Tag Archives: Fred Jacobs

July 5, 2026 · 3:00 am

Radio Program Consultants

In my decades of radio management, I’ve worked with different radio program consultants and found them to be helpful in creating winning radio stations. One of the many advantages they bring to the table is a big picture perspective on what makes for successful programming.

I especially respect the work of Fred Jacobs and his long-running Techsurvey. I’ve also learned from Dave Van Dyke’s Bridge Ratings. Both of these gentlemen pull no punches, telling radio operators what’s really happening in the world of radio listening today.

It was Radio’s Best Friend, Art Vuolo, who made me aware of an insightful piece that radio programmer, Ed Hil, had written and published on Facebook about radio program consultants.

I guess what struck me most as I read Ed’s piece was, like the consultants he profiles, I’m in that same age bracket. Does our history with radio and “old age” cloud our vision about what the next generation wants, desires and needs? Or are we simply recycling things that worked well in the past, but no longer resonate with today’s radio listeners?

Who is Ed Hill?

Ed Hill is a current podcast coach and a 25-year broadcast radio veteran and programming executive most recently with CBS Radio. He is a broadcast consultant, media company owner, and a podcast talent coach and consultant.

Highlights of Ed’s accomplishments:

  • 25 years of top ratings and rankings as a Professional Broadcast talent coach, creator, and producer.
  • Proven results from millions of listeners and over $100 million in revenue.

Among Ed’s other skills and accomplishments are movie producer who has worked with an Academy Award-winning director, a music consultant with the NFL, NBA, and MLB, and Corporate Creative Director for Citadel/ABC Broadcasting.  Ed’s lesser known accomplishments are worth mention as well. He has created a dancing routine with The Famous Chicken, held Paris Hilton’s hand for sixty seconds, sat next to Roger Ebert at a movie, and composed a country music song with a hit songwriter.

And now, here is the article Ed wrote, in its entirety:

RADIO CONSULTANTS: A FIELD GUIDE TO THE MEN WHO KILLED THE MEDIUM AND ARE NOW CHARGING TO IDENTIFY THE BODY

by Ed Hill

I want to talk to you today about a very specific type of American fraud. Not Wall Street. Not Washington. Those are obvious. I’m talking about something smaller. More intimate. More personal.

I’m talking about the radio consultant.

The man who gets paid, handsomely paid, to tell you what’s wrong with your radio station. Using data he collected from other radio stations. That are also dying. While he was consulting them.

And when those stations fail? He gets paid again. To analyze why they failed.

Beautiful. It’s genuinely beautiful. If you stripped away the sport coat and the PowerPoint, you’d recognize this in a heartbeat. It’s a protection racket. Pay me or the ratings get it. Except the ratings got it anyway.

Now let me introduce you to these gentlemen individually. Because they deserve to be seen. Really seen.

KENT BURKHART, Age: Old Enough To Have Consulted Marconi

Let’s start at the beginning. The patriarch. Kent Burkhart. The man who invented the consulting model itself.

Kent Burkhart has been in radio so long he knew Todd Storz personally. Todd Storz. The man who invented Top 40 radio. Do you understand what that means chronologically? We are talking about a man with direct social connections to the invention of the format system that is now dying on his watch.

He founded Burkhart/Abrams. He founded Burkhart/Douglas. He was a Living Legend at the NAB in 1990. 1990. Bill Clinton hadn’t even been elected yet. The Gulf War hadn’t started.

The Georgia Radio Hall of Fame inducted him. The Texas Radio Hall of Fame inducted him. Radio Ink made him a Pioneer. Broadcasting Magazine gave him the Fifth Estate Award.

And somewhere out there, a radio station is playing the same thirty-eight songs it played in 1987.

Kent Burkhart is the Big Bang of this entire consultant universe. Everything that followed, every conference, every white paper, every Innovation in Media Award, all of it traces back to the moment Kent decided that radio stations needed professional outside guidance to do what their own people couldn’t figure out.

He was right, incidentally. And that is the saddest part of this whole story.

LEE ABRAMS, Age 73

Born April 29, 1952, Harvey, Illinois.

Here is the central irony of Lee Abrams’ life, and I want you to sit with it. Lee Abrams is the man who took the freedom out of FM radio and is now 73 years old, running a consultancy called MediaVisions, writing screeds about how radio needs to be reimagined.

He de-imagined it. He walked into FM, which was wide open, weird, wonderful, dangerous. DJs played what they wanted, for God’s sake. And he said, no, no. Playlist. Research. Rotation. And the FM stations loved it because it made them money. And they all did it. And they all sounded the same.

And then Lee Abrams turned around and said, today, radio has become too corporate, too consolidated, too boring.

He said that. He said too boring. The man who installed the machinery of boredom looked at his creation and said, I’m concerned about the boredom.

Now he’s out there pitching information is the new rock and roll. He says radio should incorporate more news, more video, more music innovation.

Music innovation. From the man who invented the tight playlist. That’s like the guy who invented the assembly line now telling you that the problem with manufacturing is that it lacks artisanal craft.

I don’t hate Lee Abrams. I genuinely don’t. He’s 73, he’s got energy, he got Newsweek’s 100 Cultural Elite in 1993. He co-founded XM Satellite Radio, which was actually a great idea. He gave Howard Stern his first shot.

But the thing is, and this is what I want you to understand, being right in 1972 does not make you right in 2026. And being wrong in 1982 does not disqualify you from being the person they call to fix it. That’s not how consulting works. Consulting works on reputation. And reputation is just history with better lighting.

MIKE McVAY, Age approximately 69

Railroad family. Pittsburgh. Dropped out of college. Got on the radio at fifteen.

I respect the origin story completely. That’s a real American story. That’s grit. That’s instinct overcoming circumstance. He earned his shot.

Then he advised eight hundred radio stations.

Eight. Hundred.

One man. One philosophy. Eight hundred markets. You know what that’s called in nature? A monoculture. And you know what happens to monocultures? They’re catastrophically vulnerable. One pest, one blight, one disruption and the whole thing goes.

The disruption was called the internet. And the internet was not subtle about it. The internet sent a certified letter in 1995 and followed up every year for thirty years.

Mike McVay is now 69, back at McVay Media after his Cumulus chapter, partnered with Benztown, doing podcasts. Which is wonderful. I mean that. Podcasts are the thing that ate radio’s lunch and now radio consultants are pivoting into podcasts. That’s like the guy who sold typewriters pivoting to selling computers. Completely rational. Not even ironic. Just adaptive.

But here’s my question, Mike. Here’s my honest question. What exactly are you bringing to podcasting that the podcasters don’t already have? Because the podcasters figured out what radio forgot, which is authenticity. They figured out that people will sit with one human voice for three hours if that voice is genuinely real. No formatting. No research. No consultant.

They accidentally reinvented what radio used to be. Before McVay Media told them how to stop being that.

FRED JACOBS, Age approximately 72

Michigan State, class of 76. That means Fred Jacobs was approximately 22 years old when radio still had its soul. He caught it at the perfect moment. He got to see what it was before anyone figured out how to ruin it, and then spent the next fifty years accidentally helping to ruin it while believing he was saving it.

Here’s what Fred actually did that was genuinely brilliant. He looked at Album Rock in 1983 and said, what if we took the best parts of this and formalized it? And Classic Rock was born. And Classic Rock was huge. It was the most successful new format in decades.

