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Jimmy Steal
April 2, 2019
Have an opinion? Add your comment below. We live now in an on-demand world, where consumers want to hear the song they want to hear ... where they want to hear it, on the device they want to hear it on, whenever they want to hear it. Terrestrial radio is a one-to-many medium, not yet a one-to-one medium -- and that is our biggest challenge! Have you ever seen a Millennial or a Gen Z "wait" for a song to come on the radio? Quaint! To minimize that gap in our current terrestrial delivery system landscape, even before we can technologically address it, we must strive to do the following things: become the best music curators across any platform (the most knowledgeable and most entertaining); play either new music or, if a non-current station, play music that's unique to your station/region; bleed passion for our music and our artists; make sure the stations imaging is a very contemporary/cool experience; live and breathe your local communities; and give away aspirational prizing and/or do charitable good
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There are few absolutes in life, but one absolute that has fueled longtime programming superstar PD Jimmy Steal to a lengthy career of sustained success is to relish the disruption -- and not play it safe.
And he's been doing it since the first day he recognized the power of music and radio. Born and raised in New York City, Steal's first role model was none other than Howard Stern. "The prototype for creativity and originality in radio," he says, "Howard thoroughly understands the medium inside out; if someone thinks he is just a 'shock jock,' they are truly missing his genius."
Steal left the Big Apple to go to college at the University of Central Florida, where he worked at the school's radio station ("I spent more time there than in the library studying, but somehow got my BA in Communications.") He stayed in town to land his first radio gig, doing weekends and fill at Rock WDIZ. It wasn't long before Jimmy crossed the street to take his first full-time radio gig at Top 40 WXXL (XL106.7) under legendary PD Rick Stacy ... and let the disruption begin!
"I walked into that gig with the APD/MD title since I was an over-the-top music/media nut and asked it for it as part of my deal," he said. "I've been programming ever since, though I do miss being on the air -- and I miss it every day since I gave that up!
From there he claimed his first PD gig, turning Top 40 WKRQ (Q102)/Cincinnati into a heritage powerhouse. His next conquest came in Dallas, where he oversaw a variety of stations as VP/Programming & Operations for Clear Channel. The next breakthrough was in Los Angeles as PD for Emmis' KPWR (Power 106), Steal took hip-hop from the streets to the households, programming a veritable stand-alone against the corporate giants -- something he has been doing for upwards of 20 years ... even after Emmis sold Power to Meruelo Media. And now, he's taking on a new challenge in a different music format - as VP/Brand and Content for Hubbard Broadcasting Hot AC WTMX/Chicago. No matter what format he's programming, Jimmy Steal has been breaking hits and slaying the giants through disruption and cunning.
When did you first become aware of the power of music and hearing it on the radio?
I have an older brother and sister who were really into music. Music was always on in my house ... always. Even my parents loved music and loved to dance. Top 40 radio was always on in the car, so music was embedded into my consciousness early on, even from my earliest memories. Thank God!
What's really amazing is I've seen it come full circle with my own kids. My son and daughter are now teens and they both either credit or blame me for much of their musical taste, depending on what artist we're discussing. With music being an important centerpiece of our family, Beethoven's quote, "Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy," rings true for my family. When both of my kids were still in the womb, they got heavy doses of Classical, Motown, Beatles and Jazz.
When I think back to being a kid, I just wasn't getting what I thought I needed from my parents, my education, my friends, or even from TV shows. It was no one's fault but my own; after all, adolescent dysfunction runs pretty deep in New York Italian Catholics like myself. Thank God for Springsteen at the time for helping to show me, and I'm sure millions of others, the way out by saying things like "Music was the Rand McNally" to his life, and the first time he could ever stand to look at himself in the mirror was when he had a guitar slung over his shoulder. Well, I tried a guitar, I tried a keyboard, and I tried a drum set. After miserably failing at all of them (and not having the awareness that I just may have needed to put in my 10,000 hours!), I quickly concluded that aside from making music, I had to find another way to be around it. Music had quickly become the key to my life.
