Yesterday at the NAB Radio Show, NAB President and CEO David Rehr unveiled a campaign to reposition radio for the future: "Radio 2020."

Radio 2020 a cooperative effort between the NAB, the Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) and of course the HD Digital Radio Alliance.

"As we near commercial radio's 100th anniversary in 2020, this initiative will be our road map to building radio's future," said Rehr.

The first item of attack for the Radio 2020 initiative (which, by the way, is a pretty hokey name... c'mon, it's up there with Hulu), is to address consumers' demands for playlist variety and format diversity. Unfortunately, "variety and diversity" is something that "radio" is no longer associated with... and just happens to be what consumers get from iPods, satellite radio and internet radio.

"But," Rehr said, "we need to do a better job of informing listeners about the great variety that radio already provides."

(sigh) Radio is still stuck in this mindset that telling listeners something that isn't true will convince them otherwise. That only works in the old pre-fragmented world. That worked when radio, and TV, were all the public depended on for information. But it doesn't work today. Radio stations can't keep playing the stingers declaring "We're [you're state's] #1 home for rock 'n roll!" and expect people to believe it (because that new 160Gb iPod sure seems to be the real #1 home for rock and roll). And the same applies with telling listeners that there's great variety on radio - it doesn't work anymore. Don't tell them about it... do it.

"We must continually seek ways to meet the demands of our consumers - encouraging more variety and diversity, spurring more innovations in electronics, and helping marketers develop even more innovative and compelling advertisements," said David Rehr.

As much of a critic of Rehr as I am, I really can't argue here. Innovation, variety, diversity... all great things, and something that radio has lost in the last 15 years. But the proof is in the pudding - you can't make a purse out of a sow's ear... right David?

"You don't have to be wealthy to own a radio. In fact, you can buy one for a buck. And you don't have to be stationary to listen to radio - it's in your car, MP3 player, or headphones. What listeners love most, and what radio must promote, is how accessible, ubiquitous, and easy to use radio is," added Rehr.

Wrong.

Listeners don't care how accessible radio is. Listeners don't care that it's ubiquitous. Listeners don't care that radio has towers, spectrum, transmitters, contours, satellites, repeaters, buffers or anything for that matter. Telling the listener about distribution means nothing. Because they don't care.

What listeners care about is content. They want to turn on a device - be it a radio, a satellite radio, an iPod, their cellphone, whatever - and listen to something on their drive to work. Or hear something in the background while working on the job site. Or rev them up while they're cranking away behind a computer at work. Or laugh during the drive home after a crazy day at work.

Rehr concluded by saying that Radio 2020 will, "give ammunition to radio's loyalists" as they respond to industry critics. He told NAB Radio Show attendees, "We need you to be evangelical about Radio 2020 and talk to as many people as possible. Repeat it to yourself, to your colleagues, and to your family."

How about this? How about instead of drinking the NAB Kool-aid, and repeating "2020 2020 2020" to everyone in some cult-mania mantra... why not just do it instead? If "Radio 2020" is going to be some revolution in radio - which, let's face it, is a direct response to the fragmenting of media from satellite radio, internet radio, iPods, mobile audio, etc - then start acting on it, and stop talking about it.

If broadcast TV stations can survive cable (and even thrive amid 600 other channels), then radio can too... they just need to give a reason to do so.

[Radio Ink]

Sirius Satellite Radio's Cousin Brucie, who just recently resigned with the satellite radio broadcaster, blasted his former home of WCBS-FM for not truly returning to the "oldies" format.

Bruce Morrow said he talked with WCBS-FM about returning to the station, but decided to renew with Sirius because WCBS-FM wasn't planning to play enough '50s and '60s music.

"I'm very concerned that radio isn't doing enough to keep this early music alive," he said. "There are so many people in their 40s, 50s and 60s who still love it, and I don't think they should be written off."

Cousin Brucie feels that WCBS is making the same mistake they did when they dropped the oldies format in lieu of the "Jack" format back in 2005.

