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FYI

Radio’s Big Challenge Finds An Answer

“Straight up, the biggest threat to radio is myopic leadership. We're in a period of remarkable growth and opportunity, yet so many leaders believe their job is to defend "’radio.’”

Radio’s Big Challenge Finds An Answer

By External Source

When you are out talking to radio people, what advice do you give them about how to build their businesses? What success tips do you offer?


They need to be able to see two things: First, a clear vision for the "new" industry that they would create. That vision involves being part of a bigger business than terrestrial radio. It involves morphing into a marketing powerhouse in which radio is only one part of the offering.

Second, they need to see the steps that should be taken today. Just what steps depends on where the station is at the moment.  If they're not selling marketing services--especially digital services--they should get started. If they're not thinking about buying a local newspaper or starting a direct mail initiative in their market, they should.  If they haven't set up a quasi-TV studio, they should.

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You get the picture. These are all steps toward the vision of being the go-to marketing company in their markets.  If they're successful at that, they'll capture business from every flat-footed newspaper, TV, Yellow Pages, direct mail, and radio rep in their markets. – Consultancy firm CEO Gordon Borrell (Borrell & Associates), Radio's Big Challenge: Finding Its Way Forward In This New Digital World, as quoted in a recent Forbes feature.

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Owen Riegling
Conner Scheffleur / Courtesy Big Loud

Owen Riegling

Country

Owen Riegling Is Billboard’s Up-and-Coming Country Artist of the Month for April 2026

Meet Owen Riegling, Billboard's Up-and-Coming Country Artist of the Month for April 2026. Here's why the rising country act is breaking through.

This year, Canadian country artist Owen Riegling is on the road with a packed schedule of festival dates as well as his own headlining shows, supporting his new album In The Feeling, which released April 17 via Big Loud Records in partnership with Universal Music Canada.

“I loved writing songs, but it seemed more practical to be a producer,” Riegling tells Billboard. “I learned how to record music, mix music, proper mic technique, setting up drums. I was about to send my resume to a bunch of studios in Toronto, then COVID hit and all the studios closed. So that changed the trajectory of my life. I started making more music and playing some shows. I worked for maybe a year at an insurance company while I was playing shows when I got the chance to play the emerging artist competition at the Boots and Hearts Festival in Canada [in 2022]. I remember telling my boss I had this opportunity and I needed to take the next week off to prep for it. We ended up winning the contest and started talking with Universal and all these things started happening,” he recalls. “I literally never went back to that job.”

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