And do you want to know what killed Classic Rock?

Classic Rock killed Classic Rock. Because you can only play More Than a Feeling so many times before even the people who love that song start to feel like they’re being held hostage by a very polite radio station.

Fred Jacobs is 72. He has a blog that comes out every morning. Every single morning. Thoughts on the radio industry, served fresh at 6 AM like a continental breakfast at a Holiday Inn Express.

I’ve read the blog. It’s well-written. He’s smart. He knows the data. He sees the trends. He watches what the kids are doing. And then he takes all of that intelligence and channels it into advice for radio stations. Which is the intellectual equivalent of doing cutting-edge aerodynamics research and then applying it to the horse-drawn carriage industry.

He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018, the first consultant ever to receive that honor. And I believe he genuinely deserves it. He genuinely shaped the medium.

But the Radio Hall of Fame is in Chicago. And radio is in the ICU. And I want to know: do they serve champagne in the Hall of Fame? Because someone is celebrating something, and it sure isn’t the listeners.

DAVE VAN DYKE, BRIDGE RATINGS, Age approximately 74 to 75

Started in radio in 1972 at ABC Radio in Chicago. Worked his way from Dallas to Denver to Portland to Boston to Los Angeles. A serious career. A real career.

Then he founded Bridge Ratings in 2001 and became the most rigorous chronicler of radio’s decline in the history of the medium. Month after month, year after year, study after study, Dave Van Dyke publishes the most accurate, most sobering data on what is happening to broadcast radio.

And it is grim, people. The audience is less engaged. Time spent listening is down. The demos radio needs are gone. Not leaving. Gone. Bridge Ratings has the receipts.

And Dave Van Dyke publishes this with the consistency and dedication of a coroner writing cause of death reports for the same patient, who somehow keeps signing up for more autopsies.

He said it himself, out loud, in print, in 2026: most of the audience is less engaged than ever.

To which radio responded by running the same morning zoo show they’ve had since the Reagan administration.

Dave Van Dyke at 74 is the most honest person in this whole ecosystem. He’s not selling a solution. He’s just telling you what’s happening. And nobody is listening. Which is, I have to say, profoundly on-brand for radio.

JON COLEMAN, COLEMAN INSIGHTS, Age approximately 72

Started in Dallas in 1978. That’s not a typo. 1978. Coleman Insights has been researching radio listeners for 48 years. Jimmy Carter was president when Jon Coleman wrote his first research questionnaire.

Here’s the beautiful thing about Coleman Insights: they’re the good research firm. They’re serious. The team actually knows what they’re doing. They do podcast research now, streaming research, global media research. They’ve evolved.

But Jon Coleman started this company to serve radio. And the question I want to ask, respectfully, because I believe in the man’s integrity, is this: after 48 years of research showing you exactly what listeners want, exactly what turns them off, exactly what the habits are, exactly what the trends indicate, did radio listen?

Because the research is one thing. Doing something with the research is another. And what I’ve observed, watching this industry for fifty years, is that radio is very good at commissioning research and then filing it in a cabinet next to last decade’s research, which is next to the decade before’s research, all of which said roughly the same thing and none of which materially changed the product.

Forty-eight years of research. Forty-eight years of findings. And the morning show is still doing a phone prank bit.

ALAN BURNS, GARY BERKOWITZ, AND RANDY MICHAELS: THREE

MORE EXHIBITS IN THE MUSEUM OF RADIO’S LONG GOODBYE

ALAN BURNS, Age approximately 73 to 75, Alan Burns and Associates, Founded

1985

Let me start by giving Alan Burns his due. And I mean that. Alan Burns actually worked in the

rooms that matter. He did afternoons at WDAI Chicago. He programmed WLS. He ran ABC’s

WRQX in Washington DC and grew it from a 2 share to the highest-rated major-market Top

40 in America in 1983. He consulted Z100 in New York. KIIS in Los Angeles. These are not

small rooms, people. These are the biggest rooms in the building.

So Alan Burns earned his credibility the right way. He was in the fire. He felt the heat. He has

the scars.

Which makes what happened next all the more fascinating.

In 1985, he took all of that hard-won big-market experience and turned it into a consulting

firm. And for the last forty years, Alan Burns and Associates has been consulting AC and CHR

stations, coaching morning shows, and conducting research.

Forty years.

Here is what I want you to think about. Alan Burns was programming the highest-rated Top 40

in America in 1983. 1983. That is forty-three years ago. Michael Jackson’s Thriller was the

number one album. The internet did not exist. Streaming did not exist. The iPhone did not

exist. The entire competitive landscape that now makes radio irrelevant did not exist.

And Alan Burns has been consulting from that 1983 vantage point for four decades.

Now I want to show you something. Alan Burns and Associates has a website. The website

runs on deprecated PHP code. Literally, if you look at the source, you get error messages

about functions that no longer work in modern programming environments. The digital

infrastructure of Alan Burns and Associates is itself a monument to things that used to work

and no longer do.

I am not making this up. The website of the radio consulting firm is broken in the same way

that radio consulting is broken. Deprecated functions. Legacy code. A system that was built in

one era trying to run in another.

He co-authored the morning show bible, Morning Radio: A Guide to Developing On-Air

Superstars. A guide. To developing. On-air superstars. For a medium that is currently losing

its on-air talent to podcasts, YouTube, and Substack, because those platforms pay better and

have larger audiences and do not require you to be in a building at 5 AM.

Alan Burns is a genuinely accomplished man who built his reputation in the right rooms, at the

right time, and has spent forty years successfully selling that reputation to people who needed

to believe that someone had the answers.

The answers, incidentally, are not the same answers they were in 1983. But forty years of

momentum is a hard thing to redirect.

GARY BERKOWITZ, Age approximately 71 to 73, Berkowitz Broadcast Consulting,

Founded 1990

Gary Berkowitz has done one thing for thirty-five years.

One thing.

Adult Contemporary radio. AC. That is it. That is the entire menu. You want Country? Call

someone else. You want Talk? Wrong number. You want Rock? Gary Berkowitz is not your

man. You want Adult Contemporary radio with a focus on 25-54 ratings?

Gary Berkowitz is your guy. The only guy. His guy.

Now here is where I have to give him credit before I take it away. Gary Berkowitz actually

programmed real stations in real markets. PRO-FM in Providence. WROR in Boston, which

he transformed from an automated Oldies station into one of the first AC formats in America.

WJR in Detroit, the News-Talk powerhouse, which was always number one 25-54 on his

watch. Q95 in Detroit, one of the first Hot ACs in the country, with the celebrated Dick Purtan

morning show.

Boston is market seven. Detroit is market eleven. These are legitimate big-market credentials.

Gary Berkowitz has been in real buildings with real pressure and real stakes and he has

produced real results.

And then in 1990 he started Berkowitz Broadcast Consulting. And the specialization began.

And it never stopped. And it never widened.

Thirty-five years of AC radio. AC radio in 1990. AC radio in 2000. AC radio in 2010. AC radio

in 2024 when Gary Berkowitz wrote a piece saying AC is in a good place and remains one of

the most consistent and resilient of all the legacy formats.

Legacy formats. He called them legacy formats. Gary Berkowitz is himself using the language

of the museum to describe the exhibit he curates.

