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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Ralph Martin, Music Education Coordinator for the Vacaville Christian School’s Radio Conservatory

This past week, April 21 to 28, a little known but exciting part of radio’s landscape was celebrated – it was high school radio week.  With multiple high school stations broadcasting across the country, Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB, connected with Ralph Martin, Music Education Coordinator for the Vacaville Christian School’s Radio Conservatory where for the last four years they have officially been broadcasting 24/7 KVCB, 100.9 FM in Vacaville, California, a town located about halfway between San Francisco and Sacramento.

In honor of this special occasion, the station had just come off a live 24 hour marathon inviting local bands and broadcast alumni alongside their current student broadcasters.  As we think about the next generation of broadcasters, Ralph shares that “our kids are going to be OK.”  It’s a positive outlook on the future of broadcasting and the future of our society in general.  If you want to hear for yourself, you can stream the station at kvcb-online.com and click “Listen Live.”

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HD Radio – Driving Radio’s Digital Dash

Author: Rick Greenhut, Director – Broadcast Business Development, Xperi / HD Radio

Increase spot impact by 550%

Wouldn’t it be great if a radio station could offer their biggest local auto dealer client the opportunity to increase their name recognition? How about enabling the agency for a home improvement chain to demonstrably enhance the effectiveness of their radio advertising? Federal legislation taking effect this May (and broadcasters’ investment in HD Radio technology) helps radio maintain preeminence in tomorrow’s dashboard while benefiting agencies and advertisers alike.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Charlie Sislen, Partner of Research Director Inc.

In this edition, Erica Farber, President and CEO of the RAB speaks with Charlie Sislen, Partner of Research Director Inc. With a focused approach they work with  programming and sales departments at radio stations to help them interpret their ratings, turn their data into knowledge and turn that knowledge into revenue.

In this podcast they discuss the importance of research, how to understand research, and how to use research to help radio tell its great story.

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Radio’s Connection – On-air and Socially, Counts.

Author:  Fred Jacobs, President, Jacobs Media.

Since its inception, social media has been a much-discussed digital platform – especially in radio circles. The low cost of entry, the ease of interaction and its widespread popularity has made for a great opportunity for radio brands to connect with audiences in ways that were once not even possible.

In recent weeks, we’re learning more about the true toll of social media networks on our privacy and personal information. If we didn’t realize it before, we do now: there’s a cost to social media. Mark Zuckerberg did not provide us with a conduit to our friends, families, and listeners as a public service. He’s been monetizing our data. And we’ve been gladly checking off the “accept terms and conditions” box as we scroll through our news feeds.

Continue reading “Radio’s Connection – On-air and Socially, Counts.”

Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Paul Brenner, President of Tag Station and NextRadio

In this edition, Erica Farber, President and CEO of the RAB and Paul Brenner, President of Tag Station and NextRadio reconnect. We have heard a lot about FM chips in mobile devices but there is much more going on at NextRadio. Paul and his team provide stations with analytics to help advertisers and agencies capture ROI.

In this podcast they discuss how NextRadio has shifted gears and the current opportunities available for radio.

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Radio’s Employed Audience: A True Competitive Advantage

Author: Andrew Curran, President and COO, DMR/Interactive

BIA Advisory Services reports that in 2017, revenue for AM/FM radio  “experienced a 0.2% drop from 2016 to end the year at $13.87 billion.”

This lackluster performance took place as consumer confidence was the highest it had been since 2000 and unemployment was its lowest, helping fuel a stock market boom.

Compounding the issue, BIA lists radio as the 5th most significant local advertising platform, behind direct mail, television, newspapers and mobile.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Seth Resler, the Digital Dot Connector for Jacobs Media Strategies

One of the big stories that continues to dominate the news is regarding Facebook and the disclosure that a third party British consulting firm used the social network to gather data on millions of people and in turn use that data for strategic communication for the electoral process.

With social media playing a large role in radio’s promotion and marketing efforts Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB thought it was a good time to reconnect with Seth Resler, the Digital Dot Connector for Jacobs Media Strategies.  Seth believes that Facebook’s problems are absolutely going to impact radio and to expect major changes in the future from this social media giant

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Audio is Booming – Turn Up Your
Radio Strategy

Author: Jateen Parekh,  CTO and Co-Founder, Jelli.

Digital has transformed advertising in the last few years but audio as a medium has been left behind. Jateen Parekh, the CTO and co-founder at Jelli, shared his thoughts on the matter in an Adweek article entitled “Brands Need to Join the 21st Century and Tap Into Radio Advertising.”

