The restaurant business is littered with eateries that started with great promise, only to fizzle out. Kind of like radio station formats. For today’s blog, it’s a look at consumer food products and the lengths they now go to in order to stand out and grab attention – without compromising the essence of their brands. I hope that deep into my many analogies, you’ll walk away with a different way to think about the radio stations you program and market.

As research budgets continue to dwindle, broadcasters should recognize just how much free data is available. That’s what our Techsurveys have been all about over the past 20 years. And now a new research study focused on female radio consumers is out, and it’s loaded with timely and actionable insights. One of its conclusions? Radio could do a much better job with its mobile app efforts. That’s the topic of today’s blog post, along with some easy and free techniques any station can use to market its app.

What makes a legendary radio station? Is it about how many Marconi and Crystal statues it manages to snag? Is it about how much cash flowed during its lifetime? Or is it more about longevity and whether it stayed with its original format throughout its radio lifetime? That’s the topic of today’s #TBT blog post where the center of attention is a long-running radio station whose plug got pulled five years ago in 2019. You know the call letters, but can we consider this station an iconic radio brand?

In their most recent earnings call, Starbucks experienced a rough prior quarter, which brought out the boo birds and second guessers. This time, it also brought out the company’s long running CEO, Howard Schultz. He ran the Starbucks empire for nearly 40 years, and he recently posted an “explainer” of how Startucks got itself ijnto this mess – and how to get out of it. Yes, Schultz’s story dovetails nicely into radio’s current challenges. Pour yourself a cup of coffee and click “READ MORE.”

Everyone wondered how big the boomerang effect would be on various industries mortally wounded by the pandemic: cruise ships, concert venues, and movie theaters are good examples. For the concert business, the numbers are now in, and to no one’s surprise, 2023 smashed all previous records for attendance and revenue. Our Techsurvey 2024 confirms this phenomenon, showing which formats are the most engaged, and pointing the way to how radio can take advantage of this huge opportunity in both its marketing and branding. Take your seat and check it out.