year. And if you believe a company’s category should be shaped by what it does and where it’s going rather than what it used to do and what it became famous for, then yo

This graphic is courtesy of RadioTime. What this picture leaves out is the suddenly changing definition of “radio” in a world where personalization, customization, and connection rule.  All of those factors will soon be built into cars, and the entertainment delivery system will be one of the most potent differentiators in the dealer’s showroom. Yours will not look like mine because I will be able to make mine my own. There will be no such thing as an “audio entertainment sys

I have argued that people today are media and that digital platforms enable brands themselves to be their own media (and when you are media you don't need to advertise on as much media). But now I'm going to take the argument even further. Because I think brands are going to move beyond media.  Brands are going to be entertainment. I'm not talking about brands spending ad dollars on entertainment events or hosting entertaining promotions or wrapping their logo around an enter