Lew Dickey Pens Book on Changing Media Landscape. The book is published by
Tourbillion International – a subsidiary of the
Dickey family-owned
Modern Luxury Media – and is titled,
The New Modern Media – Remaking Media for a Mobile Culture. We now know what
Lew Dickey has been doing since he was ousted from the
Cumulus CEO role last year. The book is described as "an indispensable guide to the profound
and disruptive changes rocking the media industry. It examines the implications of a new, mobile culture and challenges the widely held belief that most media companies' true source of profits is their content. It makes the case for the importance of distribution as a key driver of firm value in the legacy media
business model, be it a newspaper, magazine, record label, television network, local broadcast television or radio station." In the book Dickey makes the case for why traditional "radio broadcasters will be unlikely to benefit from subscription revenue for their core service, leaving them highly exposed to the ad markets."
iHeartMedia chairman and CEO
Bob Pittman is quoted reviewing the book, "I've spent my entire professional life in the media business, and today technology is enabling media to evolve at an ever-faster pace to meet consumers' changing needs. Lew's book is a timely resource for anyone working or investing in the media industry – shedding an important light on some of the critical challenges and opportunities inherent in today's vibrant and complex media landscape." Pittman's iHeartRadio just announced a two-tier subscription service last week – clearly another step in the grand plan to transform iHeartMedia from a legacy radio company to a competitor in the digital entertainment industry. But getting back to Lew's book, it's a safe bet this will be the talk of the radio business this week.
Report: CBS RADIO to Take on $1.5 Billion in Debt. This report from
Reuters, says that sources are telling it that
CBS RADIO is preparing to take on as much as $1.5 billion in debt ahead of its initial public offering that's expected to take place but still has no firm time frame. According the report, the bulk of the proceeds would be paid back to parent
CBS Corp. with the rest to be used by CBS RADIO for "general corporate purposes." In its report,
Reuters notes that "a radio company IPO may be a tough sale as new digital competitors have emerged and depressed advertising sales for the medium for years." Read the
Reuters story
here.
KRBQ, San Francisco Names Box Kev Night Jock. After promoting
"Hoodrat" Miguel to the afternoon
drive daypart on its Bay Area rhythmic oldies station,
Entercom names area radio personality
Box Kev the host of the evening show at KRBQ "The Throwback Station." Box Kev got his start in radio at
iHeartRadio's crosstown hip hop KMEL as an intern and rose to host his own "The Hot Box" program. KRBQ OM
Elroy Smith says, "It's an honor to name Box Kev as Q102's nighttime personality. He is extremely talented, creative, and entertaining, and is going to bring a fresh vibe to nights on Q."
More RadioInfo Career Moves. Media figure Dwight Douglas announces he's retiring from his vice president of marketing position at RCS and Media Monitors after 16-year career with the company. Douglas is well known in the radio biz for his 20-year career with legendary radio consulting firm Burkhart-Abrams & Associates. Prior to that he programmed WDVE and WYDD in Pittsburgh and WWDC, Washington…..Caleb James is named program director and afternoon personality at NRG Media's rhythmic CHR KOPW, Omaha "POWER 106.9." James moves in from the company's Lincoln, Nebraska operations…..Connoisseur Media ups Moss Jacobson from digital sales manager and GSM to director of digital sales at CHR WPST, Trenton. Also, Suzanne Montoya is promoted to the general sales manager post.
