Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

60° - clear at 11:52am

Good Morning from Mid-Michigan. Bike ride with my 9-year old this morning brought us down the road to Okemos High School (aka "The Taj Mahal" by locals; its very nice).

Listening. To my usual Sunday Morning lineup. Stroud on Chicago's WDRV featuring the music of Badfinger this morning. One of all-time fav bands; both the Apple and Warner years.

Bob Stroud also seeking votes for the next volume of his Rock 'N Roll Roots CD (it will be number 10). See here.

Post bike ride: Steve Palec on Milwaukee's WKLH. A good dose of Linda Ronstadt this morning as "The Root Salute". Ronstadt covering Tom Petty's "The Waiting" was wonderful! Thanks Steve.

The ROI. David Martin discusses the Radio 2020 initiative from the NAB, RAB and HD Radio Alliance...and calls for goals, scorecards and accountability.

This goes beyond simple "feel good" reaction (or otherwise) from inside the industry. Read here.

My take: Dave is right on. Unless there's measureable results, you'd never know if its time, effort and money well spent or otherwise wasted. And where to next. Promoting "radio" is best targeted at the ad community. For listeners, its all about brands and programming.

Think "users". Mark Ramsey points us to Inside Radio and the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb:

"radio needs to stop thinking of its cume as “listeners” and consider them to be “users.” He says “Listeners are engaged only when the radio is on. Radio users connect with you in other ways.”"

Mark adds additional comments here.

Records. Lee Arnold gives us the trailer of a forthcoming film on the death of the independent record store. Places where I spent much of my youth exploring. See here.

Amazingly, I was just told this past week that a "record store" just opened in nearby East Lansing.

Jaye Albright's open letter. To a Los Angeles broadcaster. Jay notes an air personality leaving this broadcaster's station to move to Huntsville, Alabama (apparently to make more money). Read here.

Jaye also points us to Detroit's WYCD...doing something radio does best. Here.

Would the RIAA do this? Author Seth Godin encourages readers to loan a copy of his book "The Dip" to others. "If I could double the number of people who read the book, it would be pretty cool."

Seth writes here.

Speaking of. Driving home Thursday afternoon I heard a song on MSU's student run and programmed radio station. And when I got home went online and bought the MP3 download. Isn't that the way its suppose to be? Radio remains the record industry's biggest promotional resource.

Howard Who? While the latest Arbitron satellite listening report shows him king of satellite radio, has the mainstream forgotten him?

Friday Night on Letterman - NPR's Ira Glass revealed that he was a major fan of Howard Stern. Said it twice. No studio audience reaction...no applause, nothing - although Ira (and Dave) appeared to be waiting for it. As if they didn't know the name anymore. Or cared. Just an observation.

Cindy Gatziolis. Don't know the name? Doesn't matter. Cindy share some great radio stories this week in Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight. Think Larry Lujack. Jonathan Brandmeier. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.