By Holland Cooke
Consultant
A week ago, air travel was pretty much an oxymoron. But Southwest got me here just fine, and some hundred thousand other tech buffs are also inbound. Consumer technology is a half-TRILLION-dollar business here in the USA alone. And for those of us in 100-year-old broadcast radio, what’s here is both exciting and humbling.
Media threat assessment
The Daily Mail reports: “BBC could turn OFF its TV and radio channels within a decade.” Its director says they’re “planning for an online-only future beyond 2030.”
“TV” had already morphed into “video” – and “radio” to “audio” – before the pandemic shutdown, which accelerated lots of other trends-already-in-motion.
– Like radio broadcasters, many others are in permanent work-at-home mode, a body blow to “morning drive.” Among conference sessions here: “Metaverse Meets Office Space.”
– As shopping moves from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce, local retailers need local radio more than ever. The shopping malls that haven’t yet closed are being repurposed into “mixed-use retail/residential” and community colleges and healthcare facilities and other second acts.
– So, yuh, I’m here, to learn how new hardware and software are accommodating listeners’ changing media consumption preferences. And I am encouraged to encounter others (too few) from the radio family who are here too.
Among new media I’m eager to see – and get a whiff of – is “AromaPlayer®, the only system capable of adding scent to your videos.” Yes, smellovision.
Who’s hungry?
Increasingly, everyone. With climate change and population growth challenging our future food supply, CES has scheduled presentations on “Reinventing the Food System for a 10 Billion Person Planet” and “Scaling Towards a Trillion Dollar Alternative Protein Industry” and there’s even “Meals on Mars: The Race to Create Food in Space.”
And why should Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have all the fun? There’s a session on “Investing In Space.”
Daily radio updates, help yourself
I’m reporting from CES all week for TALKERS…and for you. I am voicing daily 60-second radio reports for air through Friday 01/06. You can download them night-before at HollandCooke.com. Air as many times on as many stations as you wish. No password, no further permission needed, no paperwork, no national commercial. If you can sell a local sponsorship, keep the money.
Holland Cooke (HollandCooke.com) is the author of “Multiply Your Podcast Subscribers, Without Buying Clicks,” available from Talkers books; and “Spot-On: Commercial Copy Points That Earned The Benjamins,” a FREE download; and the E-book and FREE on-air radio features “Inflation Hacks: Save Those Benjamins.” HC is a consultant working at the intersection of broadcasting and the Internet. Follow him on Twitter @HollandCooke