The Dickstein Shapiro conference has been a fixture for those of us in the business of buying, selling, and financing radio stations for something like twenty years, most of that time as the lead-off event at the Radio Show. It is the only event of the year where all 400 industry participants are in the same room at the same time.
The NAB wants to cancel it this year and fold the sessions into the regular show format. I am told that the RAB's Jeff Haley is leading the charge. Big mistake.
For many, the conference is the one NAB event that is relevant. A number of the participants fly in specifically for the event in the morning, take a few meetings in the afternoon, then fly home. The NAB will lose them as Radio Show attendees if the current plans hold.
A number of brokers are so incensed about the NAB's actions that they are considering running their own conference down the street from the NAB's (and would probably invite Dickstein's Lew Paper to run it as he has for the last two decades). At a time when the NAB and RAB are working hard to maintain the Radio Show's relevance, how can they get this one so wrong? If you agree, make your thoughts known to Jeff Haley and your NAB contact.
Those are my thoughts. What are yours?
George
Media Services Group
Bravos, George. Agree with you this is a big mistake. Moreover, it's a tone deaf move considering brokers are one of the last constituents that still attend the fall show. Should, in fact, Jeff Haley be the person responsible for the decision making involved in this patently stupid notion, shame on him. Further, shame on the NAB staff and those serving on the steering committee for allowing Haley to (prospectively) dismantle what has become a important tradition and one of the precious few signature events of the show. Your suggestion to contact RAB and NAB is good counsel.
ReplyDeleteOn Haley, I'm reasonably certain he's not a bad guy. I met him during his first Radio Show. As it happens, that meeting occurred at a cocktail party hosted by a leading media brokerage firm.
It is my suggestion that Haley is miscast. He's just not the right guy. We need a leader ready to embrace the reality of our situation, ready for the Sisyphean labor of leading radio marketing into the 21st century.
Need some cold hard facts in evidence? One need look no further than what Haley has not done on social media, a subject he seems to enjoy talking about. His Twitter account became active immediately before his scheduled appearance at the leading-edge 140 Characters Conference in New York. At this writing, his account (@haleymedia)has no pic, no profile, no link and not one single tweet. It's been that way for a long while. Sorry, Mr Haley, the fish stinks at the head first. As my Texas pals would say, you sir, are "All hat and no cattle."
P.S. This week the President of Russia got on Twitter and he's already embarrassed Haley, (and the RAB), he's not only talking, he's actually tweeting. He's joined the conversation. The one that Haley apparently fails to grasp.