And here is the beautiful absurdity at the center of Gary Berkowitz’s career. He specializes in

improving 25-54 ratings. 25-54. The demo that advertisers want. The demo that radio has

been chasing for fifty years. The demo that is now 35-74 in terms of who actually listens to AC

radio and has been moving in that direction for twenty years.

Gary Berkowitz is chasing a demographic that has aged out of where it was when he started

chasing it, using strategies refined for a competitive landscape that has completely

transformed, for a format that he himself describes as a legacy, and he is doing it with the

energy and conviction of a man who genuinely believes the patient can still be saved.

And I respect the conviction. I genuinely do. A man who has done one thing for thirty-five

years and still loves doing that one thing is a rare and admirable creature.

I just want to ask him one question. When was the last time a 28-year-old listened to an AC

station and thought: this is exactly what I needed today?

I’ll wait.

RANDY MICHAELS, Age approximately 73 to 74, Real Name: Benjamin Homel,

Currently: Radioactive LLC

Now we get to the main event.

Randy Michaels. Born Benjamin Homel. Changed his name when he started doing on-air

work. At one point early in his career was working at five stations simultaneously under three

different names.

Five stations. Three names. One person. That right there tells you everything you need to

know about Randy Michaels. He has always been more than one person at a time, and the

names have never quite matched the behavior.

Let me walk you through the career because it is genuinely spectacular in the way that a

hurricane is spectacular.

He started in the early 1970s at WGR in Buffalo as an evening personality. Then ten years as

top programmer for Taft Broadcasting’s twelve-station group. Then helped launch Republic

Broadcasting in 1983. Jacor absorbed Republic in 1986 and Michaels went along with it. By

1996 he was CEO of Jacor. In 1993 he had persuaded Sam Zell, the self-described vulture

capitalist, to invest 70 million dollars in the ailing company. Zell bonded with Michaels

because Zell and Michaels were the same kind of person, which is to say the kind of person

who mistakes recklessness for vision.

Michaels sold Jacor to Clear Channel in 1999 for 2.8 billion dollars. Then he ran Clear

Channel Radio and grew it from 425 stations to 1,200 stations in three years.

1,200 stations. One company. One programming philosophy spread across 1,200 properties.

Do you understand what that did to local radio? Do you understand what it means when one

man’s taste, one company’s cost-cutting, one centralized programming strategy, replaces

1,200 individual stations that used to know their communities?

It means you can drive from Miami to Seattle and hear essentially the same station. It means

the DJs are voice-tracked from a studio in another city. It means the morning show has never

been to your town and doesn’t know your mayor’s name. It means local radio became a

national product and lost the only thing that made it irreplaceable.

Randy Michaels did not do this alone. But he ran the machine while it happened and he made

a lot of money doing it.

He left Clear Channel in 2002. Then Sam Zell, apparently having learned nothing from

previous experiences with Randy Michaels, put him in charge of the Tribune Company in

2007. The Chicago Tribune. The Los Angeles Times. The Baltimore Sun. Legacy journalism

institutions with histories going back over a century. Zell handed them to a man whose

journalism credentials were exactly zero.

What happened next was reported on the front page of the New York Times.

Randy Michaels created what multiple witnesses described as a frat house atmosphere at

Tribune Tower. Executives discussed the sexual suitability of employees on an open balcony

above a work area. His chief innovation officer, Lee Abrams, sent a company-wide email with

links to videos labeled with words I cannot repeat in polite company, which resulted in Abrams

being suspended. There were poker parties with cigars in the office of former Tribune

publisher Colonel Robert R. McCormick, which had long been considered a shrine.

And at a formal business dinner at a Chicago hotel, Randy Michaels looked at a waitress, said

to the group watch this, and offered her one hundred dollars to show him her breasts.

The group sat dumbfounded. That is the word a witness used. Dumbfounded. As if it were

possible to be anything else.

The New York Times ran the story in October 2010. Michaels resigned days later. Tribune

paid him 675,000 dollars to go away.

In October 2011, eleven months after being forced out of Tribune for alleged sexual

misconduct and creating a hostile workplace, Randy Michaels was arrested for driving under

the influence in Middletown, Ohio. He had driven his vehicle into a muddy construction area

near Interstate 75. He smelled of alcohol. He failed the sobriety tests. He refused the

breathalyzer.

He was charged under his real name. Benjamin Homel.

Now. Are you ready for the ending? Because here is the ending.

In 2025, Radio Ink Magazine gave Randy Michaels its Lifetime Leadership Award.

Lifetime Leadership.

The man who oversaw the consolidation that hollowed out local radio. The man who ran a

company into bankruptcy while paying himself and his executives 57 million dollars in

bonuses. The man who was forced to resign from Tribune for creating a culture of sexual

harassment and debasement. The man who was arrested for drunk driving in a construction

zone eleven months after the forced resignation. That man received the Lifetime Leadership

Award from the leading trade publication of the radio industry in 2025.

And Randy Michaels, to his credit, is now buying classic hits stations in Louisville and

Cincinnati and programming them himself at the age of 73. He bought WAKY in Louisville. He

bought WOXY in the Miami Valley. He is out there in the mud, literally, doing the work.

And in his Radio Ink interview he said, and I want you to hear this: the people using radio are

people over 45.

After everything. After the consolidation. After Tribune. After the frat house. After the DUI.

After all of it. Randy Michaels, at 73, figured out the same thing that anyone paying attention

figured out twenty years ago: radio’s audience is old. Serve the old audience.

That is the insight. That is what a Lifetime Leadership Award gets you.

I was out of radio in 2016. I worked with a clueless idiot GM in Denver that forced me out so I never saw Randy Michaels get a Lifetime Leadership Award.

Some people really do have all the luck.

RANDY KABRICH, 1956 to 2024, Age at death: 68

I have to include Randy Kabrich. I have to, because Randy Kabrich was the exception in this whole crowd, and exceptions deserve their moment.

Randy Kabrich died in March 2024 of a heart attack in Palm Harbor, Florida. He was 68 years old. He never retired. He was still in the fight.

Here’s what made Randy different: he was willing to call the baby ugly. That was his phrase, call the baby ugly. Meaning: if your station was bad, Randy would tell you it was bad. Not with a PowerPoint. Not with a rebranding strategy. Just, this is bad, here’s exactly why, here’s how to fix it, and I don’t care if you’re the President of the group.

Bob Neil, who ran Cox Radio, said Kabrich had a unique ability to tell you exactly what he thought, even if he thought you might not want to hear it. In a consultant, that’s actually very valuable and unusual.

Unusual. He said unusual. As if telling the truth is a specialty. As if honesty is a differentiator in a consulting marketplace.

And the tragic thing is, it was. It is. It genuinely is.

Randy Kabrich died at 68 having spent his whole career telling radio the truth, and radio is still struggling, and the consultants who told radio what it wanted to hear are still booking keynotes.

There’s a lesson in there. I’ll let you find it.

THE CONFERENCE ECOSYSTEM

Now let me tell you about the conferences. Because you cannot understand the consultant class without understanding the conference ecosystem that sustains them.

Every year, multiple times a year, there are radio conferences. The NAB. The Conclave. The Worldwide Radio Summit. The Country Radio Seminar. The Jacobs Media DASH Conference. The BNM Summit.

And at every one of these conferences, the consultants give speeches. And the programmers attend the speeches. And everybody nods. And then there’s a cocktail hour. And then awards are given. And then everybody goes home and the station still plays the same thirty-eight songs.

