Infinite Dial 2017. For the 19
th consecutive year,
Edison Research, in conjunction with
Triton Digital, has been researching the use of media and technology by consumers and presenting it as the Infinite Dial study. The data for 2017 has just been released and media consultant
Holland Cooke offers his quick summary of this year's study. Obviously, the growth of the use of the smartphone – which didn't exist when the annual study began in 1998 – has greatly changed the way consumers use media. The development of the smart speaker/home assistant – think
Google Home or
Amazon Echo – offers another technological avenue by which consumers can access media. Ownership of these devices (among those 12+) is at just 7%, but awareness of the product is 63%. See Cooke's entire summary
here.
TALKERS News Notes. This year's March Madness is being aired on SiriusXM – with the help of Westwood One, the exclusive radio rights holder for the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. In addition to the play-by-play content from the First Four on March 14 and 15 through the Final Four and national championship game in Phoenix on April 1 and 3, analysis and coverage will happen on the SiriusXM College Sports Nation channel…..It's been a while since Bonneville International aired sports talk on KMVP-AM, Phoenix – it programs sports content on KMVP-FM "Arizona Sports 98.7" – but now the station that's been brokered for the last several years is being sold to Spanish-language operator Farmworker Educational Radio Network, Inc. Kalil & Co. is the exclusive broker…..Cumulus Nashville is presenting cluster-wide promotion called Sports Fest Saturday, April 15 at Nissan Stadium (home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans). Cumulus says listeners and their families can take part in numerous activities, including visiting with representatives from sports teams around Middle Tennessee, playing catch on the field, listening to interesting speakers and joining the Easter Egg Hunt.
2017 TALKERS Heavy Hundred of Sports Talk to Be Published on Monday. The fifth annual ranking of the 100 Most Important Sports Talk Radio Hosts in America will be published by
TALKERS magazine on Monday (3/13). This annual list is compiled and ranked by the editors of
TALKERS magazine – with input from industry leaders. As with our publication's "sister list," the 100 Most Important Talk Radio Hosts in America, the criteria are a number of hard factors – including ratings and revenue – as well as such soft factors as talent, recognition, impact, service and more. Executive editor
Kevin Casey states, "This annual ranking of the most important sports talk radio hosts is one of the most difficult – but enjoyable – projects we undertake at
TALKERS. The reason for that is the partially subjective nature of the criteria combined with the enormous number of talented and successful sports talk hosts working in America. Paring that pool of talent down to 100 is no easy task!" Casey also notes that
TALKERS will be publishing the 2017 Heavy Hundred of News/Talk Radio in April.
If You Missed Wednesday's TALKERS-PerfectYourPodcast.com Master Class Podcasting Webinar, View/Listen in for Free. On Wednesday,
TALKERS magazine and PerfectYourPodcast presented a free master class
webinar for radio professionals. It's titled, "How to Launch and Grow a Successful Podcast." PerfectYourPodcast.com was founded by well-known broadcaster
Mike Carruthers, host and creator of the long-running, successful syndicated radio series, "Something You Should Know" (now also a top
iTunes-charted podcast), who conducted the webinar. It was designed for the professional radio broadcaster who is serious about profiting from podcasting. If you missed it, you can view/listen in on a recording of the webinar through 3:00 pm ET today by clicking
here.
The Overhaul of ObamaCare Top News/Talk Story for Week of March 6-10. The Trump Administration's and the GOP's move to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was the most-talked-about story on news/talk radio this week, landing atop the Talkers Ten
TM. At #2 this week was
President Trump's accusation that
President Obama ordered the wiretapping of Trump Tower during the campaign. Coming in at #3 was WikiLeaks' recent document dump that contained hacking techniques used by the CIA, followed by the Trump Administration's immigration-deportation policies and the related reports that illegal border crossings are down 40% at #4. The Talkers Ten
TM is a weekly chart of the top stories and people discussed on news/talk radio during the week and is the result of ongoing research from
TALKERS magazine. It is published every Friday at Talkers.com. View this week's entire chart
here.
