Celebrating Your Town's Concert History

70° - overcast at 6:45am

If you've read this blog for anytime now - WGRF/Buffalo is one of those stations I love to watch from afar.

PD John Hager has created a station that is all about its market and its listeners.

The station is getting ready for Labor Day Weekend with another great example of listener-generated content (both on-the-air and on-the-web) - plus taking the music it plays and making it "local":

The Top 20 Concerts at Rich Stadium: Vote now

The Buffalo Bills opened their inaugural season at Rich Stadium in 1973. The following summer, Buffalo concert promoter Festival East booked the first ever concert at Rich Stadium on July 6 starring Eric Clapton and The Band.

Over the next twentyfive years, especially in the 1970's and 80's, Rich Stadium hosted Classic Rock's biggest names for some of Western New York's most memorable concerts. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bob Seger, Yes, Lynryd Skynrd, The Grateful Dead, Van Halen, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, Guns 'N Roses, Elton John, The Eagles and many more played the concert stage at what was then known as Rich Stadium.

97 Rock was the radio station Buffalo concert fans counted on for live coverage and free tickets for these legendary shows. And now we want to know what you thought were the greatest Rich Stadium concerts.

On Labor Day, we are going to count down the top 20 Rich Stadium concerts according to your votes.

See the complete piece here.

Years ago I recall Randy Michaels talking about airing and/or creating "exclusive" - or "difficult to duplicate" content on radio stations. I'm not so certain that this feature falls into the "difficult to duplicate" category - but one thing I've learned in programming is that there are those programmers with the passion to make things like this happen. And its that passion that puts those programmers in a "difficult to duplicate" category among PDs.

Chances are your competition across town doesn't have the passion or drive to do this sort of thing. This creates a tremendous opportunity - take advantage of it!

Monday Monday

-3° - scattered clouds at 11:22pm

Late Edition. Long day following a long weekend. Lots of chatter in the blogosphere in the last day over Jim Cramer's declaration last week about "the end of radio."

The best perspective on Cramer's comments come from the mind of David Martin - who wrote this morning:

"With all due respect, I disagree with the comments of those blogging Cramer as having delivered news of radio's death. Those bloggers are missing JC's bigger point, they're plainly wrong, it's radio equities that suck not radio. Owning broadcast and cable assets, bought right, remains a very good business."

"So, no matter what some have said, Cramer is not down on the radio business, he's down on you putting your money into any of the traded radio securities. He's right."

Dave's complete remarks here.

Just this past Saturday Night I was sitting in a brew pub in with a couple of small market radio owners.

One of them remarked that the problems of the big companies are simply Wall Street problems and have little direct impact on their operations. They continue to see growth in cash flow and remain highly optimistic about the medium's future.

After last week's layoff news, hanging out with these guys was extremely uplifting. Brewpub: Jamesport Brewing Company. Highlights: the Amber Steam (exceptional) and Scottish Ale. I'll try others next trip to Michigan's "West Coast".

Letting the listeners program. WAQY/Springfield introduces their "Record & Tape Club" (very clever); clicking on the "virtual penny" allows a listener to submit their favorite album to be part of a special weekend of programming.

Last month - WGRF/Buffalo celebrated "JanYOUary". This month WCSX/Detroit is celebrating "FebYOUary" in the same style with listener-created sets of music.

Very cool. Making listeners part of the process gives them ownership; turning them into advocates.

Have a good night.

Getting The Vote On....

It is an election day today. Here in our town - its city council and some bond issue stuff. But the real races are taking place in Buffalo, NY!

WGRF/97 Rock is holding the Classic Rock Elections! Station listeners involved as they vote for positions such as:

• "The Governor of Guitar" (Eddie Van Halen vs. Jimmy Page)
• "Head of the ATF" (David Crosby vs. Ted Nugent)
• "County Coroner" (Ozzy Osbourne vs. Alice Cooper)
• "Canadian Ambassador" (Rik Emmett vs. Geddy Lee)
• Plus more seats up for election.

97 Rock also running races for Governor - including:

• New Jersey (Jon Bon Jovi vs. Bruce Springsteen)
• Florida (Tom Petty vs. Ronnie Van Zandt)
• Michigan (Bob Seger vs. Ted Nugent)
• Others including Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts, New York & Texas
  

That's right: Ted could be both Michigan's Governor and head of the ATF! Too funny!

Also on the ballot - a yes/no proposition: "Shall Classic Rock include artists who emerged in the 90's such as Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots and Alice In Chains?" A question often pondered by Classic Rock Program Directors!

