Twitter has 49 million users every month in the US. Facebook has 198 million. There are about 6 million US Spotify users. What about terrestrial broadcast radio, that old-school, supposedly dying analog medium? Radio has 241.8 million listeners per week, not just per month. Take that, Silicon Valley. Those numbers are according to Nielsen’s December […]
Archive | Economics
Podcasters gotta eat; Tom Scharpling to end The Best Show on WFMU
Tom Scharpling announced on his program Tuesday that he is ending The Best Show on WFMU, broadcasting its final episode on December 17. Over the course of 13 years The Best Show has grown for itself a sizable and loyal nationwide audience that enjoys the host’s unique mix of on-air rants, real listener calls and […]
Broadcast Engineering magazine to end publication Thursday
On the heels of the news that Monitoring Times will close this year, comes the news of the closure of another radio publication. Industry magazine Broadcast Engineering announced on Friday that it will end publication this Thursday, October 31. Though probably not well known outside of the world of radio engineers and the people who […]
Radio revenue up in 2012, especially on digital platforms
The commercial radio business is looking stronger, especially on digital platforms. Terrestrial and digital radio revenue went up in 2012, with 4th quarter revenues surging even more. That’s according to a report from the Radio Advertising Bureau. Revenue from commercial spots inched up 1% for the year overall, but increased 4% in the 4th quarter, […]
FCC Chairman tells NAB that “business is better,” but your public files are going online
The National Association of Broadcasters annual show and convention just started in Las Vegas, bringing together nearly every sector of the broadcast industry to show off new products, discuss trends and hob nob. Unfortunately, the Radio Survivor travel budget doesn’t yet cover more than cab fare across town, so we don’t have a correspondent on […]
Sandra Fluke continues to speak out while syndicator suspends national ads on Limbaugh show
More than a week after Rush Limbaugh proffered a weak apology for his repeated misogynistic comments on-air about Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, his show is left with virtually no national advertisers, but he remains mostly unrepentant. On Monday word broke that Limbaugh’s syndicator, Clear Channel-owned Premiere Radio Networks, is suspending all national advertising on […]
SiriusXM’s Karmazin pretty much admits it’s good to be a monopoly
Last Thursday, on the eve of the company’s tenth anniversary celebration with Bruce Springsteen, SiriusXM CEO Mel Karmazin appeared for a thirteen minute interview on Jim Cramer’s CNBC investment show Mad Money. There are two big questions on the mind of satellite radio watchers: will John Malone’s Liberty Media buy up more of SiriusXM, and […]
One step closer to more low-power community radio; FCC says LPFM no threat to commercial stations
Last week the FCC released its report on the economic impact of low-power FM stations on commercial radio. The report was mandated by passage of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010 (LCRA), and its primary conclusion should surprise nobody with any knowledge of LPFM: “LPFM stations are unlikely to have more than a negligible […]
Occupy Wall Street occupies the airwaves, too
This post by John Anderson originally appeared at DIYmedia.net and is republished here by permission. Two decades ago, thousands of people took to the air without permission from the FCC to protest the agency’s draconian policies regarding access to the airwaves. The microradio movement conducted a campaign of electronic civil disobedience, demonstrating that there was […]
Radio World editor chuckles at Matthew’s economic analysis of pirate radio, but forgets his radio history
In his “From the Editor” column Radio World’s Paul McLane takes up Matthew’s recent calculation finding that pirate radio generates a half-billion dollars worth of jobs. Recall that my esteemed Radio Survivor colleague was riffing off a recent study sponsored by the National Association of Broadcasters that claimed $135 billion in economic output is attributable […]