Morrow added that "they have every right to program what they want - and I have nothing against '80s music. But there's a real need for earlier music, too."

Sirius, he said, understands that.

"When I first talked to people here, like Mel [Karmazin], they gave me a commitment and they've kept it. In almost two and a half years here, I've never felt like I had more freedom on the radio."

Brucie held "informal" talks with WCBS, but decided to stay at Sirius instead.

"They wanted me to come back, help sign them on, and that made sense," he said. "But I told them they're still writing too many people off.

"Now the station has the jingles back and the advertising back. But it doesn't have me and it doesn't have the music."

[NY Daily News]

Fox News Radio is now offering a new on-demand service to the nearly 400 affiliates of its 5-Minute news service. This makes the Fox News Radio the first radio network to provide an On Demand service for its affiliates.

Constantly updated 24-hours daily, the service provides radio stations with On Demand newscasts - aptly called "Fox News Radio On Demand" - directly to the affiliate website. Yes, this service is only to websites.

“People today are getting their news and information not just from the radio but are also looking to the Internet for what they need,” said Kevin Magee, EVP of Fox News Radio. (Wait... people are looking to the internet for news and information?! Amazing!)

Now, this news sounds interesting until you realize that it's relegated to online listening only. Since everything online is essentially "On Demand" there's little in terms of breakthrough here. Maybe it's an updated embeddable player that's the big deal? I don't know, but the thought of On Demand and Radio sure makes a lot of sense to me. And that spells an opportunity for Satellite Radio (not to mention headlines)... if they can pull it off.

I personally would love something like "Satellite Radio On Demand" - with the ability to access a limited variety of programming (likely original programming only) that you can listen to whenever you want. It would bring the listening experience to the next level.

I don't know exactly how they'd do it, since the receiver would need to send a signal to access the different programming, but that's up to the engineers to figure out. I just want a true hybrid between choice, and selection... how great would that be?

[via MediaWeek]

Clear Channel Communications Inc (CCU) shareholders have approved a $39.20/share buyout offer from private equity firms Bain Capital Partners and Thomas H. Lee Partners... worth almost $20 billion.

73% of the total shares outstanding were voted in favor of the deal.

Under Texas law at least two-thirds of the San Antonio-based company's shares had to vote in favor of the transaction. Shareholders who failed to vote were counted as voting against the sale.

In an e-mail to employees after the vote result was announced, Clear Channel CEO Mark Mays wrote that the next step was getting the merger closed. The deal is awaiting approval from the FCC and the DOJ.

Approval will "hopefully be granted in the next few months, putting the most likely merger completion date in December, although it could be somewhat before or after that timeframe," wrote Mays in the e-mail.

[Reuters]

I was reading an article in the Washington Times when this quote from iBiquity's CEO Bob Struble jumped out at me:

"Five years from now, you won't walk into a Best Buy and say, 'I want an HD Radio." You'll just say, 'I want a radio' — because that will be the standard."

Uhm, yeah. Here's a reality check for everyone in the industry, including satellite radio: people don't walk into a Best Buy and buy a radio. They don't. Radios come with your car. Radios just happen to be part of your alarm clock. Nobody walks into a store looking to buy a radio.

The "tabletop radio" segment, which consists mostly of alarm clocks, isn't something that people buy on a whim. College kids buy "tabletop radios" because they need to wake up after a night of hard partying (and guess what, a cellphone works just as well). They don't buy a radio because by-golly they need to have a radio. That AM/FM functionality is just there by default. Oh, and that alarm clock they're looking at now had better have an iPod charger included.

Now this might come as a surprise to everyone, because we all at one point in time decided to buy "a radio." But you didn't buy a satellite radio. You bought Howard Stern. Or Opie and Anthony. Or NASCAR. Or the MLB. Or the wide range of music that you can't get anywhere else. You bought the convenience of hearing this content wherever you are. The radio you purchased was only the vehicle - it provided the functions you needed to access that content you wanted.

