Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

32° - light snow at 11:50am

Greetings from snow-packed Mid-Michigan. A little bit of snow just about everyday this past week...

Listening as I type: To Lee Arnold's WORJ.COM. The Doors' "When The Music's Over" segued into "Rosalie" by Bob Seger. Very cool Lee! Later: "Room To Move" from John Mayall. And Lee must be a heavy Fairport Convention fan...me too!

WCSX/Detroit Radiothon revisited. Total funds raised for the Children's Leukemia Foundation of Michigan were $78,419. Very nice! See my original post here.

Tom Petty Tour: Earl and The Heartbreakers will follow his appearance at this year's Super Bowl (are we allowed to use that name?) with a nationwide tour to begin May 30th in Grand Rapids. Check out the dates here.

Some stations can use Tom Petty to cap the spring book; others as a kickoff to summer.

Two 'Fer Tuesday Weekend: KKRW/Houston doing one with Van Halen coming to town Monday Night. It sounds odd so it works! See here.

BTW: KKRW sporting a great new web layout; based on the template Clear Channel installed a few months back at WAXQ/New York. More filling with less fat.

Speaking of web templates: Citadel strikes a deal with MediaSpan - and upgrades the web efforts of quite a few of its rockers - including my ala-mater WMMQ/Lansing, WZRR/Birmingham, KHKK/Modesto and WSHK/Dover. Very nice layout and easy to navigate.

And Cox? I'm betting even those at Cox Radio have to admit that their websites aren't very exciting. But WHPT/Tampa Bay is showing a little bit of attitude with both Bubba and Cowhead content teases on their site. The website almost showing signs of a personality.

Added: Radio Stories. Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight shines on 30-year radio vet Karen Hand. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.

Ray Marshall

This post was updated as additional thoughts came to mind Monday, October 29th. And again Wednesday, October 31st.

I'm saddened to write here about former Citadel/Lansing Operations Manager Ray Marshall. Ray passed away this morning at his home in nearby Holt.

Ray served 16 years at the Lansing cluster of stations - starting at AC WFMK in 1990 and helped build the cluster with WFMK’s perennial #1 performance.

He also converted WJIM-FM to oldies and double-digit numbers - and re-launched classic rock WMMQ on a full-market signal (and #1 in its first book!).

Ray had an incredible run that continued with the growth of news/talk WJIM-AM, sports WVFN-AM as well as his involvement with country WITL.

For a time at Citadel, Ray served as "Oldies Format General" - consulting like-formatted stations for the company nationwide. Prior to Lansing, Ray worked radio in Cleveland and several other Ohio markets.

Ray Marshall was the consummate radio pro with skills on-air, in programming, engineering, IT and legal. He was the "go to" guy in the Lansing Citadel cluster for virtually the entire staff. If anyone knew the answer, how to find it or how to fix it - chances are Ray would.

The radio stations were under Ray's watch 24/7. The exception: an annual camping trip when he took the opportunity to turn the cell phone off. A well-deserved break.

Following budget cuts - Ray (along with yours truly) left Citadel in February of this year. Since then we've done a few projects together - and exchanged email frequently, if nothing more than to share a joke.

We had coffee together just this past Friday - the first time I'd seen him in nearly two months. Actually I had the coffee. Ray had a craving for hot chocolate. At Starbucks in Okemos. A very fortunate moment.

There's so many who knew Ray Marshall far longer and much better than me. But it was my pleasure - and my honor to have called Ray Marshall a friend.

Added: WQMX/Akron PD Sue Wilson remembers her friend Ray here.
Added: Lansing State Journal story on Ray Marshall here.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

81 - sunny at 11am

Happy Sunday.

This afternoon its game #2 of my 8-year old's flag football season. Last week his team ("The Chiefs") won 20-8.

Listening. Yesterday - to WDRV/Chicago's HD2 "Deep Cuts" channel - hosted by Steve Seaver. Still hearing tunes on that channel that I haven't heard in years.

Yesterday's highlight was a Simon & Garfunkel track - "The Only Living Boy in New York". Kudos to whoever has their fingers on The Drive's HD2 Selector database. And the research.

Weird....haven't heard that track for at least 30 years but I could still sing along in my head. My second Simon & Garfunkel moment in as many weeks. And I haven't had any S&G in my collection since I got rid of all my vinyl.

Also listened a bit to WCSX/Detroit yesterday and "Saturday Morning Over Easy". Plus WBFX/Grand Rapids.

This morning its coffee with "Rock & Roll Roots" on WDRV - Bob Stroud celebrating John Lennon's birthday (67 this coming Tuesday. Lots of great tunes.

At 11am eastern - its a switch to another "Rock & Roll Roots" on Milwaukee's WKLH. Steve Palec featuring the music of Harry Nilsson - lots from the Nilsson/John Lennon era of the mid-70s.

