In the U.S., public radio content – both broadcast and podcast – is stellar. But making money in this environment is a challenge. Today’s post looks at why 2020 revenue models – for both commercial and public radio – need scrutiny and creativity. As we’ve learned, it takes just as much innovation to generate revenue as it does to make great content.

Are you feeling the stress as we head into the end of an already tough year? You can cut the pressure with a knife. For millions of Americans, stress levels are off the charts. And if there’s any good news in the data, it’s that many still turn to the radio for relief and escape. But who’s tending to the pros on the air, tasked with making us laugh, informing us, entertaining us, or simply helping us get away from our problems during their commutes? That’s the question in today’s JacoBLOG as we approach Peak Stress.

In little more than 100 days from now, we will have welcomed in a new year – and we will be jetting off to Las Vegas to experience CES 2025. The Consumer Electronic Show (as this amazing event is often known as) is the table-setter for the year in tech and media ahead. COVID aside, Paul and I have made the trip every year since 2009. This year, we hope you’ll be joining us. Why do we go each year? As broadcaster extraordinaire Jerry Lee once explained to me, we “don’t want to miss the future.”

The leaps and bounds that AI platforms have made in the last year is breathtaking. Generative text and generative voice are crossing the “uncanny valley” and close to becoming indistinguishable from non-AI-assisted work. Take for instance a new tool from Google Labs, Notebook LM. This tool, tagged as a virtual research assistant, is designed to help students…