In the article, John put on his “hat” as a longtime media guru and futurist and shared some predictions about radio’s future, which clearly came true.

Asked what he saw as true “radio killers” between then and 2010 Parikhal (pictured) replied,

“The biggest killer of all will be current management, unless they: Stop dancing to Wall Street’s whip, institute formal training and recruitment, start surrounding themselves with smart people who challenge them, create cultures of formal innovation and begin to get serious about spot loads. Radio can control this. They can’t control [Apple CEO] Steve Jobs, the Internet or any other of the so-called “killers” of the medium.”

Parikhal says that while many in radio today are blaming the economy for the industry’s woes, re-reading what he said five years ago suggests otherwise.

“This was all predictable, long before the current economic crisis,” he says. “You could see it coming, yet irresponsible people — who didn’t want to invest the necessary time and money — caused terrible pain for so many in the industry.”

For a re-read of the full article, click here.

And what about some other past predictions? Here’s some more thinking from 2006 about the pending state of radio just prior to the economic ad rev meltdown.

As a reminder, here is what John said in September 2009 at this year’s annual NAB on how radio to get back its growth.

Being “share-able” is not enough.

“Share-worthy” should be the goal.

Such as the picture at right. The Montreal Canadiens know exactly how to draw your eyes to their logo. And now that it is on the Internet, that brand logo placement can be shared with far more than just the people who saw the woman wearing the outfit that day.

BMW Mini Cooper advertising may have started the trend of placing brands in unusual settings a decade ago, later explained by media thinker Seth Godin as a form of unusual and remarkable “purple cow” marketing.

With online viral content, user-generated customized mash-ups, “green screen challenges”, customized theme avatars and various social media platforms, brand “sharing” among people is stronger than ever…allowing marketers to participate and engage in meaningful advertising campaigns by giving people a chance to develop a deeper relationship with their favorite brands.

Brands know they have to be part of the action online by offering their brands in “share-able” and “share-worthy” ways.

In the end, brand logo placement online impacts marketing bottom line results…and cheeky social media buzz campaigns often keep brands from falling behind the competition.

15 years ago, there were an estimated 38 million Internet users worldwide, mostly in the U.S. (IDC).

As of June 2009, approximately 1.67 billion people worldwide use the Internet, according to studies by Miniwatts Marketing Group.

Humor often can be insightful. “Insightful” isn’t a typical description for the humor found on CollegeHumor.com; however, the site’s content is often damn funny.

My media friend Dan Forth of ClassicRockForever.com discovered something both “funny” and “insightful” from CollegeHumor: the “unaired pilot” of ’24′.

Ever wonder how Jack Bauer could save the world and stop the bomb from exploding back in the day when we relied on payphones, slow modem dial-up, and AOL/Prodigy chatroom for online conversations?

Well, now you can see…and marvel at how fast our world operates online now. Times have changed.

These are John Parikhal’s notes for his contribution to the discussion:

Two Things Before You Even Start

• Get rid of all Czars. They screwed up everything in Russia and exploited the people. So, why do we put Czars in charge and expect things to get better?

Why don’t we think about stuff like this? We don’t question words, even when they don’t make sense.

If we are going to fix radio, we have to think more. Which means the first step is…

• Stop lying to yourself. Things are bad. The top people in radio made a lot of mistakes. You can’t take true action till you are honest with yourself. Things can get better – but not if you don’t face the truth. It’s like the 12 step program. Start with honesty.

Describe your ‘current reality’ – honestly. The tension between ‘current reality’ and what you want to create (your Outcome Statement) is what creates action.

Then, if you still want to take action, use 3 Tools.

Three Tools for Being Proactive Around Growth

• Use Strategic Thinking. This is the most powerful strategic tool in business. Create an Outcome Statement – what ‘outcome’ do you want to create? Once you have identified what you want to create, identify what you have to ‘do differently’ to get there. Start making the changes.

• Use a ’90 Days’ summary. Work with your direct reports and, for each of them agree on what they have to do in the next 90 days.

And, demand that your boss meet with you (in person or on the phone) every 90 days to determine what you have to get done in the next 90 days.

This is the best get-it-scheduled-and-done tool in the business. It worked for Lee Iacocca.

• Practice Listenomics. Get rid of all Czars and be like Lego and Nokia. Empower your fans. Don’t try to control them. Listen to the conversation. More details at gomediafix.com.

The Most Important Thing To Do On-Air

• Focus on what’s immediately relevant. Relevant is more important than local. Even though local is important, it is a subset of immediate – not the other way around.

Get rid of all the Czars – the same ones who said HD was the next big thing. The same ones who say the only future is local. They are playing follow-the-leader.

The Litmus Test

• Sell a 20 year old on working in radio. Write a speech to persuade them to come into the radio business. Think your speech through. Write it down. Try it out. Be honest.

