[NJARC] CBS Selling Off Radio

[Alex Magoun]

It's really hard to "grow" or build, or rebuild a profitable business when
the traditional revenue source, advertising, keeps shrinking. Les Moonves
is a broadcasting veteran going back to the 1970s and presumably he's
looking at data like that in Slide 5 here (
http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/MAGNA_Letang_IAB_Webinar_042215.pdf)
and Slide 8 here (
http://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/PWC_IAB_2014_Full_Year_Digital_Ad_Revenue_IAB2.pdf
).

Radio suffers from the same problem as print, music, and film media. The
vast majority of Americans and people worldwide get their information and
entertainment in the most convenient way possible: on demand, any time, any
where, digitally, in the convenience (and small screen) in their hands.
Moonves and his colleagues in traditional media have been wrestling with
this for at least 15 years so if you have a brainstorm they've overlooked,
be sure to let Broadcasting & Cable (note title) know:)

David Sarnoff forecast this transition in 1964 for 2000, and he also
observed in the early 1930s, with regard to movies and television, that
every medium will continue to play a profitable part as long as it has
something unique to offer.  CBS Radio will certainly continue to appear
just as NBC Radio has in the last 30 years (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBC_Red_Network#After_the_Golden_Age_of_Radio),
just not run by National Amusements/CBS/Paramount.


Alex
~~~
Alexander B. Magoun, Ph.D., Outreach Historian
IEEE History Center
at Stevens Institute of Technology
Samuel C. Williams Library 3rd Floor
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5991
USA

+1 732-981-3414
a.b.magoun at ieee.org
www.ethw.org
@IEEEHistory
www.ieee.org/history_center

IEEE - Advancing Technology for Humanity
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