WCSX: Celebrating The Home Town Champs

63° - light rain at 7:38am

Good Morning from Mid-Michigan.

Red Wings Win! WCSX/Detroit offers up a great LOCAL piece on their website - celebrating the NHL Stanley Cup win by their local heros.

Another great example of relating to the local community. Check out the spread here.

Caught: Last night (by accident), CNBC's "The Business of Innovation" - and Mel Karmazin. Video clip here. Mel just one segment of a great hour; even IBM's commercials were wonderful (their spotlight on Harley-Davidson was classic). IBM Harley clip here (on right menu).

Mel's segment focused on the Sirius satellite effort to put video in cars.

While watching, I couldn't help recalling in my mind that Mel wanted nothing to do with one innovation: internet streaming during his days running CBS/Infinity. Props to Harve Alan for posting the video clip.

Dave Martin: A great post on management well worth your time this morning. Here.

Review: As noted here Sunday, our area here in the midwest suffered severe weather three nights in a row...Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I was in a casual conversation yesterday about the efforts of our local broadcasters with storm coverage. The television stations were staffed and generally got a A.

Radio - with one or two exceptions - not so good. While all passed on the EAS alerts to their audience, few did anything else as they were on auto-pilot - the voice-tracked on-air voices unable to relate. Total disconnect. Another missed opportunity at a time when the audience neded you the most; sending the message that "you can't count on us."

More later as the day permits.

No Foolin'

52° - light rain at 6:46am

Good Morning from Okemos

More on "shareholder value". Consultant Alan Mason quotes Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (from the new issue of Time Magazine):

“We want to have the courage to do the things that support the core purpose and the reason for being and not veer off and get caught up in chasing revenue, because long-term value for the shareholder can only be achieved if you create long-term value for the customer and your people."

I couldn't agree more and wrote something similar here last week.

Alan then asks the question for the radio industry:

"Where’s Our Howard Schultz?". Why does it seem so many other business are taking notice of focusing on the brand, but not radio? Doesn’t any of the leadership of the mega-groups understand the comparison with radio?"

Read Alan Mason here.

Use Your Gut. Dave Lange:

"No doubt you've got a personality, a promotion idea, a unique feature or a stunt that turned into a success without research or even the thought of it. We used to have more of these moments in Radio, but the 'prove it before you commit' moment has clearly been holding us back for a number of years. In may cases you can hear stations that haven't had a good idea since two for Tuesday and others that have flamed out with way too many ideas."

Dave writes about the balance of art & science; the need for a plan; leaving room for improv; and the need to be patient. And more. Read here.

Have a great Tuesday.

Wednesday Blogs

+9° - light snow/wind at 7:23am

Snow day for local schools here today. Last night's rain turned to ice covered by snow. This kids are happy - but its a mess for my commute downtown.

Thinkin' local again. Fred Jacobs sums it all up:

"As WiMax makes it way into cars, and AM/FM Radio is forced to compete against everything else on the Internet, our brands and local identity will be our lifeblood."

"Of course, that's assuming we still have viable brands, strong personalities, and a local presence left. Most broadcasters have worked their entire lives to build great radio stations, but in the past decade, many heritage call letters have eroded into mere shadows of their former selves. No longer do people define themselves by the radio station they listen to, hence the lack of bumper stickers on Camrys and Malibus."

"So, what's it going to be? Slash expenses, shut up, and save money. Or go against the tide of fear and panic, and rebuild great stations, grow and nurture personalities, build viable roots into the local community, and invest in radio's future."

Read Fred's complete piece "Crossroads" - here.

Lots of chatter in the blogosphere about the budget situation at Clear Channel.

Its an unfortunate situation that challenges market manager and programmers to continue to perform with even more limited resources. Time to get creative. Using the resources available to their fullest.

I'm certain we'll see some of radio's brightest and best continue to win in a less-than-ideal environment. The biggest task at hand: keeping staff motivated.

Reminder: As we posted late last night, Coleman Insights offering a free webinar today at 10am and 1pm eastern. "The DNA of PPM" looks to provide some great insights for programmers - both in PPM and diary markets.

Registration and login details here.

Added: Listened more than watched Jon Coleman's presentation this morning. Terrific insights! Complete presentation available after 5pm tonight on the Coleman Insights website.

Lee Abrams. Once again Lee offers some great insights in his weekly blog post:

"..if you are supposed to provide service, provide it-- or people will DIY." "Companies forget that in today’s environment, it’s easier and easier to DIY if you aren’t at the absolute top of your game."

(DIY: do it yourself - as in consumers using iPODS and other alternative media). Lee's complete post here.