In his piece, Jateen points to the fact that radio is a massive market – bigger than TV – that marketers have largely ignored, primarily because of the medium’s particular challenges.

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Radio Strategy”

Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Mike Sherry, Vice President Sales for Forever Media

Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB sat down with Mike Sherry, Vice President Sales for Forever Media.

Forever Media has a company creed that details five responsibilities with the first one being to the advertisers that invest in their stations.  It states they, being the company, must always remember the customer expects and deserves results and increased profits.  With oversight of revenue for 51 stations in nine markets, Mike strongly believes everyone in radio sales today needs to focus on selling radio’s value.  And if everyone has pride in their radio stations and sells that value on a local basis, radio will continue to thrive.

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Falling in Love with Radio

Author:  Pat Walsh, President & Chief Operating Officer, Emmis Communications

When the team at Emmis sits down to talk about what sets radio apart for our advertising clients, the discussion always leads back to the power of connection. Radio’s connection is an intensely personal relationship with personalities and content that has become a central part of the lives of nearly every American. The fact that this powerful connection comes in the form of an entertaining and ever expanding LOCAL content portfolio that includes broadcast audio content, events that excite and engage, and digital content that combines the power of audio, video and social, makes radio a truly special partner to the advertising community. Delivering on this intimate and connected local relationship makes radio a trusted friend in just about every American’s daily life. This type of relationship is what enables radio to continue to reach and resonate in the lives of 93% of Americans but it’s the trusted partnership radio has with its vast audience that feels special at this time of year.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Cristina Ceresoli Senior Vice President for Retail Strategy at the National
Retail Federation

Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB, spoke recently with Cristina Ceresoli, Senior Vice President for Retail Strategy at the National Retail Federation.

Cristina is responsible for NRF’s product offering and event content strategy with a specific focus on the customer experience and digital expansion for the retail industry. There are positive indicators coming from the retail sector which is good news for local Radio. As Cristina discusses, retail has the opportunity to connect and delight their customers something the Radio industry knows a lot about.

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Radio Wins in Chicago – A Case Study

“Radio is the most important thing we use on the media side because it touches so many people.” 
Ed Wehmer, Founder, President & CEO, Wintrust Financial Corp.

“It’s personal, it’s daily & we can tell our story in an evolving way on radio.  That’s hard to do in other media.”
Diana Sikes, Senior Vice President, Art Van Furniture 

“We can target different demographics, change the message.  It’s a tremendous, flexible medium.” 
Roy Spencer, President & Owner, PermaSeal Basement Systems

“Radio is the core of our influence strategy.” 
John Alfirevich, Dealer Operator of Apple Chevrolet and President of the Chicagoland and Northwest Indiana Chevy Dealers Association

These are real, current testimonials that speak to the effectiveness of radio and are highlights from a bi-product of the Radio Broadcasters of Chicagoland (RBC), a committee of the Illinois Broadcasters Association, focused on demonstrating the power, influence and evolution of radio as the most effective results-driven medium through innovative collaboration.

These testimonials represent phase 2 of what is called an “RBC Roadblock” concept where more than 40 radio stations in a single major market (Chicago) simultaneously air the :60 spot.  Phase 1 of the Roadblock campaign was first introduced through an unprecedented and uninterrupted “live” 30-minute “Town Hall Meeting” conversation between Hall of Fame broadcaster Bill Kurtis and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Since then, the “roadblock” concept has been used to support fundraising efforts for 2017 hurricane victims and, more recently, this campaign featured advertisers who believe strongly in the medium of radio.

The results have been terrific.  Click here for the case study.

Results:

Inaugural Event: Chicago Radio Town Hall Meeting

One third of the population listened to the broadcast.

7 in 10 Chicagoans were aware of the event, with nearly half knowing  about it prior to the air date.

88% of those who tuned in listened to all or most of the broadcast.

Eight in 10 adults dialed in to their preferred station.

The location of listening was equally split between those listening at home and away from home.

Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Rishad Tobaccowala, Chief Growth Officer, Publicis Groupe & Gordon Borrell, CEO, Borrell Associates

Recently, RAB’s Dave Casper and Jeff Schmidt attended the Local Online Advertising Conference in New York City. They had a chance to talk with Gordon Borrell from Borrell and Associates – the organizer of the conference; and one of the keynote speakers, Rishad Tobaccowala who is the Chief Growth Officer for Publicis Group.

