We’re closing in on what should be an exceptional BNM Summit and Barrett Bash on September 3-4, 2025. 24 speakers have been announced so far for the Summit, nearly 200 are registered for the Bash including a ton of heavyweights and high profile personalities, and I’m very much looking forward to connecting the industry and continuing to explore ways to make our business better.
That provides the perfect segue for today’s announcement.
Radio as many know has experienced financial challenges in recent years. There’s a lot of work to be done on the marketing end to excite marketers and listeners. However, the business maintains incredible reach, and a powerful connection in local markets. It’s an industry that is very much alive, and important to those who listen and work in the business.
While many have sought to exit the industry, one gentlemen has pursued investing further in it. He has explored purchases of Audacy and Cumulus Media, and just last week, received FCC approval to bring Alpha Media and Connoisseur Media together. I’m excited to announce that Connoisseur Media CEO Jeff Warshaw, will join me at 10:50am on Day 2 of the BNM Summit for our Keynote Conversation.
If you’ve never heard Jeff speak before, you’re in for a treat. He’s a straight shooter who’s passionate about the business, and conveys his points in a manner that gets your attention. He launched Connoisseur Communications Partners LP in 1993, growing it to a 39-station powerhouse before selling to Cumulus in 2000 for $258 million. In 2004, he founded Connoisseur Media, which operates 13 radio station brands and digital assets across five markets. With the acquisition of Alpha Media, the company will soon add 207 stations in 44 markets to its portfolio, giving it a large local footprint.
In addition, I am thrilled to add an all-news programming panel to Day 1 of the Summit. Joining WTOP Director of Programming Julia Ziegler will be Audacy Director of News & Programming for 1010 WINS Ben Mevorach, and CBS News Radio Executive Editor Jennifer Brown. Leading the session will be Montclair State Adjunct Professor, past chair of RTDNA and former WCBS880 News Director Tim Scheld.
We’ll release the full schedule for the Summit later this week on BNMSummit.com. Our full list of speakers is currently available on the website. You can also purchase tickets there if you haven’t already done so. Tomorrow, I will announce the first recipient for this year’s awards ceremony. We will reveal our selection for this year’s Gold Standard in Leadership honor.
Howard Stern-SiriusXM Teaser Promos
I have to credit Shitty Radio Jock for bringing this to my attention. While scrolling on Instagram Friday, I saw a post that said ‘THIS is How You Do a Tease Promo‘. It was built around Howard Stern’s return to the airwaves on September 2nd to address the SiriusXM drama. I watched/listened to it, and couldn’t agree more, it was really well done.
What surprised me were the responses to the post. Rather than crediting good work and acknowledging how we can do better, many pointed to Stern’s staff being large, and radio lacking support. This may offend some but there’s a lot of undesirable imaging on radio stations today. With the arrival of AI, there should be no excuse for a lack of creative imaging. So much time is wasted on fluff that audiences won’t remember. I hear many promos which are the equivalent of going to a restaurant and hearing a waiter read you the menu.
A former imaging director I worked with named Jeff Schmidt once told me, ‘Promos are commercials. If we’re going to run those, take them off the air and eliminate my job, you don’t need them’. Jeff went on to explain that promos should produce the equivalent feeling of what an audience experiences when they watch a movie trailer. People don’t care that it’s a commercial. They become engaged and feel a need to take out their wallet to buy tickets to the film. Our job is to make them feel something, and want to hear/see what’s happening. Here’s a great example of it.
I was on a project a few weeks ago helping a new PD. A longtime host was returning to the airwaves and a promo was running promoting his return. It was solid but I explained how the next step comes from creative writing/messaging, and using hooks or familiar lines to grab attention. Instead of using liners to explain that a host is coming back, we discussed grabbing the hook of Luke Combs’ new song which says ‘it don’t matter where I’ve been, I’m back in the saddle again‘. It’s about invading the listener’s head space. If the hook, message and sound are strong, recall of what’s happening is higher.
Imaging issues exist in my opinion for a few key reasons: people are spread too thin, they don’t prioritize it, and/or they’re not creative. PDs and imaging directors are often hired without being asked to showcase their writing, test their creativity or demonstrate how they’d bring certain things to life on the air. Can you imagine if the season return for Tulsa King, The Voice, the next ESPY’s or a new documentary was written and imaged the way radio does it? Television would be a mess.
The Howard Stern teaser promo is excellent. It tells a story in thirty seconds that intrigues you to tune in on September 2nd. These type of promos are not hard to do. It’s just a question of whether or not you care enough to create them or are capable of producing movie trailers instead of noise.
