The three major giants of the recording industry: Universal, Sony, and Warner.
They all own numerous music radio stations to promote the songs of their singers.
The ranking rules of Billboard consist of two parts: record sales and radio airplay.
Radio airplay can be understood as the ultimate base value.
Many singers initially need their companies to pour large sums of money into radio stations—to put it plainly, this is PR (public relations).
Subtext: This is called the operable part.
Singers with many chart-topping singles are invariably "radio darlings."
Typical examples among them are Mariah Carey and Rihanna.
Even for popular singers, record sales data cannot inflate every week like a balloon.
But radio airplay can!
As long as a song is popular enough, the radio data will keep rising.
Record companies will continue to invest heavily in radio stations until their works take the crown on the Billboard Hot 100.
Phil pursed his lips and said, "Man, do you know how much it costs to buy a well-known radio station?"
"The radio giant iHeartMedia spent at least 50 million dollars to buy Z100..."
Leon responded, "I didn't say I wanted to buy that kind of large radio station..."
"This is New York... There are hundreds of radio stations, big and small, just in Brooklyn alone."
Radio is a very wondrous thing in the United States; it has an unimaginably huge user base.
Besides America having the highest per capita car ownership in the world, there are also certain historical reasons for this.
During the Great Depression, the public generally lost confidence in the financial industry and held a pessimistic attitude towards the future.
Under these circumstances, Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the "Fireside Chats" PR campaign.
People could hear the President's voice broadcasting in front of their radios without leaving home.
Later, radio communication became widely used as a popular political PR activity.
Now, about 230 million Americans listen to the radio every week, and the listening ratio is high across every age group.
The advertising revenue of radio stations across the US exceeds 12 billion dollars!
Not only can it handle PR matters, but if managed well, it can also generate passive income.
This was why Leon was interested in the radio business.
He swayed in his swivel chair and continued to say to Phil, "Even the crappiest radio station, like T-Ray's Chester Street Bad Boy dedicated to trash talk, has its own loyal listeners."
Phil shook his head. "That's not worth it."
"Tell me why?"
"You have to consider the daily active listeners... T-Ray's trash radio station might have fewer than 1,000 listeners. What's the point of having such a garbage station?"
The corner of Leon's mouth rose, and he 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 by community units.
Each radio station has its own listener group within its community. Connecting them creates a huge network.
Leon originally thought Phil would applaud his genius business plan, but unexpectedly, the other party laughed out loud directly.
"Man... what are you laughing at?"
"Sorry... haha, I have to say this is the stupidest business plan I've ever heard." It took Phil a while to recover. "Such investment and income are simply not proportional. Every radio station needs its own DJ. Do you know how much that costs?"
"Man, you'd better focus on preparing for the new album."
"Musical matters can be solved with talent, but investment is different. It requires rich experience!"
Saying this, Phil began to show off his life experience again, immersed in the fantasy that he was the next "God of Stocks."
In fact, Leon had long considered the problems he mentioned.
After some explanation, Phil finally couldn't laugh anymore.
According to Leon's vision of connecting multiple community radio stations into a network, there must be a central point in this web.
That is, a radio station with the highest visibility and the most active listeners!
When the time was ripe, he would cancel the frequencies of those garbage radio stations and gather all their original listeners into this central radio station.
Hearing this, Phil more or less understood Leon's entire business plan and muttered to himself, "Those soft drink giants constantly acquire new brands appearing on the market and then shelve them... Is this what you mean?"
Snap—
Leon snapped his fingers. "Exactly, that's it!"
Soft drink giants do not hesitate to spend heavily to acquire emerging competitors in the same track on the market, but immediately shelve them after the acquisition is completed.
From the consumer's point of view, isn't this purely loss-making, brain-dead behavior?
Actually, what those giants want is not the emerging brands, but the market share!
With opponents gone, isn't the position of the track leader impregnable?
Leon called Aisha to the office and conveyed the idea of acquiring community radio stations.
The acquisition scope was locked in settlements like the Black neighborhood of Brownsville, the Bronx, and Queens.
Most of these half-dead radio stations were established by rappers like Davis who couldn't squeeze into the entertainment circle, possessing nothing but some simple broadcasting equipment.
Acquiring such radio stations wouldn't cost much money.
Except for the central radio station. According to Leon's vision, this central radio station must have at least 50,000 active listeners. There were only a handful of community radio stations in all of New York that could meet this condition.
In a long list of radio stations, Leon quickly found a highlight.
Bronx - Lion's Den Radio.
This radio station had a long history, established in the early 90s.
At that time, it was a station dedicated to playing gangsta rap music and mediating gang grudges.
In late 1994, rap king Tupac was shot for the first time, hit by five bullets but luckily survived.
Biggie had even come to a podcast show on Lion's Den Radio to mock him to his face, claiming he hoped the gunman would aim for the head next time.
This incident caused an uproar at the time and also brought Lion's Den Radio's momentum to its peak.
Now, it was a full-category music radio station, but still focused mainly on rap music.
Leon estimated that the conservative cost of acquiring such a radio station would be at least $300,000, and this was based on the premise that the owner, DJ "Wizard" Marcus, was willing to sell.
In addition, he repeatedly expressed his idea of acquiring T-Ray's Chester Street Bad Boy radio station and hoped Phil could go talk to George.
Leon patiently deployed his PUA tactics: "Don't overcomplicate things. In this era, no one hates money, and those nggas are no exception."
"Besides, you've known George for 20 years. As long as you go there with enough sincerity and banknotes, nothing will happen."
Regarding this, Phil's thought was: I'm only 55, the second half of my life has just begun...
After explaining the entire business plan regarding acquiring radio stations, Leon returned to his residence on Henry Street.
After carefully guiding Bonnie through half an hour of "Naked Yoga," he sat in front of the floor-to-ceiling window quietly watching the night view of the East River.
He took a bottle of Dalmore whiskey from the cabinet, unknowingly becoming tipsy against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline.
When an unfamiliar melody rang in his mind, he saw an image of a sexy and cute Latina girl swaying her body.
Inspiration was about to refresh again.