Author Archive

Leigh Jacobs

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Programming No Longer a Zero-Sum Game

By Leigh Jacobs / May 2, 2022

It’s time to rethink station music test samples – and it’s time to rethink programming strategy. If you’ve been paying attention to the research we’ve released at NuVoodoo (or that which nearly all of our competitors have released) so far this year, it’s apparent that broadcast radio is facing deeper challenges than ever before in…

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Rebuilding Radio Stations as Brands

By Leigh Jacobs / April 25, 2022

At the All Access Audio Summit last week, NuVoodoo leader Carolyn Gilbert, Jeri Fields (our new VP/Research Insights), and I presented “Re-engineering a 747 at 30,000 Feet.” We started with tips for playing for present-day ratings success – and then pivoted to talking about the future. As Carolyn noted, “We don’t get to write the…

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Re-engineering a 747 at 30,000 Feet

By Leigh Jacobs / April 18, 2022

The All Access Audio Summit kicks off on Wednesday this week and NuVoodoo will be there on opening day. “Re-engineering a 747 at 30,000 Feet” is set for Wednesday, April 20 at 1 PM EDT/10 AM PDT. We’re showing the challenges facing radio today, how to play the game at its best for current ratings…

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New PPM Wearables to Replace up to 75% of the Panel by Year’s End

By Leigh Jacobs / April 11, 2022

Nielsen officially introduced their new PPM wearables in a webinar just before April Fool’s Day and the NuVoodoo team gathered this past week to compare notes about the webinar. You’ll find a 15-minute video of the conversation on YouTube. The conversation included NuVoodoo owner and president, Carolyn Gilbert, our marketing gurus, Mike O’Connor and PJ…

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What a Week: PPM Wearables and CRS 360

By Leigh Jacobs / April 4, 2022

Nielsen officially introduced their new PPM wearables last week (to augment/replace the pager-style PPM 360 meters). Panelists will soon have the option to wear the new Nielsen meter configured as a: Wristband (to complement the watch/smartwatch/Fitbit they’re already wearing) Pendant (because carrying the old design pager doesn’t make you look weird enough in 2022) Clip-on…

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Programming for Increased Endorphin Production

By Leigh Jacobs / March 28, 2022

Among the measures in the annual UN-sponsored World Happiness Report released last week are three questions used to quantify positive emotions. They use questions about experiencing (1) laughter and (2) enjoyment during the previous day, and a question about learning or doing something interesting during the previous day. As I read those questions, I thought…

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Podcasts Come to Cars: What Radio Needs to Know

By Leigh Jacobs / March 21, 2022

Earlier this year NuVoodoo Ratings Prospects Study 19 turned up the finding that among weekly podcast listeners, the most common thing to be doing while listening to podcasts is … driving. More than any other podcast statistic in the data, this one stands out. Podcasts are making their way into the car – of course…

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Cheerful young woman driver sitting in car, driving.

Considering the Consideration Set (and Abandoning “P1”)

By Leigh Jacobs / March 14, 2022

Many years ago, a fine radio researcher observed, “Narrow focus yields broad results.” At the time this was said, the researcher was trying to convince the GM of a station to limit the demo of the study under discussion to adults 25-54, rather than persons 12+. Decades later we sometimes see music test screens that…

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Sports Radio vs. Sports Podcasts: Gen Z

By Leigh Jacobs / March 7, 2022

It was a couple of great days last week for the Barrett Sports Media Summit in NYC. Those who could not attend in person were able to log on to a virtual presentation of the event via the NuVoodoo Conference Cloud. Russ Gilbert and his team did an amazing job bringing the feel and function…

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In-Person Conferences! Country Radio Seminar & Barrett Sports Media

By Leigh Jacobs / February 28, 2022

Almost two years to the day of my last in-person conference (which was Talk Show Boot Camp, just days before the world locked down in 2020), last week had Carolyn Gilbert, Jeri Fields (NuVoodoo’s new VP/Research Insights), and me presenting on stage at Country Radio Seminar in Nashville. We were proud to conduct a wide-ranging…

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