This is a very difficult blog for me to write. You see, I’m a huge English soccer fan who spends far too many weekend mornings in a pub watching matches with my fellow members of North Carolina Spurs, the official local supporters club of my favorite team, Tottenham Hotspur. To say that I have become … Continue reading Winning Through Analytics and Intuition
Read Full Article »Changing an image isn’t easy. Once the audience becomes familiar with and develops a perception of you or your radio station, it can stick there for a good, long time. As our John Boyne points out, images are like icebergs. Slow to develop, slow to erode. If your station is known for playing 90s Country … Continue reading Howard Stern & the Great Brand Image Change
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Part four of a four-part series on music consumption trends There are clear signs of a split in musical tastes that radio consulting legend Guy Zapoleon coined The Extremes, a predictable phase during which listeners’ tastes move away from broadly-appealing mainstream Pop songs towards the extremes of R&B, Rock and Country that don’t appeal to … Continue reading Should You Program 2019 Like It’s 1989?
Read Full Article »gb;sughalugpaewyhg;irhdl!hflg..gss..hhrtdtudjytjghc>-8*tfls<9jdgblsvakyefe124352.b?jifdg;sualbnjg;ihs=0u65484hliugresHFUGILB. That’s what Burger King tweeted on November 28, 2018. There were more cryptic tweets of gibberish throughout the day, raising eyebrows and intrigue. The following day, BK published the following on Twitter revealing the gibberish was a stunt: so about yesterday: – we were sober – we didn’t get hacked – the intern didn’t … Continue reading The Lost Art of Radio Station Stunting
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Part three of a four-part series on music consumption trends In our last post, we explained why so many pure Hip Hop songs that are massive hits on streaming aren’t big hits for mass appeal radio audiences. Today, we tackle the opposite scenario. During the past two years, Country’s share of the songs listeners heard … Continue reading Why Country is Missing from Streaming
Read Full Article »There is no reason why a Blockbuster Video should still be in business. But in fact, there are quite a few reasons it is. And when you’re the last one standing in a business segment that many might perceive is from the Mesozoic era, it’s probably a good exercise to ask the obvious question… How … Continue reading 4 Lessons From the Last Blockbuster Video
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Part two of a four-part series on music consumption trends In our last post, we spotlighted how many of the biggest pure Hip Hop titles on streaming services are absent from radio. If these songs are among the most-played songs when listeners are in control of their music, why don’t they test well with mainstream … Continue reading Three reasons Hip Hop soars on Spotify but tanks in your music tests
Read Full Article »As the series finale for Game of Thrones approaches, the buzz feels stronger than ever. While it’s always tough for a network to lose a signature show, HBO has managed to deliver one success after another for the past 20 years. The Sopranos. Six Feet Under. The Wire. Entourage. Sex and the City. True Blood. … Continue reading Can HBO and Radio Have it All?
Read Full Article »Part one of a four-part series on music consumption trends After 2016, our nation has become a divided land: People are in different camps, where the world looks totally different than it does in other camps. We’re not talking politics. We’re talking music. The styles of music people play most on Spotify, buy most on … Continue reading Our (Musically) Divided Nation
Read Full Article »How predictable is your radio station? Have listeners “heard it all”? That’s not necessarily a good thing. There’s a region of our brain called Broca’s Area, and it is known to have multiple roles involving speech production. It turns out that another function involves surprise. When we’re surprised, it triggers this part of the brain. … Continue reading Hey, Radio! Science Says Surprise Your Listeners.
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