Growing up in NYC, all you had to do was turn on the radio to be inspired by not only the music, but by the personalities, their creativity, their energy, and their vibe. It was so intense that every time the radio was off, I suffered extreme FOMO! Of course, now there's an abundance of choices that didn't exist back then, but we'll get into that later.
I can honestly say that music saved my life, or at the very least, it saved me from having no redeeming direction. To this day I remain a devoted fan to the power of music with its ability to reach into homes and make a difference in people's lives who may have had no other inspiration to draw upon. The best piece of advice I can hope to give, whether creating music as an artist or programming it as a PD, is to never forget what it's like to be a fan of music! Just remember that music can stir the emotions of a listener, and for programmers just make your station an extension of that soul stirring ... but here I go again, skipping ahead to radio's incredible impact...
When did you first want to get involved in radio and music and what did you do to get involved?
When I was in high school, I was probably the P1 listener PDs wish for today. Music and the conduit to it -- radio -- was my life. In high school and college I called radio stations, I recorded music off the radio, I worked in music stores, I wrote album reviews and I talked incessantly about music with my friends. This behavior of mine quickly earned me a reputation as a musical expert of sorts, acting like a mildly or intensely psychotic person depending on what album or artist was being discussed at any given moment. Had there been social networks, I would have been quite the music recommendation engine.
When you became an MD the first time at WXXL/Orlando, was there any trepidation about whether you could handle the pressure and become the top-decision maker in terms of choosing and adding music?
Pressure ... in this business? C'mon! LOL! There's always pressure to perform. I guess it comes down to how you were raised, the way you see the world and your place in it. I always thought my opinion mattered, and it needed to be heard. One can make an argument of it being either a sign of extreme arrogance or insecurity. I'm still not sure if there is a huge difference between the two. Speaking for me, I was never afraid of having a voice; my biggest fear was not ever ascending to a level where I could have a voice! Today, with interns and anyone on the come-up, I try extra hard to see what's deep down in every individual. What is motivating them? Do I see any evidence of unbridled passion with a decent amount of focus and talent? Is there an unrelenting work ethic and great attitude? If I see these fires burning, then that person receives my unlimited support. I will help them become who they're supposed to be, because that benefits the industry, your enterprise and mostly importantly, the individual ... and at one time someone did it for me, and someday soon I hope there are those out there who do it for my kids when they enter the workforce ... it's what been called the code of the road. Or more simply ... KARMA.
Do you remember when you started to feel comfortable in picking music and breaking hits?
I was never uncomfortable picking music/breaking hits. I've always thought it was important that all programmers differentiate songs that they personally like from songs that could be big hits. It can be very satisfying, possibly intoxicating, when they're one in the same (personal favorites and big hits), though often times they're not. While it sounds like a Radio 101 commandment, simply give the audience the music they like in a presentation that can be consumed (balancing the familiar and the new), with a minimum of confusion ... and the connection is made. Of course you need to wrap the very best music within a package that uniquely sets you apart from the others offering the same or similar musical recipes. Yes, it's easier said than done, but in my mind it's one of the most fun aspects of what we do. We build brands that capture the imagination and help listeners feel they're a part of something bigger than themselves. I've always loved breaking new music/new artists, because done correctly, it's good for every part of the music ecosystem --including enhancing my own radio brands.
How did your tastes and musical instincts change over the years - especially when you transitioned from the Top 40 world at WKRQ/Cincinnati into the Rock world in Dallas, then into the Rhythmic world at Power 106/Los Angeles?
