Fall Book Promos: President or VP?

70° - overcast at 9:09am

Good Morning and Happy Friday from Michigan.

Fall book begins in less than a week. Starting to see some promotional activity around the country....I'm certain more stations will roll out there first phase plans early next week. Here's what I've seen so far:

Buffalo's WGRF is giving its listeners an opportunity to become the "President of 97 Rock". The station used imagination and resources to put together a great prize package that looks like a modest cash outlay. See here.

WAXQ/New York is offering listeners a chance to become the "VP of Rock"...in a twist of the Workforce Payroll promo. Also adds a CGM element to the mix as listeners get to make their favorite classic rock song part of the contest. See the web execution here.

Very cool in Detroit: WCSX is giving its younger listeners a chance to go to the "School of Rock" with a song-of-the-day promotion. Plus win an autographed guitar. Another high-impact/low-cost promo! More here.

KGB/San Diego and its Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw morning show (one of the best, IMHO) is offering listeners $1000 a day in September. Here.

With AC/DC hitting the road to support their new release, there's opportunities for lots of station promos and tie-ins this fall. Have seen a few already around the country. WBLM/Portland is one of 'em - offering listeners a chance to attend a "secret dress rehearsal show". Here.
AC/DC tour dates

More promos as I see 'em!

More Fun Stuff

Another online video from WBLM/Portland....



See their sales department cry when more commercial free hours were announced here. Very nice guys!

YouTube is free too - and they eat the bandwidth!

I've Seen This Look Before....

64° - scattered clouds at 10:30am

From WBLM/Portland. More commercial-free hours.

Witness the excitement on the faces of the station's sales staff:
Funny stuff; and a clever way to get your sales staff to "buy in".....

Big Game Weekend

23° - light snow at 7:53am. Another snow day with schools closed here.
Sunday is the "Big Game" - and in addition to a great matchup - half-time will feature Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers. An event ripe for classic rock stations.

With a local team in the game, Clear Channel's WAXQ/New York is doing an incredible job on the air and on the web. Check out their special Super Bowl website here. Tons of great content!

The station also featuring ticket giveaways this weekend for the Tom Petty tour that begins in May.

WCSX/Detroit inviting listeners roll their own with a "Homemade Super Block Party Weekend".

And during the weekend WCSX offering listeners a chance to pick up Tom Petty tix.

PD John Hager never disappoints - and this weekend his WGRF/Buffalo welcomes Bills punter Brian Moorman and Hall of Fame Quarterback Jim Kelly as guest DJs. Very cool.

WGRF has Petty tix too! It's a "Punt, Pass & Pettty" Weekend on 97 Rock.

In Milwaukee, WKLH celebrates Sunday with Alice Cooper ("The Cooper Bowl") - and its own half-time with a Tom Petty radio concert.

WBLM/Portland is running a "Super Rock Bowl" weekend - pitting classic rock artists against each other. Very nice way to keep the audience involved all weekend. KLPX/Tucson also running "The Super Bowl of Rock & Roll".

More here later today. Long day...more tomorrow.

Winter Book Programming

37° - overcast at 11:50pm

Its early yet - but here's a few things spotted for the winter book that kicks off next Thursday:

Commercial-Free Hours. WBLM/Portland with 4 hours per day spot-free. 2 hours starting at 8:30am and kicks off another two at 3:30pm.

It also says WBLM's sales staff isn't likely filling up the log with typical bargain basement first-quarter spot rates; allowing programming take advantage of light spot loads.

Its "JanYOUary" on Buffalo's WGRF - with listeners truly involved programming the station. In addition to special weekends - 97 Rock is featuing 15 song listener-suggested sets of music (97 Rock Listener "You-Sets"). Check out here.

A to Z. Can't go wrong with it during a book. KGON/Portland kicks it off on January 28th. KGON soliciting titles from listeners and teasing the kickoff on the KGON website here.

I'll pass along more as I see 'em!

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

41° and mostly clear at 11:50am.

This weekend: WBLM/Portland is doing a Beatles A to Z. Adding to the cool is a Beatles "almost A to Z" video collection on WBLM's website. Another idea worth stealing. Check it out here.

Thanksgiving. Finding out what classic rock stations are doing for Thanksgiving programming coming up this week.

In San Jose: KUFX is doing their Beatles A to Z (with selected solo works) - it kicks off Wednesday at noon. Thursday at noon the station will interrupt the A to Z for Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant".

KSLX/Phoenix is putting Arlo's Alice into heavy rotation on Thanksgiving Day...playing it at 8am, noon, 5pm and again at 8pm. The station also kicks off Classic Rock Z to A on Monday, November 26th.

In Buffalo - WGRF is playing Arlo's Alice twice on Thursday; then starting Friday Morning at 6, its 24 hours of nothing but Beatles! 97 Rock also airing the Led Zep syndicated Mothership special.

