Digital is now a fixture in every radio broadcaster’s revenue strategy. But as streaming, podcasting, and social media take center stage, how are the industry’s most powerful leaders ensuring the core on-air product remains essential, not overshadowed?
We’re days away from Radio Ink Magazine unveiling the 40 Most Powerful People in Radio for 2025 in our July issue, and we questioned top executives on how streaming, podcasting, and social media can drive true growth without cannibalizing our core product.
Their answers challenge the “old vs. new” debate and offer a roadmap for stations to turn digital engagement into real financial gains.
Radio Ink asked, With marketers and consumers demanding “content everywhere,” how can radio ensure that its digital platforms are expanding the revenue pie and not just moving dollars from the core broadcast station?
“When stations use streaming, podcasts, and social content to extend that trusted brand, they create new value for advertisers and listeners alike. These platforms unlock fresh inventory, reach new audiences, and deepen engagement, all while reinforcing the core free, over-the-air product. This approach doesn’t shift dollars – it grows them.”
“Unlike linear TV, there is no financial incentive for consumers to ‘cut the cord’ in favor of expanding their digital consumption. That said, digital is exciting and offers a range of opportunities for new revenue streams through innovative content and monetization across streaming, podcasts and digital marketing solutions. There are a lot of ways to grow the pie if we view this as one big opportunity rather than ‘old vs new.’”
“The goal of our digital platforms should be the same as our broadcast stations: to help advertisers get real results. If we stay focused on delivering outcomes, rather than just impressions, the overall pie will grow. Results breed growth.”
Curious about who said what? Radio Ink Magazine‘s 40 Most Powerful People In Radio issue comes out on Monday. Click HERE to subscribe today.
Their primary goal? That’s easy.
The Pitchmans of the world only care about keeping the gravy train rolling in for themselves. Nothing else matters.
While Radio Ink’s “40 most powerful people in radio” will always be a fascinating list of who has climbed the highest in the industry, I’d like to make one important distinction.
This isn’t a list of people who have necessarily added a single dollar of revenue to the industry by directly engaging advertisers at the highest level in a compelling way to use radio. This isn’t a list of people who necessarily treated their own employees with dignity and respect during their climb to the top. Some of these people literally haven’t made a single dollar of profit in the last five years for their own companies in spite of the fact that they have the most powerful marketing assets on earth under their control.
Some of these people simply played a different game—a game of maneuvering and forming alliances and pretending to be more effective than they really were and surrounding themselves with people who would never question it. That is a rare skill, but nonetheless a skill. To be fair, I’ve seen people on this list who I have worked with in the past and greatly admire for their integrity, their amazing knowledge of radio, their long list of accomplishments that literally and quietly advanced the industry and made radio part of the media mix because of their amazing level of professionalism. I respect that.
I’m not questioning the influence of anyone who makes the list, which in some cases is astonishingly powerful. I’m pondering what they’re doing with it for the industry, for their own employees and for radio’s overall “brand.” In the last 5 years, some of the people on this list over the years were directly responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of losses at the companies they lead. One company literally lost over $4 billion in the last 5 years in net income (aka, “profit”).
While it’s great to be in charge and yield some serious levels of influence, what are you actually accomplishing? What value are you adding to the industry, your employees and the overall health of the companies you lead?
If we’re about to talk about people with power, then consider what valuable contributions they’ve made to their companies and the industry overall. A lot of these names would drop off this list and be replaced by people you’ve likely never heard of.
Ed Lampert was on Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Then he ran Sears.
How did that work out… Sears was once so powerful and made so much money, they built the tallest building in the world (The Sears Tower in Chicago) just because they “could.”
When was the last time you shopped at Sears? That’s the point.
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