Great question. If you know me personally, you know I love everything, all kinds of music from Mussorgsky to Miles Davis, to Japandroids (who should be huge, BTW) to Abba, Beach House, Drake, Steven Wilson, The Eels, Post Malone, Oasis, Sigur Ros, Demi Lovato and Kanye. Great artistry knows no musical boundaries; great songwriting and great performances come in a variety of sounds, shapes and forms. There's good in all genres of music, though I think you may be able to make a pretty good case against opera. I remember speaking with Kanye when he sampled King Crimson's "21st Century Schizoid Man" in his song, "Power." It blew my mind that he dug that song up! One of Kanye's cousins told me Kanye loves to assemble a whole bunch of collaborators right on the spot in the studio and create with them in real time. Kanye's cousin went on to describe Kanye as an amazing collaborator who directs his creatives who are present in the studio, much like a conductor guides all the different sections of his orchestra, pulling out the very best performances from every individual player.
My personal taste did not drive our music decisions on Power 106; if it did, we'd likely have a few more guitars on the airwaves. The tastes that has driven the Power 106 music recipe are the tastes of and amazing music team of experts who carefully select tomorrow's hits today (as PS the once-famous, now felonious genius producer, once said). My killer music team included some of the best ears in the business: DJ E-Man, Felli Fel, Justin Credible, Becky Lopez, DJ Los, DJ Ever, DJ Sourmilk, Andy Berger, and many more great mixers ... This team of DJs travels the world, hangs out in studios, in clubs and even wrote, produced and remixed some huge hits of their own. Because of this amazing team's tentacles, they're able to identify the best new Hip-Hop songs in the world first. Power 106 plays/breaks more new music than any other major-market terrestrial radio station. Power plays two hours of new music every night in the New @ Nite Show. If a song gets huge enough on Power airplay, it eventually ends up on all the L.A. stations that bite Power 106.
When you assembled that team, what were you looking for - did they all have similar tastes, polar opposite tastes ... were you looking for a cross-section of "ears?" I would imagine that scores of kids have come up to you and pitched a certain song or mix as a hit. If it broke, do they qualify to be a member of the team?
Whenever I assemble a team, I look for disruptors. I don't seek out anyone who agrees with me. Anyone can read a streaming chart, a Mediabase/BDS of stations, or song research. While these skills do have value, in Hip-Hop especially you need to have team members who truly can "feel" the music and offer some opinions contrary to what is on the charts, or in many cases before anything on a specific artist even appears on a chart, someone who knows first that a specific artist just hit 100K plays on SoundCloud and we need to start paying attention! I look for people who live the music because they have to. It's their calling; it's not a job to them. If you protect that passion at your station like you protect the Olympic torch, you will serve your brand very well regardless of the format of music you're either producing or programming. Again, always think like a fan; make passion-driven decisions with data to back you up where necessary. You need to have a room full of people who pick hits with both right- and left-brain tendencies.
On Power's music team, I chose those who have an encyclopedic knowledge of Hip-Hop, those who scour online sites that the FBI might like to know about, and those who actually have relationships with the artists and engineers themselves who make the music played on Power 106. The team does all of these things not because it's part of any job description; they do these things because it is in their DNA. The PD's job is to push that rich Hip-Hop DNA out through the speakers and through all of our digital platforms. Power 106 has a few on-air features that highlight free styling, which sometimes tips us to new artists whose skills extend far beyond free styling.
As some reading this may know, my personal ears are much more fine-tuned to rock and pop, but that in no way inhibits me from finding those players who ooze with passion, knowledge and foresight when it comes to Hip-Hop music. This team first gave exposure to: Post Malone, Travis Scott, Khalid, YG, and so many more ... and lately has given more exposure love to Blueface, Mozzy, 1 Take Jake, Smokepurp and many more in POWER's daily two-hour new music show New @ Night. It is programmed expertly by our #1 night personality Justin Credible, our iconic afternoon personality/Platinum recording artist Felli Fel, our APD/MD DJ E-Man and our Music Coordinator Becky Lopez. Aside from having great ears themselves, DJ E-Man and Becky guide our team and help transform, along with our Mix Show Coordinator Felli Fel, all of this raw in-house talent/taste into a decipherable weekly music plan that guides Power 106 and meets their strategic goals.
As you "aged" out of the demos that you're targeting with your radio programming, how have you adjusted your musical tastes/instincts?
