Wednesday Blogs

64° - overcast at 9:21am

Good Morning from Okemos.

More catching up....

National Vinyl Record Day. It was yesterday - a somewhat informal celebration organized by Madison's Jim Bartlett (who also does weekends on classic rock WHLK). Catch the action on his blog here.

Rick Kaempfer. Rick has posted a number of great radio pieces on his "Chicago Radio Spotlight" as of late. This includes an interview with the legendary Clark Weber; WXRT's Lin Brehmer; WIMS/Michigan City owner Ric Federighi; and actor/personality KC Lupp. Good stuff. Start scrolling back here.

Bob Buchmann. Yesterday All Access quoted a New York Daily News article on the now-former WAXQ/New York PD. He applied for the Q104.3 job ten years ago after the then-manager of WNEW-FM declared that "rock radio could no longer work in New York". And on philosophy:

"We always took the long view," said BUCHMANN, "You can get a quick bounce by a TV ad campaign, but that's not the way we wanted to do it. If you build one listener at a time, they'll stay with you."

Good words. Brands are not built overnight. The Daily News piece is here. Another great read.

New York's Rock & Roll Tour. Had an email back on Monday from Jonathan Paisner with a company called City Listen. The company is offering an audio "guided Rock & Roll Tour of Manhattan":

"Walk in the footsteps of Bob Dylan, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen and many more. New York City DJ Ken Dashow (WAXQ) takes you on a fascinating tour throughout the East and West Villages in Manhattan to some of the most legendary locales captured on vinyl."

Very cool. Website here. Reading that starts the brain thinking about what a station in a city with great rock heritage could do on air and on the web. Brainstorm with your staff if your city fits the mold.

Congrats. To Clear Channel programmer Tony Coles on his promotion to oversee the company's Chicago cluster. A great guy who will make great things happen.

Home today with a bug of some sort. More later.

Wednesday Blogs

70° - overcast at 8:20am

Good Morning from rainy Mid-Michigan.

Caught the Don Felder interview last night on Bloomberg; interesting insight into the politics of The Eagles. Video here.

Added: More spring winners: KQRS/Minneapolis up over a point a half to break a 10 share 12+. WRFX/Charlotte rebounds after a few rough books.

News: WAXQ/New York PD Bob Buchmann resigns, leaving Q104.3 in great shape with great numbers. I hope he's moving on to something wonderful after years of success in the Big Apple.

Around my blog-o-sphere:

Jaye Albright's "Favre" Stunt. Read here.

Dave Martin. Dave shares a great "trade secret" regarding Mel Karmazin negotiating with a potential hire. Read here. As a PD (and in life), we've reached that point in negotiations.

And if you missed it, Dave shared another trade secret/tip with this blog in comments a few weeks back. Scroll to the bottom of this page to read. Share with your air talent and web people. Well worth your time.

Sounds like a great radio station:

"A healthy balance of depth tracks and familiar hits. A true connection to community. A strong moral compass. Relatable human values. Direct audience relationships."

Paragon's Mike Henry on "Boss Radio" here. (I've had the "experience" Mike writes of four times in my own life...)

Added: Consultant Alan Mason writes about branding and radio. A great piece:

"...the tangible parts of your “product” are what first attract people, but the intangible parts are what bring them back again and again, and build loyalty. In a radio brand the music or talk/news programming are the tangibles, and any facet of them, except how it adds to the experience, are still tangibles. So slight variations, shades of gray, aren’t meaningful to the consumer. That’s why smart brand marketers, like Apple, always advertise based on the intangible parts - those that live in the mind of the consumer."

"How’s your imaging today? As you listen, are you focusing on the experience and intangible parts of your station? Or are you, like most of us, still talking about the beans and the water?"

Read more here. And in a second post (here) - Alan writes:

"The “everything counts” principle simply lays it out that there is no neutral, or any get of of jail free card in anything we do. That no only includes the commercials, but also how the receptionist answers the phone. Or rather how the voice mail answers the phone these days. It includes how your your talent act at the remotes. It includes you having voice-tracked “weak ends” instead of weekends. It includes jocks who aren’t show prepping and sound like it."

"It includes the jock who tried to make a date on the Internet who turned out to be a cop. It includes the salesperson who demeans the product by giving it away at a ridiculously low price."

"Anything that doesn’t reinforce and solidify the brand then detracts from the brand."

Read his second post here. And Alan promises more tomorrow!

Have a good night.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

Good Morning - Happy Mother's Day!

Billboards. I mentioned here ten days ago about the Bob & Tom controversy in Boise. Since then a few other billboards have raised eyebrows in their respective markets. In Cincinnati, WLW has attracted attention with its "The Big Juan" campaign. More here. Not all positive, btw.

And in Baltimore - a defaced Rush Limbaugh board has one city official there under fire for praising the action.

Mark Ramsey writes here that "If defacing outdoor achieves this level of publicity then I'm speaking for everyone in the radio industry when I say: We should have tagged our outdoor long ago."

I know of one station who has done that to their own board in the past - and yes, it works.

Meanwhile: An idea for a new way to promote your station at the gas pump here from Fred Jacobs.

A Classic Rock Radio Critic. And his visit to New York's WAXQ to chat with PD Bob Buchmann. This piece three years old - but still an interesting read. Here.

Tom O'Toole. This past week, I received Tom's latest VO and imaging demo. Tom has some great produced promos and sweepers his CD. Get a copy for yourself by sending an email to Tom here.

btw: Tom's one of the original 1977 WLUP talents I've mentioned here in the past.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Happy Friday!

Classic Rock Winter ARBs. They're rolling in. Classic rock continues to show its strength in many markets.

In New York City, WAXQ PD Bob Buchmann - on the station website - tells listeners: "Just a quick word of thanks for all your support of Classic Rock on Q104.3. Many people said we would never be a long-term success...the morons!"

"You have proven them wrong with your support of the station. Arbitron says we have nearly 1,400,000 listeners. Many of our newest listeners are your kids. You're certainly bringing them up right!"

"The Winter 2007 numbers...thanks to you: In America, the largest rock station! In the New York Tri-State, the #1 station for Men 25-54!"

In Chicago: WDRV continues to "drive over heritage rockers" in the market (per Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times). In Denver, KRFX has their best 12+ showing in recent history. And in Minneapolis, KQRS leads the market 12+. Very nice.

Marketing. A must read (and listen) here from Mark Ramsey - as he visits with Punk Marketing author Richard Laermer. Thank you for sharing Mark.

David Martin continues his excellent series on hiring and recruitment. Yesterday Dave wrote about the interview process and checking references. Read Dave's blog here. More education.

Rick Kaempfer. Former morning radio show producer and one of our favorite writers. His blog is one of our "just for fun" links to the right.

His "Radio Producers Handbook" is excellent - and now he's released (just out this week) a satirical novel about radio and the broadcast biz: "$everance". Its available here and at independent bookstores.

I'm waiting to read! See this promotional video for the book. I hope its a million-seller Rick!

More here Sunday Morning. Have a great weekend.