Zach Sang
Category: Opinions
My Professional Opinion: Do NOT Run the FEMA/Ad Council PSA!
By Thomas R. Ray, III CPBE, AMD, DRB
Tom Ray Consulting
President
RadioInfo
Technical Editor
NEW YORK — You may have seen my warning in Friday’s edition regarding a PSA that was released by the Ad Council, under the auspices of FEMA, extolling the virtues of the emergency alerts the public can now receive on their cell phones. A great idea. Worthy of getting the word out. Even if the PSA promotes a service available on cell phones.
Only one problem. The PSAs (there are several, and they are also available for television) use the EAS two-tone alert tone as part of the message.
Five Impact Trends to Help You Reach the Future Safely
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
Chairman
NEW YORK – The challenge of working at most radio stations or broadcast companies is the staff is pre-occupied with job security. As a result, trends that should be noted and discussed are dismissed in order to prepare the weekend schedule and worry about corporate. As the CEO of an executive-on-demand company, Sabo Media, we are presented daily with new products, talent and ideas. Here are five that are interesting and may be helpful in growing your business:
Dickey, Abacast and DJs
By Chris Miller
Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS — There’s too much good stuff this week! I hope these three quick takes on different issues are good thought-starters for that fertile brain of yours.
Dickey on Digital
What did you think when you saw Friday’s RadioInfo headline that said, “DICKEY: NO BUSINESS MODEL IN STREAMING?” Was your first reaction “so we’ll figure out some other way to solve it?” Or was it more like, “so we’re just not going there?”
The Digital Dude’s Diagnosis of DJs
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
SHAKER HEIGHTS, OH — RadioInfo ran an excellent five-day series last week on “The State of the Disc Jockey.” I’ve been a jock and I’ve been a programmer, and now I see radio from a different, digital perspective that I’d like to share with you.
Constant Reinvention
Radio, at its best, has always offered instant gratification with the best entertainment value. We’ve been forced to be flexible. We were the “old medium” when TV came on the scene, but we adapted. Radio in 1960 was very different than it was in 1950.
When a large array of cable channels showed up in homes in the early 80s, including MTV, we adapted once again. Peoples’ attitudes about media changed, and we changed along with them. Radio in 1985 was pretty different than it had been in 1975.
If I Were the CEO of YouTube
A modest proposal by Walter Sabo
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
Chairman
NEW YORK — First, I will never be the CEO of YouTube because I could not pass the battery of Google employment tests. Math was not my strength. Also, based on a visit to their NY offices, their hallway labyrinth would keep me lost all day.
But here’s why I should be CEO:
Why do you look at YouTube? The primary reasons are to see cats, music videos, your kids and “web stars.” I am perfectly comfortable with these crowd pleasers. Why? Because they please the crowd.
About 18 months ago YouTube announced a multi-million dollar initiative to pay for premium video content created by “top producers” and Hollywood stars. At the time I explained to my annoyed relatives and friends that this was an insane waste of money and it wouldn’t work. It wouldn’t work because it violated a key axiom of show business:
Will Nielsen’s Acquisition of Arbitron Benefit our Industry?
By Fred Lundgren
KCAA Radio, Loma Linda, California
CEO
LOMA LINDA, CA — The inaccuracy of Arbitron surveys have been a pet peeve of mine for many years. So, when The Nielsen Company announced the purchase of Arbitron, I decided to celebrate the event with a little punditry. Initially, the announcement made me think of this quote by Winston Churchill…
“The only recorded instance in history of a rat swimming towards a sinking ship.”
Five Driving Trends for Music Radio
in 2013
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
Chairman
NEW YORK — These are five strategic trends impacting successful music radio stations in 2013.
1. Social Seamless®. Most radio stations use social media in a clumsy way. 2013 will see a profound shift to Social Seamless® that fully integrates social media into all aspects of the on air experience. Stations will stop announcing “like us on Facebook” or “Sign up for us on Twitter.” Those pleas sound like a station is begging for fan mail. Read More
Two Major Radio Stories: A Radio Show and a Radio No-Show
By Holland Cooke
Radio Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — Just-released Arbitron data affirms that – despite all the new-tech competition – radio can still shine when the lights go out. Stations in Hurricane Sandy’s path that were staffed-up, and stepped-up, were rewarded. And not just news and talk AMs. Music FMs that suspended business-as-usual to guide listeners through the storm earned long-term cred.
But we knew the hurricane was coming. In retrospect, we might have anticipated another major 2012 story, but on February 11, it sure seemed to take radio by surprise:
“I listened to the streams of over 100 radio stations, in multiple formats, with multiple owners, and in markets ranging from New York City to Minot. Less than a dozen of those stations either played Whitney Houston’s music or talked about her untimely passing.”
- Blogger Mark Edwards, witnessing a 2012 radio no-show that echoed 2009’s embarrassing slight when Michael Jackson died.
Five Trends About to Make a Buck
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
Chairman
NEW YORK — Daily digital newsletters suggest that there are hundreds of hot new “platforms” and “monetizations” and “disruptors.”
There aren’t. A quick walk from the gourmet water cafes of lower Manhattan or Palo Alto to the food court at Mall of America will clarify the efficacy of many digi-theories. Remember, fiber optics (Lucent!) were ready to go in 1962, as were Picture Phones, but AT&T waited until they depreciated all the copper wire to roll out fiber.
There are at least five new business ideas that are close to the event horizon for profits.
