I arrived in New York on Tuesday not sure what to expect. If possible, I always get to conventions a day prior to get my bearings and adjust to the new time zone and climate. Especially when I’m speaking. This plan worked to my advantage since I missed my flight because I was busy writing an article and returning emails while American Airlines decided to change the gate on me without notice. Because I’m a little OCD about time, I’ve never missed a flight in my life so this rattled me a bit. But, luckily the service agent was kind enough to book me on the next flight free of charge so it only cost me two hours of my time and a few minutes of panicked stress sprinting through DFW airport.
My trip improved dramatically when I landed in the Big Apple and had a friendly Uber driver who shared a birthday with me (tomorrow by the way) and a favorite soccer team with my wife (Manchester United). Although he didn’t share my delight at the news that the Jets head coach had just been canned, I’m finding that no one likes a Cowboys fan’s opinion on the state of their local team. I chose the Yotel as my convention hotel option, sleek-modern design, reasonable rates, terrible wi-fi but good food and entertainment. Plus, it was walking distance to the Javitz Center. Although I quickly remembered that walking in New York is a contact sport and everyone is a little put off by my southern habit of nodding and saying hi to everyone I pass.
Day one was the big day convention-wise, but I encourage everyone to stick around through day two instead of leaving town after the Marconi’s because you need that time to see everything and make as many contacts as possible. Here’s a quick breakdown of a few of the sessions I attended and exhibits I saw.
Since I’m a radio guy, of course I spent most of my time in the Radio + Podcast Interactive Forum sessions. Ahead of my panel on Wednesday I saw a session on marketing and tech that featured some great takeaways from Jeff Cucinell, EVP of Digital Marketing at iHeart. “The whole purpose of repurposing our content is to expand it’s reach. Taking highlights from 850 radio stations and leveraging them across platforms.” He added that it’s all data driven, they analyze each station’s audience so they’re promoting the right podcasts on the right stations. The same panel included Jason Hoch, Wavland CEO, who expanded on that point about finding and moving audiences from one thing to another based off many years of trying things to see what works. Leah Reis-Dennis, VP Content Strategy & Business Development at Audacy, made an encouraging statement for us radio folks, “Our podcast hosts are very eager to get in front of radio ears”.
There were a LOT of good quotes in the Innvoative Sound Design & Video Strategies Session later in the day. VP of Production at Crooked Media/Pod Save America Matt Degroot, spoke about the importance of speed and efficiency, “Our goal is to turnaround in a couple of hours so we’re constantly looking for short cuts”. He also discussed how of course they like the perfect environment of their studios, where they know the audio and video will look and sound great. But, they do a lot of remote interviews as well, sometimes even from war zones. So, like me they use Riverside for recording those and have been happy with how it locally records a copy so the final product isn’t negatively impacted by a bad internet connection. He also discussed how some of their hosts were camera shy but during the pandemic working remotely got them all used to it, something we can all relate to. Plus, Matt added “One and a half hours is a high bar of entry for some people, so we use the short clips on social to get them in.” Two other panelists made points that we radio people in the audience were happy to hear. Yervant Keshishian, Tech Director at Varto Technologies, said that “Good quality audio is incredibly important, if you don’t have that you’re not going to keep people around.” Dan Hirschl, VP Engineering Red Apple/Chief Engineer WABC, commented on how “AM radio is the OG content creators, AM talk has been generating TONS of content for years”. He also made a very good point about the benefits of having both professional and consumer grade gear “While I have a full SAS Dante system my guys also bought a Rodecaster, which comes in handy when training entry level employees”. That stuck out to me as a fan of prosumer equipment like the Rodecaster (I own the Pro II) and I also love the professional grade SAS Dante on-air consoles.
The panel I moderated at the Radio + Podcast Interactive forum was on Leveraging Data Insights to Improve Programming, Promotions and Bottom Lines. It included some heavy hitters, Edison Research Director of Research Laura Ivey, who spoke on the value of research in the era of readily available free data on the internet (and how to pair and interpret the two). Rhyme Media CEO Dan Bobkoff, who tapped into his radio background to share thoughts on the differences between radio and podcast data. Coleman Insights VP & Consultant Jay Nachlis, explained the differences between qualitative and quantitative research adding when and where to use each of them. Colby Tyner, who I was happy to learn is an Eagles and Phillies fan so I could take a few shots at each, spoke about the delicate balance of coaching programmers to pair their gut instincts with good data. I took a video of the session, that we’ll edit, post and link to later.
