The Weekend Classic Rock FM

64° - cloudy at 10:10am

Good Morning from Okemos and welcome to the weekend.

Winter Arbitron. Numbers still rolling in. The Big Story in the last day has been in Tampa - where Cox's WHPT rose from just over a 2 share to almost a 5 and a half.

This growth via the addition of Bubba The Love Sponge in AMD. All Access headlined the news with a line about "worst to first".

AA reports that Bubba "took top honors in Persons 12+, 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 and 35-64, unseating crosstown WFLZ/TAMPA rival MJ from the top spot across the board in a very tight race."

My take: Bubba's strategy appears to be right out of the old Randy Michaels playbook.

In Kansas City, KCFX continues to climb. 12+ demo shows the heritage classic rocker climbing book-by-book. The station up over a point and a half since Spring '07.

Contributing to that growth somewhat has to be the flip of KYYS to AAA; but KCFX is a great sounding radio station nonetheless with an airstaff that really talks to its listeners.

In Denver - the race is pretty tight between Clear Channel's KRFX and Entercom's KQMT. Looking at 12+ there's only two tenths of a point between the two.

The Fox (KRFX) just did a "no repeat April" while KQMT has reportedly tightened up its playlist in recent months. I hope to look at how deep The Fox went with music in April here soon.

WKLH/Milwaukee is up a tenth of a point while crosstown WQBW remains flat.

Noted: Someone on the radio engineering list I subscribe to observed an interesting "race" in 2008 Radio Hall of Fame nominations. In the same category are Dr. James Dobson (Focus on The Family) and....Howard Stern. Miles apart but both have made their impact on the industry.

Also in that same category (national) are Bob Costas and Dr. Laura. Voting is now open here.

Jay Mitchell. He's back with a new post after a long absence - but he's been a busy guy. I should have - but didn't realize this - Jay is also publisher of the Small Market Radio Newsletter.

While I haven't seen SMRN personally in years, I can highly recommend for any medium and small market broadcaster....each issue filled with programming, promotion and sales ideas.

Jay's blog is here.

Hello Phoenix. In the email this morning was a note from Mike Mallace, GM of KAJM and KNRJ.

Mike grew up in Chicago and started in the business about the same age I did - and during his high school years worked at the same suburban radio station (a few short years after I did). Mike blogs about radio, media and life here.

More here over the weekend.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

32° - light snow at 11:50am

Greetings from snow-packed Mid-Michigan. A little bit of snow just about everyday this past week...

Listening as I type: To Lee Arnold's WORJ.COM. The Doors' "When The Music's Over" segued into "Rosalie" by Bob Seger. Very cool Lee! Later: "Room To Move" from John Mayall. And Lee must be a heavy Fairport Convention fan...me too!

WCSX/Detroit Radiothon revisited. Total funds raised for the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan were $78,419. Very nice! See my original post here.

Tom Petty Tour: Earl and The Heartbreakers will follow his appearance at this year's Super Bowl (are we allowed to use that name?) with a nationwide tour to begin May 30th in Grand Rapids. Check out the dates here.

Some stations can use Tom Petty to cap the spring book; others as a kickoff to summer.

Two 'Fer Tuesday Weekend: KKRW/Houston doing one with Van Halen coming to town Monday Night. It sounds odd so it works! See here.

BTW: KKRW sporting a great new web layout; based on the template Clear Channel installed a few months back at WAXQ/New York. More filling with less fat.

Speaking of web templates: Citadel strikes a deal with MediaSpan - and upgrades the web efforts of quite a few of its rockers - including my ala-mater WMMQ/Lansing, WZRR/Birmingham, KHKK/Modesto and WSHK/Dover. Very nice layout and easy to navigate.

And Cox? I'm betting even those at Cox Radio have to admit that their websites aren't very exciting. But WHPT/Tampa Bay is showing a little bit of attitude with both Bubba and Cowhead content teases on their site. The website almost showing signs of a personality.

Added: Radio Stories. Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight shines on 30-year radio vet Karen Hand. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

Left: Webcam shot this AM from Copper Harbor in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Latest image

In Okemos: 56° and overcast at 10am.

Listening this morning to Lee Arnold's internet station WORJ.COM; hearing some tracks I haven't heard since my free-form days in the 70s - some with the occassional pops and ticks of vinyl; and that's a nice sound. Thanks to Dave Martin for the tip.

While cleaning house yesterday, I had the laptop tuned into WDRV/Chicago's stream. The Drive was celebrating Pete Townshend's birthday - with some great produced pieces to intro Townshend/Who music. One that stood out what Pete Townshend talking about Keith Moon; with an example of Moon's drumming style.

Great production like this keeps the music and the station sounding fresh. And strengthens your station's image as the classic rock authority.

Also spent some time with WDRV's stream of its "Deep Tracks" HD2 Channel....hosted by Steve Seaver. Noted that WDRV is streaming this channel at 2x the bitrate of their main channel stream (64 kbps vs 32 kbps). A welcome and very noticeable difference in streaming audio quality - even on tiny notebook speakers.

Programming to win. In this week's FMQB, John Silliman Dodge writes about time management, procrastination and establishing priorities. A great read for any programmer or manager; even those "on the beach". Read here.

Summer's almost here. See lots of stations getting ready to do the traditional Memorial Day 500; many with listener voting on their websites. And summer brings outdoor cookouts. WZLX/Boston's morning show is soliciting entries for a live morning show broadcast from a listener's backyard.

Show us your fish. WRLO/Antigo, WI has listeners submitting pics of their catch. Here. And Cox Radio's WHPT/Tampa Bay has a complete fishing page on their website here. A great NTR idea you can pass onto your GM.

Have a great Sunday.

Cool Spring Promotions - Part Two

The Spring Book begins today. But you knew that already.

More spring promotions we've noted:

More Workforce: WKLH/Milwaukee does their take on the Workforce Payroll with a chance to become the station's CEO. $96 an hour with a chance at a $10,000 CEO benefits package.

Tampa Bay's WXGL kicks off the Eagle Work Zone on Monday with $100 to be on the clock. Likewise with KGON/Portland. $100 an hour on the KGON Workforce Payroll.

Sacramento's KSEG with $100 an hour with The Workforce Payroll. WCHR/Monmouth County, NJ has The Job Squad with $105/hourly.

WSFR/Louisville does the SFR Payroll with $107.70 per hour. Can you guess their frequency? WJSR/Tulsa has the At Work Network Payroll at $50/hour; it doubles on Thursdays. In Knoxville, WIMZ offers $100/hour to a listener and a friend. Details here.

Beyond The Workforce Payroll:

WHTQ/Orlando is offering up $96 4x/daily with the "Classic Rocker Of The Day". Check it out here. In Nashville, WNRQ has $500 when the group of the day plays with "Cash For Classics". WHPT/Sarasota is doing the "Workforce Song Of The Day" - hear it and win $1000.

Springfield's WAQY began qualifying listeners this past Monday for a BMW Motorcycle.

WDGL/Baton Rouge is doing License To Win - $98 five times a day matching numbers with listener drivers licenses.

More spring promotions as we see 'em. Got one we missed? Share.