Are Podcasts bad for Radio?

WTEM announced it would begin embargoing their Podcasts for 24-hours after the corresponding shows air -- essentially erecting a pay wall, according to the story on NTS. If you follow this thread, you begin to realize there's a huge under-appreciation for compelling local digital content amid fears of a declining traditional audience.

And that seems to be the mentality.  Indy radio notable Jerry Lee ended WBEB's streaming because he sees it as a bad business model.  While I agree with the revenue challenges in digital, I think Lee misses the boat and is doing a disservice to his industry by rationalizing an inability to articulate a successful sales pitch to sell a valuable product.   My response:

Jerry presumes it's not possible to sell enough advertising to support the platform, and I would have to ask, "why not?"

There's a real and growing audience in streaming, so to feign failure in digital is to fail in sales. Radio is a culture that refuses to graduate to modern CRM facilities, so with virtually no order automation, $10 spots carry hefty cost of sales; our sale-by-appointment mentality cannot sustain digital.

In fact, many successful broadcasters are commanding $35 CPM for online video, says Brian Benedik, president of Katz 360, in a conversation he had recently with media consultant Mark Ramsey. The advertising agency predicts the real growth area will be on the local level where traditional media really needs to communicate the value of the digital audience.  Benedik sees the trends first hand, so his vantage point should be something direct marketers should appreciate.

It's easy to find stories of account executives coming back from client meetings and reporting buyers still don't understand the cost-benefits of partnering in the digital spaces.  Those clients and prospects see themselves as media savvy, many having a keen understanding of audience measurements and targeting.  They are paying attention, but are they provided valid data?  They aren't if they're not discussing Podcasting and online video that's significant and growing fast -- and available to advertisers right now.

Ironically, Iowa has seen amazing success stories within the radio sphere, regularly producing digital CPM rates of $10 and often as high as $50.  That's what happens when you have personal relationships with the buyers that runs deeper than the rhetoric we're reading in ad pubs.

Building and growing those trust relationships with local direct customers, educating them, making sure they understand the weaknesses of old-fashioned ratings models so that they don't step over customers in pursuit of archaic ratings, seems like a pretty important thing to be talking about in sales meetings in every market.

I think it was Roy Williams who taught us that it's not the size of the audience that matters as much as super-selling the audience you can afford.  This is, I think, where partnering with local digital content can be a critical foothold for bourgeoning small businesses, the nation's economic engine.

CF City Council to residents: Hand over the keys!

The city council of Cefar Falls, Iowa is on its second of three readings before it casts a final vote on a law that requires commercial properties to supply keys to the city government.  It's my understanding that the revised ordinance may also require owners of residential rental property to also provide access.

Not having the ordinance in front of me and not being a constitutional scholar, it's hard for me to pass judgment, but I was stunned watching council meeting highlights.  It leaves me wondering from where they think they get the power to control the citizens, for whom it works.


Handing over your keys seems like giving wholesale compulsory consent, implied forfeiture of liberty.  It's CF residents'  & business owners' job to call BS on this.

One of the council members said, "The merits of an idea do not depend on the number of people who hold that idea".  I agree with this, which is why our founders decided against a democracy where we're all indentured to a misinformed majority and where mob rules apply.

I whole-heartedly disagree with the councilman who said "[the council has] the right..."  No.  The council has a responsibility to the people; in a constitutional republic the people have a right to have their interests represented by the elected body, and it shall consider and respect the reasonable will of the people.  The council's will, for the sake of convenience, should not trump the will of the people.

Maddow on Santorum on Weiner

I can appreciate MSNBC's Rachel Maddow when she articulates a subject and can call BS when it's due, but she loses me when she predicates an entire segment on a false premise.

Here she is telling us that Sen. Rick Santorum said Rep. Anthony Weiner should resign.


But that's not what the former PA Senator said -- if you can recognize the difference between saying what you would do and telling someone else what they should do. In fact, Mr. Santorum has been pretty explicit about the distinction -- and made it when he visited Des Moines Friday.