9-16-14
Daryl Parks, who spends a lot of his writing time now throwing stones at the industry he built a nice career in, in his mot recent blog, comes out in favor of Clear Channel's switch to iHeartMedia. He says discussions about a name change began over 15 years ago when he was still around. "We knew Clear Channel had a bad corporate brand image, for no other reason than it was radio?s version of Pacman eating up competitors. So today?s news of the name change really is about 15 years too late. Granted there was no iHeartRadio App to brand the company back in those days." Parks says there are five reasons this is a good move...
1.iHeart is a ?consumer facing? brand. I know that?s corporate-speak. It means ?iHeart? means something to the consumer. That?s a good thing.
2.Clear Channel means nothing to the consumer, never has, never did, never would.
3.Clear Channel means radio and is not sexy to advertisers. iHeart, meanwhile, sells the future.
4.Clear Channel had the perception of being ?Cheap Channel.? I guess ?iCheap? can be used, but that doesn?t have the same ring to it.
5.Yeah. Yeah. iHeart is hip to hipsters. Got that. Not the reason to change lobby signage though.
Parks says he's been saying for years that a radio company has to transform from a radio company to a digital company at its core. "Think of a wagon wheel. The hub being the digital core and a spoke of the wheel terrestrial radio. Right now most radio companies are just the opposite, with terrestrial radio serving as its core and digital a spoke off that. This is opposite of media?s future and the future of advertising, unlike what you heard at this year?s ?Radio ? What Me Worry?? convention in Indianapolis, better known as the NAB?s Radio Show." Parks has also been known to throw stones at radio conventions. At least in this post he didn't use the phrase "circle jerk."
You can read his full blog HERE
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