This year’s NAB Show at the Las Vegas Convention Center is celebrating 100 years of innovation in the broadcast industry. In the weeks leading up to April 15-19, Radio Ink is talking with some of radio’s biggest innovators about what has them excited about NAB Show 2023. Today, we sit down with Benztown President Dave “Chachi” Denes.
Radio Ink: This year at NAB, there are three main tracks. There’s Create, which is content creation. There’s Connect, which is technology, and there’s Capitalize, which is for executives and marketers. I know Benztown touches on all three. With your role, is there a particular focus you have going in?
Chachi: Our focus is candidly getting in front of talent and producers around the world. This is the first time that we’re going to have space in two different booths. We have space at the ENCO booth, which is in the West Hall, and also at the Broadcasters General Store booth, which is in the Central Hall. I’m also going to have a live recording of my podcast, Chachi Loves Everyone, with Scott Herman at the ENCO booth, which I’m really excited about. But back to your initial question.
I love all aspects of the business, but I probably fancy myself a creator more than the others, so the Create track would probably be where I would spend more of my time. But I find it all incredibly interesting.
Radio Ink: You mentioned Chachi Loves Everyone. I know that you’re big into podcasting, not just personally, but also with Benztown. With some of our other guests in this series, we’ve talked about AI or the dashboard at NAB, but we haven’t touched on podcasting. Are you looking for anything in particular there when you go out to NAB?
Chachi: in the podcasting space, I’m really interested to see what people are doing and trying to get an understanding of the pulse of pop culture. Amy Poehler just announced that she’s going to be doing a podcast. I find it exciting and interesting that we’re attracting, in the audio medium, huge A-list stars. I see it as a bright spot for our industry. The more that I can pick up there and learn how to make a successful podcast, I think the better I’ll be for it.
Radio Ink: We’ve also been stacking up some insider tips during this series. We’ve got the Wynn is the best place to network at the bar. Wear comfortable shoes. Use the monorail. Do you have an insider NAB tip?
Chachi: Here’s where I am. A lot of them are embarrassed to say this. I need to be a bit practical because of our booths, as I mentioned, so we actually stay at the Westgate right next to the Convention Center. Every year, I swear to myself I’m not gonna be at the Westgate again, but the convenience factor just makes it so enticing. You don’t have to jump in a cab. You can just walk to the convention room or the convention floor from your room, which is great.
Unfortunately, the Westgate does charge a premium for its location and their rooms are not nearly as nice as what you will experience at the Wynn or a lot of the other casinos in Vegas. Ultimately, it’s the time savings for me of being there not having to be in the taxi stands and so forth. But all those other things you mentioned? Heck yeah. Comfortable shoes. Be prepared to walk. You lose perspective on how big the convention center is. Getting from the new West Hall to the Central Hall is literally a 15-plus minute walk.
Radio Ink: I stayed at the Westgate the last time I went to NAB, and if you want to feel better about it, you know what movie that hotel is in, right?
Chachi: Oh, I can name a few, but I know when I was a kid, we used to watch Over the Top with Sylvester Stallone where he was the arm wrestler.
Radio Ink: [Laughs] Oh, wow. I totally forgot that. You got me on that one. That’s way more fun than mine. I was going to say Diamonds are Forever. Speaking of history, it’s NAB Show Centennial. It’s about looking back and looking forward. Do you have a particular show or memory that really stands out to you from NAB?
Chachi: I remember going to NAB for the very first time with Jhani Kaye. I was a baby DJ, and I was just absolutely overwhelmed by it all. It is a pure spectacle. And I still get that feeling when I go today. It’s wonderful to see so many of our friends and coworkers and people in our industry, but to see the equipment, to see the energy, to see the whole broadcast world come together and meet in Vegas, it’s just a fun, exciting feeling.
Radio Ink: Seeing as it’s the 100 year celebration – and it’s hard to get into specifics obviously – but what do you think that NAB Show 2123 will look like?
Chachi: I got to see Tony Robbins speak a few years ago and he said something really interesting that sticks with me to this day. He said we think, as humans, that we overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years. Look at the past few years. Jeff Bezos said all of our packages would be delivered via drones. We were promised self-driving cars. Look at NFTs and crypto or the metaverse. Now we’re in the ChatGPT world.
Every year, there’s some piece of technology that we jump on. about. I think those technologies are incredibly viable and will be around for a long time, however, none of them have taken over the world that we all predicted. Right now, everything’s about AI and AI is going to take over the world. Look, it’s going to be a part of our world for sure. But I think it’s going to develop slower than we all think.
So back to your question: in 100 years, it’s going to look vastly, vastly different. But 60 years ago, they were predicting cars that fly, and we were going to live in the world of The Jetsons. That hasn’t really happened yet. If you look at the initial space shuttle missions in the early 80s, they were predicting we were going to launch a space shuttle every single week. They thought we’d be going to the moon, almost like we would take a flight to Vegas. So will it be different? Absolutely. But is it going to evolve as quickly as we think? Probably not.
Radio Ink: So I shouldn’t bet on NAB Moon coming up anytime soon. That’s what you’re telling me. I should cancel that Blue Origin ticket, take that money, get myself a room at the Westgate instead, and have a good time.
Chachi: [Laughs] Yeah, it’s fascinating to me technology in general. I was at the CES show earlier this year and saw so many cool products and inventions and things I’d never seen before. But most never see the light of day because of their viability or scalability. Go back to what we do in broadcast media.
We’ve been an industry for essentially 100 years now – think about the number of people that radio still hits today. It’s really impressive. 88% are still listening to radio, and it’s obviously a much different world today than it was 100 years ago. With so many different mediums fighting for our time and energy, radio is still very viable. I think that spirit will be around 100 years from now.