My instincts have always been to play the biggest hits as early and as often as possible -- and that's true for every format, including News/Talk with hot topics. It may be flippant but I've always said that every format should only play three types of songs -- songs that are about to be hits, songs that are current hits, and songs that were hits ... obnoxious, yes, but a kernel of very valuable truth is contained within it. While I have several people in the demo who know what my target wants, I believe having a deep understanding of your station's music strategy is also of the utmost importance.
We've had a very focused music strategy, even for our gold-based Classic Hip-Hop station KDAY, in addition to Power 106. This strategy recently helped fuel KDAY to a $1.2 million increase in annual revenue. The music strategy on Power 106 reinforces our Hip-Hop new music ownership; this helps frame all of our new music tastemakers' weekly picks to make sure they are on point and pass the filter of our music branding goals. This goes back to our discussion earlier in identifying members of your team who can hear things you can't, who can go places you can't and then making sure you support them so they have enough confidence to speak up to the senior mixers and music team members in fighting for the songs they believe in.
How have the changes in the technology and research impacted your music and programming instincts?
Everything we do is being disrupted; the sheer amount of data available on songs is definitely overwhelming and has allowed us to dig deeper into the analytics. Music analytics can give us a better idea of how our music is being consumed, and in the Nielsen ratings we can see how entire terrestrial stations are being consumed. I use the word "can" because our interpretation of the data is not automatically illuminating; often times it is confounding. Whether it's PPM, streaming numbers or callout, knowing how to prioritize it all, avoid a data drown and understand what it's trying to tell us is quite a deep skill!
In streams, for some time many just relied on the raw streaming numbers, then it became the save to the playlist number. In PPM it was Weekly Cume, then it became Average Daily Cume. As programmers, we're much like the audience we program to -- time poor and choice rich. So we have an excess of data but we also have a shortage of those who can correctly prioritize and interpret it.
How has the global influence of music impacted your tastes, and how do you successfully integrate international music into your playlists?
The digital availability of music via the Internet has effectively enabled the SoundCloud rapper in his Inglewood garage to be heard all over the world. It has democratized the process by lifting the limitations of creating music. This is a win for everyone as an artist, a fan, or as a programmer of music. Removing these previously existing boundaries when creating music has spawned many exciting genre-bending collaborations. In Hip-Hop, this has made worldwide superstars of artists the likes of J Balvin, Bad Bunny and Calvin Harris, to just name a few. Does this mean that everyone loves music coming from everywhere, and that all hits are universal in their appeal? No, it does not, but it does mean that artists are now influenced by music from all over the world and superstar artists such as Drake and Rihanna are helping co-sign and spread new and different sounds. Yet another positive by-product of digital disruption.
When it comes to the music, last year over 60% of all streaming was catalog. Is that driving the resurgence of terrestrial radio's Classic Rock/Classic Hits/Gold AC stations ratings? Or vice versa?
I'm not sure. The chicken or the egg? We know Hip-Hop is already the world's most-streamed genre yet today there are only around 200 million streaming subscribers globally while worldwide terrestrial radio reaches around five billion listeners. What happens when billions more are available to subscribe in China and India and other highly-populated, yet currently underserved countries of the world? At some point you must also consider that service providers such as AT&T will get into streaming audio, too. They have the infrastructure; why not collect the subscriber dollars? It's the same thing Apple is doing with Beats 1. You can add these new entries to the already long list of music discovery platforms that include: Reddit, twitch.tv, IG, YT, etc.
What is radio doing to protect its listenership in this world of rapidly multiplying choices?
In my opinion, not enough, and not quickly enough. We live now in an on-demand world, where consumers want to hear the song they want to hear ... where they want to hear it, on the device they want to hear it on, whenever they want to hear it. Terrestrial radio is a one-to-many medium, not yet a one-to-one medium -- and that is our biggest challenge! Have you ever seen a Millennial or a Gen Z "wait" for a song to come on the radio? Quaint! To minimize that gap in our current terrestrial delivery system landscape, even before we can technologically address it, we must strive to do the following things: become the best music curators across any platform (the most knowledgeable and most entertaining); play either new music or, if a non-current station, play music that's unique to your station/region; bleed passion for our music and our artists; make sure the stations imaging is a very contemporary/cool experience; live and breathe your local communities; and give away aspirational prizing and/or do charitable good. Give your audience these obvious listener benefits over any non-interactive digital playlists. This is what we are doing currently.
