Bob Pittman, the head of iHeart Media, said this when announcing the company’s name change from Clear Channel Media + Entertainment. I can’t imagine former Clear Channel CEO Randy Michaels ever saying something like this. Ouch. It’s going on three years since the Federal Communication Commission (F.C.C.) announced plans for “AM Revitalization.” Then, late last year, the…
February 2016 marks the 20th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. There are no planned celebrations. No parades. No planned parties. You’d think someone, somewhere would have popped open a bottle of Dom Perignon by now. But, nothing. Not even from those who lined their pockets and are clearly to blame for tearing the…
“Hiding the Pickle” is a little game I was accused of playing when doing budgets back in the old Clear Channel/Jacor days. When putting together the annual programming, promotional, news and sports budgets, I’d hide a few dollars in various lines to “pad” things (so to speak). I had little tricks like putting the cost…
The immutable “Rule #1 – It’s about ratings and revenue.” If you don’t accept this, you’re doomed. Each fall, the big media companies go through budgeting for the new year. The companies look to see who they can fire even at their successful stations. A standard exercise is being asked to “rank” employees. Thinking managers…
You either watched it live on CBS, were there or you saw and read about the rowdy Steelers-Bengals NFL Wildcard Playoff game later. The sad thing is Cincinnati, the well-mannered “northern most southern city” in America, showed its seamy underbelly to the nation this past weekend. Yes, we can debate the two thug dumbasses who…
You know what they say, “If Momma ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.” Generally speaking this phrase, from America’s south, means a “family” looks to Momma to keep it organized and functioning. If someone gets out of line, Momma will not be pleased. For iHeart Media, two of their “Momma’s” are investment bank Goldman Sachs and a…
The wife and I just subscribed to Netflix. We’re a little late to the party on this one. We just finished watching the third season of House of Cards. My wife is sort of Claire to my Francis without the bisexual threesome with the Secret Service Agent (a MMF for those familiar in those sorts…
It’s been almost 20 years ago since the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.), the National Association of Broadcasters (N.A.B.), Congress and then President Bill Clinton all teamed up to reinvent broadcasting with the historic Telecommunications Act of 1996, the first major rewrite of regulations since the 1930’s. With this combined brain power and political and business…
You can imagine my surprise last Friday night when the Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) announced it was moving forward with its plan to help AM radio survive. “Ratchet Rule?” Marconi must have come up with that. Change it. Transmitters that decrease carrier levels when low or no audio is present to save electricity? Sign us…
A lot can be learned from data and tracking it. For example, in radio and television, there are Nielsen ratings. You analyze ratings by the week, month or over a year to develop and see a trend. Is the station or program going up or down? Trending up is good. Trending down is bad. One…
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