RAB CEO Jeff Haley Unleashed

It was refreshing to watch RAB President and CEO Jeff Haley speak Wednesday afternoon before a ballroom full of broadcasters at the joint RAB/NAB Radio show. Haley, free-wheeling it on stage without a podium in front of him, showed confidence to an industry that may have needed a bit of an ego boost. Haley gave the impression he'd heard enough about how Radio was going to be knocked down or knocked out by up-and-comers claiming they are creating the new playground.

Haley wants broadcasters to focus on scale, live and local and mobile. And he started hitting back for Radio: "As far as Scale is an issue in media today - nobody has as broad and deep a platform as our nearly 11,000 broadcast radio stations. There are niche players who after ten years have barely scratched 20 million subscribers."

Perhaps hearing enough press hype (including here on this site) Haley then let Pandora have it, without ever mentioning them by name. "Lately there have been players out there touting duplicative "listener hours" in an apples to oranges comparison for our unduplicated long standing cume metrics. At a claim of just 3% of our reach, it may not be worthy of mention, but if we're talking about audience size, let's be fair and measure apples to apples. If you wanted to compare "listener hours", say 1.8 billion "listener hours" for 2nd quarter that claim includes duplicate reach across your user base, so it might be more fairly compared to our "broadcast hours" against the base of people who use radio. Or, live, 24/7 radio across 10,766 commercial stations x the 12 weeks of a quarter x the US population of 12+. Do that math and you get 6.1 trillion listener hours for broadcast radio 6.1 trillion - yes, that's absurd."

Haley also says the data Internet players are providing advertising is irrelevant to them. "They (advertisers) deserve better than self generated data and I urge all of us to pay attention to the hype and understand that this data is not scale. Scale is what enables Eddie Combs from Sears or Neil Golden from McDonalds to communicate their messages within well targeted appropriately formatted live and local content to every market in the US."

Every once in a while radio managers need to hear the kind of speech Haley gave yesterday. He clearly wanted managers to know radio is still here, it's still strong and we're not giving up our advertisers without a vigorous fight. And, while Internet companies like Pandora and iHeartRadio and Slacker, etc seem to get a lot of positive press they still only make up 4% of all audio listening to date. Add to that, they are still relatively new, and everyone loves to try something new. Radio, like all other businesses, has suffered a financial setback during a sputtering economy. And as we're hearing from the feet on the street from all around the country (see next story), revenue is coming back and radio is NOT being kicked to the curb.

For more information on becoming a member of the RAB visit www.rab.com

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2011 Radio Ink Radio Wayne Winners Announced

September 14, 2011: Radio Ink's Radio Wayne Awards were presented today at the Radio Luncheon at the joint NAB-RAB Radio Show in Chicago, with Greater Media Chairman/CEO Peter Smyth taking the award for America's Best Broadcaster.

NRG Media/Grand Island, NE's Pat Schroeder took honors as Streetfighter (Sales Rep) of the year, while Greater Media was represented again as Jim Antes of Greater Media/Bala Cynwyd, PA was named Sales Manager of the Year.

Taking NSM honors was Connie Cox of Cumulus Media/Detroit, while CBS Radio/New York's Jenn Donohue is the Radio Wayne winner as Director of Sales.

The General Manager of the Year award went to Alan Bishop, of Finger Lakes Radio Group/Geneva, NY, while the Radio Wayne Market Manager of the Year is Brett Beshore of Clear Channel Radio in Poughkeepsie, NY.

Seen in the photo above: (l-r): Radio Ink Publisher/CEO Eric Rhoads, Greater Media Chairman/CEO Peter Smyth, NGR Media's Pat Schroeder, Finger Lakes Radio's Alan Bishop, Cumulus Media's Connie Cox, and CBS Radio's Jenn Donohue.

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Many Radio Show Attendees Visit Hall of Fame

Bruce DuMont, the Founder and President of the Museum of Broadcast Communications and Chairman of the National Radio Hall of Fame, is excited many NAB attendees have come to his facility and hopes that will continue today and tomorrow while in town for the Radio show. The museum is located a stone's throw from the Hyatt Regency at 360 North State Street, only four blocks from the where the Radio show is being held. It's a great way to take a look at some of radio's history and, perhaps, lend a hand toward the completion of the museum.

DuMont told Radio Ink yesterday ?The State of Illinois has invested $10-million to build a shine to American broadcasting?and this week offers a chance for most broadcasters to see our new home for the first time?and learn about what we do. ?The NAB was founded in Chicago?Gordon Smith and NAB leaders and its membership should see and support what we have done to honor broadcasting in mid-America-- especially radio? DuMont added. Wednesday night many of the country?s state executive directors joined with visiting Advertising Council executives for VIP tours."

The National Radio Hall of Fame Gallery will open later this year and is the site of the November 5th induction ceremony and broadcast, hosted by Larry King and produced by Premiere Radio Networks. To fully open the radio wing this year Dumont says another $500,000 needs to be raised and DuMont is hoping to find 500 people who love radio enough to make a $1,000 tax deductible donation. ?If there aren?t 50 people in the radio industry who care enough about completing a national shrine to radio and its impact on society--- then maybe the critics who predict radio?s demise might be right. This is a historic moment for the industry,? said DuMont. 

