More Classic Rock Winter Numbers

27° - clear at 7:33am

Welcome to Wednesday.

Chicago, Part 2: An inside source reveals a bit about Chicago 25-54 numbers. AAA WXRT up and healthy. Classic rock/hits WDRV flat and healthy. Classic/mainstream rock WLUP down and not-so-healthy.

I think it would be fair to say that Emmis has its challenges in the Windy City with not one, but two full class B FMs. Perhaps a contributing factor to WLUP's troubles is Steve Dahl; who successfully moved from afternoons at WCKG to mornings at WJMK (Jack FM). Radio-Info's Tom Taylor repored this morning that Steve debuted #3 M25-54. Wow!

Elsewhere: Congrats to WCSX/Detroit and OM/PD Doug Podell. 12+ numbers released yesterday show the classic rock station rising a full share. Sister WRIF holds steady.

Boston: WZLX up a bit. San Diego: KGB-FM up a few notches too!

Added: Dave Lange writes here about Comedians and Morning Shows. Good read with your morning coffee and Krispy Kreme.

Late Night Update: All Access reports that services for legendary air talent Ron O'Brien - who passed away this past Sunday - will be held Friday Morning at 11am in Pennsylvania.

The services will include a 5-minute video tribute to Big Ron will be webcast at www.wogl.com. The video was produced by "Shotgun" Tom Kelly and Art Voulo, Jr.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

36° - overcast at 11:15am. Snow earlier.

Good Morning from Michigan. Busy week between the day job and house guests. Its all good.

I'm late to the party here on the blog - but earlier this week I was following WLAV/Grand Rapids' Kevin Matthews who made the committment to stay on the air until the Detroit Tigers won a game.

After losing their first six, Matthews vowed to stay on the air until the team won a game. The Tigers finally won a game 36 hours later - and Kevin generated some great buzz and local press. Fred Jacobs describes this more in-depth here.

Classic Rock WLAV is in its second year of carrying the Tiger network along with a sister AM station. Night and weekend games are airing on the Classic Rock station with the remainder on the AM.

Listening this morning: To Bob Stroud on WDRV/Chicago. Tangled Up In Blue from Dylan playing right now. This morning's theme on Rock 'N Roll Roots is "colors".

As usual, its then on to Steve Palec on WKLH/Milwaukee as he features ELO this week on his Rock 'N Roll Roots. I'm reminded again of what an awesome job Steve does with sound bites and production elements.

Edison Media/Arbitron Study The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio's Digital Platforms. Survey says Online listening at an all-time high. Work hours (10a-3p) are the prime hours for online radio. Radio use still beats iPODs/MP3 players/satellite 3-to-1 or more.

Observation: quoting Fred Jacobs from this past December (again): "So how can a medium with this kind of reach be struggling so mightily? Just asking."

Edison/Arbitron study notes HD Radio still has awareness problems. See complete study here.

Back to streaming: Mark Ramsey concludes that "radio is better when its on the radio. Not online". I disagree. Its apparent that at-work online listening is important to the audience. A matter of convenience. Same product but another delivery method.

I do agree with Mark to the extent that radio station should offer more online audio options (in "chunks"), but in addition to their over-the-air streams. Mark's complete piece here.

Great interview: Triple A Radio's Mike Lyons interviews Emmis VP Programming Jimmy Steal on the launch of WXRP/New York. Read here.

No More Remotes

There's nothing much worse than being the talent at a remote broadcast thats destined for failure. I've certainly done a few in my career - and those that failed have done so for any number of reasons.

Some probably shouldn't have been sold to begin with. You ever have that feeling?

I read a quote from someone not so long ago that most remotes are simply bad commercials. Talking with a fellow radio professional last night, he observed that "nobody gives a **** about what jocks look like - and the days of cool broadcast equipment....you know the seven year olds have cooler stuff. Blue Ray game boxes. Like a Shure mixer and a cell phone compare?"

Emmis/Indianapolis has just decided put an end to typical radio remotes and focus on event solutions for clients.

See this flash presentation from Emmis.

That said - remotes remain a major revenue source for most small and medium market radio stations.

Has there discussion at your station about the requirements to make remotes successful. This includes what the station needs to do - and what the client needs to do. Too often remotes are treated too casually and just expected to work without a plan or strategy.

What can turn a remote into an event?

Dave Lange of McVay Media writes about remotes today here. Added: Dave Martin's take on remotes. Scroll down for "In all of art it's the singer not the song" in this post.