Labor Day Weekend & Coaching Resources

60° - sunny at 8:15am

Conversation at coffee this morning - My wife: "That's yesterdays newspaper". Me: "But it says Monday".

First day of the school year for my two boys - ages 8 & 12. The house is strangely quiet.

Labor Day Weekend. I recall writing after the Memorial Day Weekend and what impact classic rock staples like a "Top 500 Countdown" and "A to Z" still have with the audience.

I noticed (again) the hits this blog received over the weekend - through the search engines with listeners looking for various station Top 500 and A to Z lists - among other programming. This site gets the pings due to past writings on those topics.

Jerry Del Colliano writes here about oldies KOOL-FM in Phoenix running the Bill Drake History of Rock & Roll noting: "Retail establishments that don't play music were turning up the History. And when I questioned the workers they happily knew what it was and what station was playing it."

More: "Rerun quality programming again and again. No one can hear it all and even if they do, it's still great the second and third time or in the case of The History of Rock and Roll -- the 30 plus years later. I programmed the History back in Philadelphia and it worked then as now."

Specials - like a Top 500 or "A to Z" is a powerful tool. Some PDs might think the features are old and tired - but apparently nobody's told the audience.

Congrats to old Citadel friend Kris Abrams - now progamming KOOL-FM for CBS. When PPM hits Phoenix, look for KOOL to be even hotter.

Talent coaching resources. There's a few radio talent consultants offering free talent tips online.

Tommy Kramer - based in Dallas - writes weekly here (and has all his previous columns archived). A good read every week.

Lorna Ozmon - who calls Arizona home - has a great website offering terrific content here. I've had an opportunity to work with her briefly with a morning show; she provides a great outside POV and sound advice.

Lorna and I go back many (many) years ago together to a little radio station in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

Seth Godin on Labor Day: "I'm working today. In fact, if I'm conscious, I'm working. That's largely because it doesn't seem like 'work' today. I'd write this blog even if no one read it." I resemble that remark.

Bruce Springsteen. VH-1 has been touting a premiere for this "Radio Nowhere" video coming up on Thursday - but Amazon beats them to it. See the new video here.