The MBC has authored two editions of the Encyclopedia of Television, a three-volume edition of the Encyclopedia of Radio and the Encyclopedia of Advertising, produced in association with Advertising Age and Duke University. 

For more information visit www.radiohof.org 

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Gordon Smith: "Go Slow on Streaming."

NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith followed Jeff Haley yesterday and advised broadcasters to crunch the numbers before jumping into the streaming pool with both feet. His philosophy is if it doesn't translate to revenue, and it takes time away from selling your core business, why rush? "Lately, we've read in the trades about a difference of opinion in our industry - some believe streaming is the future. Others believe it does not grow our bottom lines - that stations should focus on bringing in more traditional revenue. I don't know the right answer, but as someone who does not come from the broadcast business, I can tell you what I observe: that local, regional and national advertising for over-the-air signals still provides the strongest source of revenue for stations."

Smith said of the top 50 radio operators, 80 percent of their AM/FM stations simulcast their radio content online through a website or stand-alone app. "And while more stations are streaming, many report that it hasn't necessarily translated into more revenues. In 2011 total radio online revenue is projected to be only 4 percent of total radio revenue. We can't abandon building the successful business model that radio delivers to listeners. Any expansion into the digital sphere cannot be at the expense of our core business. Perhaps we are sensitive to criticism that if radio doesn't jump into the streaming business, we risk being left behind or will be seen as resistant to change."

Smith says, and we've reported many time, there's a battle brewing in the dashboard of the automobile and radio must find a way to expand its main over-the-air signal. "Radio is an automobile-centric industry and the digital community is diligently working to subordinate local radio on the dashboard of every new automobile to other digital offerings. If you take a look at new cars hitting the market, you can see that our digital competitors are succeeding. Radio must find a way to get onto other devices, like smartphones - a challenging task in a very crowded and competitive media landscape. Yet, if we don't, we risk compromising radio's core mission of providing the American people with the services they depend on. So radio is confronted by the dilemma of choosing which path to take - does it focus on building its traditional business model or invest more dollars in streaming?

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(Video) Why Does Sears Use Radio?

The RAB/NAB Radio show brought in the VP and CMO of Sears Eddie Combs for a keynote address during the Wednesday luncheon. Radio Ink Editor Ed Ryan caught up with Combs and asked him why he uses radio, how he uses radio, what managers need to know about how to get his business and why he wants managers to bring him ideas that create contextual explosions. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas.

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Katz Up McGee To VP/Political Sales

September 14, 2012: Patrick McGee takes the title of VP/political sales and strategy at Katz Media Group, with a mission of directing Katz's efforts to bring more political advertising dollars to radio during the 2012 election year.

"Radio is one of the most powerful political marketing tools available in terms of delivering an emotional connection to voters and immediacy to respond," Katz Radio Group President Mark Gray said. "With Katz's vast footprint and powerful multiplatform assets, we can offer customers unparalleled targeting of states, stations and potential voters nationwide. We look forward to this election year, and I'm confident that Patrick's leadership and expertise will greatly benefit our customers in navigating solutions to meet their campaign needs."

McGee said, "The 2012 election year presents the best-case scenario for political advertising, and we're looking forward to reaching new records. I think we'll see, in 2012 and beyond, the life cycle of political advertising has expanded rapidly, and it's truy become a recession-proof category. We're woking hard to generate more dollars for radio and to take home a larger portion of the overall media spend."

Katz is also offering a site for campaign managers, www.katzpolitical.com, designed as a single spot for ad planning and buying, with information on Katz's assets, political advertising regulations, and more.

Clear Channel Radio Sales President Jeff Howard said, "The coming election year presents an excellent opportunity for radio to truly showcase its strengths as the one of most effective mediums to reach engaged consumers. Radio offers the intimacy, high targetability, and short execution time political strategists need to persuasively communicate to voters. We anticipate greater spending in 2012 and overall an exciting political season as the primary races ramp up and campaigning gets underway."

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Hubbard's Ginny Morris Wins MIW Trailblazer Award

The Most Influential Women in Radio, a group Radio Ink started about 15 years ago, has blossomed into an organization that keeps women throughout the radio industry connected in many ways. One way is through a mentoring program that helps radio newcomers learn and thrive. The MIW's have a website where more can be learned about the group. And, the group always gets together for dinner at events like the Radio show and the NAB convention in Las Vegas. Yesterday the group awarded its annual trailblazer award to Hubbard Radio CEO Ginny Morris. The Trailblazer Award is presented each year to a woman who has "blazed new trails" for women in the radio industry.

Morris, a third generation broadcaster is the Chair of Hubbard Radio, LLC. Since April 2011, Hubbard Radio operates 21 radio stations in Chicago, Washington DC, Minneapolis-St. Paul, St. Louis, and Cincinnati.  "Ginny's stellar leadership, combined with her outstanding character, savvy business sense and continued success made her the perfect choice to receive this coveted honor," said MIW Radio Group Spokesperson and Greater Media Vice President of Corporate Communication Heidi Raphael.

For more information visit www.radiomiw.com

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