Fred Jacobs is one of the brightest and most visionary people in the radio industry and beyond. I spoke with him recently about the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and the annual Jacobs Media Webinar about what he and his brother Paul saw at this year’s show.
The webinar is this Thursday, February 8th, at 2 PM ET. It’s free, and there is still time to sign up here.
After years of urging by Buzz Knight, Fred and his brother Paul began attending CES in 2009. Fred resisted for years. “Part of the issue,” he explained, “is if you’ve never been to CES before, you can see it covered on the news, or people can tell you about it, but like many amazing things, until you actually witness it yourself, you don’t get it.”
In 2009, they were rolling out jācapps. Fred recalls, “We humorously convinced ourselves that now we were tech guys, and we should go. It turned out to be fortuitous because that was the year Ford’s (then) new CEO, Alan Mulally, was the first automotive exec to keynote at CES and the rollout of the first generation of Ford’s Sync. We happened to be there the year that the whole intro in the dashboard thing began.”
The Jacobs brothers have been every year since, except for the year the show didn’t happen because of COVID, in 2021.
In 2017, they began leading CES tours when Bill Hendrich, then EVP of Cox Media, called Fred inquiring if they could curate a tour.
A few years earlier, Fred established a chance relationship with Gary Shapiro, the President of the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), the organization that owns and produces CES. The connection with Shapiro and help from CTA’s tour department led to the creation of the annual tours.
Fred Jacobs told me they do between two and four per year and have 13 to 15 people on each. He says they finally know what they’re doing and get there a few days early to scout to see what’s coming.
He added, “In the early years, it was mostly CEOs, COOs, CFOs, and commercial radio people. It has become a more diverse group of people from other walks of radio life. Now, it is not the least bit uncommon for Christian broadcasters, Public Radio people, etc. to join us.”
“The thing that started happening on the tours almost immediately…is the realization that here is this unbelievable show with 4,000 plus exhibits and radio for all purposes is invisible. It’s not there.”
Fred Jacobs continues, “Which is why we started building in an appearance with IBiquity and Xperi every year. They’re really the only radio that’s been present year after year. Their exhibit and footprint is growing. Now, thanks to Xperi’s platform, DTS AutoStage, they’ve got an amazing story. They’re working with car makers across the spectrum on getting this platform built into dashboards, and it’s just beautiful. It holds up exceptionally well.”
We shifted gears to discuss how CES has changed over the past 15 years. For Fred, there are several significant differences. For starters, the presence of automotive that didn’t exist before 2009, as well as other verticals, including health care.
The biggest difference Fred Jacobs sees is the shift from gadgets, especially phones and tablets, to themes. I think, (it’s) more ideas-driven and more innovation-oriented.
Fred credits that to Shapiro’s influence. “He is working around themes like sustainability, resilience, and access to technology worldwide. He has some really cool altruistic ideas for technology and how it can make for a better world. I don’t remember a lot of that thinking being in place back in 2008. It was more like, ‘Wow, cool phone (laughs).’ It’s a different kind of show today.”
By this point in our conversation, I noticed that Fred, whom I’ve known for over 35 years, was more upbeat and optimistic – even about radio – than I’m used to hearing him.
Fred Jacobs believes radio still matters. He finds that when automakers and other people learn you work in radio broadcasting, they’re interested. “They grew up listening to it, and hopefully, they still are listening to it today.”
He says, “I am optimistic because I think, for smart, enlightened people who are willing to see the world, not through the same lens that they’ve been seeing it through for decades, but the lens of what is going on now.”
“There is no way you can spend three days at CES and not come back to your market pumped up, excited, and enthused about some of the things that even radio, in the condition that it is today, can do more to reflect the consumer experience with media.”
He continues, “What would give me more hope is if there were more people from the radio broadcasting industry going to this event every year and sucking in the perspective that we get. It’s hard for me to explain to other people why this event is so important in shaping your thinking. It’s not just seeing an exhibit and going ‘Oh, I wonder if there’s a radio in the cockpit of that car.’ It’s actually seeing the larger theme and wondering: Hey, are there things we can do on the air to create a more personalized or customized experience for our customers?”
With that, our discussion turns to this year’s webinar. “Typically, what I do is a compartmentalized almost topic-by-topic breakdown of what we saw. They’re working on the dashboard. So, here’s five or six minutes on that with a bunch of pretty cars flying by and video or whatever. There were robots, so there will be a little section on robots. There was AI and the Metaverse. AI was such a huge part of this year that we’re creating sort of an AI pullout,” Fred says.
He adds, “There’s not an AI exhibit, an AI room, or even gadgets per se. AI is like oxygen at this event. It permeates everything, everywhere, and it’s fascinating to watch companies integrate it into what they’re doing. Some of this stuff dovetails into applications that any of us as individuals can use and certainly as radio stations could. And you know the thing to me that’s been lamentable about the past year in radio is that most of the AI conversation has been that hair on fire; oh my God, is this going to replace more DJs?”
“I understand the paranoia. It is well placed. There easily could be job losses down the road, but there could be job gains down the road, too, if radio people committed themselves to learning AI, its principles, and its usage and figuring out a way to make it work for stations and people individually. We’re going to talk a lot about that in the webinar.”
Another thing that will make this year’s webinar different is more interactive polls. In past webinars, Jacobs’ Media has done a one-question poll. Fred reveals that they are looking to make the webinar more interactive this year. “You won’t be able to lean back at your desk or the conference room table. We are going to ask you to engage in some of the content we’re showing,” he notes.
Although Fred Jacobs is clear that this year’s CES show was more thematic and less gadget-focused, that doesn’t mean there weren’t cool gadgets on exhibit. As a toy freak, I had to ask him about the coolest new devices he had ever seen. Fred Jacobs has a definite favorite.
He told me, “This year, the gadget I liked best was a flying car from a Chinese company called XPENG.” We laughed about the history, shortcomings, and potential complications of flying cars. Fred believes XPENG could be different.
“XPENG’s CEO addressed one of our tours. What makes it unique is that it has four propellers that retract inside to convert it to a regular car, much like how the top of a convertible folds into the trunk. Why a flying car? Ask George Jetson. It avoids a lot of traffic. Imagine flying into LaGuardia, then hoping into XPENG and avoid the snarling traffic in Queens and Manhattan so you can land in Midtown.”
His second favorite is “Adam,” a robot barista-bartender who tells jokes and uses AI to recognize you and predict your order.
Jacobs’ Media Webinars are always informative. The CES Webinar this Thursday, February 8th, at 2 PM ET should be no exception. It’s free, but you must register.
Fred Jacobs is passionate about CES in a way, I cannot do justice in this column. I highly encourage you to join Jacobs Media’s CES Webinar, and if you can, speak with Fred about why you should go to CES.
Andy Bloom is president of Andy Bloom Communications. He specializes in media training and political communications. He has programmed legendary stations including WIP, WPHT and WYSP/Philadelphia, KLSX, Los Angeles and WCCO Minneapolis. He was Vice President Programming for Emmis International, Greater Media Inc. and Coleman Research. Andy also served as communications director for Rep. Michael R. Turner, R-Ohio. He can be reached by email at andy@andybloom.com or you can follow him on Twitter @AndyBloomCom.