Here’s what I want you to calculate: if you take the total cumulative cost of every radio conference ticket, every flight, every hotel room, every cocktail shaker at every cocktail hour, for the last thirty years, how much money is that? Now compare that to the cost of just hiring different people and trying different things.

The conferences are not about fixing radio. The conferences are about processing grief in a socially acceptable way that reinforces the hierarchies of the people who benefit from being at the top of the hierarchy. It’s a wake that never ends. And the corpse is the one paying for the bar tab.

WHAT THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON

Here is the thing I want you to understand, and this is the uncomfortable truth that none of the trade publications will print because these guys advertise in the trade publications:

Every major radio consultant is between 68 and 90-something years old. Every one of them.

These are men who came of age in radio’s golden era, who built careers during radio’s monopoly on the car and the workplace and the bedroom, who got rich during the era of captive audiences, and who are now being asked to save a medium in a world where attention is the most contested resource in human history.

They are not bad people. Several of them are genuinely brilliant people. They invented things that mattered. They built real things. But they built those things in 1974. In 1983. In 1991. When there was no internet. No streaming. No algorithm that knew your taste better than your best friend. No podcast available on any subject, for free, from someone who actually cares about the subject.

Radio had a captive audience and the consultants helped radio optimize for a captive audience. Which is great. Except now the audience isn’t captive. The audience is gone. And the tools you build to optimize captivity are exactly the wrong tools for building something worth choosing.

You can’t consult your way out of this. You can’t research your way out of this. You can’t conference your way out of this. You could reinvent your way out of this. But reinvention requires burning down what you built. And none of these men are going to burn down what they built. That’s not a character flaw. That’s physics.

The people who built the cages cannot see the cages. The cages look like furniture to them. They’ve been in the cage so long the bars feel like walls, and the walls feel like home.

IN SUMMARY

Radio had the most powerful, intimate, personal medium ever invented. A human voice in your ear, wherever you went. No screen required. No battery to charge. Just a voice.

And a generation of consultants, brilliant men, serious men, men with genuine accomplishments, took that voice and ran it through enough research and rotation software and format clocks that it stopped sounding like a person and started sounding like a policy.

And the audience noticed. The audience always notices. They just don’t always tell you. They just leave.

And now the consultants are 70-something years old, still giving speeches, still publishing surveys, still collecting checks, still presenting at the NAB, and the medium they shaped is playing somebody’s algorithm-generated playlist to an audience that is three-quarters the age of the people trying to save it.

-0-

Contact Ed

Web: www.theedhill.com

Phone: (801) 910 – 5447

Email: ed@podstars.net

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June 28, 2026 · 3:00 am

Have You Been Monetized Out of a Job?

This past week was another tough one for so many wonderful people who worked at our nation’s largest commercial broadcaster, iHeartMedia. The “monetization purge” that took place was huge. Large markets, medium markets, small markets all were impacted in a big way.

Clear Channel

During my time at then Clear Channel Communications (2004-2009), I enjoyed working within this behemoth of a company that had every resource any radio manager could imagine at their fingertips. It was amazing, until it wasn’t.

Private Equity Radio

In 2008, Clear Channel Communications was acquired by a private equity consortium led by Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners in a massive $18.7 billion buyout. While the deal was originally agreed upon in 2006, it didn’t close until July 2008.

As a market manager, what I witnessed was control of the radio stations moving from the local management and people who lived in the market to a centralized system of control from the top. Decisions were driven by reviewing Excel spreadsheets prepared by people who never worked a day of radio in their lives or had any real understanding of how radio made money.

Less Is More

In 2009, being a market manager was trying to do more with less; people and resources, that is. I remember going to a management meeting and coming home with a thumb drive of all the people I would need to eliminate. The word of the day was “RIF” or Reduction In Force.

We eliminated the promotions department, traffic department, downsized air shifts, and our sales team of 15 was reduced to five sellers and the three sales managers were eliminated.

This process of reducing staff occurred over the first nine months of 2009 until my regional manager came in and RIF’d me, along with many other market managers in his region. Then senior management RIF’d the regional managers, before the company president RIF’d them. The coup de grâce was when private equity folks RIF’d the president.

Money saved,

but radio – not so much.

RIF’s

Radio would be forever changed after the Telcom Act of 1996. This began the downward spiral through consolidation funded by Wall Street. It was during this period of time that the acronym “RIF” would enter radio’s lexicon.

2009, 2020 & 2026

This year joins 2009 and 2020, when the radio industry also endured massive staff reductions.

RIF veterans from the first round, can often be found saying to one another, “is there really anyone left to RIF?”

Lancaster, PA & Sussex, NJ

I was a market manager for Clear Channel Communications/iHeartMedia in both Lancaster, Pennsylvania and Sussex County, New Jersey. Reading the trades this past week, I believe that all of the air staff in both of the markets have been eliminated.

It breaks my heart for all the people who were RIF’d out of a career that was their life’s passion.

Efficiency Bubble

The “efficiency bubble” means that efficiency is valued over effectiveness. AI (Artificial Intelligence) is exacerbating this change at lightning speed.

In the UK, Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, shared a personal experience that demonstrated what happens when efficiency bubble is pursued.

“The absurdity of the efficiency bubble was brought home to me in a recent meeting with an online travel company. The conversation repeatedly included the mantra ‘the need to maximize online conversion.’ Everyone nodded along. Clearly, it is much more efficient for people to book travel through the website than over the telephone, since it reduces transaction costs. But then someone – not me, I’m ashamed to say – said something revelatory: ‘Ah, but here’s the thing. Online visitors to the site convert at about 0.3%. People who telephone convert at 33%. Maybe the website should have a phone number on every page.”

“Perhaps the most efficient way to sell travel is not the most effective way to sell travel. What, in short, is the opportunity cost of being efficient?”

“Nobody ever asks this question. Opportunity costs are invisible; short-term savings earn you a bonus. That’s the efficiency bubble at work again.”

According to radio research conducted by Fred Jacobs in his annual Techsurveys, radio personalities are more valued by the radio listener than the music played.  But in the current environment, I don’t hear anyone talking about “opportunity costs” being sacrificed with all these RIFs.

Radio companies are all chasing the same efficiency metrics, the result is why all radio stations sound the same and their websites look the same. Consolidators have made this once creative medium a commodity.

Today’s world offers infinite choices when it comes to audio programming, and radio continues to eliminate its competitive advantage; its people.

When Your Iceberg Melts

Back in 2008, many people picked up a copy of Ken Blanchard’s book “Who Moved My Cheese?” I know I did. It’s a great read.

But maybe the book everyone in broadcasting should be reading today is “Our Iceberg Is Melting” by John Kotter. Kotter is an award winning author from the Harvard Business School.

Like Blanchard and Johnson’s Cheese book, Kotter writes a simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world.

The fable is about penguins in Antarctica that discover a potential devastating problem to their home – an iceberg – it’s melting away.

It’s a story that will resonate with anyone, as AI (Artificial Intelligence) is eliminating the need for people in all professions; not just radio broadcasting.

Kotter’s book walks you through the eight steps needed to produce positive change. You will not only enjoy the read, but will be guided with valuable insights to deal with our 21st Century world that is moving faster and faster every day.

Sadly, all industries today face an urgent need to adapt to AI-driven automation, which is reshaping the global workforce.

