Fred Jacobs

At least it’s not “Muskrat Love.”

More and more, I feel like today’s music has passed me by.

Nice to know there are still good jobs out there, and there’s somebody looking out for me. Lucky day!

Radio And The Power Of The Parasocial Seemingly every day in the trades we read about research studies trying to prove the value and impact of broadcast radio. In today's post, ironically, it's the research maven with a "real-life story a...

Agencies claim radio lacks attribution. Oh yeah? I’ve got your attribution right here. Radio works. bit.ly/4mYwTMa

Want To Watch Videos On Your Apple CarPlay? Buy An Aston Martin When you consider how media platforms have evolved over the past couple decades, the one that has perhaps moved at the highest rate of speed is dashboard entertainment. As radio's #1 listening locatio...

What’s the next big thing for dashboard audio? Dashboard video. bit.ly/4094mto

It's The Christian (Radio) Thing To Do I'm back from Momentum 25, the annual conference put on by the Christian Music Broadcasters. As is the case year after year, 700 attendees made the trek to steamy Orlando to learn, share, commune, wor...

How the Momentum conference changed my views about loyalty and fulfillment of a station‘s mission. bit.ly/3HqCkTP

Is It Time For Radio to WAKE UP?! For a half century, I've conducted research designed to better understand the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors of the radio listening audience. Some studies address highly complex questions where...

Edison Research has done the radio industry, a big service by starting a discussion about wake up times for average Americans. But Radio programmers need this data for their local audiences. Here’s how to get the answers. bit.ly/44Yj9KW

For Radio, The Perils Of Rebranding Don't look now, but an apparent new marketing trend is "rebranding"—new logos and stylings for existing brands. For others, however, it's more radical surgery—changing a brand's name altogether. Today...

For radio, the perils of “rebranding.“ bit.ly/3HkHOzr

Will Radio Jump On TikTok's "Silver Express?" Social media continues to evolve. Proof of that in 2025 is the rapid growth, maturation, and buzz for TikTok. If you get beyond the controversy over its ownership, TikTok has emerged as a reliable too...

TikTok’s appeal is skewing older. All the more reason why most radio brands should have an active TikTok strategy. bit.ly/3Z4hijY

Turn Up The Radio (If You Can Find It) A major focus for broadcassters these past two years has been the long-awaited legislation to lock in AM radios in every U.S. manufactured car. But these days, that story is just the tip of the iceber...

Radio and cars used to have a very happy relationship. But now things are moving in a different direction more quickly than you might think. bit.ly/43DAJCG

Who At Your Station Would The Audience Like To Have A Beer With? Thinking about your radio station or the ones you've worked for in the past, the truly great, successful ones very likely had a "standard bearer," that one personality who stood out above the pack. In...

Which member of your staff with the audience like to have a beer with? Who is your standardbearer? bit.ly/45hEyPa

Lessons For Radio From The Recent Google Home Outage Have you heard about the Google Home glitch that prevented most radio streams working - for weeks? Neither had I until consultant James Cridland surfaced the problem in his "Radioland" newsletter over...

Imagine… Commanding your Google Home to stream your favorite station. What you get back is… “Radio silence. In actuality, Google Home devices suffered a system-wide outage recently, preventing most stations from being played. And most people in radio had no idea it was happening. bit.ly/4kL8cBd

Another strong Sunday blog post, Dick. Thanks for the Techsurvey shout out.

The Rock Hall's Most Egregious Snub Yet? The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland is as well-known for its controversial omissions and inclusions as it is for the music that originally put the place on the map. And now, a new campaign to pr...

There have been many egregious, snubs and weird inclusions into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame over the years but this guy needs to get in. bit.ly/4jVLCW9

3 Socio-Economic Shifts Every Radio Programmer And Seller Should Be Aware Of Radio has enjoyed long periods throughout its storied past where habitual listening became deeply rooted in the American psyche. But in recent years, big historical moments like COVID have spurred beh...

Three big socioeconomic shifts since Covid every radio programmer and seller should know about. bit.ly/44EpdIu

"It Was The Dumbest Contest In Radio History" In an overloaded competitive media environment, it is especially challenging for any local radio station to stand out and get noticed. And that brings me to perhaps my most rewarding consulting experi...

It may have been the dumbest contest in radio history, and I’m proud to have been a part of it. bit.ly/4klqeK3

What if broadcast radio did something right out of left field? bit.ly/3F4fRLx

Why Radio P.D.s Are A Lot Like NBA Coaches Five traits great NBA coaches and radio programmers share.

Five lessons radio program directors can learn from NBA coaches. bit.ly/4jNZlP0

The Guy In The Next Car There is always lively debate in radio circles about whether the quality of today's stations can even touch how things sounded "back in the day." But the more salient issue is the loss of the shared r...

What’s the guy in the next car listening to? (Probably not your radio station.) bit.ly/4iSRnTb

Excited to tell you, I’ll be speaking at this great conference, presenting Techsurvey 2025 - The Sports Radio Edition. See you next week in Chicago.

Why smart radio stations are circling the wagons around their “superfans.” bit.ly/4jLKT9G

The Exponential Value of Nurturing Radio Superfans Across the world wide web, it has become more and more valuable to focus on core fans rather than a broader group of more casual users. And now a new research study amplifies the value of "superfans,"...

Why doubling down on “super fans” is the smartest move for radio in 2025. bit.ly/4jLKT9G

In Radio, You Just Never Know Some of the biggest successes in both the music and radio industries have the been most unlikeliest.

What’s it like to bring a radio station back from the dead? I was an accomplice and I’ll tell you all about it. bit.ly/4iDIH3j

Why AM/FM Radio Will Never Die It's NAB week for broadcasters, the annual industry gathering in Las Vegas. And it is coinciding with economic uncertainty, highlighted by plummeting stock prices and much hand-wringing. This isn't th...

How a scary headline about the mortality of print magazines translates to AM/FM radio. The industry face as many challenges as the NAB convention gets underway in Las Vegas. bit.ly/43DAPLa

In radio, baseball, and tariff wars, life is not always fair. But compete we must. bit.ly/4lgwdkA

Writing today’s blog, I learned that 90% of Americans have a “bucket list.” Here’s how radio could become a part of the experiential movement. bit.ly/4i5idHG

Can we just get a show of hands? How many of you think that taking apart the entire government is good for the economy?

“ Honey, would you please talk to Alexa?” bit.ly/4jctp6i

On The Radio, It's Always 5 O'Clock Somewhere A new craft beer named Frequency Modulation - FM radio.

On the radio, it’s never a bad time to enjoy a classic rock brewski. Have one on me. bit.ly/43XpOEu

Radio: Still King Of The Car? Yesterday's post about Apple CarPlay triggered questions about the impact of technology on in-car AM/FM listening levels. I've got new Techsurvey 2025 data that may make you think twice about the rese...

Is AM/FM radio still “king of the Car?” bit.ly/4iI884x