Category: Digital
New Tech Gives Hosts Control and Breeds Engagement
By Robin Lundberg
Stick-to-Sports
Host
NEW YORK — There are a lot of reasons we speak into the microphone or stand in front of the camera, but there is one thing that all of us in talk have in common (besides a large ego and a need to be heard). It’s the thing we build into our contracts. We lobby for it in editorial and production meetings. It is what we expect when our name is part of the title of the show.
We want…control.
It turns out that the nature of on-air control for television and new media is quickly evolving and the result is a dream come true for hosts.
Social Media: Like Your Friends
By Holland Cooke
Media Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND — Social media tools can be extremely valuable to broadcasters who don’t just use them to…broadcast. At the recent NAB/RAB Radio Show in Nashville, Cumulus/Westwood One VP/social Lori Lewis crystallized the opportunity: “The essence of social media is reminding people that they matter.”
For Gordon Deal, host of the nationally-syndicated “This Morning – America’s First News,” it’s a useful feedback loop: “I’m not above getting an occasional kick in the pants from a listener if he or she feels a story sounded too biased.” And he is as flattered that someone would take the time to speak up as they seem to be when he acknowledges them: “Even the angriest and most biased of listeners sometimes just want to be heard. 99% of the time, a polite Tweet back that acknowledges their feelings is all they’re looking for.”
Cooke: Will You Be Ready When On-Demand Content Is Rated?
Wake-Up Call: Nielsen will rate Netflix and other video on-demand
By Holland Cooke
Radio Consultant
BLOCK ISLAND, RI — With hits like “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black” re-defining television, it was inevitable.
How soon before Nielsen measures podcasts, streams, and non-transmitter-delivered audio? Hopefully, not before radio smells the coffee, and steps up on-demand delivery.
Most stations do on-demand all wrong, typically archiving on-air shows, deeper within the station website than many listeners will bother clicking. Too often, those who do get there find whole hours labeled only by date and time.
The Kinder Eggs Shocker
Six New Facts About Online Video
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
CEO
NEW YORK — Please take a moment to look at this video for Kinder Eggs. You only need to watch for a moment. There are other Kinder Egg videos in the Que with similar view counts of over 100,000,000.
Why do Kinder Eggs pull high view counts? The answer reveals a profound difference between online video platforms and TV or passive video platforms.
1. If a user types in “Airplane,” many videos featuring airplanes pop up. But, platform engines also push videos that share similar title spellings. Type “airplane” and “airplane” videos come up first, then “air show” “air balloon”, lots of “air.” Most marketers ignore the opportunities presented by the shared title spelling previews. For example:
Thinking Visual in Your Audio World
By Gabe Barnes
Director, Business Development
Mersoft Media
KANSAS CITY — Stevie Wonder is one hell of a musician and singer, but I am not putting a paintbrush in his hand and asking him to be Picasso. His art might turn out a bit abstract…. And that is putting it nicely.
I use this analogy to get radio groups thinking. For so long, all that they have had to be able to do is paint a pretty picture in the minds of their listeners with colorful dialogue, stories, and audio entertainment. But now, they are being asked to paint those same pictures in the eyes of that same audience.
So how does a radio station begin to think visually when they have been so accustomed to working in the audio world? Here are six recommendations to consider when thinking from a visual perspective:
What Listeners Will Find Under the Tree
By Holland Cooke
Radio Consultant
NEW YORK — Even before Thanksgiving, we know what will be in Santa’s sleigh, if just-released Consumer Electronics Association research nails it as well as in recent years. The outlook is good generally, according to CEA chief economist & director of research Dr. Shawn DuBravac, who observes that “consumer credit is accelerating, and lower gas prices will help.” He predicts 2.5% growth over last year’s holiday spending, consistent with other improved economic indicators.
His forecast came Tuesday at CES Unveiled/New York, the perennial press event previewing January’s massive, mind-boggling Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. Not surprisingly, tech gifts will be big again this year, with 63% of USA adults surveyed planning to buy accordingly.
How Mobile Can Save Your Talk Radio Brand
By Gabe Barnes
Director, Business Development
Mersoft Media
KANSAS CITY — Now I know that many of you may be thinking, “What the hell is this guy talking about?”
But hear me out first.
I am not saying that if you do not embrace mobile, your station might cease to exist. I am saying that if you don’t embrace mobile, your station WILL CEASE TO EXIST as you know it.
The general population is quickly consuming the majority of its audio content through various digital platforms, and with mobile providing 24/7 access, users are looking at a traditional broadcast’s digital offering and measuring how it stack ups against the competition.
July 2014 PPM Analysis: MLB Flagships
By Mike Kinosian
TALKERS
Managing Editor
LOS ANGELES — This time last month, we introduced our overview of Major League Baseball flagship stations. We continue with how these stations did in July and will chart through progress all the way through the World Series.
The following scoreboards are for MLB’s English-language flagships only.
Some flagship facilities appear in multiple markets, but here it is only listed in one PPM market – the team’s “home” metro.
In cases where a team has two flagships, both stations are shown.
Some MLB teams have a main flagship and an emergency alternative. The latter is used only in isolated cases to resolve a programming conflict; those backup facilities do not appear here.
The key station for the American League East division Blue Jays (CJCL) is, of course, located in Toronto, the only non-PPM market within Major League Baseball. Consequently, there is no available Nielsen Audio PPM ratings information for CJCL.
One of the Atlanta Braves’ flagships is Dickey Broadcasting Company-owned WCNN. WCNN is not a Nielsen Audio subscriber and therefore cannot be included in print.
Stop Using This Word and Start Getting More Website Hits
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS — How can you get more website visitors? Here’s an idea you can start using right now.
Quit using the word “details” when you talk about your site on the air. You know what I’m talking about. How many times a day does your station say, “for all the details, log on to radio103.com!”
That’s EXACTLY what I need in my life … more details.
Short Ideas for a Short Week
By Chris Miller
Chris Miller Digital
Owner
SHAKER HEIGHTS – “Sorry, I quit paying attention!”
What attention span can we ask for these days to sell something? One of my clients created a 40-second video for an email project, and I was momentarily concerned it was too lengthy to keep people watching. Another client buys two :60 spots back-to-back on TV to show mini-documentaries.
And yet … we’re still offering to sell :60 spots, loaded up back-to-back, as if it’s 1990.
Good luck selling a lengthy ad online. When YouTube lets us skip the rest of an ad a few seconds in, and Facebook measures your ad in characters instead of columns or inches, don’t six-minute sets of :60s make you at least a little nervous? Roy Williams, the “Wizard of Ads,” says “Clarity is the new creativity.” Or, if I lost you during that last sentence, “Less is more.”
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