1-20-2012
Gregg Lindahl started out in Radio at the age of 15. He spent a total of 26 years in the business, 7 as a PD and 11 as a General Manager. The previous 12 years Lindahl has been involved in the Internet. Lindahl has been a digital star for Cox, his last job being SVP for CMG Digital. Now, he'll be a regular on the ski slopes, at least for the month of February. Lindahl tells Radio Ink he's leaving Cox but his passion remains "the Internet and the tremendous empowerment is represents - especially for media companies who are just barely tapping its full potential." As he gets ready for a well-deserved vacation in Colorado, we spoke to Lindahl about his future plans, his outlook on the business and whether radio is serious about embracing digital.
Lindahl says, "for every day of these last 12 years I felt like I did when I first started in radio ? I loved everything about it including even the smell of a station. That?s exactly how I feel about the digital medium. Each day has been like being in college ? so much learning, collaboration, charting the future and it?s all-consuming. A good friend describes it well ? a marathon sprint."
Give us your take on how the digital landscape will play out in radio over the next year to five years.
A fundamental question the industry has to answer is what business is it in? And closely following that question is this one; what is the size of the new opportunities? Answers to both will drive a strategic focus for the future as well as scale the size of the investment to go after the opportunity. But to your question, some macro trends I see on the five year horizon are far more frenemy partnerships like the spectacular iHeart app, the Broadcast Traffic Coalition and even broadening the frenemy definition to embrace the internet radio pure-plays. A solution to the music rights issues that strike a win-win partnership and give radio a sustainable rights fee model in all channels will be ? must be ? struck. Mobile consumption of our products via IP distribution will emerge as surely as FM overtook AM distribution ? only far more rapidly than that change in audience behavior occurred. I hope we don?t look back one day regretting losing out on digital sure things in the same way some might have for donating FM licenses to colleges because they didn?t make any money, nor was a path to it in evidence back in the ? when was it ? the 1960s? The money will follow the consumption of the medium and by the way, the generation that rued the FM license giveaways was not the generation that gave them away, it was the inheriting generation that rued what the previous generation did.
I also think will see more friendly advertiser solutions and interfaces developed to ease the buying, in-campaign accountability, reconciliation and billing of our brands campaigns that merge all of our inventory ?whether it be over the air or digital.
Do you think the programming side of the business is going to be OK?
Yes ? if we embrace two principles. First, when there is no longer scarcity in distribution, content is the gravity for media. The industry actually owns and produces very little original content. Second, personalization of content choice ? which runs the gamut from fully customizable and on demand/anywhere delivery, to the ability to tweak curated content. This goes right back to the fundamental questions about the business we are in and the investments we make to scale to the size of the opportunity.
Clearly, you are not old enough to retire. What is your dream job?
There are four paths I?m exploring ? I am ready and excited to continue helping media companies navigate digital transformation and implementing technology solutions to maximize a competitive edge whether that be products, revenue or profit. That?s a great challenge ? preserving the cash flow from traditional businesses while investing and growing transformative business lines that hedge and prepare for the future. Chris Trimble, and of course Clay Christensen have written extensively about this.
But, I might raise funds for some pure play start-up ideas I have. Providing ?adult supervision? in the form of COO leadership to help technology Founder/CEO start-ups get to the next level is something I?ve been asked to do in the past and believe it or not, I have an outline for a book with a couple of chapters written about the disruption the Internet is causing traditional media that might launch a consultancy. And, we?ll see what other opportunities present themselves ? l have been blessed and lucky to work with some really smart teams and great companies ? and love putting them together.
On his leaving, Cox says, "Gregg has contributed a a great deal to CMG's success over his 22 year Cox career, & we're sorry to see him leave. He will be consulting initially, & CMG will be a client of his. Leon Levitt, VP of Strategy, & Mark Beck, VP of IT (who now will include Digital in his area), will take over Gregg's duties and continue our digital transformation efforts. Both will report to Exec. VP & CFO Neil Johnston, just as Gregg does today."
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