Today iHeartRadio announced their first-ever podcast awards to take place before a live audience in LA next January. And I’m proud to announce that our series – Inside JAWS – has been nominated! Hooray, team! What a pleasure and an honor to be on such a short list of great series! The way the winner is chosen is via social media prowess, so I would be grateful if you enjoyed the series enough to vote for it here. That said, the honor is really in the nomination as far as I’m

I’m proud to announce that a special version of my podcast with Wondery Inside Psycho, is breaking new ground in radio – yes, radio. Beginning this weekend it will be the first ever native podcast to be broadcast nationwide on commercial radio. See the news here and here and here and in lots of other places. It will air throughout next week on almost 80 iHeartMedia radio stations across the country, including many famous names like KOA, WIOD, and the station I will forever as

There’s been lots of attention in the radio industry trades lately about the lack of audience momentum for many broadcasters in the streaming space, even as so-called pure-plays like Pandora and Spotify grow by leaps and bounds. Tom Taylor writes: iHeart’s not the only terrestrial operator with flat or negative growth over the period from February 2013 to October 2014. #3-ranked CBS is down from about 69,000 average domestic streams (6am-8pm weekdays) to a little less than 60

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

Never let it be said that the automakers don’t listen to feedback, because when it comes to Ford’s clunky Sync platform, they got an earful. And guess what? Ford responded. This week the automaker introduced the latest and greatest version of its Sync infotainment system, and it looks great. It will make its debut on at least some Ford 2016 models, meaning it will be in the showroom in the fall of 2015, just months from now. The primary value proposition of the platform has l

It’s called Amazon Echo, and like so many tech gadgets made by Amazon it’s more of an interesting idea than something which is necessarily likely to leap off the virtual shelves. Writes Amazon: Amazon Echo is designed around your voice. It’s always on—just ask for information, music, news, weather, and more. Echo begins working as soon as it hears you say the wake word, “Alexa.” It’s also an expertly-tuned speaker that can fill any room with immersive sound. And – more to the

Last week, Google announced Android Auto, which – like Apple’s CarPlay – aims to fully fulfill the promise of the so-called connected car. Watch this video to see an illustration of how the platform integrates music, both from Google Play and from third party apps like Pandora or iHeartRadio: So what does this mean for radio? Well let’s take a step back. Broadcasters have been obsessed over the dashboard lately because they smell big trouble. But the trouble is much bigger th

Here’s what radio can learn from Fox TV, courtesy of The Wrap: Fox’s emphasis next season is on “eventizing,” entertainment chief Kevin Reilly said at the network’s upfront presentation to advertisers Monday….“American Idol,” like sports shows, benefitted from fans who felt they had to watch for fear of missing a big television event. Now Reilly is trying to turn even regular scripted shows into big events. In Fox’s case, that means things like a “Simpsons”/ “Family Guy” cros

So is Pandora “radio” or isn’t it? I have (correctly) argued “yes” here and here and here. “Radio” is a menu of value propositions – “jobs”, combinations of which consumers “hire your brand for” every time they choose to tune in. Many of those “jobs” are clearly shared with Pandora, thus making Pandora a substitute for your station – part of the same category of consumer solutions, as I argue in this popular presentation. The debate, such as it is, continues to rage on primar

Lots of blood, sweat, tears, and treasure have gone into making radio’s alternatives to Pandora et. al., yet I think both IHeartRadio and TuneIn are missing perhaps their greatest opportunity. And it’s staring them in the face. To be sure, these are terrific apps – as good as anything out there. So what are they missing and why does it matter? Let’s step back. If you’re going to provide an experience rooted in the radio stations listeners already know and love, then you shou

So what’s best, digital-only or integrated? Don’t get lost in this “either/or” – it’s a myth. It’s all about value, folks. Good or bad, high or low. Period. I think radio buyers can only respond to what’s in front of them, and many of radio’s digital-only doo-dads are not exceptional enough to capture their attention or interest (or the attention and interest of our own audiences). So make better stuff with better ideas and you can sell it better to people who don’t know

I think most broadcasters are thinking about mobile all wrong.  The thinking goes like this: “We need a dedicated mobile app for our station!” Or… “We need to get our stations on mobile apps that already exist, like Tunein or IHeartRadio!” Both of these are wrong (or at least vastly insufficient) for the same reason:  They are about you, while mobile is about the consumer – her problems, needs, and interests – and the advertiser – who wants more than reach in a world where yo

Why do what you’re doing?  Because everybody else in radio seems to be doing it?  Or because it’s the right thing for you and your organization to do? Why jump aboard the iheartradio bandwagon and make your stations available on that platform?  Because every so often there’s a news release about another broadcaster who has, or because it’s the best way for you to advance your progress in streaming? Why pursue a dedicated mobile app?  Because everybody needs a dedicated mobile

No matter how many or how few listeners are tuned to Pandora at any given moment, 125 million registered users is a whole lot. Think of the registered user count as analogous to the number of people who own radios.  Owning a radio is being “registered to use” radio.  While the Pandora numbers fall far short of radio’s “registered” distribution, the numbers move closer by the day. It seems obvious to me that Pandora will become an increasingly attractive alternative for radio’

That’s the word from newly public Pandora on their first-ever quarterly report. As GigaOm writes: Pandora posted total revenue of $67 million during the second fiscal quarter of the year, more than doubling its revenue from the same period one year ago. Revenue from ads accounted for the lion’s share of Pandora’s Q2 sales, totaling $58.3 million.  And while Pandora did not turn a bottom-line profit for the quarter — the company’s net loss was $1.8 million — it seems to be imp

It has been sneaking up on us for some time, but now the trajectory of the trend is crystal clear:  The end of the “radio industry” is near. Not the end of radio, mind you.  Not by a long shot. I’m talking about the industry of equals who congregate annually at NAB Radio Shows and read the same trade publications and talk to the same peers and, for the most part, have worked in the same business for years. That industry is vanishing before our eyes. Not so long ago, broadcast

Does radio have a future in the world of online radio? Or is this a future that belongs to the pure-plays – the Pandoras and the Slackers? I sat down with Triton Media COO Mike Agovino to discuss the transforming economics of online radio.  Triton, whose clients include both radio and pure-plays, is in a unique position to see the online radio landscape in its entirety, and what Mike sees is good news for broadcasters. In this conversation, Mike covers both the cost and the r