It all sounds like great listener fun and making something extraordinary out of an ordinary election day. More brilliance from PD John Hager!

See the complete ballot online here.


Another election: New York's WAXQ is gearing up for Thanksgiving Weekend - soliciting listener votes for their favorite classic rock songs of all time. 1,043 songs over five days Wednesday through Sunday. Check out the concept and look at some past top song lists here.

And what are you doing for Thanksgiving?

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."

Up All Night - Sleep All Day

58° - mostly cloudy at 5am

Here I be - up since 3:30am - which will surely catch up to me later. But it gave me a chance again to check out Lansing's live local overnight television show.

How many radio stations are "live" overnight??; I can think of one - maybe two in this market.

The local CW affiliate - a "cable only" channel operated by Lansing's ABC affiliate - has a program overnight (1-6am) called "Text Me TV". The show has college-aged hosts discussing the things that college-aged people talk about....meaningful (jobs, relationships, school, etc.) but mostly impromptu "silly stuff".

This morning discussing relationships, candy, road trip stories, fast food, alcohol - and singing theme songs to favorite cartoon shows. Later: homeless people digressing into "what makes a bum a bum"; number of friends on their personal MySpace pages and picking on/mimicking a colorful local car dealer who does his own TV commercials.

Viewers participate by texting into the show with their messages posted on the right side of the screen; just 99 cents a message.

Its consumer-generated media appealing to (and created by) 18-24 year olds. And a few old men.

Many of the viewers texting appear to be "regulars" - similar to regular callers to talk radio.

I blogged here about "Text Me TV" here back in February. Visit the show's website here.

Wednesday Blogs

56° - clear at 8:35pm

Late Wednesday post. A busy day here with an opportunity to learn some music research tools as part of my continuing education.

From my blogosphere:

Classic Rock "Jacked". Edison Media's Sean Ross notes some shifts toward classic rock by some Jack-FM and Bob-FM outlets. Sean writes:

"For all of the format's variety image, we've already asserted that they were, at the core, Classic Rock formats for those who grew up in the late '70s/'80s and have poppier sensibilities." Read here.

CGM. Fred Jacobs blogs on CGM promotions - sharing some tips from Ben McConnell and Shahi Ghanem - accompanied by his own comments.

A great read here.


"We can think we know what the listener wants, but you’ll only know when you start talking with them." - Consultant Alan Mason writing here.

In the news:

Bruce Springsteen: Streetpulse - via All Access reports the new CD #1 based on Tuesday sales. Very nice Boss!


Bill Figenshu. Congrats. Just announced new job as President/Broadcast Operations & Development for Peak Broadcasting - a relatively new company with stations in Fresno & Boise.

I don't know Fig - but I know his background and reputation. A one-time "progressive rock" jock. Brilliant Programmer. Later ran Viacom Radio. His resume here.

In comments posted today both on All Access and (in-depth) on Mark Ramsey's Hear 2.0 - Fig offered these thoughts post-NAB:

"The leaders of radio companies are looking very tired. Seven years of creating no value for their stockholders and investors is taking the toll. Other than DAN MASON, radio companies need to put operators in charge again. It will be a hard decision for current CEOs to give up some power, but until creative people start to run radio companies again, with a vision beyond sales and revenue, there will be more of the same. Revenue is important, but we are being challenged creatively, and have not responded effectively."

"Radio is good at serving it’s communities every day. Radio is bad at positioning itself. Radio people are great at positioning their stations, bad at positioning themselves."

"The press has created stars out of financial operators. We have made company leaders personalities, who now believe they can operate radio from the budget line, not the content line. Senior executives with creative content ideas, on-air and online, will be the trend in 2008. Not bankers."

"Radio must start paying attention to trends of young people. On-line and on-air, they are telling us about song repetition, format diversity and lack of local content. We talk about it, but we don’t go far enough. The content must get better. In 2008 and beyond, it will be about quality, not quantity."

Let's hope. And thanks Fig.

Condolences: To family and friends of well-known air talent Tawn Mastrey - who passed away yesterday. Click here.

I recall Tawn's work from radio syndication (Westwood One) and MTV. Her resume includes KNAC, Pirate Radio/LA, KSJO, Sirius Satellite and others.

Who Are You? 97 Rock Does It Again!

77° - sunny at 10:30am

Happy Monday!

Just last week - I wrote here about sharing listener stories; mentioning Buffalo's WGRF.

WGRF (97 Rock) has taken this to yet another level. Check out this listener email forwarded from "Dave" this morning:

What a great way to get your listeners involved with your product in this "consumer generated media" age.

