Our Latest Industry Blogs

In yesterday’s post, I highlighted Scott Westerman, the broadcast vet who has resurrected the radio station he grew up with – Keener 13 in Detroit. Today, it’s two modern-day stories of radio’s magnetic pull among Gen Z’s of today – on a huge scale at Ford Field in downtown Detroit, and in the Upper Peninsula in a small town on the shores of Lake Superior. But the narrative is the same – expose teens to radio, and then get out of the way. The dream of young generations embracing radio is becoming a reality. Click here to check it out.

How did YOU get into radio? Surely, there’s a story, and it’s probably unique to you. As today’s radio industry struggles to entice young people to consider a career in radio broadcasting, perhaps we can learn something from our history. Past is indeed prologue. And as some of us are beginnning to find, today’s Gen Z’s may be every bit as smitten by radio as many of us were. Maybe we just need to create the on-ramps for them. Ready, set, go!

Radio listeners rarely get the opportunity to hear their favorite DJs interact with one another, so provide a behind-the-scenes glimpse of your station.

The drumbeat for digital revenue gets louder for radio companies with each passing quarter. But as 2023 has taught us – often the hard way – generating serious, sustainable digital revenue can be a diffiicult and painful task. For some organizations, it has resulted in staff layoffs and massive losses. But today, we’re going to point to a template of success that can work for any media team willing to do a minimum of due diligence and brainstorming. It’s about learning how to play a new game.

With Congress facing another government shutdown one week from today, you may be wondering what’s going on with that AM For Every Vehicle Act that was in the news a few months ago. After a quiet time, we’re seeing signs that it has once again become a topic of conversation. In fact, the issue of what it costs to install AM radio in electric vehicles is the subject of debate. A static-free look at who’s saying what is just a click away.

Algorithms are getting smarter with each passing year. Or are they? If your experience with recommendation software leaves something to be desired, you’re not alone. There was a day when a recommendation from a savvy DJ and smart radio station was dependable and helpful. In this over-techified environment, could humans (that is, DJs) make a bold comeback? Today’s #TBT post from 2019 came before the A.I. craze dominated our conversations. But the moral of the story may indeed be the same.

When was the last time you checked the most important metric on your station – cume or reach? How is it holding up versus a decade ago? You might be surprised by what the data is telling us in our post-pandemic radio reality. And to help us understand eroding cumes and what radio can do about it, I’ve enlisted a celebrity guest blogger to explain this phenomenon, showing up in market after market in the U.S. It’s another “radio reality check” on JacoBLOG this week.

Is your radio station hiring a Digital Marketing Manager? Here are some questions to ask in the interview process.

We’re heading toward the shaky finish of another challenging year for the radio broadcasting industry. And as budget season commences, tough decisions await. Reliable audience research has never been more critically important, but it doesn’t come cheap. Here’s the good news: the research is right in front of our faces, IF we are prescient and courageous enough to face it. So, let’s kick off the week with a “reality check.” Always good advice? Buckle up.