Oprah & Friends on XM

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Oprah Winfrey has signed a three-year, $55 million deal for her own channel on XM Satellite Radio. “Oprah & Friends,” as the channel will be known, is aimed at closing satellite radio’s gender gap. Men account for about two-thirds of the 9.3 million satellite subscriptions nationwide, but XM and its rival, Sirius Satellite Radio of New York, expect to attract more women as they purchase cars equipped with satellite radios.

Somehow, I just think the XM guys understand this satellite radio thing better than the other guys. This sounds like a really good idea to me.

Video podcast on biotechnology

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Received a news release today from Monsanto announcing a new video podcast called, Conversations about Plant Biotechnology. These are short (the one I watched was just a couple of minutes) and extremely well produced. They feature “… farmers and experts discussing their personal views and first-hand experiences with genetically modified crops.”

Difficult for me to imagine someone subscribing to these on a regular basis but then I’m not interested in biotechnology. I think this is a very good use of video podcasting and expect to see lot more of it. I’d package it with a good audio podcast and a blog.

Podfading

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Podcasting is easy and inexpensive which has a lot to do with why so many people are doing it. But, like with many “hobbies,” it can be difficult to sustain over the long haul and some podcasters are starting to pack it in. They call it podfading. Rob Walch (Podcast411) estimates at least a fifth of podcasters don’t make it to their 10th show and he won’t interview a podcaster until the show has at least 10 episodes. This week Henry and I recorded our 16th podcast and I see no signs of fading. I think we both have sort of an unspoken target of 52 shows. Would be fun to make it a full year.

New look for Learfield.com

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Andy and I have been working…or not working…or thinking about working on a new look for the Learfield corporate website for most of a year. And tonight we “relaunched.” Tomorrow a few hundred people will start calling and emailing to tell me they can’t find something on the company intranet or that they think the new look sucks. Or both. But that’s all part of the drill. The site is three years old and way past dew for a make-over. The new design has lots of white space and has a nice, open feel about it.

Learfield.comI’m reminded of the early days (1996?) when we put up the first FrontPage monstrosities. Nobody gave a second thought to websites back then so it didn’t matter if they looked like shit. Or maybe we just hadn’t seen enough good sites to recognize bad ones. No more. Increasingly, the worlds first impression of your company is the website and it better look good, have some useful content and be well organized. It is a never ending struggle. But it’s time for a cold Bud.

Selling radio spots online

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Broadcast sales execs are still upbeat about the future. Sort of. From an informal Banc of America Securities survey of 46 GSMs and other sales execs at the recent Radio Advertising Bureau meeting:

  • Nearly one-quarter of respondents indicate that they already use online services . . . to sell available airtime,and another 30% plan to use such services in the future.
  • The new worry is the iPod and the Internet radio, not satellite radio. 26% think Internet radio is a bigger threat than satellite radio. That’s up from 10% of respondents a year ago.

From Billboard Radio Monitor [via RAIN]