Milestones: Week of March 5, 2007

Spring Arbitron starts exactly one month from today!

Monday, 3/5:
John Belushi passes - 1982 (25 years)

Tuesday, 3/6:
David Gilmour - born 1947
Rhiannon (single)/Fleetwood Mac - released 1976
Eric Clapton inducted R&R Hall of Fame - 2000

Wednesday, 3/7:
Peter Wolf (J. Geils Band) - born 1946
Young Americans/David Bowie - released 1975
"We Are The World" - debuts on radio 1985

Thursday, 3/8:
Randy Meisner (Eagles) - born 1946
Beavis & Butthead - debuts on MTV 1993

Friday, 3/9:
Robin Trower - born 1945
The Joshua Tree/U2 - released 1987

Saturday, 3/10:
Tom Scholz (Boston) - born 1947

Sunday, 3/11:
George Kooymans (Golden Earring) - born 1948
CSNY win Grammy Best New Artist - 1970

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

The Sky looking west over Michigan's State Capitol Sunday Morning 9:20am.

As I write this morning, I've got the stream of WDRV/Chicago cranked up - listening to Bob Stroud and his "Rock & Roll Roots" program. This week Bob is playing the music as heard on the radio this week in 1969. "The Letter" by The Arbors was wonderful. Thanks Bob.

Random ramblings:

Streaming worries. There's no question that radio needs to stream as the broadband world expands. Can online ad revenues keep up with the increasing costs? See the complete breakdown of the new streaming royalty rates set by the Copyright Office - courtesy of Kurt Hanson's RAIN here. Jaye Albright with more here. added: Mark Ramsey's post.

Daylight Savings TIme Reminder. We spring ahead early - one week from today (March 11th). Four weeks earlier than it used to. Not all computers are ready. Work with your technical staff and automation vendor now. (I've always made an early morning trip into the station twice a year to make sure everything is on time....no sleep well otherwise).

Wisdom. From SBR Creative's website - a collection of great quotes on radio, marketing and music here.

History. Progressive rock signs off in the Milwaukee suburbs circa 1979.. Its WZMF. Listen to the last hour here.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Its been a great week.

HD Radio. While interest and awareness of HD/IBOC Radio certainly isn't at the level broadcasters would like, HD is getting noticed in Detroit. Greater Media deserves a pat on the back for their efforts promoting the HD2 channels of Classic Rock WCSX and Rock WRIF. In recent months, they've devoted entire weekends simulcasting the HD2 programming for each of those stations on their main channel. A significant committment.

And now WRIF has won an award and market recognition for its "Detroit Local 101" show airing on HD Channel "RIFF2". Read more here.

If you check out the "RIFF2" webpage, you'll see that they're doing it right: A blog, fan board, podcasts, instant messaging and more - all part of cultivating a listener base; plus the HD channel itself is more than a jukebox; its a living, breathing radio station with personalities and programs. Kudos to Greater Media.

Satellite News. Aside from Mr. Karmazin going to Washington - this week Arbitron released a report on satellite radio listening based on the Fall '06 survey. All satellite listening combined results in a 3.4 share. Whats really revealing is that satellite radio listeners tend to be heavier traditional AM/FM listeners. More from Jacobs Media, Mark Ramsey and David Martin. Alan Mason shares what he's learned from satellite radio here.

Stickers. Window and bumper. Ever do a remote without a supply of stickers? Lee Arnold passes along an article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer here.

Diversions. If you've seen the Geico Caveman commercials on TV - here's a song you might recognize. Everytime I hear it, the song lingers in my head for a while. And for a little more Caveman fun - go here.

Have a great weekend. More Sunday Morning.

The Big Event

A couple of situations led to this post. Recently VH-1 Classic has been showing the multi-part "History of Rock & Roll". Watching it one night it got me wondering why television has taken over something that radio used to do so well in the past. On TV its just a show. With radio its an EVENT.

It's the event - over a weekend or longer that can attract long TSL.

I know we do specials like The Memorial Day Top 500 - or Classic Rock A to Z. Both still very valid, IMHO. But I was thinking beyond that. While watching VH-1, The Bill Drake/RKO "History of Rock & Roll" came to mind - albeit for Top 40 Radio.

Then this past Tuesday - while going through boxes in my basement storage looking for something unrelated, I came across a notebook binder full of CDs. An monumental AOR/Classic Rock special titled "The Official History of Rock & Roll"...produced by Infinity and distributed by ABC Radio Networks in late 1989. Fifty hours covering 35 years of the genre - from 1954 through the British Invasion - and starting with 1967 - a focus on album artists and releases up through then current day 1989.

It was a terrific special - very well produced - and I was proud to air it.

I believe the time is ripe for Classic Rock Radio to repeat a big event like this. In the right market it could even take on a local or regional flavor.

The Big Event. A lot of work. And another "difficult to duplicate" attribute for your radio station.