 RAIN 3/24: RAIN Summit West adds another "don't miss" expert: Radio legend Lee Abrams ·Mar 24, 11:05 AM ACCOMPLISHED RADIO VET JOINS PROGRAMMING PANEL IN LAS VEGAS, APRIL 11We’re excited today to announce a major addition to the RAIN Summit West 2011 agenda. Accomplished radio executive and programming expert Lee Abrams (pictured) will join us in Las Vegas on April 11 as part of our panel on Compelling Content.
Abrams’ long history in radio stretches over three decades. He most recently served as the Tribune Company’s Chief Innovation Officer, where he was responsible for helping reinvent scores of TV stations, cable channels and newspapers. Previous to that Abrams was XM’s Chief Programming Officer — and was in fact the satellite radio company’s first employee in 1998. Abrams’ impressive list of achievements also include overseeing the revolutionary Z-Rock format, inventing the Album Rock format as well as numerous other radio formats. In all, he has brought unparalleled ratings and economic success to radio stations in over 400 markets, including 97 of the top 100. This is a rare and exciting opportunity to RAIN Summit West 2011 takes place April 11 in Las Vegas during the NAB Show. It will feature a packed day of panels, research presentations and speakers — including a very special keynote from CBS Radio CEO/president Dan Mason. You can find out more about the Summit here and register to attend here. SLACKER CEO’S SHARES THOUGHTS PANDORA’S AUDIENCE IN NEW RADIO INKThe latest issue of Radio Ink features a cover story on Slacker CEO Jim Cady. The article covers the streaming radio company’s backstory (they were originally going to deliver content via satellites) and why the service is called “Slacker.”
Interestingly, Cady reveals that the “majority of our plays come from one of the 135 professionally curated stations,” not the custom artist-based streams. He also takes a shot at Pandora’s 80 million registered users figure. “Our number is in the 23 to 24 million [range]. That’s a meaningless number because Pandora’s number inclues everybody that’s ever listened to one song on Pandora in the last 10 years.” A more useful figure, in Cady’s opinion, is the number of active users in the last 30 days, of which Slacker boasts 4-5 million. You can read much more in Radio Ink. Subscribe for the magazine here. KATZ 360 HIRES FRASER TO LEAD ATLANTA OFFICEKatz 360 has redeployed its Detroit-based director position to Atlanta to head up sales for the southeast region, and announced the hiring of John Fraser for the job. Fraser was with Katz Media in Atlanta from 1998 to 2003.
Fraser has experience in local Atlanta radio as a senior account executive with Lincoln Financial Media stations, and he spent three years at Google on various online sales channels (audio, video, search, display, and mobile). NEW CHUMBY SPORTS FAR LARGER SCREEN, NEW FEATURESThe nightstand-top Internet widget device/Internet radio appliance known as Chumby is getting an update next month.
The original Chumby device is being replaced by the new Chumby 8, which takes its name from the far-larger 8” touchscreen it now sports (both the original Chumby and the newer Chumby One have 3.5” screens). The new version also has a sleeker, more modern shape (you may remember the original Chumby was basically in a beanbag!), and allows you to manage the content straight from the device, as opposed to the web-interface necessary for the earlier incarnation. Compare the several other significant differences here. Engadget reports Chumby is taking pre-orders now, and has a “hands-on” video here. share: del.icio.us.  Reddit  Digg  Yahoo  Wink  Windows  Google  Newsvine 
CommentCommenting is closed for this article.  Other stories RAIN has upgraded (and moved)! RAIN 9/13: RAIN Summit Chicago takes place today! RAIN 9/12: First Summit in RAIN's hometown takes place tomorrow RAIN 9/9: Summer holidays, "doldrums" impact July Webcast Metrics, but audience up over last year RAIN 9/8: Clear Channel launches new customizable iHeartRadio beta; RAIN goes hands-on RAIN 9/7: Meet more speakers you'll hear at RAIN Summit Chicago in less than a week RAIN 9/6: Clear Channel taps The Echo Nest to take on Pandora RAIN 9/2: RAIN reviews Spotify's radio-like product Artist Radio RAIN 9/1: UK online radio aggregator Radioplayer campaigns b'dcasters to create "all radio" ratings RAIN 8/31: Execs from Merlin, Triton Digital, jacAPPS and more to appear at RAIN Summit Chicago |
hear from one of radio’s legends. He’ll join Eric Johnson from Wolfgang’s Valut, Thomas Chau of 
