Media Insultant
Keith Samuels and Jackson Weaver, two media executives opine on all things media - radio, TV, cable, print, and digital. Both have long careers in radio, TV, digital and print and are not short on opinions in this tumultuous time. All opinions are theirs but happy to hear yours too! Video version available on Vimeo. New episodes each Wednesday. jackson@intownmedia.com and www.intownmedia.com
Episodes
318 episodes
Media Insultant - 9.30.26 - Crazy or genius? Building a new radio station! New strategy for GeoSolutions and Katz study we find dumb.
BUILDING A NEW RADIO STATION FROM SCRATCH…NEW BRAND BUT IS THE STORY ANY DIFFERENT FOR GEOBROADCASTINGKATZ DOES A DUMB STUDY…
Media Insultant 9.23.26 - Bad news for Nexstar? New radio model for investors? Once more we beat up NextGen TV.
I KNOW…WE WILL RUN SOME ADS ON OUR TV STATIONS AND EVERYONE WILL RUN TO THE STORE AND BUY NEXTGEN TVS!! THE SHIFT IN RADIO M&A IS APPARENT…NIELSEN AND CUMULUS CONTINUE TO PISS ON EACH OTHER….
Media Insultant 9.16.26 Flashback to KSFO better days. How's the new Stacker news format? And iHeart launches Audiograph..
THE SOUND OF THE CITY - PROOF THAT EVEN A SOLID SUCCESSFUL RADIO STATION DOESN’T HAVE TO REMAIN THAT.. .WE GEEK OUT.HOW DOES WMAR’S ROTATOR DIGITAL TV NEWS SHOW LOOK….??AUDIOGRAPH - RADIO CONTINUES TO TRY AND MATC...
Media Insultant 9.2.26 Why did KCAL really fire their entire on-air staff? Indy fights back. Scripps rewrites the script.
KCAL BLOWS OUT STAFF…BUT IS THE REAL REASON?THE PERILS OF TV CONSOLIDATION IN INDYSCRIPPS GOES TO THE MATTRESSES WITH ALL IN DIGITAL
Media Insultant 8.26.26 - Fox to NFL. Pound sand! The FCC has a terrible idea. And WTOP has new leadership.
WE THINK THE FCC’ S OWNERSHIP CAP REMOVAL IS A TERRIBLE IDEARADIO QUARTERLY’S ARE IN - NOT MUCH GOOD NEWS, YET.THE NATIONS #1 BILLING RADIO STATIONS HAVE NEW LEADERSHIP. FOX TELLS THE NFL - NADA...
Media Insultant 7.29.26 Selling in a declining market ideas. What we think of the Audacy sale price in St. Louis. Java and TV news? Now that's an idea.
ST LOUIS BLUES? DID HOFFMAN OVERPAY…OR DID AUDACY GET EVERY DIME ON THE TABLE…?HOW DOES ONE SELL INTO A DECLINING MARKET?HERE’S AN IDEA. LET’S OPEN A COFFEE SHOP FOR OUR TV STATION
Media Insultant 7.15.26 Recruiting ideas for media sales people. What is "Premature Certainty"? Cumulus wins in court against Nielsen.
GOT A TOUGH TIME RECRUITING? WE’VE GOT A NEW IDEA THAT MIGHT HELP…STICK AROUNDIS THE COMCAST SPLIT A PRELUDE TO MORE “PREMATURE CERTAINTY?”CUMULUS UPHELD BY COURT AGAINST NIELSEN - BUT THE ...
Media Insultant 7.8.26 More political $$ for TV stations. Surprise! Audacy sells in St. Louis. New revenue idea we like alot...!
SCOTUS SEEMS TO BE HANDING TV EVEN MORE POLITICAL REVENUEAUDACY SELLS IN ST. LOUIS - SO?TV MOURNING SHOW - AS IN OBITUARY OR DEATH NOTICES…A NICE NEW REVENUE SOURCE…
Media Insultant 7.1.26 Hobby radio at a legendary radio station. Eastlan fills the vacuum! We're used to layoffs. Why are these different?
KRML - GOTTA LOVE THE STORIES OF THIS CLASSIC MOVIE RADIO STATION. EASTLAN MOVES UPTOWNIHEART LAYOFFS - SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW OR MAYBE SOMETHING IS NEW?
Media Insultant - 6.17.26 We update some better info on OPS. A radio station that literally is covering almost NO one. And stations going dark may be good news for the business.
A MYSTERIOUS RADIO STATION SALEWARSHAW WALKS FROM MORE RADIO STATIONSWE CLARIFY OUR RADIO STATION OPTIMUM PERFORMANCE SETTING.
Media Insultant - 6.10.26 We ask for a redo on Byron. FCC continues to make investment in radio/TV tougher. Hubbard rebrands...kinda.
WE MAY HAVE UNDERESTIMATED BYRON ALLEN’S EFFORTS TO TAKE ON YOU TUBE…BUT IT WON’T BE EASY…FCC ADDS EXPENSIVE BURDENS TO RADIO AND TVHUBBARD REBRANDS…OR BRANDS…OR IS JUST STATING THE OBVIOUS…WE AREN’T SURE…...
Media Insultant 6.3.26 - BuzzFeed to challenge You Tube? A compelling sales tip ! And turns out radio might be the problem!
WHAT’S THE DIGITAL SALES TIP HIDDEN IN BORRELL’S RECENT REPORT…?BYRON ALLEN SAYS, WHAT THE HELL. LET’S TAKE ON YOU TUBE.THE IHEART SIRUIS TALKS HIT A SNAG…AND THE ENEMY MAY BE RADIO....