When our broadcast technology catches up with our audiences' current on-demand needs, and we're on equal footing with our on-demand streaming competitors, that will be phase 2 of our competitive thrust in keeping radio relevant. If we don't accelerate to this level quickly, radio may become the latest victims of what futurist Brian Solis calls Digital Darwinism. He defines Digital Darwinism as a time when technology and society are evolving faster than the ability of many organizations to adapt. This reason (along with some others) killed Borders, Blockbuster, Toys "R" Us, many newspapers, etc...
That leads to the next question: How can you -- as a radio programmer of an influential radio property -- accelerate your station to that phase 2? And is your solution something that all radio stations can use?
I've had the good fortune of advising some start-ups, working with teams who have a fresh perspective from being on the outside of radio. One of my key takeaways from them was that if you can design a product that improves upon something people are already doing (a pre-existing behavior) by just making it a better experience, then you have a chance to succeed. If you're trying to change a behavior, then you're in for a rude awakening.
Last year I attended a TEDx Blockchain in Seattle and I found it very enlightening to be in a meeting where someone asks, "Why can't we create our own crypto-currency and reward those who come to our station events, sample our clients products and listen to our stations?" Sounds like the 2020 digital version of our old loyal listener programs. If you think Blockchain is just a distributed ledger, you may want to reconsider it. Blockchain is a game-changer since it truly functions as a value exchange in addition to our current monetary systems. Ecosystems will rise and fall out of things that can now be quantified and valued that were previously impossible to value. So what in the music business can we now assign a value to that previously had none? Radio listening? Stream plays? Attending a station event? An artist's concert? Your opinion on a new song? Listening to a station podcast? And it gets even more interesting when you look beyond the music/radio ecosystem. For example ... books read? Fresh water? Education? Monies donated? Health care? 2019 will be a very interesting year for the Blockchain, both inside and outside of the music business.
Other questions we should all be asking ourselves as an industry are: What are the best ways to find, present, and highlight new music/artist initiatives to keep interest/passion in our medium high? How do we ensure terrestrial radio a place in-dash on the first screen? What can we do -- either as artists creating music or radio brands creating experiences -- that are unique to our products?
If we don't address these critical issues now, we may find ourselves in an eventual radio industry death march from evolving our products at a much slower rate than we're currently losing audiences. The future of our audio entertainment products (current terrestrial radio brands) depends on the work we do today. We know there should be 10 different Power 106s: Old Skool, Unsigned, West Coast Only, Freestyles, Icons, Female Rappers, Label-centric channels (TDE, Snoop & Friends, etc.) ... and each channel should have exclusive custom content programmable on demand with drag-and-drop capable apps so users can design their own personal Power branded Hip-Hop experiences. These experiences would include leaning in and choosing music, personalities, local content, and user-friendly commercials, etc., or just lean back and pick one of our pre-configured choices that they may feel is close enough to the experience they're seeking.
The technology exists today, but as an industry how do we change the tire on the car we are currently driving? In other words, how can we afford this development where all the major broadcasting companies are struggling with incomprehensible debt load-induced cost cutting?
Start by focusing on our strengths. Radio still has a great leg up on personalities and new music discovery. Let's not give this incredible brand benefit back to entities such as Netflix, Twitch.tv, Twitter, SoundCloud, Amazon or Reddit....Stop the presses! Now you're heading to Hubbard Hot AC WTMX/Chicago as VP/Brand and Content. What made you decide to take on this challenge?
The recently released Holiday book has Power not only ahead of KRRL in 18-34As and 18-49As, but also ahead of KIIS in those two key demos, and Power has a relatively new morning show, The Cruz Show, also beating Power's old morning show 18-49As and 25-54As. KDAY was also up everywhere in the Holiday book, too.
