The Weekend Classic Rock FM

32° - scattered clouds - at 2:22pm. Right: The kids next door tried - its melting now.

We did have our first real snowfall here late Wednesday Night and woke up Thanksgiving morning to white covered lawns. Add the smells coming from the kitchen between pies and turkey and it all was good!

Arbitron. The company now feeling the heat from Steve Sinicropi, Chairman of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council over PPM issues. Find that story on the online trades.

Meanwhile - Paragon Media's Bob Harper writes here on Arbitron's PPM sampling issues ("PPM: Patsies Pay More") - followed by Jaye Albright "raising Bob one" in her blog:

"Is there any other broadcast research company which would have the temerity to actually contract for a project and then after delivering the results ask for either more money or propose changes in the methodology to cut their costs of doing the job right?"

Be sure to read the comments from Kent Burkhart at the bottom of Jaye's complete post here.

Consultant Harv Blain offers his two cents on Arbitron's issues here - suggesting the company take advantage of the brain trust who will soon be attending the company's annual consultant fly-in:

"...brainstorming would be time well spent versus listening to (guest speaker) Sean Hannity expound on how great PPM is."

I can't imagine its been a very good Thanksgiving Weekend for some of those in Columbia.

Welcome to a new blogger. Consultant Jay Mitchell now blogging here. A great blog! I sent Jay a note yesterday to welcome him and let him know I'd be quoting him.

In one post - Jay recalls the start-up of CHR KHKS/Dallas - writing:

"When Gerry (DeFrancesco) asked me to do a format search for the station, I told him, "The market doesn't have a format hole ... it has an attitude hole." Everybody was playing it safe and behaving themselves; but nobody - especially the listener - was having any fun."

I love that. Not a format hole - but an attitude hole. Jay goes on to write about how they took liner card/tight format air talent and transformed them into entertainers with attitude. A great read here.

BTW - The title of Jay's post: "Safety Last".

In another post: Jay writes about the latest round of layoffs happening throughout the country - with live talent in large markets being replaced by imported voice tracking - and comments:

"In what universe does this make sense?"

"Of course, the people who made this decision are so far up the food chain that they don't listen to the radio - they read financials. I'm sure this genius idea works well on paper."

"Too bad it sucks for the station and its listeners."

"How come we used to be able to do great live, local radio and make the numbers? How come we can't now?"

Well said Jay. More here Sunday Morning.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

38° - mostly cloudy at 11am. Snow likely.

Welcome to Saturday.

Production Idea: I'm writing this morning listening to WDRV/Chicago's stream (bet you're surprised) and the station is doing a "Ten at Ten Weekend". Ten at Ten a daily Mon-Fri feature that highlights ten great songs from one great year - accompanied by some sound bites from news events, movie and TV from that year.

On a 1985 "Ten at Ten" - and I heard a movie trailer for "Pee Wee's Big Adventure". The clip was apparently streaming audio - and low and behold I found links for the trailer at IMDB here. Check the left-hand column.

Another source is Retrojunk. Here. Found it through IMDB. Got any others? Feel free to share!

What PPM doesn't change. Paragon Media's Bob Harper reminds us that recall and remembering are still important - in both the PPM and diary markets.

Read here.

Guitar Hero. Fred Jacobs writes here about the new Guitar Hero III video game. This one includes cowbell. LOL.

The other night I caught up with some friends from WMMQ here who talked about how well Guitar Hero is working for bar promotions. Rock on!

Dan O'Day. His 2008 PD Grad School speaker lineup has been finalized - and it looks like another excellent two days well-spent!

This year's school includes Edison Media's Larry Rosin, McVay Media's Mike McVay, WOGL's Ross Brittian, internet radio and interactive specialist Rockie Thomas, author Tim Sanders and (of course) Dan O'Day himself.

Dates are February 22nd & 23rd in LA. Dan's PD Grad School is one of the few events I've been truly excited about traveling to attend. Download the brochure here.

Mark Ramsey: TV star. Mark Ramsey has just debuted the first installment of what he labels "The Radio Industry's First TV Show". See here. Designed for short attention spans - and he plans to roll out one every month or so. Cool!

This is something any radio station can do on its website with relevant listener information. See this example a while back from KGB/San Diego.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

38° - sunny at 9:45am

Happy Weekend. The big game here in town tomorrow: Michigan vs. Michigan State. Good luck finding cheap tickets to this one!

Knowing Your Market. Dave Lange writes this morning:

"Every market IS unique. I've worked in over 100 markets as a programmer, VP of Programming or consultant and there are obvious and clear differences in each one of them."

"If you don't take a careful and long look at all the factors in the 'market environment' you are going to leave audience, images, and dollars on the table that if wasted will limit your growth. It's also important to look at the competition and see who has impacted the audience and for what reason. For the real successful stations in always goes beyond 'the music position or mix.'"

Dave's entire post is here.

What If: Paragon Media's Bob Harper ponders:

"Why - when we know things of all kinds naturally clump together - do radio stations build music clocks that keep artists or song types equally separated? Why is our music so tidy in a messy world?"

"What is so crazy about four Elton Johns in two hours? Why do we let the software play fewer George Strait oldies when he has a top Current; at just the time listeners are probably more interested in the artist, not less? Which of Newton’s laws says you can’t play two Powers back-to-back sometimes?"

Bob Harper blogs here.

Spoof Our TV Commercial. Very cool - from CILQ/Toronto. Fans of the station have been doing their versions of the station's new TV spots. And the station is posting them along with the originals on their website. Check out the galleries here.

Also from CILQ: Guitar Lesson videos on the web from PM driver Kim Mitchell. This is very clever and is a great example of what a little imagination can do. See the videos here.

I'm betting Kim Mitchell was stoked about doing these videos too. The cost: almost nothing!

Led Zeppelin Reunion: Postponed. All Access reporting today:

"Hard rock icons LED ZEPPELIN have postponed their reunion concert from NOV. 26th to DEC. 10th, as guitarist JIMMY PAGE recuperates from a fractured finger. The band will still headline The AHMET ERTEGUN Tribute Concert at The O2 Arena in LONDON; it will be their first performance together in 19 years."

More HD Radio & iPOD...

HD Radio and iPOD. There's more information this morning following yesterday's announcement of a new generation of HD Radio tuners that will allow consumers to "tag" song they hear on HD for download via iTunes.

Inside Radio reporting:

"Just in time for the holiday shopping season, the HD Radio Alliance will team up with Apple and Polk for a 13-week multimillion dollar ad campaign to market the new HD Radio-ready interface. It's part of the ongoing $250 million HD advertising campaign."

IR also reports Ibiquity's Bob Struble saying that stations will have to upgrade their HD equipment with a "small box" to their existing system or upgrade software to encode for iTunes.

Any issues/conflicts with Arbitron's encoding of programming for PPM? Me thinks not - but there's no dumb questions.

Mark Ramsey asks here this morning if "HD radio has been reduced to being a storefront for iTunes?"

Me wonders: "Does radio fight consumer shifts to new things (like the iPOD) or do we provide compatibility - with the introduction of new technology like HD Radio?

Added: Paragon Media's Bob Harper comments: "when are we going to get around to the Horses - the unique, unforgettable, and demanding Programming?" Read here.