Many folks believe the best time to launch a new product, service or new concept is during the best of times; when the economy is vibrant and customers are eager to spend their surplus of cash. A recent blog post by Seth Godin says it’s much easier to challenge your industry’s major players during an economic downturn or recession when the power of for these companies is less secure.
With this idea in mind, let’s look at the radio industry. A number of the top groups are struggling with …

Radio programming consultants as a rule usually talk about how to get better ratings. However, this consultancy was founded on the idea that we should also offer our creative services to a client’s sales effort.
With that in mind, here are three more revenue-generating ideas you can institute at no or little cost.
Number One:
Sell block sponsorships. It can be as little as an hour and as much as a day.
For instance, consider the impact a client desiring to reach people at work would have if they “owned” your station for …

Last week I had the good fortune to attend a Cleveland session on Arbitron’s PPM. It was a relatively large crowd of radio industry and agency types who were eager to be shown radio’s future in audience measurement. In describing the atmosphere, the term “enthusiastically oblivious” comes to mind. This clearly wasn’t a room in which you’d want to bring up a line like “…this minute-by-minute accounting is being done online everyday, with hard numbers.”
PPM is a contentious way of improving radio accountability. Radio industry CEOs can’t agree on its …

Congress is considering a new law that could change the shape of the American radio industry.
The new law would require U.S. broadcasters to pay fees to performers for playing their music. Such fees are common practice in many countries.
The fees would provide additional revenue for artists, but also for the recording industry, which is feeling the effects of a slumping economy. It is also hurting because of changes in the way people access music, such as file sharing.
Committees in both houses of the U.S. Congress have approved royalty bills. But …

Don’t you wonder some time whether those radio guys have any idea what all those inspirational words really mean when they just kinda pop those Vince Lombardi type quotes into the middle of a creative conversation you thought you were having.
If your a Notre Dame fan, don’t you just wish your coach was as talented as his ego is telling him he is.
Tom Mullane says that music is much better than religion at bringing people together because nobody dies. But he also says his research might be a bit flawed …

Many including President Obama believe that we are near or at the end of the recession. Most believe that it will be a long recovery and that society has irrevocably changed its way of spending. Business owners including radio, that have been riding out the recession, are now asking themselves when and how much to advertise.

Radio programming consultants as a rule usually talk about how to get better ratings. However, this consultancy was founded on the idea that we should also offer our creative services to a client’s sales effort.
With that in mind, here are three more revenue-generating ideas you can institute at no or little cost.
Number One:
Sell block sponsorships. It can be as little as an hour and as much as a day.
For instance; consider the impact a client desiring to reach people at work would have if they “owned” …

Between 1991 and 2001, I created 800+ radio commercials and promos each year. It wasn’t unusual to go into a session where they’d have up to 5 scripts lined up for 30 different car dealers. We’d cut the main copy and tag each spot with a name and location. Grocery chains, jewelery stores, fast food groups, I was the”voice” – and many times the creative person – behind all of them, when radio advertising’s afterburners were lit.
That’s quite a few radio commericals for any one person to do. Not all …

RUMOR: Apple soon to enable FM radio in iPhone and iPod touch
“We’ve just received a tip that an iPhone radio.app is being developed in-house by Apple for use on the iPhone and iPod touch. From what we know, the app will be allowed to operate in the background like iPod.app and will offer the same functionality as the FM radio in the new iPod nanos,” Seth Weintraub reports for 9 to 5 Mac.
“The source mentioned that this application could also be incorporated into the iPod.app before release,” Weintraub reports. “Though …

What makes visionary entrepreneurs such as Apple’s Steve Jobs, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Ebay’s Pierre Omidyar and Meg Whitman, and P&G’s A.G. Lafley tick? In a question-and-answer session with HBR contributing editor Bronwyn Fryer, Professors Jeff Dyer of Brigham Young University and Hal Gregersen of Insead explain how the “Innovators’ DNA” works.This post is part of HarvardBusiness.org’s Creativity at Work special package.
Fryer: You conducted a six-year study surveying 3,000 creative executives and conducting an additional 500 individual interviews. During this study you found five “discovery skills” that distinguish them. What are …