If you can’t persuade them, ask the 20 year old – ‘What would have to change in order for me to be able to encourage you to work in radio?’

Next, ask yourself – ‘What would I want to change in radio to make it more attractive to a 20 year old?’

Then, look at your answers and theirs – and set to work immediately on influencing the necessary changes. One step at a time. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

For additional coverage of the NAB 2009, click here: RBR, RadioToday, and Inside Radio.

So why the f**k is social media so important? This updated report from Marta Kagan really explains it well.

Get on it.

RushmoreDrive.com, the first black search engine, recently shut down only a year after its launch. This raised the question about whether there is a market for a black version of Google.

Rushmore Drive was the brainchild of Barry Diller’s IAC, which just reported a “first-quarter net loss of $28.4 million compared to a profit of $52.8 million in the same quarter a year ago.”

Too bad. Rushmore’s failure is not only another negative statistic from the fallout of the economic downturn, but also from questionable planning.

Early on, several folks from both the black and mainstream blogosphere balked at the idea of Rushmore. Bloggers criticized Rushmore for being racist and separatist while others didn’t understand the concept at all. Additionally, a few questioned why IAC, whose focus is e-commerce websites, would even consider such an idea. Importantly, naysayers wondered how Rushmore would compete with the powerful Google brand?

At Hunter-Miller, we understand why and how Rushmore (and even Blackbird, the black web browser) traveled down that path. Many African-Americans — be they business owners who target African-American consumers, students or those who want a deeper understanding of black culture — look for specific black content, resources and stats. These black-consumer information searchers often complain that the web isn’t delivering. We discovered several types of African-American content that appeared on earlier pages of Rushmore’s site but appear a lot, lot later on Google and on Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine. Thus, it appeared that Rushmore was better than Google at collecting, organizing and disseminating Black information.

There are some who are sorry to see Rushmore go.

Donna Smith-Bellinger, co-founder-VP of PCG Technology Services, a digital strategy company, says: “We need special search engines like Rushmore Drive to make it easier to identify and locate African-American information online. An African-American search engine not only helps other African Americans find Black-owned business websites, but it can also aid corporations looking for minority companies to hire.”

Additionally, Donald Moore, newly appointed president of Burrell Digital, added: “I believe that ethnic search engines have a place in the digital space. What I do question is how will they build scale and sustainable profitability?”

However, business strategist Jaclynn Topping doesn’t agree. After learning about Rushmore’s failure on Huffington Post, Topping questioned Rushmore’s strategy. “There was nothing missing [from using Google] as a Black person. The concept of a race-based search engine (or browser) is ridiculous, especially in the face of the move to open platforms. The world-wide-web is color-blind, gender-blind, disability-blind. No barriers. It’s all about the tag, keyword density and linking strategy. It’s the Internet’s greatest strength. What is Rushmore giving me? What’s Black about browsing?”

John Parikhal, co-author of this post, and an expert on both the internet and black consumer preferences, provides another perspective: “Rushmore’s failure is really about a lack of consumer understanding. They didn’t recognize the difference between search and engagement. Search usually starts with utility — just give me something I want. That’s what Google, Yahoo and Bing are fighting over. It has less to do with color. But engagement (which really makes ads work) is different. That’s where understanding Black America really pays off.”

~ ~ ~
John Parikhal is a “practical futurist” and consultant specializing in media strategy, marketing, research and consumer trends.

Pepper Miller is founder and president of the Hunter-Miller Group, Chicago.

For serious marketers like Procter & Gamble or Coke, ROI is a complex equation in which the ad medium and the dollars spent are only a part of the formula. But if by ROI, you mean – can I tie the ad to a sale? – then take a page from the best awards ever – the Effies. They measured ‘effectiveness’, asking participants to submit their ‘before and after’ case studies with the ad.

The Mercurys should be about ‘effective’ radio ads – not ‘creativity.’ And, an effective ad starts with ‘engagement.’ Often, judges confuse engagement with entertainment when they are asked to decide what is most ‘creative.’ They choose ‘entertaining’ ads and call them ‘creative.’ Some very engaging ads are not entertaining. But they work. Just check out spoken word ads on News and Talk stations. Bring back the Effies.”

Formats create more value online than content. Yet, content gets all the press.

There’s already a mountain of content available online – most of it free. We don’t need more content. We need better formats.

Formats have been around for a long time, packaging and organizing ‘content’ to make it worth a lot more.

Top 40 radio is a format. It takes about 40 songs that are ‘worth’ 99 cents each at iTunes and packages them so that can be worth millions in advertising. The Top 40 format adds millions in value.

We can see the same format power at work for Amazon, eBay, Zappos, YouTube, and Facebook . Formats have added billions in value online.

Amazon is a format. It doesn’t create content – it formats or packages it.

Amazon made a fortune because it formatted the department store online.

