Todd Feinburg Gets It

Radio talk show host Todd Feinburg recently did an interview on blogtalkradio. Here's the great quote:

"If you want to be the next Paul Harvey, do it today and do it using Foneshow"

Here's the audio.

The radio business is about content, not about broadcasting. The media consumer's consumption preferences are changing.

It's about short content.

It's about on-demand content.

Radio has a brief window to leverage their broadcast assets to convert their listeners to on-demand consumption. If they wait too long they become irrelevant (how's the newsreel business these days?). The newspaper industry by and large did a terrible job of managing the transition to digital. Their failure was not quality of content, their failure was not understanding the consumption preferences of their audience.

You can listen to the whole story here.

Todd's site is here.

Aircheck Talk Media Conference

I spent the second half of the week out at Al Peterson's new talk radio conference at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Arizona. It was a great experience and we got a great response from the talk radio community. Jon Sinton, who is working with us to understand the industry was out here too and made a ton of great introductions.

It's an industry in flux. Music radio is in deep weeds. Talk is somewhat better off but still in trouble. The industry has major assets with rapidly depreciating value (the FCC license and to a lesser extent the transmitter and other paraphernalia). Their metrics are practically Dickensian (people keep diaries of what they listen to and mail them in for money). The metrics are starting to get a little better with PPM (portable people meter), but it's still in testing, not terribly accurate (the demo they did gave 7 quarter hours of credit to a single listener in a one hour stretch) and no where near as powerful as the metrics and data available in Foneshow.

The good news is they know they have a problem and they are eager for solutions. Most of the folks I talked with (owners, networks, syndicators, consultants, national and local talk hosts) immediately understood the power of what we're doing and how it applies to them. You know you might have something cool going on when you chat with a guy in the morning and he mentions your product on stage during his panel in the afternoon.

Travel

Jon Sinton and I are headed to Scottsdale next week to go to Al Peterson's Talk Media Conference. I'm looking forward to continuing to work with the talk radio community. We've got a few talkers already signed up to publish with Foneshow and we're looking for more. There's way more here than just piping your radio show onto the cell phone network. It's about extending your brand into the mobile space. It's about using the skill set you already have mastered (the power of your voice) to reach your audience in new ways.

If you're going to be in Scottsdale and want to find out more about Foneshow, let me know.

P.S. It will also be nice to escape from the Maine winter for a few days in the desert.

Day Two on Talk Radio Row

It's primary day in New Hampshire and it is total madness on Talk Radio Row. Most of the candidates will be through the room today.

Great big shout out to Talk Radio News Service and Ellen Ratner for putting on this great event, also big thanks to Dan Patterson for inviting Foneshow down to participate.

Erik Schwartz, Dan Patterson, and CC Chapman On Radio Row

Erik Schwartz Dan Patterson CC Chapman
Originally uploaded by talkradionews

It's a busy room.

Talkers Conference

Nic and I had a table at Talkers Magazine's talk radio conference in NYC on Friday and Saturday. Pretty much everyone in the industry was there. We demo-ed to to lots of important folks and made some tremendous contacts. It's a fascinating industry. It is not at all what it appears from the outside.

One very important theme that some people there got and some people don't get is that they are not in the radio business, they are in the communications business. If you marry yourself to radio as a distribution platform you will inevitably become irrelevant.

We're looking to hire someone who has experience and contacts in the talk radio business (a solid rolodex) to do industry specific business development in the space. You'll have the opportunity to help take the platform of talk radio to a new level. When you're this early in a company you'll be writing a lot of your own job description. If you're interested and experienced, get in touch.

This Week

On Thursday night I'll be in NY at the PaidContent Mixer.

On Friday I'll be at the Talkers Conference New Media Seminar.

On Saturday we'll be demo-ing at a table at the talkers conference in the atrium of the Embassy Suites Battery Park. Come on by and say hello.