Rishad suggests that the future will not fit in the containers of the past, and this is causing widespread fear and confusion. He says all of us must change to meet the demands of a very bright future.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Chris Brown, EVP Conventions & Business Ops for the National Association of Broadcasters

Erica Farber is the President & CEO of the RAB and in this edition she speaks with Chris Brown, EVP Conventions & Business Ops for the National Association of Broadcasters.

In this role, Chris is responsible for producing the NAB’s annual conventions, with their largest conference, the NAB Show coming up next month in Las Vegas. The NAB Show covers over 2 million square feet of space and is the ultimate event for media, entertainment and technology professionals looking for new and innovative ways to create, manage, deliver and monetize content on any platform.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Erik Schmidt, a Recent Saga Communications Graduate of RAB’s Certified Radio Sales Manager Course

In a multi-year study of workplace learning entitled “In Search of Learning Agility,” one of the key findings was, there is no such thing as permanent competence any longer, or a fully developed skill set either in individuals or organizations. There is a constant need for new learning and training. The good news is, for those who want to continue their professional development there are plenty of resources.

Jeff Schmidt, who leads RAB’s professional development team had a chance to speak to Erik Schmidt, a recent graduate of the Certified Radio Sales Manager course conducted in RAB’s Dallas office.

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Radio: Still the One

There is little doubt that we are in a golden age of media overall, as content is available everywhere and across all devices.  Yet, according to Nielsen’s second quarter 2017 Comparable Metrics Report, radio remains the top way to reach consumers across all media platforms – 93% A18+. And radio also provides advertisers with effective digital opportunities to compliment and extend its large over-the-air audience. Such as: streaming, on-demand podcasts, HD radio, NextRadio, and pure plays… the list continues to expand. Radio’s social media websites provide advertisers with new ways to relate to the enthusiastic radio audience. As smart marketers, we must look ahead to understand these drivers of change and signals of progress to navigate forward. The media landscape is vast, complex with technology changing the way consumer’s engage with media and radio remains the best way to reach consumers across demographics.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast Featuring Jessica Spence, Texas A&M University Senior Who Aspires to a Career in Broadcasting

By 2020 millennials will make up half of the global workplace and yet there continues to be many misperceptions regarding their work ethic.

Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB speaks with Jessica Spence a senior at Texas A&M University majoring in Agricultural Communications and Journalism. With her eye on a career in broadcasting, Jessica a true Radio fan is proof one should never judge a book by its cover.

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Local Radio Reigns Supreme

Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported on the shuttering of a chain of Eastside community newspapers. One article even went so far as to say, “Local and regional newspapers that serve Southern California are going through tough times, leading some to question whether traditional newspapers can survive.” Radio has always been there – now it is even more valuable! The importance of local radio to the local community can’t be understated.

The challenge for local Newspapers has been how to sustain a newsroom and make a profit when print advertising is fleeing to lower-cost space on the Internet.  Most digital ads are concentrated on Facebook and Google, not newspaper websites. These two Internet giants take in 60 percent of online ad revenues.

Radio was shown as the most trusted platform used after the impact of hearing about “fake news” in political coverage.  See below for the Kantar “Trust in News” study where it was revealed ‘mainstream news media’s’ reputation remained largely intact while social media and digital-only news platforms sustained major reputation damage. In addition, Facebook and other digital platforms are not designed to promote civic connection, but rather communities of interest often unmoored from particular geographies.

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Radio on Main Street Podcast featuring Josh Roberts, Operations Manager at Great Plains Media in Bloomington, IL.

The relationship between programming and sales is a critical component at a successful radio station. A great example of how these two departments are working together for success is at Great Plains Media in Bloomington, Illinois.

While attending the recent Country Radio Seminar in Nashville, Erica Farber, President & CEO of the RAB caught up with Operations Manager Josh Roberts, who shares his thoughts on why this relationship is so important and how it continues to pay off at his station.

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Radio Delivers For Local Businesses

 

Small businesses are thriving and looking at 2018 in a positive way, and radio is the perfect vehicle to help them meet their 2018 revenue expectations and goals. Each year BIA/Kelsey conducts Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM), a survey that tracks small-business advertising and marketing spending, buying preferences, and reported return on investment. Within the LCM, BIA/Kelsey also examines franchises. A franchisor licenses its know-how, procedures, intellectual property, use of its business model, brand, and rights to sell its branded products and services to a franchisee.

In the past year, strong economic growth has led to an increase in spending by small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and franchisees on advertising and marketing.

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