So that's all very satisfying, our Power/KDAY physical station moves have all been assimilated, my youngest kid has now started college, so my wife and I are no longer tethered to a high school ... and hey, it's Hubbard, an amazing company in market #3! So quite an alignment of the stars! It's a return of sorts to what I was doing in Dallas before I came to Power. Someone jokingly said the other day that it's a return to what I was doing previously -- programming pop music before my 20-year interruption of programming Hip-Hop! LOL!
Also, MIX has an incredible staff; their Eric in the Morning Show is pretty amazing ... what an incredible talent!
Is your M.O. for finding and breaking records at a Hot AC any different than what you did at Power?
I'm thrilled to be able to immerse myself in a genre of music that also has some of the biggest artists in the world -- Camilla Cabello, The Weeknd, Adele, Imagine Dragons, Taylor Swift, Bruno Mars, etc. After many years, with the help of my amazing music team, I had Power's music position and music recipe optimized. At Mix, I believe there's some very compelling things we can do with the music that will make it more formidable. There are tons of great songs for the format that are receiving zero airplay; it will be fun to start building some multi-platform content around that!
You earlier mentioned radio stations such as Power 106 offering an assortment of niche music channels. If many terrestrial stations basically offer a bevy of choices choices on their own, wouldn't you be concerned about an oversaturation of choices (such as we see today in thousand-channel cable TV offerings and subsequent declining ratings for the most popular shows) that can dilute the strength and hitmaking prowess of the mothership station?
Great question; if we do not disrupt ourselves, someone will do it for us! I'd rather share our mothership stations' audiences with our own portals than to give that audience away to competitors. We are in a sales war of gross impressions/influence and our co-owned media sales opportunities can all be bundled across platforms, as long as our the mothership's stations' listeners and viewers consume our owned-and-earned platforms, I'm happy....
The most important thing that insulates us from even further external digital disruption -- and sets us apart from our terrestrial competitors -- is an amazing staff. I believe multi-platform content creating star talent is the single most important thing we can focus on as an industry, it distinguishes us from the two-dimensional playlist experience ... but we don't have forever to perfect our presentation. Every day we are not improving at a faster rate than our competitors ("kaizen," the Japanese word for perpetual improvement) gives our digital music competitors further opportunity to bridge this gap. If we fail as an industry on exponentially improving our own products, then that's radio's own fault!
At KDAY/Power 106, I had amazing iconic talent like Romeo, PJ Butta, Cruz, Cece, Felli Fel, Justin Credible, Mando and future stars such as Bryhana, Lechero, Paulina and Noah Ayalla. I was on the air earlier in my career and I believe in finding great talent and giving them the freedom to make great radio. I'm also a nut when it comes to imaging, as our long suffering brilliant imaging guy Andy Berger would only be too happy to attest to.
Special thanks to our Meruelo Media COO Otto Padron, who shared this vision of top-tier talent with me. He is also a huge fan of our radio stations, along with Power 106's owner, the self-made billionaire, Alex Meruelo! And before Meruelo, it was Emmis, the former owners of Power 106, and I learned so much from our President of Programming Rick Cummings, our VP/Market Manager Val Maki, COO Jeff Smulyan and CEO Pat Walsh. I've been so lucky to have had the opportunity to work around some of the very best in the business. On the experiential tip, Dianna Jason and her team were wonderful; Jeffrey Thacker led our excellent digital/social team; he pushed us forward to where we needed to be as a brand today. The common theme here is ... people make the difference. Looking ahead, I'm so thrilled to now be taking on the VP of Brand and Content for Hubbard Radio at WTMX (Mix 101.9) in Chicago. I'm very excited to be working with Hubbard/Chicago VP/Market Manager Jeff England, Hubbard VP/Programming Greg Strassell, Hubbard President/COO Drew Horowitz, Hubbard CEO Ginny Morris, and WTMX mega-star Eric in the Morning!
