Media Info Bureau

Change is inevitable, but people weren't built to be miserable, says our guest columnist

Smart appliances have been available for many years without making much impact on the $74 billion worldwide laundry and refrigeration market. But, research from Futuresource Consulting indicates that this may be about to change. That's big news for radio industry sales execs.

Featured Media Information Bureau columnist Barrett Riddleberger has made a living out of identifying sales candidates who, when hired, fail to meet expectations. In this latest installment on the topic, Riddleberger offers more insight into why so many bad hires have this one thing in common: The job candidate rocked the job interview.

Yes, we know you're just back to the office from the Independence Day holiday ... maybe. Even so, parents and members of Gen Z are already budgeting for their back-to-school shopping. In Hawaii, school starts at the end of the month. Not long after that, students will be back to school in California, Florida, and other states. Are retailers set to see a bump in sales? Yes, says eMarketer.

"Premium, personality-based podcasts" and other on-demand audio content is growing in popularity among advertisers and consumers, in particular digitally savvy audio listeners who don't consider themselves "radio listeners." Perhaps that's one reason why Entercom Communications has just acquired a 45% stake in a big podcast creator.

Is your sales team falling short of expectations? Ask yourself why. Expert sales coach Barrett Riddleberger puts this question to his clients on a first call to get their perceptions about why their sales team is not meeting expectations. Sometimes he gets clear responses. Mostly, he receives vague ones, as he notes in this latest column.

Doug Ferber of DEFcom Advisors LLC and Erwin Krasnow of Garvey Schubert Barer have created a special podcast series exclusively for RBR+TVBR members based on a series of articles centered on the topic “Broadcast Deal Myths Debunked.” In this 10th and final podcast in this series, Ferber and Krasnow discuss "Murphy's Law" and "The Greater Fool Theory." In short, they do not apply to broadcast deals.

A man who has emerged as the media industry's wordsmith of Wall Street has just completed an analysis of six major television industry companies, ahead of their Q4 2017 earnings releases. What did Brian Wieser, Senior Research Analyst for Advertising at Pivotal Research Group, conclude? Two companies making big headlines this week are being downgraded, as recent gains have resulted in "relatively fully-valued stocks."

Frequent Media Information Bureau contributor Barrett Riddleberger enjoyed such a strong response from his last column on the top qualities that make a terrific sales coach that he's gone back to his laptop and pounded out another column. Without further ado, here are seven additional traits of a top sales coach, as noted by Riddleberger, an expert sales coach in his own right.

For one hour on Wednesday CMO Inc. founder Peter Horst and Jebbit president and co-founder Jonathan Lacoste made some predictions and "bold claims" in the wake of a marketing and advertising world controversy surrounding Facebook, third-party data use, and dollar allocation from brand managers. Our Editor-in-Chief tuned out halfway through, upon realizing that, in his view, ads on Instragram are a complete waste of money and that radio was a much better ROI delivery vehicle. Do you agree? Read on.

"GDPR," or the General Data Protection Regulation, is now law within the European Union. You may have received an email or two about receiving emails from various companies, as part of a sweeping rule that some U.S. businesses -- including yours -- may be concerned about. Why? Some wonder if it could happen here. AEI visiting scholar Roslyn Layton has some ideas that are definitely worth your time.

Last week, the FCC proposed changes to its rules governing children’s programming. "While the proposal is not as sexy as internet regulation, it is an important and overdue step toward updating the law to reflect the realities of the modern video marketplace," says Daniel Lyons, a visiting fellow at a D.C. think tank with lots of FCC sway.

While prepping the program and agenda for a seminar on FCC compliance, featured columnist Ken Benner contacted a regional Commission engineer to see if he would provide an outline of what, in his view, are the most significant items he looks for when visiting a station during a random inspection. The FCC engineer replied, and here's what he has to say.

Hiring great salespeople takes time, strategy and resources. Featured Media Information Bureau columnist Barrett Riddleberger has something to add to your process of finding and attracting new talent. Learn more with his "three quick ways to make your hiring more effective" in this special Media Information Bureau offering for RBR+TVBR Members.

An interesting new Marketplace-Edison Research Poll sheds light on such employment as driving for a service such as Uber or Lyft, selling products or services online, or working as a freelancer. What does this mean for broadcast TV and radio? Are there ad dollars here for the taking?