Do we even have one?

Consolidated Radio needs a leader. A leader like Bob Iger at Disney.

Despite the continuing ego-stroking of radio people like Bob Pittman and the Dickeys, we don’t have anyone like Iger in our business.

Not even close.

Because Iger is thinking long-term, and the so-called leaders of our largest consolidated companies aren’t thinking beyond the end of the week, unless it’s about their own compensation and stock options.

Disney owns ESPN and Iger continues to invest in the content that makes ESPN absolutely necessary in many American homes. Here’s Iger’s description:

[When] “you think ESPN, you have to think about the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the best package available on College Football, College Football Championships, College Basketball, events like Wimbledon and U.S. Open et cetera.”

If you ask 1000 random Americans, ESPN is sports, the only channel sports-lovers really need.

Even with 4 dedicated ESPN channels now, they are constantly creating more content than we can watch, and they’re paying more for that content too.

Why would they do that?

Why would Iger want more expensive content when it is virtually impossible to watch what’s already being broadcast?

“Those new deals all provide for more programming, more opportunity for content on digital platforms, which will enable us to increase consumption on digital platforms and grow that business even more and generally more flexibility in terms of how we distribute this product. So the NBA’s a great example. You can have a huge increase in essentially inventory on ESPN across its platforms. So while there is definitely increasing costs, there is a huge increase in terms of opportunity as well to reach more people, to serve advertisers more effectively and to grow our digital platforms.”

It’s the Netflix model. Even though we can only watch one movie at a time, a million individual viewers can watch a million different movies. It’s like having a million separate movie channels.

And even so, Netflix is spending a fortune to create unique, proprietary content as well. It wants to be part of your viewing decision every day. It wants to be impossible for you to ignore.

So, what’s Radio’s plan for future growth? What brilliant, unique content is consolidated radio creating? How are our leaders investing for our future?

Anyone?