Where do you see the music - specifically, hit music - going in the near future? Do you as a radio programmer shape its direction, or does its direction shape the way you program?
One of the brightest programming minds in the country, Guy Zapoleon, has a musical cycles theory that makes an incredible amount of sense. Guy believes, and I as well as many programmers definitely agree, that the output/appeal of pop music shrinks and expands on a semi-predictable basis, in direct proportion of the popularity of more edgier rhythmic music.
Guy posits that we are now in the Extreme (or edgier) cycle as opposed to the opposite Doldrums (more poppier) cycle, simply meaning that Hip-Hop and R&B are music's most popular genres right now (Cardi, Post, Drake, etc.) forcing Top 40 to become more Rhythmic in order to keep playing the hits, while at the same time there's also less Pop Alt/Pop Rock songs making it over to Top 40, even though this genre is also pretty popular. This translates to Top 40 having a hard time in maintaining an ideal Pop/Rhythmic/Rock composition. This can be easily verified by looking at the pop streaming charts, which on any given week are dominated by Hip-Hop.
And what of your own future ... do you have any more goals or challenges to meet or conquer in this radio, music or beyond?
Change is enveloping us from everywhere; Alex Meruelo, Power's owner, also owns the SLS Hotel and Casino in Vegas and the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino in Reno. He will explore every opportunity to align these complimentary assets with Power 106 and KDAY; the possibilities here are numerous! Whoever replaces me at Power will have lots of fun aligning all of the pieces currently being assembled...
Look at all the possibilities within the iHeart restructuring. If Liberty Media (Sirius/Pandora/Live Nation) takes over iHeart, it's possible you'll hear a Howard Stern/Classic Rock Pandora Channel that's simulcast on iHeart's Classic Rock stations along with video of Howard welcoming you to a Live Nation U2 Classic Rock concert on-site at MSG or The Forum for a total 360 experience ... the possibilities are endless!
I love music; I love discovering and nurturing personalities (I'm fortunate to have found and mentored some great talent who went on to successes on MTV, VH1, BET, ET, nationally-syndicated radio shows and SiriusXM). I'm really in awe of the intersection of music and technology and all the possibilities it presents. I love to have my hands all over everything that's creative and calculated (show biz and strategic) and build things that not only show ROI but can also be culturally impactful. I love to be around people who I can learn from and respect, people who strive to do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.
The streaming companies now seem to be content with just the playlisting "format" since it is simple to execute and generates billions in revenue as is. It also seems now the streamers are more interested in being record label-like than radio-like, though Apple with Beats 1 is just starting to scratch the surface of programming national digital formatic radio stations populated by true breakthrough personalities, and I believe that has huge potential, if it's executed well, ... and Apple is just starting to dabble in that.
We're very blessed to be living in a world where the appetite for music and music-based content is greater than ever. And every company wants a piece! Are you ready for an AT&T streaming service? Why not; they own the infrastructure. Are you ready for Netflix's version of MTV? Are you ready for a new iteration of a Yahoo type homepage acting as a hub for all your video and audio streaming services? Are you ready for iOT smartspeakers adjusting your playlist selections by the real-time physiological data your smartwatch feeds them? That technology exists today. Are you ready for what I believe will soon be just one monthly bill from Apple for not only all your audio-video streaming and cloud storage needs, but also for your monthly hardware leases on your upgradable iPhones, iPads Apples Watches and Macbooks? And this is all just the tip of the iceberg of change upon us!
The way I see it, there are only two things that are certain today: Whether you're an artist or a programmer of an artist's music, if you keep doing what you've always done, you're dead. If you are responsive to the constantly evolving needs and desires of your fans, then that is the closest thing you can have to guaranteeing your future. At the moment, I already know what's next for me: I'm going to Chicago to help write the next chapter of another legendary brand, WTMX (Mix 101.9), and I couldn't be more excited about it! At the same time, I'm very appreciative of the great friends, great times and great teams I've led here in L.A.
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