It formatted (organized) its store as a simple, one-stop shopping experience – with a series of ‘departments’ ranging from books and electronics to garden tools into -just as Sears had done in the physical world 40 years earlier.

And, Amazon made millions without manufacturing any ‘content’

Even eBay is a format. They are worth billions because they formatted the flea market. eBay simply created the packaging that sold someone else’s ‘content’.

iTunes formatted the online music store. And, the iPod re-formatted the record player.

Zappos formatted the shoe store. They don’t make shoes. They format the experience of the world’s best shoe store to appeal to shoe junkies. And, it works.

Or, consider Facebook. It formatted the reunion. It hasn’t earned much profit but it could sell today for billions of dollars even though there is no clear business model. That’s the power of formats.

The same is true about YouTube. It formatted the ‘home’ movie, never made much money and got sold to Google for over $1 billion.

Not surprisingly, the biggest online business of all, Google, makes most of its money from formatting, not from content.

Google makes enormous profits by formatting the ‘library’ experience for users and then selling ‘knowledge’ about user interests to advertisers. That’s the power of formats.

One could even make the case that the Mac operating system (OSX) and Windows are both a form of format. They organize the way we can use a computer.

If you make that case, then the ‘format’ that jumpstarted the world wide web – Netscape, is the granddaddy of them all. And, it sold for billions of dollars.

That’s why we’re bullish on formats and formatting. Because, there’s already a staggering amount of content available online – most of it free – and, most of it is not formatted well, if at all.

We see big growth opportunities for companies that get better at formatting. And, lost opportunities for those who don’t.

The higher a websites Alexa ranking, the higher “authority” that site receives from search engines.

Having higher search engine authority means it is much easily to get found online through search engines.

Viewing the latest rankings, News & Info stations lead the pack with ten within the Top 20. Corus has 9 in the Top 20, while CBC has 4, Astral has 2, NewCap has 2, CTV has 1 and Rogers has 1. Toronto’s airport and business station is also in the Top 20 (in March 2007, it was the “station” with the most Alexa web traffic).

Curiously, Virgin Radio doesn’t appear to be captured accurately by Alexa. It doesn’t include any of the Virgin station on their list. When searching Alexa for the individual Virgin station traffic rankings, each market’s stations (Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver) don’t show up. Instead, only the main domain (virginradio.com) appears (the station sites are found their sub-domains). Collectively, all Virgin Radio station would rank 26th, just behind CHOM and ahead of Rock 101.

Prior to the Virgin flip, Mix 96 in Montreal was a Top 20 online web traffic radio station.

Here’s the latest Alexa search for Canada’s top 20 radio station traffic rankings (June 2009):

1) CBC Radio – British Columbia (www.cbc.ca/bc) (CBC)
2) Radio Énergie (www.radioenergie.com) (Astral/Anglo & French AC)
3) CKOI FM 96.9 (ckoi.com) (Corus/Anglo & French Hot AC)
4) CKWX – News 1130 (www.news1130.com) (Rogers/News)
5) VOCM Radio (www.vocm.com) (NewCap/News & Info)
6) CFYZ 1280 AM (www.gtaa.com) (Toronto airport & business)
7) 102.1FM The Edge (www.edge.ca) (Corus/New Rock)
CBC Radio (www.cbc.ca/radio) (CBC)
9) Country 105 (www.country105.com) (Corus/Country)
10) Q107 FM (www.q107.com) (Corus/Classic Rock)
11) CKNW 980 AM – Vancouver (www.cknw.com) (Corus/News & Info)
12) CBC Radio 3 (radio3.cbc.ca) (CBC)
13) CHUM 104.5 FM (www.chumfm.com) (CTVglobemedia/Adult CHR/Hot AC)
14) HOT 89.9 FM (www.hot899.com) (NewCap/Rhythmic CHR)
15) CFOX 99.3 – The Fox (www.cfox.com) (Corus/Rock)
16) CBC 102.1 FM Calgary (www.cbc.ca/calgary) (CBC)
17) CJAD 800 AM (www.cjad.com) (Astral/News & Info)
18) CJOB 680 (www.cjob.com) (Corus/News & Info)
19) CISN 103 FM (www.cisnfm.com) (Corus/Country)
20) AM 770 CHQR (www.am770chqr.com) (Corus/News & Info)

Here’s a quick link to find all Canadian radio stations streaming online. Or here’s another good link.

Liked the run-across-America move to open the show, his hanging with new fabulous LA friends watching a Lakers game, the entrance of first guest Will Ferrell and first musical guest Pearl Jam.

Very different first show than his debut on The Late Show September 1993.

With all the changes in late night programming (Leno earlier, Jimmy Fallon replacing Conan), late night just got fresher.

Good of NBC to open up the show video clips to share and embed on their site instead of containing it only on Hulu.

Heeeeere’s Conan!