So here's the newsflash to Bob Struble and all the other suits getting ready to yuck-it-up at the NAB Radio Show this week... in five years? No one is going to be saying "I want a radio" when they walk into Best Buy.

[Washington Times]

Forbes last night unveiled their Forbes 400, highlighting the 400 richest people in America - and several radio-related moguls are on the list.

For all the whining that the NAB does about Howard Stern's $500 million contract, you'd think these folks were paupers. But that's not at all the case, far from it, especially since you need to have a net worth of at least $1.3 billion to even get on the Forbes 400 list.

So follow the link below, and check out the Top 10 Richest People in Radio... and the disgusting amount of their net worth.

On Monday, George Washington University hosted the annual Future of Music Coalition conference where musicians (as opposed to the RIAA) can convene over the state of the music business.

Washington Post writer Rob Pergoraro was in attendance and gave a very nice recap of the happenings at the show. Of particular interest is the plight of independent musicians and their lack of exposure on terrestrial radio.

Rich Bengloff, president of the American Association of Independent Music, cited figures gathered by SoundExchange: In 2006, 37 percent of the songs played on "non-terrestrial" radio (i.e., Satellite Radio and Internet Radio) came from independent artists.

On AM/FM, they had less than 10 percent of airtime, Bengloff said.

And HD Radio doesn't look to be the answer to this problem anytime soon. When a speaker asked the room of 70+ people in the music biz if any of them owned an HD Radio, the WaPo reporter saw only 2 hands go up.

[Washington Post]

Looks like Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen - who urged the DOJ to oppose the Sirius-XM merger - might have been returning a favor to his former boss, Former Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson.

See, the Four Term Governor of Wisconsin Tommy Thompson just happens to be the Chairman of the Board for Armada Media Corporation, a terrestrial radio company which has closed on the acquisition of eighteen radio stations in Aberdeen, SD and Marinette, WI / Menominee, MI, and McCook, NE.

A quick look at the Wisconsin AG's biography reveals that Van Hollen's father served as Governor Tommy Thompson's first Northern Representative.

Then in 1993 Governor Tommy Thompson appointed Van Hollen to the position of District Attorney in Ashland County. Nearly six years later, Van Hollen was appointed to serve as Bayfield County District Attorney, again by Gov. Tommy Thompson, and was later elected to the position.

Tommy Thompson also publicly endorsed J.B. Van Hollen - not to mention helped in fundraising efforts - in his run for Attorney General last year.

There's some additional ties between Van Hollen, Tommy Thompson and another individual: Nick Hurtgen. Not only was Van Hollen seen with Hurtgen, but Phil Prange (Van Hollen's campaign manager) apparently was close friends with Hurtgen.

But who is Nick Hurtgen? Well, he's not only a former owner of Armada Media (having had 12.5% of the company, before being cut from its ranks), but was also charges with seven counts of extortion and mail & wire fraud charges (later dismissed by a federal judge). Hurtgen is also a good friend of - not to mention a former aide of - (you guessed it) former Governor Tommy Thompson.

Good Ol' Boys Club anyone?

Obviously it's not hard evidence of a conflict of interest, not like Wisconsin Senator Herb Kohl... but, if it walks like a duck.

[via Yahoo Finance Groups]

While terrestrial radio reaches over 90% of the U.S. public weekly, the generation gap is painfully apparent in this recent data compiled by eMarketer.

A survey conducted by Fabrizio, McLaughlin & Associates found that Baby Boomers (42-62) still dominate as the generation that follows radio the most. Further down, but not too far behind, are the Gen-Xers (32-41) who listen to 1.88 mean hours of radio a day according to the study. And at the bottom of the pack are the Echo Boomers (18-31) who listen to a paltry 1.79 mean hours.

As advertisers look to target younger demographics, this explains one of the reasons why radio's revenues have been flat over the past six years.

But what does this mean for Sirius or XM? Should they target the older generations who've grown up with radio and are more accustomed to the medium? Or is it a sign that there's an opportunity to pick up the pieces that terrestrial radio has left behind?

[eMarketer]