Hubbard Introduces ‘That’s Called Radio’
Ginny Hubbard came up with a great idea, which Greg Strassell introduced at Morning Show Boot Camp. During an internal brainstorm of how to promote Gamut podcasts on Hubbard’s radio stations, Ginny told the group ‘don’t forget to promote radio on podcasts too’. That may seem like an obvious thing to do, but many radio stations spend tons of air time promoting apps, podcasts, and social media channels but don’t invest the same energy promoting radio on those same outlets.
Greg Strassell, Wade Kingsley and Hubbard’s Brand/Content director team sprung into action to create a campaign called ‘That’s Called Radio‘. Spec spots were created at the Cincinnati cluster and given to local markets to add their own local touch. The promos now run within Gamut podcasts in the markets where Hubbard operates. Take a listen.
I’ve argued forever that the radio industry needs to market itself better. We tell advertisers that our air time can help them grow businesses yet send listeners everywhere else because social, podcasts, YouTube and other locations are considered cooler. There’s one problem though – we don’t own those channels. Our radio stations, websites, and podcasts are ours. If we don’t direct people back to what we own and do best, we only have ourselves to blame if we can’t reach our audience.
When folks take action and do something well, I like to point it out. This campaign is smart and effective. It’s something more brands and radio groups should be doing. Nice job Hubbard Radio.
The Taylor Swift Effect
Taylor Swift joined the Kelce Brothers on the New Heights Podcast last week and it was a massive success. The episode had over 18 million views as of Sunday evening. A peak of 1.3 million watched it live, causing the show’s stream to crash. Social clips have been red hot too. 379 million watched on Instagram, 61 million on X, and 34.5 million on TikTok. The “New Heights” YouTube channel added 400,000 new subscribers since the episode aired, and the show’s Instagram account has passed 3 million followers too.
A simple teaser promo dropped on Monday, August 11th, promoting an announcement from Swift about a new album. Two days later, “New Heights” was #1 on the Apple podcast charts before the episode even came out. If that’s what can be done with two-days of social promotion, what could be done with two weeks?
Swift’s appearance on New Heights provided a reminder of how much more powerful streaming is than television. That should keep executives up at night. This is how people watch most now. Could two days of TV promotion deliver the collective impact that social did? I doubt it. I am curious if Taylor’s appearance on New Heights was part of the agreement struck by Amazon with New Heights. Spending $100 million dollars for the show makes more sense when this type of impact is a part of the deal. The Hollywood Reporter may have to update its most powerful in podcasting soon especially if she shows up again.
Jason Kelce deserves credit for doing a great job guiding the conversation. Taylor doesn’t do many long-form interviews like this, and Jason’s approach got her to show a side of herself that not everyone gets to see. Couple that with her attention to detail regarding the new album announcement, and how she masterfully plants seeds for future news/content, and you can see why it was a hit. The internet is now speculating that Swift will announce plans to perform at Halftime of the 2026 Super Bowl. If she is interested, the NFL should run in her direction. Last week’s podcast appearance just reconfirmed that no artist on the planet can deliver the kind of impact that Taylor Swift does.
Toast to 10
In September, Barrett Media will celebrate ten years in business. We’re throwing The Barrett Bash in New York City on September 4th to celebrate that milestone, but in-person is not the only place where we’ll reflect on the past decade. A new series will run throughout the month of September titled Toast to 10. Look for insights from yours truly, our editors and columnists, former writers, industry guests, and more. It’ll be a fun journey down memory lane that captures what has been an exciting, challenging, and unexpected ride.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. To stay updated, sign up for our newsletters and get the latest information delivered straight to your inbox.
Jason Barrett is the Founder and CEO of Barrett Media. The company launched in September 2015 and has provided consulting services to America’s top audio and video brands, while simultaneously covering the media industry at BarrettMedia.com, becoming a daily destination for media professionals. Prior to Barrett Media, Jason built and programmed 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He was also the first sports programmer for SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, which later became 97.5 The Fanatic. Barrett also led 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY, and worked on-air and behind the scenes at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years at ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT producing ‘The Dan Patrick Show’ and ‘GameNight’. JB can be reached on Twitter @SportsRadioPD or by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
Good Stern promo….although makes me wonder if its all a stunt or not! If so, well done. Not sure anyone really cares except his loyal base(which is almost nonexistent at this point).His numbers are way off.