Well, for starters, your content is in it. But not just yours. Podcast content too. But more than that: Content that is not audio is made audio. And your music (through Rdio or Spotify) is integrated with content that relates to your music to create a seamless and frictionless listening experience here, there, and on the go. Quality content from all over is curated according to your interests, irrespective of the channels or “silos” they are traditionally presented in or on.

What could radio broadcasters possibly learn from a Zoo? Ask the folks at hivio, the first inaugural radio ideas festival, because this conversation between me and San Diego Zoo Global Brand Manager Michael Warburton turned out to be one of the “hits” of the event, and it had the room buzzing. Some highlights: How legendary brands can keep fresh Why bother to go beyond “good enough” in all the actions of your brand (hint: Because the extra effort matters to fans and they appr

My talk with digital trend-setter Chad Robley is one of the opening sessions from hivio 2013, the inaugural radio ideas festival in San Diego. Chad is CEO of Mindgruve, a digital agency whose clients include brands like Proctor & Gamble, House of Blues, Oracle, Merck and Live Nation. Watch as Chad describes: The importance of content in any digital play, and how integrating that content into the everyday lives of consumers is the best way to move them (not “speaking at them”

Here are some of the questions I asked Tom: How has Apple’s introduction of iTunes Radio changed the calculus for Pandora? Are you personally surprised by how big Pandora has become? Why has Pandora become so big and not its many competitors? What’s your secret sauce? Are there any plans to add spoken work/talk content to the platform? Are there any plans to add local traffic, weather and news to the platform? What will the Pandora user experience be like in 3 years? What pla

It’s called: Solving Radio’s Attention Crisis. What attention crisis, you may ask? Watch this presentation and find out, because the ratings for all of radio have been steadily declining for years and there are only two solutions to this problem. In this presentation, I explain both. This is a super-important presentation that shares some Arbitron statistics you probably have not seen – stats that folks in radio do not like to acknowledge. But to make plans you need to begin

If we want our fans to spread the word about our radio brands, why don’t we create content that’s more remarkable to begin with? After all, people don’t spread the mundane, they spread the extraordinary. Case and point…this video. Prefer audio? Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Download mp3 (You can subscribe to all the M

Ric Militi is CEO and Creative Director of InnoVision LLC, a leading independent Southern California “anti-agency” (they don’t “buy” radio, for example, they “invest” in it), and he has strong feelings on radio’s place in the mediasphere. If you read no other part of this interview, skip to the last few paragraphs. This is Part 2 of our conversation. Find Part 1 here. Watch the video of our conversation or check out the highly abbreviated transcript below. Prefer audio? Try t

Ric Militi is CEO and Creative Director of InnoVision LLC, a leading independent Southern California “anti-agency” (they don’t “buy” radio, for example, they “invest” in it), and he has strong feelings on radio’s place in the mediasphere. If you read no other part of this interview, skip to the last few paragraphs. This is Part 1 of our conversation. Part 2 posts tomorrow. Watch the video of our conversation or check out the highly abbreviated transcript below. Prefer audio?

Tom Asacker is an advisor to major brands like Procter & Gamble, UPS, and G.E. and the author of many thoughtful and incisive books on branding and marketing. He is one of the brightest minds in any business, and his latest book is his best yet: The Business of Belief: How the World’s Best Marketers, Designers, Salespeople, Coaches, Fundraisers, Educators, Entrepreneurs and Other Leaders Get Us to Believe Watch the complete Q&A or skip to Part 1 of the abbreviated transcript

Want to know what’s ahead for your radio brand in just five minutes? Then this video is for you: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Download mp3 (You can subscribe to all the MRM video and audio via iTunes and get the goodies before everybody else.  You can also get advance notice of this content if you “lik

David Siteman Garland is the founder of TheRiseToTheTop, one of my favorite business oriented blogs, and “the Number One Badass Show, Resource & Community for Mediapreneurs.” He is host of one of the Internet’s most popular, successful and longest running web shows, and he has a message for broadcasters. You, too, can make money online. Watch the complete Q&A or skip to the abbreviated transcript below: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or abo

Andy Smith is the co-author of a fabulous new book called The Dragonfly Effect, a book about using social media to drive social change. A serial tech marketer and entrepreneur, Andy is a Principal of Vonavona Ventures where he advises and bootstraps technical and social ventures with guidance in marketing and customer strategy. Watch the complete Q&A or skip to the abbreviated transcript below: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is re

Alan Wurtzel is the former CEO of Circuit City, America’s late, great electronics superstore. He is also the author of a fabulous new book called Good to Great to Gone: The 60 Year Rise and Fall of Circuit City Below is an abbreviated transcript of our conversation.  For the full impact, watch this video or listen to the audio: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. Y

“Fans, not just Listeners.” That was the theme of a national conference of show and digital producers for Southern Cross Austereo, Australia’s leading media and entertainment company. What happens to your strategies when your focus is on fans first? What happens to your ability to execute those strategies across platforms? It turns out that a cross-platform structure and asking different questions yields some impressive new outcomes. Watch this short conversation with Sam Cav

Local radio is now, more than ever, in the local media business. And that means not just selling spots or selling digital ideas that live around those spots.  It also means helping your current and potential clients create better media themselves and compete more effectively in the digital space your radio brand doesn’t own. But how to do that effectively and efficiently? That’s where BuzzBoard comes in. BuzzBoard is a complete digital presence analysis platform that enables

…in a world where the networks you pay for content circumvent you by distributing much of that same content online? This is a complicated question, but it’s one that branding authority Tom Asacker tackles with me in this highlight from our conversation at the recent Public Radio Program Director’s conference in Las Vegas. Is it as simple as “more local news” because newspapers are folding (pun intended) all over America? Oh no it isn’t.  Not nearly. Watch (or click on the pos

There’s a difference between giving people what they desire and messaging them to convince them that what you have is what they desire. That’s one point from my friend, branding authority Tom Asacker, in the conversation we had on the stage of the recent Public Radio Program Director’s conference in Las Vegas. Watch (or click on the post title if there’s no video image): Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audi

One of the greatest challenges for ALL traditional media – radio, TV, and print – is what I’m calling the “mediacizing” of brands.” As our client brands create content via media these brands become media, and as brands become media we have to ask: Where does that leave traditional media brands? Will big brands need radio (or TV or print) when they are their own media and can create their own content? Just today, the New York Times reports on the “mediacizing” of Oreo, a Times

It’s one of the most important and least understood conversations all broadcasters should be having:  What business are you really in? This is a highlight of the recent Christian radio CMB Momentum Conference in Orlando, where I introduce this concept. It’s worth noting that the answer for (non-commercial) Christian broadcasters is completely different from the answer for their commercial peers.  I would go so far as to argue that Christian radio is not even in the “radio” bu

When it comes to radio’s future, how important is it to try out stuff and take chances? Very important, if you ask Beau Phillips, former Executive VP of Programming and Marketing at Dial Global. Beau argues that your radio brand needs to be loved, not simply liked – on Facebook or anywhere else. That requires a new awareness for relevance and a bias for innovation. This is not optional! Further, says Beau, Radio needs to make deeper emotional connections. “No more hollow slog