The JacoBLOG Junk Drawer: Fourth Of July Edition

What have you got planned for the Fourth? For most of us, it’s a mélange of picnics, barbeques, family gatherings, and a chance to welcome in the summer of 2025 on a campground, in a park, or on a lake.

But before you get carried away with all these leisure time activities, let’s not lose sight of the opportunity to do some tidying up before the second half of the year gets underway. And a great place to start is with that clutter collector better known as the “junk drawer.” We all have one, and chances are, yours needs attention.

So allow me to walk the walk today, and publish some of the favorite stories I’ve been stashing away in the JacoBLOG junk drawer—interesting media, entertainment, tech, and of course, radio tales that didn’t merit an entire post.

Item #1: Setting the “Red Light/Green Light” record – Some old timers may remember the days when morning shows aspired to break “Guinness World Records.” It’s still very possible to pull this off, and that’s precisely what the Anaheim Elementary School District (in collaboration with CF Fitness, an educational service company whose goal it is to get children more physically active) recently set out to do.

How to get in the record book? How about vying to break the existing record for the biggest game of “Red Light/Green Light,” an obvious way to appeal to both kids…and their parents. The classic game enjoyed a mini-revival when it was featured as a survival game in the Netflix series, Squid Game. (Note the photo from Seoul, South Korea.)

According to Guinness, more than 1,400 people participated in the stunt. And as we enjoy the summer months all over the country, going after a world record is a tried-and-true way for radio to engage its audience, garner media attention, and pull off an attention-getting stunt for little (or no) investment.

Guinness even sells participant certificates and medals ($25 and $45 respectively) if you can tap into the station coffee fund to provide prizes for a handful of winners.

These are also multi-generational promotions designed to garner family participation. And if the goal is to support a station fundraiser for a good cause, these Guinness stunts can fit the bill, too.

Item #2: Ultra-cheap AI videos that look better than you’d think – However you’re thinking about AI at the moment—especially its impact on the media and maybe your career—you might want to get up-to-speed as the technology continues to move faster than most media organizations do.

The latest demonstration of AI video was an ad for the betting platform, Kalshi. It ran during the NBA Finals last week. If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a mindblower…

…especially when you consider a single AI filmmaker, P.J. Accetturo, put the whole thing together for a mere $2,000. And perhaps the most interesting aspect of this story is that ABC-TV approved the ad:

 

Business Insider (via y! entertainment) revealed the step-by-step process that went into creating the ad, combining a number of AI engines, including the Google Gemini chatbot and the Veo 3 video generator. ChatGPT helped Accetturo come up with idea to illustrate weird people betting on all kinds of stuff (including the NBA Finals). But there’s a human/creative side at work here, too. Accetturo still had to dream up “10 wild characters in unhinged situations” to say lines the Kalshi team wanted included.

It’s more proof of AI’s incredible potential to translate crazy ideas into tangible media platforms—that anyone can produce—another sign the creative process is undergoing quantum changes before our very eyes…and ears.

Item #3: YouTube Shorts is exploding – In what sounds like a number that’s wildly exaggerated, this platform now averages 200 billion daily views.

I’ve talked a lot about the mushrooming popularity of short videos in this blog, but stories like this one in The Wrap remind us how quickly consumption patterns are changing. YouTube CEO Neil Mohan broke his company’s big story at the world famous Cannes Lions International Festival earlier this month:

Here’s some perspective. This YouTube milestone represents a 186% increase in daily viewership year-over-year. Amazingly, Shorts has only been around since 2021.

As many television outlets struggle to attract and retain viewers, YouTube is enjoying more than 1 billion viewing hours daily.  

Mohan also told his attendees the Veo 3 model (mentioned in the Kalshi story) will be coming to YouTube later this summer, giving content creators the opportunity to improve the video qualities of their backgrounds, along with the ability to incorporate audio.

Item #4: Those Netflix Houses are finally opening – On the heels of YouTube, Netflix is moving full-speed ahead on physical venues designed to create experiences for fans of the company’s biggest shows. The aforementioned Squid Game is one of these.