Emotions

The radio business was never built on Excel spreadsheets and doing what was most efficient, it was built by creative people who touched others emotionally. Be it station imaging, air personalities, promotions, community events, advertising or marketing; radio always went for people’s hearts. And now those talented people have been shown the door.

Where’s The Outrage?

Striking the emotional chord with the listener is what successful radio stations, podcasts and other audio programs will be focused on. The pursuit of efficiency is a rational answer to an emotional problem.

We make choices in products and services emotionally.

We justify those decisions rationally.

-Roy H. Williams

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February 15, 2026 · 3:00 am

What is Radio in 2026?

Two years ago, I asked the question, “Has Radio Lost Its Why?” I asked, because 100 years ago radio’s WHY was to be a technology that could provide nationwide communications that would be a unifier for cultural and social systems.

Since the start of the new year, as I’ve sat in on webinars, one technological development has dominated all of them; Artificial Intelligence aka AI.

Radio’s Revenue Source

Radio is an advertising supported medium and in 2026, the radio companies that are growing the most, attribute that growth to their digital initiatives.

Those initiatives include standalone web news sites, that don’t even mention radio, let alone radio stations owned by the same company. These products work best in communities that have been left with a  “news desert” created by say the death of their local newspaper.

Just about every business has found its original business model challenged by a population connected to the internet; an internet now enhanced by artificial intelligence.

What Does A.I. Say Radio is Today?

I put that very question to artificial intelligence and it responded with:

AI Overview

In 2026, radio is a hybrid, digital-first medium, blending traditional intimate human-hosted broadcasting with AI-driven efficiencies and multi-platform distribution. It acts as a trusted, community-focused and increasingly interactive audio experience, merging terrestrial, streaming and podcasting formats while leveraging AI to enhance, not replace, the human connection. 

Key Aspects of Radio in 2026:

  • Digital Integration & AI: The industry is focusing heavily on integrating digital sales and AI-based recommendations to boost advertiser ROI, notes Radio Ink. AI is used to optimize content creation and understand listener habits.
  • Human Connection in the Age of AI: Despite the rise of AI-driven tools the human voice remains the most valuable asset for connecting with local audiences.
  • Format Trends: “Yacht Rock” has, emerged as a popular format in early 2026, alongside more traditional local programming. RadioInsight.
  • Technological Shift: The, growth of, DAB+ is enhancing sound quality and variety offering better reach for local and online stations, say RadioKing.
  • Key Future Focus: According to the National Federation of Community Broadcasters 2026 is about adapting to new models where community stations prioritize direct engagement over federal funding.
  • Role and Relevance: Radio is seen as one of the last free accessible sources of news and information, as shown on PBS.    

According to Radio Content Pro 2026 signals a pivot towards a more diversified revenue stream.

Where is The Best Place For a Small Business to Advertise?

I asked A.I. to advise me about where a small business should advertise, and it said:

Recommended “Small Business Mix” (2026)

If you have a limited budget, experts recommend a 70/20/10 split: 

  1. 70% in proven intent-based channels (e.g., Google Search).
  2. 20% in optimization/retargeting (e.g., Meta Ads to stay top-of-mind).
  3. 10% in experimental high-growth channels (e.g., TikTok Shop or in-game advertising).

Color me skeptical, but asking an internet based computer brain, where the best place to advertise, is like asking a barber where the best place is to get a haircut.

But as Fred Jacobs pointed out in a blog article he wrote this week, in 2026 “it is a challenge to find radios for sale at mass merchandise stores like Walmart, Costco, Target, or Best Buy.”

Radio’s Big Problem

The real issue for radio broadcasters is that the internet is a better innovation for addressing those original foundational tenets of radio’s purpose than radio itself; to “operate in the public interest, convenience and/or necessity.” “You can often feel a competitor coming long before you lose your dominance in your format category,” says Jacobs.

So, in 2026, What is Radio’s WHY?

Simon Sinek published a great book in 2009 called “Start With Why.” Sinek argued that the most influential leaders and organizations communicate from the inside out, starting with their purpose (the “Why”) before the “How” and “What”.

Sadly, all I’m hearing from radio industry leaders are a lot of “How’s” and “What’s” without the foundational question of “Why.”

People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.

-Simon Sinek

Radio consultant Tommy Kramer frames the answer to your radio station’s WHY question this way:

  • What does your radio station do that I can’t get everywhere else?
  • What does your radio station do that I can get ANYWHERE else?

My wife Sue and I got really engaged in the Venerable Monks “Walk For Peace” from Fort Worth, Texas to Washington, DC; a 2,300 mile walk. Venerable Monk Bhikkhu Pannakara was riveting each time he spoke. He said something that I think applies to this question of knowing Radio’s WHY in 2026 when it comes to sales and marketing your radio station.

He said that in order to give something to another person, you must first own it yourself. For example, you can’t give a bottle of water to another person if you don’t first have a bottle of water to give. Likewise, you can’t give love to another person if at first you don’t love yourself.

Radio can’t tell an advertiser WHY radio is a good place to spend their ad dollars, if they don’t first know their radio station’s WHY to begin with.

Why do you do, what you do?

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October 12, 2025 · 3:00 am

Happy 80th Birthday Art Vuolo, Jr

On September 27, 2025, radio people from all over the United States traveled to Novi, Michigan to celebrate Art Vuolo, Jr’s 80th birthday and enjoy each other’s company. The weather was spectacular, as the 150 or so folks that gathered renewed old acquaintances and/or made new ones.

I’ve known Art for over four decades, and cherish him like a brother.

Sue and I commemorated Art’s decades of video recording America’s Best Air Personalities, by presenting Art with a crystal microphone for truly being “Radio’s Best Friend.”

Today’s blog is a montage of pictures Sue and I took on that special day.

Art Vuolo, Jr holding his “Radio’s Best Friend” crystal microphone
Phlash Phelps is presented with a plaque commemorating his 25-years on the air at SiriusXM
The Illinois Rock & Roll Museum inducted Chicago radio station WCFL into it’s Hall of Fame, two weeks before Art’s 80th party. Since WCFL is no more, it was decided that Art Vuolo, Jr should be the caretaker for this award.
Shotgun Tom Kelly presenting me with a copy of his book, “All I Wanna Do Is Play The Hits!”
Shotgun Tom Kelly, John Records Landecker, Dusty Rhodes & Gary Jeff
Kathy & Terry Stevens, Art talk with Fred Jacobs and Paul Jacobs

What a fabulous gift idea, a take-off of the BIG 8’s logo. Jo Jo Shutty, of CKLW, is holding it for the picture. Jo-Jo Shutty was the First Female News and Traffic Helicopter Reporter in North America while at CKLW.
Some of the attendees gathered on the hillside, next to Art’s home, for a group picture.

This was not only Art’s 80th birthday celebration, but sadly, also the last Motor City Radio Reunion. After all, we are all getting older, making it difficult for many of us to make this radio pilgrimage.

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May 18, 2025 · 3:00 am

How You Say It, Makes All the Difference

A few of weeks ago, my wife Sue & I went to two different churches for Easter Sunday services; our new church, where we just became members and our old church where we exchanged our vows of commitment to each other.

