More KZPS

I intended to save this for Wednesday; but there's lots of tongues a waggin'.....

Me: Its sad to see a heritage classic rock station disappear. I can only speculate the reasons and the events that led to the decision.

That said - I listened to the new Lone Star 92.5 for about an hour yesterday and found it refreshing; The music, overall presentation - and the commercial policy were fantastic. Only time will tell whether the format has legs - and if the ad community will support this new paradigm. I hope so.

Fred Jacobs comments more this morning here about the change in Dallas - and suggests that the station's new commercial policy might have been better tested with the prior classic rock format.

Edison Media Research's Sean Ross gives the new "Lone Star 92.5" a first listen here. Sean notes that the music is mostly grounded in......classic rock.

We noted the words of McVay Media's Dave Lange yesterday; but here they are again.

Whats your take? Click to listen to Lone Star 92.5.

Blog Update: Sound Bites

A slight change as this blog evolves...

Classic rock artist appearances on broadcast TV have been pretty scarce as of late; and as a result I'm dropping the weekly "Sound Bites" post.

We'll continue to point artist appearances out as we see them - but within other posts for the present time. With summer tours coming up, I'm certain this will change again. Thanks.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Its been a great week.

Classic Rock and Baseball. Sunday is opening day for the 2007 season of Major League Baseball. This season, Grand Rapids' classic rock WLAV will air Detroit Tiger night and weekend games.

I'm sure WLAV is hoping the Tigers can repeat the success they had in 2006. Sports isn't foreign to classic rock; many carry the NFL. Anyone else with baseball?

Next Thursday is opening day for our local minor-league Lansing Lugnuts. Best value for the money in our family. Minor league baseball understands that its the experience, not just the game. My two boys (8 & 11) love it!

Rush On Tour. Been receiving lots of email blasts from classic rock stations coast-to-coast with pre-sale info and on-air ticket giveaways. Check out the tour schedule here. Rush will have a new CD "Snakes and Arrows" on May 1st.

Sound Bites: Catch ZZ Top on "King Of The Hill" - Fox Television Sunday Night. TiVo or roll tape for imaging drops.

A happy ending out of Santa Fe (a market where I spent seven years in the late 70s/early 80s). The story: corporation sells local radio station to religious broadcaster. Employees and friends of the station rally and successfully save "their" station. Read about KBAC here.

Failure To Launch. Is it me - or are we seeing a lot more format launch failures in the last few years as compared to the past? Not too many years ago, failure to sustain and grow seemed to be an periodic issue with some start-ups. You'd see a great launch with lots of buzz and excitement - but for any number of reasons - after a book or two - the station would become stagnant.

Of course the great ones were fed, nourished - and continued to grow into legends.

But these days there seems to be a epidemic of launch failures. DOA. We likely would come up with the same list of reasons. Edison Media Research's Sean Ross just wrote a piece on this topic here. I guess its not just me.

Have a good weekend. More here Sunday.

Kristi Lee Rocks

This past Friday Night, Bob & Tom affiliate KDAG/Farmington, NM hosted a leg of the Bob & Tom All-Star Comedy Tour - with comedians Bob Zany, Tim Wilson, Jimmy Dore and Donnie Baker; plus Bob & Tom Network personality Kristi Lee.

Kristi's ties with KDAG ("Big Dog 96.9") extend beyond the Bob & Tom Show. Aside from the network apprearance each morning, Kristi is also a KDAG on-air personality with her own airshift from 1 to 3pm each weekday - voice-tracked from Bob & Tom flagship WFBQ/Indianapolis.

This comedy tour stop sold out the week prior. With that, KDAG Program Director Randy Burton described the energy level at the show "insane" with comedians Zany, Wilson and Dore - but that the house went totally nuts when Kristi Lee finally hit the stage (arriving mid-show due to travel delays). And she didn't slow down afterwards; Randy adds that she made her way around the venue to visit with listeners; chatting "like she's known them all her life".

Afterwards the KDAG crew - including Kristi hung out with listeners at one local watering hole "until it shut down with a full house at midnight" (go figure); and then onto another club until closing. Hangin' with listeners on their turf. How cool.

Kristi may be syndicated and voice-tracked into the market - but she's every part a personality on that radio station as far as KDAG's listeners are concerned. Wonder how many told someone else the next morning (and at work today) that they hung out with Kristi and the rest of the KDAG airstaff? Kristi rocks.

And if you're wondering how Kristi Lee wound up voice-tracking a daily airshift on KDAG - it started as a "what if" discussion between PD Randy and Kristi on a prior Comedy Tour stop in town.

Kristi on stage Friday Night:
More photos here.

Sidenote: Yours truly put KDAG on the air back in 1994; Randy is only the second Program Director of the station in 13 years - and I'm very proud of the stations continued success. That explains the LONG post.