I also love how the NAB has started to include more presentations and panels within the exhibit areas that everyone can see. One that really caught me and everyone else’s eye, because it was very well attended, was Thriving Solo: Navigating the Path of the Modern Solopreneur. Brett Dashevsky, Head of Content Creators Kickstarter, was the moderator and he set the tone with a fun intro bringing the panelists up like a sporting event and getting the attention of passers-by. Then they proceeded to discuss the shift to individuals instead of institutions, define what a solopreneur’s day looks like, why it’s important to niche-down (which they debated) and leaning into unfair advantages (what you do better than anyone else). Panelist Taylor Bell, YouTube Creator, made several statements that stood out to the crowd who was hanging on every word. She said that longform was her bread and butter so that’s why she focused on YouTube. The connection the audience can have with a YouTube creator is deeper than traditional celebrities (giving an example of a YouTuber who was hanging out with a movie star and people asked for the YouTuber’s pic). She explained that it’s because her fans know so much about her life, “My dog’s name and even my parents’ names”. Taylor responded to an audience question claiming that 59% of her revenue is from brand deals (which are basically what we call endorsement deals). A radio guy asked a question about how she doesn’t go bankrupt spending money on the latest/greatest audio and video gear, to which she responded “I have 500k subscribers and I’ve only ever used my iPhone.” Panelist Jacklyn Dallas, Nothing But Tech Founder & Speaker, added that “Creators have the opportunity to create the next generation of media companies.” Speaker & Former Business Consultant Colin Rocker talked about how he approaches being a YouTube creator just like he approached all of his former jobs, working just as many hours per day but getting to do something he loves and is passionate about. This panel coincided with a nearby happy hour, which certainly didn’t hurt, but I was amazed at how many radio and TV people were lined up to ask them all questions after the panel ended. I’ll add that in another panel I saw an amazing stat from TheIABM.org that according to Nielsen’s aggregated viewing, outside of the recent Olympics coverage, YouTube has the #1 total TV usage by company.
As a gear nerd I always spend a lot of time going through the exhibits and seeing all the cool new tech. A few things that stood out to me as I perused included Rode’s new Rodecaster Video, the new older brother of the Rodecaster Pro II that builds on it’s audio capabilities to add a video switcher. It’s 1080p, but that keeps the cost more reasonable and it looks like a great solution for radio and podcasters wanting to record better multi-cam video that they can turn around quickly. I had a great discussion with two British guys from RealPlayer about their efforts to bring their in-dash radio solution to the United States at no cost to broadcaters. The key benefits are that it drastically improves how we look in the dash, seamlessly transitions from terrestrial to streaming as the driver leaves the coverage area and radio owns the data instead of the car companies. My new engineering partners at DNav gave me a demo of the latest SAS Dante consoles they are installing at stations all across the country, walking me through why it’s a more customizable, durable and cost-effective solution for stations. On the AES side, which by the way the NAB badge gets you access to, I found the closest thing I’ve ever heard to a Neuman U47 at the Telefunken booth, heard some amazing speakers at Fohhn that strategically point the line-array sound within a very compact design and spent some time on the John Lennon Tour Bus mobile recording studio. This is run by a non-profit organization that tours schools, at no cost, but can also be rented out occasionally.
You can’t come to New York city without doing a little bit of sightseeing. The convention kept me a little too busy to go to Times Square (which is nearby) or cab it to the Comedy Cellar (which will be on next year’s agenda). But, I did get out to a couple bars and restaurants. I had a nice dinner at LegaSea Bar & Grill, the ribeye and the old-fashioned were both fantastic, went to Nizza for a gluten-free pizza (yes I’m one of those thanks to a doctor who hates me) that had an Italian hot pepper on it (wasn’t prepared for that) and had a good local beer and burger at Barefoot. Plus, there was a great café across from the Yotel (le café coffee) to get my morning OJ and some fruit to make up for the fact that my wife wasn’t here to positively influence my consumption decisions.
Final Thoughts
Like I say at every national or state contention I go to. More radio people have to attend these. Conventions are not just for owners/operators, upper management and engineers. Everyone, regardless of their title comes away from these inspired, full of great ideas and more encouraged by the possibilities of the future than discouraged about the current state of our industry, myself included. But, the key to turning those ideas into action is getting as many team members as possible to attend as well. Otherwise, it just feels like someone telling you about this awesome trip to New York that they went on and you didn’t.