I blogged about this Netflix concept nearly a year ago. Now, locations at the Galleria Mall in Dallas and the King of Prussia Mall outside Philadelphia are set to open later this year. A third Netflix House has now been greenlighted for Las Vegas, next to the MGM Grand. (Netflix opened up a restaurant in that casino earlier this year.)

This could be fascinating. Here’s the plan for the Dallas location, featuring experiences built around Squid Game and Stranger Things.

At the King of Prussia Mall, the Netflix House will showcase the shows Wednesday and One Piece.

Media brands transforming their content into tangible, participatory experiences are fascinating ways to extend their appeal to other participants. Leisure time is becoming more creative, and it is fascinating to watch Netflix innovate these.

Item #5: TV history was made last month – It’s finally happened…. For the first time ever, streaming has now officially passed linear television viewing. And it’s a big deal. Nielsen made it official as the chart below clearly shows:

If this chart looks familiar, we’ve produced something similar for radio going back many years now. It tracks listening to one’s P1 station on “regular radios” versus streams. Our two axes aren’t going to cross anytime soon, but as I often say, charts like this clearly depict where both activities are going. It’s just a matter of time before radio listening ends up where we’re seeing TV now.

According to Strata-Gee, Nielsen has only been tracking this since 2021. As you can see, streaming’s gain have been dramatic during this time. Meanwhile cable TV has been declining more precipitously than broadcast during these four years.

The remarkable thing about this trend is how fast streaming has grown versus the rate that broadcast + cable have fallen. Conventional wisdom suggests the streaming surge is being driven by younger consumers. But the reality is that “viewers over 65 are the fastest-growing age group for watching YouTube off a television set,” according to the New York Times.

And I’ll leave you with Nielsen’s “The Gauge,” a handy monthly chart that nicely maps out the pecking order in TV. While there are a lot of players in the field, television viewing is now dominated by Netflix with a 7.5 share and the big dog, YouTube – with an impressive 12.5 piece of this valuable pie.

For those of us in broadcast radio, this is a reminder to get those streaming ducks in a row. While streaming for radio operators is a much less attractive business model than the traditional over the air version, the writing is on the proverbial wall. Broadcasters have simply got to come to grips with streaming.

Item #6: The eyes have it – Remember that cool Ray-Ban collab with Meta we’ve shown you from past CES visits, mashing up sunglasses with media?

iHeartRadio is officially on board, now making streaming any one of their hundreds of stations on your shades as easy as uttering a voice command while wearing these techie specs.

These wearables will only become more popular over time, combining fashion and function. Chris Brunt bought his Ray-Ban Metas following our CES 2024 trek.

He’s working through a bug or two as everyone’s software figures out how to talk to one other. Hopefully, Chris will have them up and running soon. He’ll report his impressions here.

Kudos to iHeart for making radio accessible on a cutting-edge product. This is what it means to “meet the audience where they are” (or where they will be).

Item #7: Have you listened to the “Comedy Saved Me” podcast? – As if we needed more evidence that former radio programming guru Buzz Knight is a “Renaissance Man,” the debut of his newest podcast, Comedy Saved Me, should seal the deal.

In collaboration with Premiere Networks, this is Buzz’s third podcast, following the success of Takin’ A Walk and Music Saved Me.

Talk about timely—this new podcast, hosted by Lynn Hoffman, focuses on the role humor plays in our lives. Comedy Saved Me episodes will showcase Hoffman chatting with comedians, entertainers, and cultural icons sharing stories about how they’ve used humor on the road to “healing, recovery, and self-discovery.”

Buzz is an inspiration to radio people everywhere, reinforcing that with hard work, focus, and creativity, broadcasters can succeed as podcasters.

I’m waiting for the next product in Buzz’s stable—”Radio Saved Me.” I’ve got first dibs to be the host.

You can access Comedy Saved Me here or wherever you get your podcasts. – FJ