America's Top Player

Chapter 70 Radio Business
The three giants of the record industry are Universal, Sony and Warner.

They all own a large number of music radio stations to promote their singers.

Billboard's rankings are based on two components: album sales and radio hits.

The radio station can be understood as the final base value.

Many singers need their companies to spend a large sum of money on radio stations at the beginning, which is simply public relations.

Subtext: This is called the actionable part.

There is no singer who is not a "Radio Flower" with many hit singles.

Typical examples include Mariah Carey and Rihanna.

Even for popular singers, record sales data cannot inflate every week like blowing up a balloon.

But the radio station does!

As long as a song is popular enough, the radio data will continue to rise.

Record companies will continue to invest heavily in radio until their works hit the top of the Billboard singles chart.

Phil curled his lips and said, "Man, do you know how much it costs to buy a well-known radio station?"

"Radio giant iheart Media paid at least $100 million for Z5000 radio station."

Li Ang responded: "I didn't say I wanted to buy that big radio station."

"This is New York. There are hundreds of radio stations, big and small, in Brooklyn alone."

Radio is a wonderful thing in the United States, with an unimaginably large user base.

In addition to the fact that America has the highest per capita car ownership in the world, there are certain historical reasons for this.

During the Great Depression, people generally lost confidence in the financial industry and became pessimistic about the future.

In this situation, Roosevelt launched the "fireside chat" public relations campaign.

People can listen to the president's address on the radio without leaving their homes.

Later, radio communication became a popular political public relations activity and was widely used.

Approximately 2.3 million Americans now listen to radio each week, with high rates across every age group.

Advertising revenue for radio stations across the United States exceeds $120 billion!
Not only can you handle public relations affairs, but you can also make money if you manage well
That's why Li Ang is interested in the radio business.

He rocked his swivel chair towards Phil and continued, "Even the crappiest radio stations, like T-Ray's trash-talking show about the Chester Street bad boys, have their own loyal listeners."

Phil shook his head. "It's not worth it."

"Tell me why?"

"You have to consider the issue of daily active listeners. T-RAY's garbage radio station probably has less than 1000 listeners. What's the point of having such a garbage radio station?"

Li Ang raised the corner of his mouth and tapped the table with his finger, "Quantity changes quality!"

"You mean buying multiple radio stations at once and connecting them like a grid?"

Community radio, as the name suggests, is divided into cells based on communities.

Each radio station has its own audience in its own community, and when connected together they form a huge network.

Li Ang originally thought that Phil would applaud his brilliant business plan, but he didn't expect the other party to laugh out loud.

"Dude. What are you laughing at?"

"Sorry. Haha. I have to say this is the stupidest business plan I've ever heard of." It took Phil a while to recover. "Such investment and income are not proportional at all. Every radio station must have its own DJ. Do you know how much that costs?"

"Dude, you should just focus on preparing for your new album."

"Things in music can be solved with talent, but investing is different. It requires rich experience!" As he said this, Phil began to show off his life experience again, immersed in the fantasy that he was the next "stock god".

In fact, Li Ang had already considered the issues he mentioned.

After some explanation, Phil finally stopped laughing.

According to Li Ang's idea of connecting multiple community radio stations into a network, there must be a central point in this network.

That is the radio station with the highest reputation and the largest number of active listeners!

When the time is right, the frequencies of those junk radio stations will be cancelled and all their original listeners will be recruited to this central radio station.

Hearing this, Phil almost understood Leon's entire business plan and muttered to himself, "Those soft drink giants keep acquiring new brands that appear on the market and then shelving them. Is this what you mean?"

Snapped--

Li Ang snapped his fingers and said, "That's right!"

Soft drink giants are willing to spend huge sums of money to acquire emerging competitors in the same market, but they immediately shelve them after the acquisition is completed.

From the perspective of consumers, isn’t this a completely idiotic act that results in a loss of money?

In fact, what those giants want is not emerging brands, but market share!

Now that all the rivals have disappeared, isn’t the position of the track leader as secure as a rock?
Li Ang called Aisha to his office and conveyed his idea of acquiring the community radio station.

The acquisitions were targeted at Black neighborhoods like Brownsville, the Bronx, and Queens.

Most of these half-dead radio stations were founded by rappers like Davis who couldn't break into the entertainment industry and had nothing but some simple broadcasting equipment.

It wouldn't cost much to acquire a radio station like this.

But the central radio station is an exception. According to Leon's idea, this central radio station must have at least 50,000 active listeners. There are only a handful of community radio stations in New York that meet this condition.

In a long list of radio stations, Li Ang quickly found the highlight.

Bronx-Lions Den Radio.

This radio station has a long history and was established in the early 90s.

At that time, it was a radio station that specialized in playing gang rap music and mediating gang feuds.

At the end of 1994, rap king Tupac was shot for the first time. He was shot five times but luckily survived.

BIG also came to a podcast program on Lion's Den Radio to mock him in person, and said that he hoped the Gunner would shoot accurately at the head next time.

This incident caused a huge uproar at the time and brought Lion's Nest Radio's popularity to its peak.

Now, it is a full-category music station, but it still focuses on rap music.

Li Ang estimated that the conservative cost of acquiring such a radio station would be $30, and this was based on the premise that the radio station owner, DJ "Wizard" Marcus, was willing to sell.

In addition, he repeatedly expressed his desire to acquire T-ray Chester Bad Boy Radio and hoped that Phil could talk to George.

Li Ang patiently used his PUA skills, "Don't overthink things. In this day and age, no one can resist money, and those guys are no exception."

"Besides, you and George have known each other for 20 years. As long as you go there with enough sincerity and money, nothing will happen."

Phil's thoughts on this are: I'm only 55, and the second half of my life has just begun.
After explaining his entire business plan for acquiring the radio station, Leon returned to his residence on Henry Street.

After carefully guiding Bonnie to do "nude yoga" for half an hour, he sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and quietly looked at the night view of the East River.

He pulled a bottle of Dalmore whiskey from the liquor cabinet and unknowingly became tipsy against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline.

When an unfamiliar melody sounded in his mind, he saw the image of a sexy and lovely Latin girl twisting her body.

Inspiration is about to be refreshed again.

(End of this chapter)