How to “rescue” radio? Doc Searls has some ideas, and Doc’s a very smart man. He is, among other things, the co-author of the classic The Cluetrain Manifesto that anticipated social media and the power of the social consumer by a decade. I don’t agree with all of his points, but I’ll share a few of the most interesting here. First, he redefines radio as “streamed audio,” unbound from “transmitter mentality.” This is a familiar conversation in radio circles, of course – and on

Put these pieces together: First, Arbitron/Edison’s Infinite Dial study shows 30% year-over–year growth in the online radio audience (a large number, but not at all surprising to anyone paying close attention).  Attention spreading. Second, a small study reported in Ad Age indicated that young consumers switch media 27 times in an hour.  “What they are looking for is engaging content, and they dismiss so much stuff,” said Dan Albert, senior VP-media director at Chicago’s MARC

That’s what Ford is arguing. Then again, I am not so sure Ford knows why folks listen to the radio or why they keep listening. After all, it’s not Ford who decided to put radios in cars.  You and I – the consumers – drove that decision for them. And it’s not you and I – the consumers – who are telling Ford “we want HD radio.”  That clarion call is coming from somewhere else – probably from a company which stands to gain lots if HD becomes an industry standard and has everythi

I’m struck by reading the post-mortems about the Consumer Electronics Show in the radio trades – the gist seems to sum up to this:  Faster, HD Radio, faster!  Radio must fight ever-harder to maintain the “share of dashboard” in the cars! These arguments miss the point altogether. The issue is not “HD radio or not.”  Nor is it “share of dashboard.”  The issue is share of consumer. And share of consumer requires being in the traffic path each and every consumer wants to travel