"D Peter Maus" wrote in message
...

A few years later Karmazin was 'out-Karmazin'd' By Sumner Redstone, and
he found that the best way to improve his station was to gt out.
Interesting that, now, he's at subscription radio and the discussion is
about increasing the subscription base, and debate about advertising.

iBiquity may not have mentioned subscription implementation, but its
licensees certainly have.

Nice post, with an interesting insigt from one company's point of view. Mel
is definitely one of the most interesting people we have seen in radio, and
his statements are well worth considering.

Mel, despite his rather edgy manner, did think out of the box as he looked
at future revenue opportunities. I was once offered a job with him for the
NY Spanish station, but was so putt off by either him or the native New
Yorker he represented that I did not take the opportunity. It would have
been an interesting ride, though, until one of us screamed at the other.

I have never had any discussion either in-house or with members of the
industry committee, about pay channels. I think nearly all of us see that
associating "pay" with terrestrial radio is a mistake. While the discussion
may have come up, I never saw it progress. Most of us believe that splitting
the HD digital FM in two offers great quality (absolutely marvelous, in
fact, compared to iPod and satellite channels) and the ability to market new
free channels.

Since there are only 100 shares in any market, there will be no expansion of
radio listening, but there may be a slowing of any erosion. At the same
time, selling today is about clusters and combos, not single stations for
the most part... so having more specifically targeted stations will
definitely help. Low spillage and finely honed targets get better rates than
broad, vague targets, as sports AMs demonstrate.