WKLH/Milwaukee is serving Arlo's Alice once on Thanksgiving Eve - and again Thanksgiving Morning; plus all day Thursday its "classic album sides".

WKLH also running two Led Zeppelin specials - The Mothership and Song Remains The Same.

More Thanksgiving specials to come.

Arguing Arbitron. A follow-up to what we wrote here. WSRT/Traverse City GM Charlie Ferguson comments on Arbitron's response over his complaints on the sampling and recruitment efforts in his market.

"Mr. Mocarsky's statement that 'the sampling rate is so high in Traverse City' is truly laughable. When three diaries were thrown out and the book reissued in Traverse City, WSRT/WSRJ went from a .6 rating in Persons 12+ to a .4 rating -- a drop of 33%! In our Female target demos, the ratings dropped over 21%."

"When ratings-driven revenue accounts for 40 to 45% of a stations total sales, the value of three little diaries in our size market is overwhelming. The remarkable honesty of the majority of media people is outweighed by Arbitron's obligation to provide reliable ratings data that both buyers and sellers can use with confidence."

Charlie's comments were published on All Access this past Friday. He also has an additional issue with Arbitron with the way averages can be calculated with ARB software by agency buyers. We'll see how this all plays out.

Radio Stories. Today Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight shines on WLS/Chicago afternoon personality Roe Conn.

Read here.

And - from the "video comes back to haunt department":

PPM + Fall Promos and Programming

73° - sunny at 10:45am

Good Morning from Michigan.

Left: from WQBW/Milwaukee. A small but great example of tying promotional efforts to current events! Fun too.


PPM and Stopsets: Inside Radio reporting of a "strategic shift" at Clear Channel's Houston cluster FMs - going from three stopsets per hour to two. Based on PPM research.

A letter to advertisers from Clear Channel notes "research with PPM shows us that people are listening through the commercial breaks."

IR adds that "Less Is More" inventory minute limits remain firmly in place, but stopsets will grow from a maximum of four minutes to five. They're also reducing station promos to one minute per hour, adding the inventory back to programming.

Added: Mark Ramsey offers commentary on the Clear Channel move here.

Programming note: KHYT/Tucson moves Opie & Anthony to overnights 3-6am. Just guessing its a "contractual obligation." Where is this show working in morning drive outside (perhaps) NYC?

Promotions: Seeing lots of on-air listen-to-win with Springsteen, Van Halen, Ozzy and Mellencamp tickets.

All "ready made" for classic rock radio; promotions you can't go wrong with.

Speaking of Concerts: KSHE/St. Louis is giving three listeners a chance to become KSHE's "official station photographer". One winner each at three upcoming concerts receiving concert tix and a photo pass. Details here. Easy to set up ($0) and very cool for listeners.

WPYX/Albany is giving listeners a chance to win $1000 by designing a billboard promoting the station's morning show. Here.

KRXO/Oklahoma City will be kicking off their "At Work Workforce Payroll" with $100/hour - plus a chance for an additional $100 bonus if a payroll winner knows "the three things".

Special fall programming: The long-term payoff with strong programming features is far greater than contesting. Its all about strengthening the brand.

KRFX/Denver kicks off "The History of Classic Albums" - presenting the essential classic albums of the last four decades in chronological order. More here.

WBLM/Portland is putting together classic rock's "Top 500" albums of all time. The station has listeners, staff and local celebrities submitting top ten fav lists. See here.

And tonight: WDRV/Chicago is celebrating the life of Jimi Hendrix - on the 37th anniversary of his death - with a one-hour special.

Presented at the end of the day (11pm) for the diehard Hendrix fans; format/music credibility made all day long simply by promoting it.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

73° - hazy - at 11am

From Okemos, Michigan... welcome to the weekend.

Added: On his blog, consultant Dave Martin continues "What, Why, How" - with "Making The Plan". Read here.

From the "not to nag" dept: Arbitron Fall SIPs due back Monday 8/20. Forms should be in your hands. Make sure your website is up to date with personality and program information since Arbitron relies on it to decipher some diaries.

Yipes! Check your summer status here. Its not too late for the summer diaries Arbitron hasn't processed yet.

Other dates to note: Labor Day Weekend Fri 8/31-Mon 9/3. Fall book starts Thur 9/20. Columbus Day Weekend Fri 10/5-Mon 10/8. Veterans Day Sun 11/11. Thanksgiving Weekend Wed 11/21-Sun 11/25. Have those long weekend specials mapped out yet?

"Talent" promotions around the dial:

Up in Vancouver - CFMI Morning Man Brother Jake is doing his "$20,000 Gong Show - This Time With More Cowbell!"

Looks like fun...here.


In Denver - KRFX's Lewis & Floorwax are conducting a "Last Band Standing" competition. See here.


WBLM/Portland - along with a local Harley dealer is doing a Battle of the Bands competition. This might be generating some NTR dollars. See here.

And...very cool - from the website of CITI/Winnipeg:

"Simpsonize" your own mug shot here.