Emmis CEO Takes Issue With Ramsey Blog

Jeff Smulyan Says Mark Ramsey "Demonstrates A Frightening Lack of Comprehension"

From Radio Ink.com

In a rare rebuttal from a radio CEO, it appears Jeff Smulyan has had enough of Mark Ramsey's online ramblings.

Ramsey posted a blog entitled "Radio Rocks My World Strains Credibility." Smulyan reveals some stunning company details about his streaming experience and takes Ramsey to task for a recent blog he posted criticizing the NAB for its recently released 'Radio Rocks Your Phone" campaign. Smulyan says Ramsey "demonstrates a frightening lack of comprehension on this subject" of cell phones.

Here is the Smulyan letter:
Read More.

I've just read another of Mark Ramsey's blogs about FM chips and I decided that it is time for a vigorous response.  When Mark asks, "Does NAB know the magic of streaming already makes radio available to those same devices and does so with features enabled by technology that no FM chip can match?"  I feel compelled to answer for the NAB, and the rest of the radio industry,  so Mark, here goes.

Yes, I know all about streaming. Like thousands of other broadcasters, I've been doing it for nearly two decades.  I don't know if anyone else has made money at it, but we haven't, and I haven't heard of anyone else who has.  At Emmis, we've invested millions of dollars in our interactive ventures because we want to be where our audiences are, but we are also realistic about economics.

Streaming is a one-to-one, interactive medium, which does allow us to do lots of great things, but there is a tremendous cost to that. The best example I can give is to compare streaming with over-the-air transmission. In our Los Angeles station, KPWR, we reach around 2.8 million people a week.  Our annual electric costs from our transmitter are $39,500, a cost that does not rise if we serve one person in Southern California, or all 16 million within the reach of our signal.  If we were to take down our transmitter and reach every person we currently reach through streaming, our cost to disseminate the signal would be nearly $1 million per year!  Is there enough value in making a broadly based entertainment medium a one-to-one medium?  That's the current debate in this country, and I would submit that consumers haven't found that value yet.