Thursday Late Edition

70° - clear at 8:50pm

Good evening from Michigan.

I just read today's post on David Martin's blog - and then read it again. It's a brutal look at our industry - its "talent crisis" - and leadership. A must read. Here.

I normally provide a quick quote from a piece I'm linking to - but found myself wanting to copy and paste Dave's entire post. Its that good of a read.

More great weekend radio. In my inbox this morning was a listener email from Milwaukee's WKLH - announcing a "Storytellers Weekend".

Great tease in the piece: "John Lennon’s denial of drug references on the Dick Cavett Show. Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side” studio tricks. A Doors song that might’ve been called “Hit Me”. It all begins Saturday on KLH’s Storytellers". I can't wait to hear it.

I mentioned before that WKLH is simply a great radio station - and an excellent study for any classic rock programmer.

Nuts & bolts: The fall Arbitron starts September 20th; and I spent a little time this afternoon looking through some old notes.

Likely nothing you haven't heard:

1. As suggested here - find someone you trust to listen to your station -either via airchecks or live on the internet. Get some honest feedback; an outside ear can be helpful.
   


2. Get out of the office for a day and do some critical listening of your own station (and your competitor). You can't do this at work with all the distractions and interruptions. Make sure you have a notepad.
   


3. What about a Selector review? Again by someone you trust - perhaps another PD in your group. Another resource would be an outside Selector consultant such as Keith Hill. Keith spent a couple days in my last cluster - and can quickly see and resolve problem areas and "tune-up" your database to help achieve your goals. Speaking of Selector - try this.
   


4. Freshen up your imaging and promos.
   


5. (And in light of David Martin's post) What have you done to help (direct) your on-air talent?
   

Stuck in the back of my head has been a suggestion I heard years ago: "What 3 things can we do differently to positively impact the upcoming book? Think music, marketing and mornings."