Media Insultant 5.27.26 Turners garbage. More radio restructuring. Tonight Show earworm and What was Cox thinking??
JOHNNY CARSON HAS AN ANNIVERSARY.COX MEDIA GROUP APPARENTLY IS ASLEEP AT THE WHEELTED TURNER TAKES OUT THE TRASHSBS/SALEM RESTRUCETUREWTOP’S EXTRAORDINARY LEADER RETIRES…...
Media Insultant 5.13.26 Should a GM carry a list? How much did Ted do? Urban One doubles down on radio.
LOTS OF JUSTIFIED TRIBUTES TO TED TURNER…WHAT IS URBAN ONE DOING BUYING MORE RADIO STATIONS THIS CLOSE TO BK. IS A SELLING GM A GOOD IDEA?
Media Insultant 5.6.26 Will the NFL over play their hand? Objection to radio Part 2. Audacy expands sports in LA and Cumulus in a death spriral.
NEVER ONE TO BE BASHFUL - THE NFL PUTS THE SQUEEZE ON!CUMULUS IS SADLY ABOUT OVER…AUDACY BOOSTS IT’S SPORTS PRESENCE…AT THE EXPENSE OF LEGENDARY RADIO.WHAT TO SAY WHEN SOMEONE SAYS, NO ONE LISTENS TO...
Media Insultant 4.29.26 - General Motors ditches HD radio. Handling that objection. And is iHeart merger with Sirius a real deal?
YIKES…GM HAS PULLED HD RADIO FROM THEIR CARS.OUR AUDIENCE CHIMES IN ON HOW TO DEAL WITH THE #1 OBJECTION FOR RADIO SALES PEOPLE…IHEART AND SIRIUS HAS US SCRATCHING OUR HEADS…
Media Insultant 4.22.26 - A great FCC story. The NAB Convention is back. AI is killing Google's golden goose.
NAB SPRING SHOW -LOOKING FOR BUYERS!ANOTHER SAD RIP FOR A GREAT BROADCASTER AND GUYAI PANIC IN THE STREETS AT GOOGLE.FCC STORY YOU WON’T BELIEVE
Media Insultant - 4.15.26 Streaming will save local TV. Really? SBS hits the BK route. And we think MediaCo missed the point.
CAN STREAMING SAVE LOCAL TV STATIONS…?MEDIACO EGO GETS IN THE WAY OF A CLIENT FOCUSED MESSAGE.SBS FILES AND MARY GETS ANOTHER YEAR AT THE HELM OF A SINKING SHIP!
Media Insultant - 4.8.26 - iHearts new Radio Head is trying to catch a falling knife. Old CBS radio stories. Audacy takes a serious management change. Warshaw turns to a a buyer.
iHEART GETS A NEW RADIO HEAD—-finally!WE SHARE A COUPLE OF CBS RADIO STORIESARE WE BEING JUST ANALOG GUYS OR IS AUDACY’S NEW STRUCTURE VIABLE?JEFF WARSHAW IS REALLY SHAKING UP THE RADIO BIZ FROM SFO ...
Special Edition - Media Insultant. 4.1.26 - Is programmatic selling killing the local sales staffs?
A couple of weeks ago…we talked about Amazon and Yahoo offering programmatic inventory for iHearts audio products. We see this as further breakdown in the traditional sales role that radio stations have with their clients…But maybe...
Media Insultant 3.18.26 Is in-car radio listening hot? Will CBS TV stations benefit from the Paramount purchase? New folks in Management. Radio finishes last year in the dumps. And why is Salem moving 860 AM to 1640?
IN CAR RADIO LISTENING IS UP….IS THAT GOOD NEWS?WHY DO WE HAVE TO SIT THOUGH ‘WE’LL BE RIGHT BACK' BREAKS IS THE PARAMOUNT DEAL WITH SKYDANCE GOOD FOR CBS TV STATIONSLOTUS ADDS A NEW GM<...
Media Insultant 3.11.26 - New earworm! iHeart dives into progammatic. Cumulus bankruptcy and the sad demise of a couple of legendary AMs.
CUMULUS ENTERS THEIR 3RD BANKRUPTCY...this is A SAD ENDING?A TRIBUTE TO TWO LEGENDARY RADIO STATIONS THAT ARE NO MOREDOES IHEART HOLD THE FORMULA FOR THE NEXT LEVEL SALES EFFORT FOR RADIO? eVEN LOCAL RADIO?&...
Media Insultant - Special Edition - 3.4.26 - Lucy Rice on how radio sales can better compete.
We’ve got a special edition of Media Insultant for you today. And much of what we will talk about today is Evergreen…worth listening to a couple of times…My old friend Keith Shipman - he’s the retiring head of WSAB and is a broadca...
Media Insultant 2.25.26 - Are we too hard on radio? The Olympics deliver GOLD for NBC. If Saga goes up for sale, who will show up to buy? And Entravision leadership changes.
IF SAGA COMM. IS IN PLAY…WHO’S IN THE POOL?OLYMPICS? THE TENT POLE THAT IS DELIVERING FOR NBC.WE ARE ACCUSED OF GIVING RADIO A HARD TIME. AND THAT IS CORRECT….ENTRAVISION OUSTS A 25YEAR LEADER…...
Media Insultant - 2.18.26 Radio gets to 25% in digital. Really? Or just shell game? Nexstar and TEGNA merger is back on or is it? What's up with radio.com?
RADIO GOT 25% DIGITAL….BUT WE THINK, MAYBE NOT.RADIO.COM URL SOLD…BUT WHAT FOLLOWS IS JUST WEIRD.TEGNA/NEXSTAR BACK UP TO THE PLATE BUT ARE THE NETWORKS BEING ACED OUT?<...