Here’s what I learned…

Talking versus Preaching

One of the pastors delivered the service as if he was talking to us. He engaged us with his message, as if he were having a conversation, and even posed questions to the congregation. The religious meaning of Easter Sunday was delivered in a relatable way, bringing meaning and perspective to the world we are living in today.

The other pastor, at our second Easter service, preached…or what I might characterize as “talking at and not to” me. It didn’t really relate to the world outside the church doors, in tone or message. The sermon made no effort to tie a religious message to our current reality.

WABC – “The Last Aircheck”

On Saturday, May 10th, Rewound Radio aired, what’s become known as “The Last Aircheck,” the day that WABC Music Radio 77 would switch their format to Talk Radio 77. That happened 43 years ago on May 10, 1982.

Those final hours were hosted by Ron Lundy and Dan Ingram, and as I listened to the replay of that broadcast, I got goosebumps. The sound of their voices took me back in time, when listening to the radio was like a religious experience for me.

Techsurvey 2025

Fred Jacobs has been tracking the power of personalities in his annual Techsuveys, the most recent one which came out in the first quarter of this year. Here’s the trendline:

Fred’s graph only goes back to 2014, but radio captured my heart in the 60s. It was a time when great radio personalities ruled the airwaves on virtually every broadcast signal.

Radio owners would covet, promote and value their air personalities and so did the radio audience. For the radio listener, meeting their favorite air personality was a heart pounding experience.

The Human Voice

I never had the opportunity to meet Ron Lundy or Dan Ingram, but their voices owned real estate in my brain. As it was broadcast over Rewound Radio, hearing them talking on “The Last Aircheck” made the same impact as it did when I heard them LIVE 43 years ago.

That’s the power of the human voice.

Church Attendance & Radio Listenership

In today’s world, both entities are challenged to build and hold an audience. Our new church saw its lead pastor of 12 years promoted and a new pastor was named to replace him.

Like a radio station that loses a popular personality, and causes listeners to seek out other listening possibilities, a church changing its pastor is monumental change, often causing people to try other churches.

One saving grace in our church’s situation was having an assistant pastor that provided continuity to the congregation during this time of change.

The good news is that when the new pastor arrived, he would be as dynamic as the pastor who had left; maybe even more so. Our congregation has grown under his leadership, at a time when other churches have not. He talks, not preaches; and he listens.

Every Hour in Radio is Front Page

Radio, unlike print publications, doesn’t have a back page. Every minute of the broadcast day is like being on the front page. Every minute counts and a radio station is either building an audience, keeping an audience or losing an audience.

Radio’s reduction in force (RIF) of its air personalities has created two problems:

1) many hours of the broadcast day are now sterile and

2) those sterile hours aren’t just driving away radio listeners to other venues, but they also aren’t attracting a new generation of broadcasters who’ve been inspired by what they hear coming through their radio speaker.

BOTTOM LINE

Today’s radio lacks personality and FOMO.*

*FOMO is Fear Of Missing Out

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February 23, 2025 · 3:00 am

Pilot of the Airwaves

Forty-six years ago, Charlie Dore wrote and recorded the song “Pilot of the Airwaves,” a song about a girl who stays up late every night to listen to her favorite radio air personality. She requests that he play a record for her, either the one she suggested or a record of his choice, and adds “I’ve been listening to your show on the radio and you seem like a friend to me.”

Companionship

Radio’s most important strength has always been its ability to provide companionship to the radio listener, and the radio air personality becomes a trusted friend, like a member of the family.

Freddie Mercury

Forty-one years ago (1984) Queen released “Radio Ga Ga,” a song that reflected on the changing popularity of radio and television with the advent of MTV and music videos. In the song, Freddie Mercury belts out “Radio, someone still loves you!”

Which begs the question, if in 1984, Queen felt it necessary to reaffirm the power of radio – before there was the internet and streaming – what must it be like today, 41-years later? Who’s showing the love now, and why?

I Watched It All On My Radio

Thirty-Five years ago, Lionel B. Cartwright released a song that spoke to how radio is “the theater of the mind” in a song called “I Watched It All On My Radio.” It’s a song about a young boy’s remembrances of listening to his transistor radio growing up. This song brought to mind how Charles Osgood (CBS Radio Commentator) would sign-off his radio broadcasts saying “I’ll see you on the radio.” Ah, the good old days.

Video Killed The Radio Star

MTV signed on in 1981, playing music videos that were introduced by Video Jockeys (VJs). The first song played on MTV on August 1st of that year was by The Buggles, “Video Killed The Radio Star.” A key line in that song was “In my mind and in my car, we can’t rewind we’ve gone too far.” The original VJs were all gone before the end of the decade and while MTV still exists, it’s less focused on music videos having  migrated into reality shows for teenagers.

So, video didn’t kill the radio star, but consolidation of radio ownership certainly has.

Radio Listeners Miss Hearing Their Favorite DJs

CRS ‘25 (Country Radio Seminar) just ended in Nashville. Listener research done by NuVoodoo’s Carolyn Gilbert and Leigh Jacobs found that listeners are noticing their favorite personalities are getting downsized, telling the audience that “thirty-six percent agreed that many of the hosts and DJs they had enjoyed hearing on the radio [have] lost their jobs. They’re aware.”

Techsurvey 2024

A year ago, Fred Jacobs released his company’s 20th annual Techsurvey on the habits of radio listeners. One of the major findings of Techsurvey 2024 was how a majority of listeners enjoy the local feel and connection with personalities.

Yet, radio companies continue to de-emphasize experienced local talent – in other words, fire them.

Expiring Skills & Permanent Skills

Morgan Housel, a partner at The Collaborative Fund and an expert on behavioral finance and history, says that every field has two kinds of skills:

  • Expiring skills, which are vital at a given time but prone to diminishing as technology improves and a field evolves.
  • Permanent skills, which were as essential 100 years ago as they are today, and will still be 100 years from now.

Is Being a DJ an Expiring Skill?

  • Seems like everyone’s been talking about what artificial intelligence (A.I.), means for the future of air personalities. Radio owners seem to be excited about A.I. but radio personalities view this new technology with trepidation.
  • You might be wondering if being an air personality is something that will no longer be relevant and can be replaced by a robot.
  • If we’re talking about replacing mindless voice tracking, maybe A.I. is an improvement, but if we’re talking about making a human connection, I think not.
  • Most permanent skills are human-centric, meaning that they are not something a chatbot can duplicate. Sharing of human experiences can only be done by another human. Permanent skills require emotional intelligence which compound over time.
  • People who spend a lifetime perfecting one skill whose importance never wanes, will be the ones in demand.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) Is Not The Answer

The popular TV game show, Family Feud, began airing on ABC in 1976. It would be the personal charm and witty banter of host Richard Dawson that would make the Feud hugely popular with television audiences.

The show continued on after Dawson left, hosted by Ray Combs, Louie Anderson, Richard Karn and John O’Hurley, but it wasn’t until radio star Steve Harvey took over in 2010 that Family Feud saw renewed success. Ratings for the program increased by as much as 40%, and has become the fifth most popular show in syndication being renewed once again through the 2025-2026 season.

By the way, Steve Harvey hosts the #1 syndicated morning radio show in America too.

Personalities like Steve Harvey are not worried about being replaced by artificial intelligence because they have developed a useful and permanent skill in a world that is constantly changing.

Yes, this is both a national example, as well as one about television, but great local radio stations embrace the importance of having strong personalities, like a Steve Harvey, filling their rosters of air talent.

