This week I’m pleased to be a featured speaker at NMX, which is concurrent with the NAB in Las Vegas. If you’re in town for either event, I invite you to come to my session, 7 Radio Lessons that can Transform Your Podcast. It’s on Tuesday, April 15 at 2pm. And if you’d like to connect to talk business, please reach out to me. I’ll be there through Wednesday, midday. #speaker #7radiolessons #newmedia #radio #podcast #2015 #markramsey #lasvegas #nmx #radioindustry #nab #broadca

With a great flourish, the powers-that-be behind the NextRadio app have announced that this week shall begin a thunderous effort to enlist one constituency so far utterly lacking in enthusiasm for NextRadio’s product: Consumers. And so begins an onslaught of over-the-air radio spots designed to lead consumers to download an app that will not work on most of their phones, meanwhile attempting to incite rage that the “choppy, buffered streaming radio” that wireless companies “w

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

I am stridently pro-consumer. I believe that if we focus on what consumers show us they want, then we will have more consumers, happier consumers, and a healthier business overall. This is the thinking that has driven all my successful audience research efforts for years. So it was with much disappointment that I reviewed the recent research project produced by Coleman Research for NextRadio, financed by the NAB. Coleman has a well-deserved strong reputation, but this deeply

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

…much like the one being staged in “secret” at the NAB Radio Show right now. And like that meeting, the purpose of mine is to plot radio’s digital future. Because, as we all know, the future of any industry is best mapped out by its leading executives, locked together in a private room with nary a consumer in sight.  Consumers will do what they’re told, after all.  The control is all ours! This is how General Motors did it for years! I will make sure only to invite folks who

Another study from NAB has been issued which supports the notion that consumers want FM on their mobile phones. And, like all studies about what people WILL do rather than what they HAVE DONE in the past, it’s flawed. You can ask people what they value and what they have done and they will give you an answer that represents their best frame on reality. But ask them what they intend to have for breakfast tomorrow morning if the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns w

GigaOm bottom-lines this week’s NAB with this: If this week’s National Association of Broadcasters Show is any indication, by 2020 “broadcasting” is a term that will be foreign to anyone under 40. Based on the show’s programming this year, as well as the general vibe that multiplatform delivery is the future, it seems that pretty soon no one will be concerned about how content is distributed — just if it’s good or not. To repeat for emphasis:  “…pretty soon no one will be con

Registration of consumers on radio’s web platforms is a hot topic at this week’s NAB. In this video I lay out some of the key arguments as to why broadcasters should absolutely positively require registration in exchange for value (and yes, those last four words are key). We are in a world of registration.  Are you ready, able, and worthy to be part of it? Watch: Prefer audio?  Try this: Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip.

You have probably heard about the changes at Netflix.  One company is now becoming two, with the original brand providing the streaming content and the new brand (ironically) covering the DVD-by-mail business that made Netflix famous. Whether or not this is the right move is something only time will prove.  But the motivations behind it couldn’t be clearer, and those motivations should resonate for everyone in the broadcast business, too. Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: Most compa

Evidently the NAB didn’t like my survey about behaviors among folks who have mobile phones and may also have FM built-in, whether they use it or not (and most don’t). Let’s dig into their official late Friday response: While Mark Ramsey argues there is little consumer demand for incorporating radio receivers on cell phones, he bases his glass-half-empty conclusions on a poorly designed survey to fit his own pre-conceived negative opinion. I don’t know, does the question “does

Since when did I become the guy who didn’t want FM in mobile phones?  Bring it on, device-makers!  Install those chips! Actually, I don’t care whether or not FM is in mobile phones because I don’t think it makes one bit of difference to radio’s future whether it’s there or not (radio “experiences” need to be part of the mobile device ecosystem, to be sure.  But FM chips?  Feh). Jeff Smulyan thinks otherwise (see his reply to my post here).  I have the greatest respect for Jef

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

Sometimes the NAB doesn’t understand the future of its own industry. I’m referring to one point written by NAB to Radio Ink and following up their royalty settlement proposal which was evidently so out of tune with the expectations of the folks on the other side of the table, they have reportedly called off any further negotiations: Consider what we might get in return [for paying a performance fee]…Decreased streaming rates and the ability to simulcast our signal — commercia

As the old saying goes, be careful what you wish for. Question:  With FM on mobile phones I will no longer need to stream my content, right? Think of the money I’ll save! Answer:  Wrong.  The purpose of streaming existing and new content via the Internet is not just to be present on mobile devices but to provide the heart of a broader brand experience attractive to consumers and advertisers alike. Dumping out of the online radio game now would be like dumping out of FM radio

I know you guys mean well.  I know you are listening hard to your constituency of broadcasters and trying your best to serve their will. But someone in your esteemed organization needs to stand back and assess what’s in the best long-term interests of the medium you are sworn to represent.  Someone at NAB needs to admonish the kids at the broadcaster’s dinner table that just because they want a milkshake for dinner doesn’t mean it’s good for them. Yes, I’m talking about radio