When an old-media celebrity makes a “Gee Whiz!” recommendation of an online service that’s been around for nearly six years, you know that the service is inching into the mainstream. That’s what makes Bill O’Reilly’s video endorsement of Pandora more than just amusing for it’s “Look what I found!” tone, but also significant.
The unexpected love for Pandora comes from O’Reilly’s “Tip of the Day” feature, and is essentially a 45-second commercial In it, the well-known media host criticizes radio for playing three bad songs for every good one — a wildly subjective evaluation, but, after all, the man’s main product is personal opinion. What bothered us is that he categorized The Beach Boys as good, and the iconic 1960’s song “Hang On Sloopy” as bad. Hey! We had to go listen to “Sloopy” a few times to remind us what a great classic it is.
Anyway, the question is this: How many of O’Reilly’s half-million older-demo audience will join Pandora’s 76-million active users?
Congratulations to Mr. O’Reilly. It’s great to guys younger than me catch on to not just a trend…but a way of life. I’m already into FratMusic and have into 8Tracks…for a while. I’m a little older than Bill. My 79th birthday is next week.
My first radio Mr. O’Reilly was a crystal set!