Streaming is a wonderful thing; if anything to listen to 'KLH and commercials for car dealer Ernie Von Schledorn. So Wisconsin.
Memo to WKLH: Please fix your streaming insertion.

Alan Mason. In his latest post - Alan writes about listening to your critics - your detractors - about what they're saying (or writing on the 'net) about your radio station. Alan blogs:

"If someone says something bad about your station, the worst thing you can do is react defensively. Instead you need to keep listening to those conversations, and thank your detractors for making you better. Some conversations are worth avoiding all together. Others are ones you can join into, but not direct or lead. Talking isn’t the goal, listening is."

More from Alan here. I suggested some ideas here a few months back ways to keep an ear on the 'net about your station.

I recall something that CBS Radio President Dan Mason said during one of the recent R&R sessions in Charlotte: "I may be the only president that reads radio message boards but I want to know what the people are saying about our radio stations".

Bruce. Tonight "60 Minutes" talks to Mr. Springsteen. CBS-TV 7pm Eastern (or right after NFL Football).

Might be worth rolling tape/TiVo for bites.

Imus. Lots of mixed reports whether its a done deal or not - but Citadel apparently very close to a deal to put Imus back on the air by the end of the year; likely on WABC.

Citadel boss Farid Suleman quoted as saying “He did something wrong. He didn’t break the law."

Added: Lee Arnold here with "Why Can't I Get Tickets To The Concert?"

Lee's story - from the New York Times - mentions that fans have sometimes found tickets to a concert or event at many times face value - just minutes after the public sale has begun. Say what?

Added: Rick Kaempfer profiles WFGR/Grand Rapids Program Director Len O'Kelly here.

Len a fellow Chicago person; I love his story about having a young airstaff and being "the old married guy".

Jay J. McCrae

Losing a friend. Yesterday afternoon I received sad news that WITL/Lansing Program Director Jay J. McCrae passed away earlier in the day.

Jay had been at country WITL for years - with a very long radio career in both Michigan and Texas - and just recently added WFBE/Flint to his responsibilities.

At Citadel - both Jay and I shared a separate building housing just our studios (me with classic rock WMMQ) a quarter mile away from the rest of the cluster.

We'd spend many moments just talking shop; and he was always willing to lend a hand to any project I had going on. A true radio pro.

Prayers go out to his wife - Jordan Lee - who handles middays and promotions at WITL. Memorial plans are pending.

I will miss you my friend.

Added: Lansing State Journal story here. (updated 9/11/07)

Wednesday News and Blogs

76° - very cloudy at 2pm

Good afternoon from Michigan.

Imus. Lots of speculation about where he'll turn up next now that him and CBS have settled.

Is Citadel Broadcasting in his future?

Added - from All Access: "Employment is a large driver of ratings in a PPM world. In examining MEMORIAL DAY ratings, employed respondents showed much lower listeneing levels versus non-employed respondents. Much can be attributed to their non-commute on a holiday and no in-office listening." PPM market or not, Classic rock is ready-made for long weekend specials to keep your at-work audience listening. Here.

Royalties. The NAB drove a point to members about the discussion of performance royalties for terrestrial radio by sending a mock invoice to its members. Read the NAB release here.

Steven Van Zandt said it best a few weeks back: "I am a songwriter and a performer and I own record companies and publishing companies and I do not believe radio should pay anything to anyone. And I mean every kind of radio."

Meanwhile: RAIN reports that the new internet streaming royalties are in effect - even though Sound Exchange may not be enforcing them pending ongoing negotiations. More here. Danger Will Robinson: liability for the new rates has begun and is very real.

Little Steven on WCBS-FM: "...don't tell us WCBS is back, implying that it's back the way we remember it—we being the demographic that you decided meant nothing when you blew it up and now you're praying is still there."

(from Steven's upcoming column in Billboard later this week).

More Management. Consultant Gary Begin writes this week on All Access about "Managing Beyond The Basics". Some great thoughts. See "Consultant Tips".

This piece also found on Gary's website here.

Fred Jacobs wrote yesterday about an experience I've had more than a few times in my career...while dining with management and staff.

Share this with your GM or sales manager.

Have a great day.

The Roaring Silence

85° - Sunny at 9:25am

With props to Manfred Mann's Earth Band.

Today is the internet radio day of silence; designed to bring public awareness to the pending increase in copyright royalty rates that may make the cost of streaming prohibitive to many webcasters.

According to Inside Radio, broadcast groups participating in today's "silence" include Saga, Greater Media, Lincoln Financial and NextMedia.

A quick listen this am had Clear Channel, Citadel and Bonneville streaming as normal. CBS previously announced to trades that it was not participating.

In Detroit, Greater Media's WCSX has a banner on their site explaining the silence.

To the right is the screen you'll see when you click to listen on the website of WKLH/Milwaukee.