Humans connect with other humans that engage them.

Being human is something artificial intelligence will never be.

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January 26, 2025 · 3:00 am

UNCERTAIN

If you had to sum up, in one word, what the year ahead for radio would be like, what word would you choose?

The word I chose was “UNCERTAIN,” when Fred Jacobs posed that question to the readers of his blog.

Word Salad

To be more specific, the question Fred Jacobs asked his readers to respond to was:

What’s your unique “take” on broadcast radio in 2025?  In a word, how would you describe this next 11+ months?  What’s the state of radio in 2025 – in just one word?

He put that question to the readers of his blog on Monday (1/20/2025) and on Wednesday (1/22/2025), after more than 225 people responded,  produced the “Word Cloud” shown below.

My response of “UNCERTAIN,” can be found in the upper left hand corner.

CES 2025

On Tuesday (1/21/2025), Fred gave a webinar on this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (now just simply called CES) held at the beginning of each year in Las Vegas. He characterized this year’s show as “NOT NORMAL” calling it a transformative event.

In his summary of the Top 10 Themes at CES 2025, all of them included Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Filling Talent Shortages

A new study released Tuesday (1/21/2025) by Hult International Business School and Workplace Intelligence found that even when faced with widespread talent shortages, employers would rather hire a robot or AI than a recent graduate.

You don’t have to be in radio to feel a sense of terror for what lies ahead for America’s working class.

College Graduates

“Meanwhile, recent graduates who have successfully joined companies, have found the work experience invaluable. 77% said they learned more in half a year on the job than in four years of undergrad and 87% said their employer provided better job training than college.”

“Over half (55%) said that college didn’t prepare them in any way for the job they currently hold,” according to the survey, which isn’t a glowing endorsement for getting an expensive college education and racking up a large debt.

This was something I realized while teaching at the university back in 2016 and blogged about in an article called “Just In Time Learning.”

Division

Fred summed up the results of his unscientific experiment saying:

“And we wonder why radio discussions on social media turn into debates, while often devolving into rants and responses in ALL CAPS. We may as well be talking politics. Actually, we very much are.”

The one word that never came up in the more than two hundred participants was…

“unified.”

For America today, the one word that best describes our country is “divided.”

So, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that when asked about what the future of broadcasting is, the answer is…

Radio, like our country, is divided.

We have the large and powerful radio operators and then we have a few mom & pop stations, with the rest of the local service primarily being the dedicated operators of Low Power FM (LPFM) radio stations, supported by listeners and local business underwriters.

The gap between the haves and have-nots keeps widening, which prevents the radio industry from speaking with one voice.

America’s 2nd Gilded Age

You tell me if what happened a century ago sounds like what’s happening in America today.

During the 1920s, America became more prosperous and saw unprecedented growth in industry and technology. But the Gilded Age had a more sinister side: It was a period where greedy, corrupt industrialists, bankers and politicians enjoyed extraordinary wealth and opulence at the expense of the working class.

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August 11, 2024 · 3:00 am

Ad-Supported SiriusXM Requires No Paid Subscription

Eight years ago, I wrote an article for this blog titled “SiriusXM Radio is Now Free.” At the time I was speculating on what might happen to over-the-air commercial radio if the satellite company were to turn on their ad-supported channels in every vehicle equipped with a SiriusXM radio.

Well, it looks like that is finally coming to pass.

SiriusXM’s Growth Has Stalled

Fred Jacob’s wrote in his blog on Friday that…

SiriusXM, increasingly frustrated by their inability to grow their subscriber base.  Looking at the Netflix model, the satcaster earlier this week unveiled their own ad-supported tier for no fee.

Obviously, this is a radical departure from SXM’s legacy subscriber-driven platform.  Radio Ink reported that no matter how you look at the in-car battlefield, satellite lags far behind traditional radio listening.  SiriusXM, however, performs much better in luxury brand, such as Mercedes-Benz and Audio, as well as in newer vehicles.

Inside Radio says there are other hoops for drivers to jump through.  While SXM CEO Jennifer Witz says the new plan is all about “repositioning our business for the future,”  the story goes onto say the free service is only available to owners of vehicles with the company’s  360L receivers.   Additionally, eligibility is limited to those whose free trials runs out and can only be activated by one vehicle per customer.

But it’s a start.  While the company acknowledges it will take time to amp up the platform’s commercial options for advertisers, you can see that’s where they’re headed.  SiriusXM needs to jumpstart its user base, while cashing in on inventory sales.

Will it work?  Can a radical move to offer a “free” version of satellite radio actually be a game-changer for SXM.

We can all speculate about the wisdom of this risky move by SiriusXM, but like the growth of [other ad-upported] channels, it attempts to cash in on the notion of not paying cash for any media content.

Pay & Free

It doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to understand why satellite radio is deciding to have the best of both worlds. Offer the premium pay channels to those willing to pay for them and at the same time create a free tier of channels that could be ad supported by national advertisers.

What history shows us are things that happen in other industries and services – eventually making their way around to virtually all of them.

NOW – It’s only a matter of time.

Link to my 2016 blog article: https://dicktaylorblog.com/2016/07/17/siriusxm-radio-is-now-free/

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February 18, 2024 · 3:00 am

Is AM Radio “Hot or “Not”?

Twenty-four years ago, in October 2000, a new relationship website launched called “Hot or Not.” The premise of the site was for people to submit photos of themselves (or others) to have users of the site rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 on their attractiveness.

Within a month of launching, the site reached around two million page views per day.

Mark Zuckerberg’s original idea was to do something similar with a site he created called FashMash, which became TheFacebook.com in 2004 (now just Facebook.com). Likewise, the founders of YouTube said they originally set out to create a video version of “hot or not” before developing a more inclusive site.

HOT or NOT

It was based on this site that Fred Jacobs presented, the things he did and saw at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, aka CES 2024, as being “Hot or Not.”

During the webinar, I asked the smarmy question “Is AM Radio HOT?” in the chat box. (No, I didn’t get an answer.)

However, the bigger question really is, “Is RADIO Hot or Not?”

The answer from everything I’m reading is “Not,” at least in the way things are going.

When it came to radio audience ratings, I never concerned myself with individual ratings, but preferred to study audience trends. Here’s the latest trend lines for both broadcast radio and digital streaming:

Not A Viable Business Anymore

In Canada this month, the chief legal and regulatory officer of Bell Media grabbed the headlines worldwide, when he explained the reason Bell was selling off 45 of its radio broadcast properties, was they were “not a viable business anymore.”

“One man’s trash is another man’s radio stations.”

-Fred Jacobs

So, what do you think the buyers of these radio stations must have thought, after the seller tells the world they think the radio stations they just sold are not a viable business?

Surprise, they are very positive about the radio business. Take a moment to listen to this very positive view from the CEO of My Broadcasting Corporation, one of the seven local broadcast companies that purchased radio stations from Bell.  You can here that CBC interview here: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-100-ottawa-morning/clip/16041778-local-bell-media-radio-stations-owner

The State of Media 2024

Harker Bos Group https://harkerbos.com/ released new research on the state of media today and here are some of the key takeaways.

What are radio listeners looking to hear?

