Wednesday Blogs

56° - clear at 8:35pm

Late Wednesday post. A busy day here with an opportunity to learn some music research tools as part of my continuing education.

From my blogosphere:

Classic Rock "Jacked". Edison Media's Sean Ross notes some shifts toward classic rock by some Jack-FM and Bob-FM outlets. Sean writes:

"For all of the format's variety image, we've already asserted that they were, at the core, Classic Rock formats for those who grew up in the late '70s/'80s and have poppier sensibilities." Read here.

CGM. Fred Jacobs blogs on CGM promotions - sharing some tips from Ben McConnell and Shahi Ghanem - accompanied by his own comments.

A great read here.


"We can think we know what the listener wants, but you’ll only know when you start talking with them." - Consultant Alan Mason writing here.

In the news:

Bruce Springsteen: Streetpulse - via All Access reports the new CD #1 based on Tuesday sales. Very nice Boss!


Bill Figenshu. Congrats. Just announced new job as President/Broadcast Operations & Development for Peak Broadcasting - a relatively new company with stations in Fresno & Boise.

I don't know Fig - but I know his background and reputation. A one-time "progressive rock" jock. Brilliant Programmer. Later ran Viacom Radio. His resume here.

In comments posted today both on All Access and (in-depth) on Mark Ramsey's Hear 2.0 - Fig offered these thoughts post-NAB:

"The leaders of radio companies are looking very tired. Seven years of creating no value for their stockholders and investors is taking the toll. Other than DAN MASON, radio companies need to put operators in charge again. It will be a hard decision for current CEOs to give up some power, but until creative people start to run radio companies again, with a vision beyond sales and revenue, there will be more of the same. Revenue is important, but we are being challenged creatively, and have not responded effectively."

"Radio is good at serving it’s communities every day. Radio is bad at positioning itself. Radio people are great at positioning their stations, bad at positioning themselves."

"The press has created stars out of financial operators. We have made company leaders personalities, who now believe they can operate radio from the budget line, not the content line. Senior executives with creative content ideas, on-air and online, will be the trend in 2008. Not bankers."

"Radio must start paying attention to trends of young people. On-line and on-air, they are telling us about song repetition, format diversity and lack of local content. We talk about it, but we don’t go far enough. The content must get better. In 2008 and beyond, it will be about quality, not quantity."

Let's hope. And thanks Fig.

Condolences: To family and friends of well-known air talent Tawn Mastrey - who passed away yesterday. Click here.

I recall Tawn's work from radio syndication (Westwood One) and MTV. Her resume includes KNAC, Pirate Radio/LA, KSJO, Sirius Satellite and others.