As I've written before, things like this give them ownership - makes the station theirs - and brings the station loyalty that a line item on your A&P budget can't buy.

Here's a peek at the feature on the station's website (see more here):

Think your sales department could use this too?

First spring numbers out today...after 5pm ET in the usual places.

Wednesday Blogs

81° - overcast at 10:45am

Good morning from Michigan. Busy day.

From my blogosphere....

Around the dial. Edison Media's Sean Ross writes here about his listening - and a drop heard at the end of the stopset on the new KFRC/San Francisco:

"Thanks for being patient. Your reward is more Classic Hits on 106.9 KFRC."

Sean adds "You might read that as positioning commercials as something to be endured. But knowing that most listeners still regard commercials as a fair trade-off for music, saying "thank you" is a nice (and surprisingly novel) idea."

There's always been lots of power with the word "thanks" - both on air and off - and to your listeners and staff.

Sharing Stories. I wrote Monday about WGRF/Buffalo soliticing listener stories for their Labor Day Weekend event.

Mark Ramsey writes here about a project underway at Philadelphia's non-comm WXPN - which is asking listeners "to contribute to a massive archive of personally important musical moments."

For use with an on-air special as well as the station's website.

Mark notes: "if your audience is driven by a passion for music doesn't it make sense to invite their stories and that passion to be expressed on your station's site?" Yup!

I've mentioned here before about a related web concept that some stations doing. These examples below are from WGRF/Buffalo, WKLH/Milwaukee and KSAN/San Francisco. More of an endorsement - not quite as formal - but I believe very effective:

Monday Monday

75° - mostly sunny at 10am

More CGM: I've written here before about the importance of listener involvement - it gives them ownership and loyalty in the product. Another great example comes from Buffalo and WGRF PD John Hager.

The station is asking listeners to contribute stories and vote on the 30 top concerts at a legendary but now defunct local venue.

On Labor Day Weekend - the station will recall those stories and play live concert highlights from those shows. See here.

If you're in a market with a rich concert history this is an excellent idea! Very local.

Speaking of: What are you doing Labor Day Weekend? Its an opportunity to do something special over three days and build (or simply maintain) your AQH #s since most of the format's important "at-work" audience isn't at work. These occasional shifts in listener routines demand extra effort on the part of the radio station.

And: How about football season? Even if you don't have the play-by-play you can still take ownership. Think jock content and imaging.

Streaming. Most if not all webcasters are still online - following last week's reprieve by Sound Exchange on the new royalty rates.

This morning Jerry Del Colliano writes about the reprieve and declares "I'm from New Jersey. I'm not buying it." More here.

You may have noticed: Over the weekend - I tested a new "station of the week" feature here on the blog. After having it up for 36 hours, a better approach came to mind. To come.

Have a great Monday.

Wednesday Blogs

81° - Sunny at 10am

From my blogosphere:

Share of Mind. John Moore via Consultant Alan Mason here on the "The Visionary's Handbook". John points to some thoughts from the book that makes things like this very important for share of mind.

This is all about marketing for actual listenership. And Mark Ramsey writes about that topic as it applies to PPM here.

Your station's vibe. Not on air - but around the office and studio. Seth Godin writes that "the vibe changes everything". Read here.

Your internal vibe. Still excited about what you do? If not, Jay Trachman here with some ways to get out of your rut. Added: David Martin here - this morning - on enjoying what you do.

Seth Godin on radio. Next week Mark Ramsey's blog presents "7 Days of Seth" - with the "Agent of Change" sharing thoughts on the future of radio as well as his new book "The Dip". More here.

The Conclave. Dave Lange writes here on this year's event in Minneapolis; wish I was attending, but the Kelley family budget is just too tight. Next year perhaps.

Both the Conclave and Dan O'Day's PD Grad School are the best values for the dollar for any programmer - if you've got the budget - personal or company.

McCartney. Street Pulse reporting via All Access that Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" debuted at the #1 position for overall sales this week. Paul is working this one hard - and with radio. Stations around the country have been sending listeners to a secret, private "invitation only" performance.

The cynic in me. The past few days I've had Court TV on as I do other work - watching the Duke prosecutor hearing and Phil Spector's trial.

Oreo Cookies has been running a saturation campaign on the channel with what they're trying to pass off as YouTube-style CGM commercials. They just appear to be a bit too perfect to pass my " B.S. Test". I could be wrong, but....

KFC goes CGM

Adrants Daily is reporting that KFC will debut a new TV commercial on tonight's American Idol - and this spot is made entirely of consumer-generated content found on You Tube and MySpace.