  • 54% highlight the importance of local coverage
  • 67% sound quality
  • 54% station availability
  • 53% ease of use

When the researchers compared broadcast radio to digital streaming of music, they found that usage of broadcast by younger audiences was losing out to streaming services. Those that are frequent users of streaming music tend to access it via smartphones, computers, smart speakers and tablets preferring on-demand music services with personalized playlists and recommendations. Streaming also provides users global access that is not bound by geographical limitations.

Is The Media Prepared For An Extinction-Level Event?

That headline in the New Yorker caught my attention! The author, Claire Malone, cites “ads are scarce, search and social traffic is dying, and readers are burned out, [which means] the future will require fundamentally rethinking the press’s relationship to its audience.”

The way to become a millionaire in radio,

is to start with a billion dollars.

That’s not something new, that witticism has been around since the end of the 20th Century. I was reminded of it when Claire shared the words of a late-career writer’s advice to the newbies: “You want to make it in journalism, marry rich.”

Last year, 2,681 people were laid off in broadcast, print and digital news media.

In February of this year, after the record-setting viewership to the CBS broadcast of Super Bowl 58, that very network announced it would be cutting 800 jobs.

Significant job cuts have taken place at:

  • NBC News
  • Vox Media
  • Vice News
  • Business Insider
  • Spotify
  • theSkimm
  • FiveThirtyEight
  • The Athletic
  • The New Yorker
  • Sports Illustrated

And some other media outlets closed down:

  • BuzzFeed
  • Gawker
  • Pitchfork
  • The Messenger (this endeavor lasted less than a year)

“Publishers, brace yourselves – it’s going to be a wild ride.

I see a potential extinction-level event in the future.”

-Matthew Goldstein, media consultant

I share these stories with you, not to depress you, but for you to better understand what’s going on, and that it’s not just a radio problem, but a media problem.

As Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and others add advertising to formerly ad-free streaming channels, where will those ad dollars come from; radio, TV, cable, newspapers, magazines? The advertising dollar pie is not infinite; to grow your piece of the pie, means eating someone else’s.

“It’s time for a new revolution.”

-Mark Thompson, CNN’s new CEO/Editor-in-Chief

Sadly, many media folks working in the industry today, have only been part of the culture of decline – where cutting expenses has been the only plan to achieve future success.

What’s always been true, is it takes money to make money.

Netflix, for example, invests a billion dollars in research and development – mostly on data scientists, engineers, and designers who help Netflix subscribers discover content that they will love.

How’s that working out for Netflix? Here’s the latest data:

In 2024, media companies will find media users making decisions on which services they really want – and can afford – to continue subscribing to.

For radio operators, who operate a subscription-free service, the challenge will be:

  • to understand what your listening area’s population wants, needs and desires, and
  • to deliver for your underwriters or advertisers the best R.O.I. (Return On Investment)

The best ratings for advertisers

will always be increased cash register rings.

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September 24, 2023 · 3:00 am

Is There a Future For Anyone in an A.I. World?

Last week I asked the question “Is There a Future for Radio Personalities?” That blog was my analysis of the latest research done by Jacob Media Strategies for Don Anthony’s annual Morning Show Boot Camp. I wasn’t surprised by the volume of comments about the blog, however it was sad to find that most people feel the days of making RADIO a career are over.

A.I. (Artificial Intelligence)

The part of Fred Jacob’s research I didn’t include in last week’s blog was the impact that air personalities thought A.I. would make on their future. 76% of the people in the survey agreed with the question: “I’m personally concerned that A.I. technology will lead to many more on-air radio jobs being lost.”

It’s Worse Than You Think

Our universe is estimated to be 26.7 billion years old. Humans on planet earth have only been around 6,000 years, but look at all we’ve accomplished in such a short period of time.

Now, what maybe mankind’s greatest invention might also be responsible for our demise: A.I. or Artificial Intelligence.

This technology has the potential to take away

30% OF ALL JOBS within 10 years.

Think of all the jobs that A.I. can do better (and maybe do even better than you or I).

  • Stock Trader
  • Truck Driver
  • Accountant
  • Telemarketer
  • Lawyer
  • Bookkeeper
  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Musician
  • Painter
  • Radio Personality

It would be easier to make a list of the jobs that cannot be impacted by A.I., than a list of those that will.

To get a better idea of how scary this technology is, listen to either of these links:

The proliferation of these kind of A.I. creations can abundantly be found on YouTube.

Today’s A.I. voice software can listen to a few seconds of anyone’s voice and completely re-create a replica that is almost indistinguishable from the original. I don’t know what is most troubling, that it can be done, that it can be done so quickly or that it’s so easy that anyone can do it.

Call Centers

Call centers are big business around the world, making up 8% of India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), 6.3% of Brazil’s GDP and while America outsources the majority of this type of work, the U.S. still employs 3.4 million people who work in call centers.

A.I. has the ability to completely replace everyone

working in call centers around the world.

You don’t have to be a political scientist to predict what would happen if 8% of a country’s GDP is suddenly wiped away. You’ll see more people carrying pitchforks and torches than stormed the castle in “Beauty & The Beast.”

I have radio friends that have used their incredible voices to produce audio books, and earned a good living in the process. A.I. will replace these talented people as well.

Actors & Writers Strike

It’s not just the radio industry that is finding itself in unknown territory.

Actors fear they will lose control of their lucrative likeness and writers fear they will have to share credit with a machine. Watch this situation closely, because writers and actors are the proverbial “canary in the coal mine” for what’s to come for the rest of us in media.

A.I. is at the very heart of the current actors and writers strike, it’s ahead of pay models, benefits and job protections.

Federal A.I. Commission

Senator Chris Murphy is one of the most outspoken members of Congress on artificial intelligence. “When you start to outsource the bulk of human creativity to machines, there comes with that a human rot,” says Senator Murphy. He estimates that humans being replaced for creativity by computers will happen at a staggering scale within the next two to three years, and it scares the hell out of him.

Senator Murphy believes that it is time to create a new regulatory body, like the creation of the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) that came into existence with the advent of broadcast radio.

“There are really deep spiritual questions at hand here. I don’t think policymakers should be shy about talking about that,” Senator Murphy believes.

Putting Things In Perspective

While humans may have inhabited this planet for 6,000 years, look at what has happened in just the last 50 years:

  • The personal computer is 50 years old
  • The iPhone is 16 years old
  • Today’s A.I. is 5 years old

Of all the many calamities the human race faces in the years ahead — a full-scale nuclear war, climate change or artificial intelligence – it’s A.I. that poses the greatest risk. One highly researched economist report on A.I. noted that “there’s more than a 50-50 chance A.I. will wipe out all of humanity by the middle of the century.”

“Open the pod bay doors please Hal.

I’m sorry Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that.”

-from the movie “2001 – A Space Odyssey”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSIKBliboIo

Google co-founder, Larry Page, believes that once computers are smarter than humans, they will find no use for us humans, and they will simply get rid of us. He sees this as the next step in the evolutionary process.

If we don’t understand the risks, along with the benefits A.I. brings to us, we might all end up like Dave.

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Note: For a deep dive on this subject, read the article by Nick Bolton from the September 13, 2023 edition of Vanity Fair. It was this article that provided many of the facts and quotes used in this week’s blog: Artificial Intelligence May Be Humanity’s Most Ingenious Invention—And Its Last? Silicon Valley is barreling ahead with AI technology that could unlock novel forms of creativity, art, and medicine, and potentially, wipe out all mankind. As one AI engineer warns, “We’re creating God.”

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