It's time to celebrate if you're rooting for further commoditization of traditional Radio and the Internet. TargetSpot (arguably one of the most impressive automated Radio/Web sales tools on the market) just got bigger.
TargetSpot buys rival Ronning Lipset Radio and results in forming the largest online radio ad network. TargetSpot brings together CBS Radio, Entercom, AOL Radio, Yahoo, and more than 1,000 other online stations comprised of more than 50 radio groups and web properties. The TargetSpot CEO (Doug Perlson) says combing the sales and technology structures positions them for the "strongest monetization possible."
He says "monetization" -- I say "commoditization." Toe-MAY-tow. Toe-MAH-tow.
What would you call an online system that requires no actual understanding or comprehension of marketing or radio advertising or web strategy in order for you to be able to produce and place advertising spots and web banners? Just because you can get a great price on a set of scalpels at The Dollar Store doesn't make you a brain surgeon.
TargetSpot (and other systems like it) allow the amatuers to pose as professionals. It puts Buyers in charge of strategy and execution. I don't care how good a negotiator might be, I don't want them writing my radio spots or designing my display ads.
Point. Click. Crap. You think terrestrial Radio sounds like shit NOW? It's not going to get any better when ALL the spots sounds the way a posting on eBay reads. This is the level of "expertise" that will be needed to plan and execute media advertising.
No one WANTS to talk to a Radio salesperson, but the truth is that the GOOD ones know what they're doing. They've been educated in advertising strategy and marketing techniques that are proven to work in their chosen media. I don't like doctors, but you can be damn sure that if I need an operation I rather have to deal with some complete DICK who happens to be the best at what he does than perform the surgery myself.
Eric Ronning and Andy Lipset of RLR will become co-presidents of TargetSpot, which also absorbs the entire RLR sales team. Lipset says their firm and TargetSpot have been "complimentary leaders and innovators" in the online ad space, and believes they're now poised for "explosive growth."
Urban Outfitters has starting carrying a starter podcasting kit, and it's being overtly pitched as a sexy teen tech toy.
With Radio stations completely out of touch with the needs and wants of the modern listening audience (young and old alike), how long before AARP offers these setups in their monthly magazine?
From the promotional text...
Pump up your very own volume! If you've ever wanted to have your own radio show or make custom, personalized broadcasts, podcasting is a great way to start and ION Audio has the perfect solution to help make you the star! U CAST is the best way to make your own podcasts for internet posting.
Anything is possible with U CAST; you can host your own talk show, mix sounds and music like a radio DJ, or be a movie critic heard by millions around the world.
U CAST gives you everything you need: a professional-grade USB microphone, headphones, sound editing software and an easy way to deliver your Podcast to the masses. Your podcast can be downloaded and played on computers and portable music devices everywhere. It's time to be heard!
Add in a free domain name and a year of hosting with auto-upload features and Radio has a whole new crew of competitors who can create and broadcast content they (and their peers) really want to hear and share. Those 500+ friends on their MySpace and Facebook pages just became a micro-audience more devoted and accurately tracked than any terrestrial station could hope for.
The new Arbitron books are out -- do you know where your audience is? Probably at UrbanOutfitters.com buying a podcast kit for $120.
In a brilliant act of confronting Apple with its own words (and then making them eat those words) a YouTube user with the screen name "KeeptheiPhoneFree" created a video mashup of all the third-party iPhone software that was effectively rendered useless when Apple released the firmware update 1.1.1.
The real act of brilliance was in using the audio from Apple's groundbreaking "Think Different" campaign. Listen to the narrator (who I think is Richard Dreyfuss) call out Apple's salute to "the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently." According to Apple's script they have no respect for the status quo -- yet that's just what Apple is trying to maintain by fighting the iPhone hack that allows for greater user ability by these self same "Crazy Ones."
So, according to Apple it is okay to Think Different -- just don't think TOO different from them.
Focusing
primarily on terrestrial radio broadcasting, ZombieRadio.com is
dedicated to pointing out the mindless and brain-dead actions of the
mainstream media industry in general.
Don't
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all know from seeing zombie movies that the contagion spreads quickly.