Author Archive

Leigh Jacobs

Moneyball: How Deep is Your Bench?

By Leigh Jacobs / November 3, 2025

(With apologies to the Bee Gees, of course.) Last week’s tragic loss of WMMR’s Pierre Robert is a timely reminder that the most valuable on-air hosts are difficult (some might say “impossible”) to replace. If you were a fan of Pierre’s or work in the radio business, your social media feeds are full of tributes…

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Desperate Arab businessman having too much work, making mistake, cannot meet deadline, suffering

Moneyball: Have You Audited Your Imaging?

By Leigh Jacobs / October 27, 2025

Have you audited your imaging and promos lately? This year? This decade? With more responsibilities spread across fewer people in most station programming departments, it’d be completely understandable if the answer is “no.” Yet that’s exactly why it’s so important to make the time. With fewer people doing more work, radio risks losing the elements…

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Shocked funny Basenji dog with open mouth looking on laptop computer display.

Moneyball: Remaining Local & Connected in 2026

By Leigh Jacobs / October 20, 2025

While Nielsen’s new 3-minute rules have lifted AQH, revenue remains challenging. It’s understandable to see programming personnel being trimmed back at many companies. It’s sad for the individuals involved and sad for the business as it works to compete with the onslaught of digital competition in the audio space. Managers are left with fewer bodies…

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Moneyball: How Safe is Your Safe List?

By Leigh Jacobs / October 13, 2025

When we asked the 2,000+ nationwide respondents in NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study 26 what causes them to change stations, too many bad songs is at or near the top of the ranking among most format P1 groups. Even among the few formats where bad songs are the cause of tuneout for less than half the…

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Santa dog

Moneyball: Tis’ the Season to Plan Budgets

By Leigh Jacobs / October 6, 2025

For the coming year in the radio business, you’ll again be asked to do more with less. If you’re a programmer or manager, you may be responsible for more stations in your market – or more stations outside your market. Research and marketing are always on the block as potential cuts. Yet we know that…

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Clock

Music Radio: What Gets the Most Airtime Besides Music?

By Leigh Jacobs / September 29, 2025

Spouses of program directors talk about it: PDs listen to the car radio wrong – they turn up the volume when a song is ending, listen for whatever happens between the songs … and turn the volume down. I haven’t programmed a station since 1999 – and I STILL listen to the radio that way.…

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Moneyball: Brand Lift Studies for Radio Sales

By Leigh Jacobs / September 22, 2025

Advertisers are increasingly looking for proof that their campaigns are working. You can hear ROAS – Return on Ad Spend – talked about in podcasts commercials targeting businesspeople. John Wanamaker, founder of the long-gone Philadelphia-area department store Wanamaker’s, is often quoted saying, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I…

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Rock concert

Moneyball: Alt and Rock P1Deep Dive (and a new webinar)

By Leigh Jacobs / September 15, 2025

Last week we shared a deep dive into findings concerning CHR and AC P1s from the latest NuVoodoo national study. We’ll wrap up this week with a deep dive into P1s for Alt and Rock radio. Among Alt P1s, their favorite music radio station ranks fourth, behind Google, YouTube, and Amazon when asked how important…

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Moneyball: CHR and AC P1 Deep Dive

By Leigh Jacobs / September 8, 2025

Last week we shared a deep dive into findings concerning Urban and Urban AC P1s from the latest NuVoodoo national study. We’ll continue this week with a deep dive into P1s for CHR and AC radio. Among AC P1s, their favorite music radio station ranks a distant fifth, well behind Google, YouTube, and Amazon –…

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Crowd of people in music concert hall

Moneyball: Urban/Urban AC P1 Deep Dive

By Leigh Jacobs / September 2, 2025

Last week we shared a deep dive into findings concerning Classic Hits and Classic Rock P1s from the latest NuVoodoo national study. We’ll continue this week with a deep dive into P1s for Urban and Urban AC radio. Their favorite music radio station ranks fifth among various media and digital presences in their lives, only…

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