We pointed out here the spring TV efforts of Detroit's WCSX with listeners competing to produce the station's spring book TV spot. A great example of CGM - and even more powerful as its advertising for a product produced by its fans.

"Its a whole new world" is quite the understatement. Here's the KFC commercial:

LGC: Listener Generated Comedy

Sunny/71° at 9am

Good Morning...

CFMI/Vancouver morning host Bro Jake is looking for "The Funniest Person With A Day Job" - an amateur stand-up comedian competition featuring station listeners. Even the bad ones are good.

It's a great promo with web and NTR components. Listeners can submit their own video or have the station tape one for them. Check out the webpage here to see videos and details.

There's some other cool promotions on CFMI's website.

Have your sales manager look at "The Balls Are Back". Sales managers love promos for car dealers.

This station rocks - and knows how to have fun!

Wednesday Blogs

An early morning surfing the net...

WCSX/Detroit is offering listeners a chance to make the station's next TV spot with a prize of $20,000 to the winner for the best commercial. More here.

Listener Advisory Boards and more. The concept of "research by marketing" in a great post by Fred Jacobs. You can get a lot for $50 in pizza.

Step Away From The Keyboard. "Great radio stations are not completely built on the science of crunching numbers, analyzing research, and working behind the computer screen." Think art. Mandatory reading from here from Dave Lange.

More Art. Focus on the experience, not the beans. Read "What Starbucks Knows That We Don't" from Alan Mason here.

Sound Cool. The always entertaining and brilliant Phil Hendrie here with "Some Inside Radio Terms You Can Know and Sound Cool Using". Phil explaining radio speak to those outside the industry.

Have a great Wednesday!

CGM Weekends

It's a CGM Weekend!

Perhaps I wouldn't use that term on-air, but "consumer generated weekends" can accomplish a couple of goals: more weekend tune-in and listener loyalty in the radio station.

As we've written before: CGM means ownership; and ownership turns listeners into advocates.

Here's some examples to start your next brainstorming session: WCSX/Detroit is currently asking its Workforce Listeners to contribute for a "MyTunes" weekend. Look here. How cool is it for Joe listener when his/her name is mentioned on the air as programmer of the next set of music? Ditto with this from KQRS/Minneapolis.

Listening online a week or so ago, I really got hooked on WKLH/Milwaukee's "Ten Best". Ten great songs - centered around a year or theme; many qualify as "deep cuts" or "lost classics". And submitted by listeners. Look here.

Sidenote: "deep cuts" - used as spice with the proper set up or staging reinforce music credibility and can often change repetition perceptions. Too much spice can kill the meal. Your mileage may vary.

During February, Baltimore's 100.7 The Bay featured listener-programmed theme weekends from phone and email requests to "The Homemade Block Party Weekend". Look here. update: link now gone 4/5/07

With some effort - weekends can add more quarter hours from your audience. Ideas similar to what I've mentioned here can generate both TSL and listener loyalty - by making them part of the process.

Added: "The world of media is changing, and you’re not going to stop it, because you’re no longer in control – the consumer is." -Alan Mason via his blog yesterday.

CGM Comes To Live TV

There's been a lot written about Consumer Generated Media (CGM) ... You Tube, blogs, podcasting and more - and now comes "Text Me TV".

It just debuted here in Lansing on the local CW affiliate (a cable channel here - also seen on the ABC affiliate's HDTV secondary channel). For a mere 99¢ per text, one can broadcast their message to the world - or at least to those watching in the Lansing market.

Tuning in this past Tuesday at noon, the show had two hosts giving away prizes - conducting polls on "best revenge you ever had on an ex"; plus talk on Britney, Lindsay Lohan and more. The hosts commented on messages; suggesting new topics when response slowed, much like talk radio. Live and local TV.
Check out the Lansing Text Me TV website here. Read an interview with a late-night Text Me TV show host here. At best, I'd classify this show as "semi-professional"...the hosts are primary students at Michigan State University. But it doesn't matter. Its different - and talking right to its demo.

What could text messaging do for radio? Interacting with your audience. A text scroll on a website or streaming player. Requests. Questions. Polls. Opinion. Fun. Make it ad supported. Another chance to bond with the audience. Community. How about HD radio with its text abilities?

In just recent weeks - CBS country WYCD/Detroit introduced text messaging as a way of communicating with their audience. And the age demos of country are pretty broad.

How 'bout Classic Rock? As Fred Jacobs wrote days ago: "You can't run away from technology, so why not try to embrace it?"