Category Archives: Radio

Car radio now known as vehicle’s “entertainment center”

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Jerry Del Colliano on what lies ahead for your car’s “radio” …

“In nine to 12 months, Ford’s Sync will enable Internet capabilities on a smartphone and allow the Internet’s most popular radio station – Pandora — to play throughout the car’s sound system. Want Live 365 — you’ve got it.

It’s not just Ford, the other surviving automakers will also be adding the most anticipated consumer audio feature of all time — Internet streaming. Delphi and Autonet Mobile are calling for companies to create Internet connectivity devices as standard equipment for new cars.”

We’re gonna need more buttons on that dial.

More at CNET. “We’ll be able to link you to your Internet in the car. If you brought an iPhone into the vehicle, you could interact with that through voice. You could then read your e-mail by voice,” said Joe Berry, Ford business and product development director for Sync, referring to a future version of Sync.”

TweetSpin: “set it and forget it”

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TweetSpin, a new Twitter application designed by a radio programmer named Rico Garcia. Among other info, TweetSpin can post "now playing" data from a station's website.

Here's a couple of snippets from a review in R&R, a radio trade publication:

From KHOP PD MoJo Roberts: "TweetSpin allows us to constantly have 'what's playing now' on our status and set appointment tweets to go out so we can set it and forget it."

In addition the "now playing" feature, Garcia is more excited about built-in scheduling that allows stations to set up hourly, daily or weekly messages to encourage listening appointments.

Hardly surprising that an industry in the process of automating itself out of existence would look for a way to automate social media, too. Of course, if there's really no one at the station…

Eight ideas for life after radio

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Jerry Del Colliano offers 8 ideas for life after radio. Number 5 is particularly relevant for our company, which has half a dozen news websites:

It’s not news websites — that’s no business model. It will be blogs — special information on something that attracts a valued audience. But instead of monetizing it by selling ads (something I think has peaked even when the recession ends), sell a subscription. That’s right, I am nuts. I believe people will pay a reasonable fee for that which they crave — remember I said crave not like. In the past, if you are an expert on gardening, you would have done a radio show, TV or newspaper column. Now, you’ll do a blog. And if it has passionate followers and you price it right, you’ll make money and build revenue with your audience. Keep in mind I’m projecting this trend — it’s coming because it has to come. The Internet is a delivery system not the content.”

I should point out that we do not make any money from our websites. We are still very much in the radio network business (on the news side of our company). We sell 30 second commercials on affiliated radio stations. We have a few blogs and some Twitter accounts but –with a couple of exceptions– it’s more dabble than business. Exciting days ahead.

PS: My friend Jeff points us to a job opening at Chicago Public Radio. Under Experience/Skill Required:

Our ideal candidate will have five plus of relevant experience in radio or TV programming, broadcast media marketing or online community management.  Strong knowledge of online communities, blogs, user generated content is required.  Demonstrated team building and leadership skills.  Clear written, verbal communication skills, with solid group presentation skills.  The ability to merge organizational mission vision with strong creativity and tactical execution.  Strong project management skills with an acute attention to detail.  Should have a working knowledge of content management systems (CMS).”

11,000 channel “radio”

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“The VTech IS9181 is a Wi-Fi music streaming device, designed to make accessing the near-infinte variety of Internet radio as easy as traditional radio.”

“The IS9181 connects to any wireless network (802.11 b & g) and lets you access more than 11,000 free Internet radio stations worldwide. It also lets you access audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, Real) stored on you Wi-Fi-enabled computer (PC or Mac). The IS9181 also offers localized weather (based on zip code).” (via Podcasting News)

My first thought was, “If I’m running a radio station, it better be one of the 11,000.” My next thought was, “It better be one of the ‘best’ of the 11,000.”

Listenomics and why things are different this time

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I remember reading Bob Garfield’s The Chaos Scenario as an article in Advertising Age but I’m not sure I listened to the interview Mark Ramsey (Hear 2.0) posted to his website back in March. More on that in a moment. I don’t think the book is out yet but here’s a blurb from the web page:

“What happens when the old world order collapses and the Brave New World is unprepared to replace it…as an ad medium, as a news source, as a political soapbox, as a channel for new episodes of “Lost?” That is The Chaos Scenario.

In this fascinating, terrifying, instructive and often wildly entertaining book, Garfield is not content to chronicle the ruinous disintegration of traditional media and marketing. No, having established the problem, he travels to five continents for solutions.

What he discovers is the answer for all institutions who wish to survive – and thrive – in a digitally connected, Post-Media Age. He calls this the art and science of Listenomics.”

Mr. Garfield is Advertising Age editor-at-large and co-host of NPR’s On the Media. Looking forward to the book. If you spot it before I do, let me know.