Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

55° - overcast at 11:26am

Good Morning from Okemos, Michigan USA.

Listening: Starting at 8am eastern this morning to Bob Stroud's Rock 'N Roll Roots on WDRV. Bob featuring The Who this morning, celebrating Pete Townshend's birthday. Stroud's stories behind the songs make almost everything he plays special.

Later: Steve Palec on WKLH. Steve with a good dose of Allman Brothers as I'm listening. Steve also a great storyteller with some great sound bites to setup the tunes.

WMMR/Philadelphia. Celebrating 40 years of rock. See the celebration on station's website here.

FMQB with a great historic photo spread on WMMR here.

Building Community. Good read this past week in Ad Week on marketing and "building community." Read here.

Related: Bob Lefsetz posts a letter from an artist who writes:

"It’s really not so much about the music anymore. It’s about how willing you are to market you band/product by putting the time and effort into it to it. Connecting with fans. Creating a community that will keep coming back because your constantly updating your content."

American Idol - Boston style: Fred Jacobs wrote about a dream gig and how it came together this past week. Hint: Boston has a new lead singer - and he's from Home Depot. Here.

Hmmm. WKLH/Milwaukee promoting "The Concert For Big Oil" on Memorial Day Weekend. Say what? See here.

Dolly and Howard. Jaye Albright comments here. Your take? I do note that this is the first I've heard about Howard in many months. See "Sensitive Times" below.

Sensitive Times. You've no doubt read in the past day or so the firing of WYSP/Philadelphia morning talent Kidd Chris and Program Director John Cook over the repeated airing of a "racist" song performed by an in-studio guest.

Me thinks an apology over a one-time live airing would have been fine - but repeated airings may have crossed that line. BTW: a visit to the WYSP website reveals another station running "The Harley Days of May" (that's 2 now).

Added Monday 5/19: Jerry Del Colliano in a post this morning gets it right:

"Radio audiences are increasingly over this type of content. Even Public Offender #1, Howard Stern, has changed the way he offends – albeit it on subscriber-based satellite radio."

"And if you’re wondering what the next generation thinks of these types of racist parodies, consider that Gen Y is a very social generation. They tend to work within the system and see things in one color instead of racially defined preexisting stereotypes from the past."

Have a great Sunday. There's a trip to the zoo know as Sam's Club in my plans today...

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Happy Friday! Random bits and thoughts:

Spring Is In The Air. McVay Media's Dave Lange here on preparing for the spring '07 book.

Yesterday while writing about WLUP/Chicago's 30th Anniversary, I thought about the "Loop Stores" that were spread around the Chicago area. They were basically retail locations inside other businesses where one could buy station-logo'd merchandise: T-shirts, hats, etc. You just don't see that sort of promotional activity anymore (yes, some do it online now).

The value of a great brand with a great logo can't be underestimated.

Related is a post at Pollack Media: "The Lost Art of Radio Brand Extension". Read it here.

Kids, Schools, Classic Rock & NTR = a great promotion. Look what KUFX/San Jose (98.5 K-Fox) is doing here.

Getting the story out. This past Monday, Fred Jacobs wrote about Buffalo's 97 Rock sending an email blast to its database over last weekend regarding the death of Boston's Brad Delp. An excellent move by PD John Hager. Another opportunity to bond with your listener community and strengthen your brand.

I recall last year doing something similar following Bob Seger's return to the concert circuit. Some amateur video of Bob's first show of the tour wound up on You Tube the morning after (2 or 3 complete songs!) We quickly did an email blast with links to the videos suggesting they catch them before they disappear.

And it was very sad this week to read of the circumstances surrounding the passing of Boston singer Brad Delp. My heart goes out to his family and fiancee. Boston's Tom Scholz writes about Brad Delp here.

May all your St. Patty's day promotions be safe and successful!

More Sunday.

Boston's Brad Delp Dead at 55

A signature voice of the Classic Rock format has passed. From Fox News:

ATKINSON, N.H. — Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, was found dead Friday at his home in southern New Hampshire. He was 55. Atkinson police responded to a call for help at 1:20 p.m. and found Delp dead. Lt. William Baldwin said in a statement the death was "untimely" and that there was no indication of foul play.

Delp apparently was alone at the time, Baldwin said.

The cause of his death remained under investigation. Police said an incident report would not be available until Monday.

The website of the band Boston now displays a single page with the words: "We've just lost the nicest guy in rock and roll".