Showing posts with label David Letterman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label David Letterman. Show all posts

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

60° - clear at 11:52am

Good Morning from Mid-Michigan. Bike ride with my 9-year old this morning brought us down the road to Okemos High School (aka "The Taj Mahal" by locals; its very nice).

Listening.
To my usual Sunday Morning lineup. Stroud on Chicago's WDRV featuring the music of Badfinger this morning. One of all-time fav bands; both the Apple and Warner years.

Bob Stroud also seeking votes for the next volume of his Rock 'N Roll Roots CD (it will be number 10). See here.

Post bike ride: Steve Palec on Milwaukee's
WKLH. A good dose of Linda Ronstadt this morning as "The Root Salute". Ronstadt covering Tom Petty's "The Waiting" was wonderful! Thanks Steve.

The ROI.
David Martin discusses the Radio 2020 initiative from the NAB, RAB and HD Radio Alliance...and calls for goals, scorecards and accountability.

This goes beyond simple "feel good" reaction (or otherwise) from inside the industry. Read
here.

My take: Dave is right on. Unless there's measureable results, you'd never know if its time, effort and money well spent or otherwise wasted. And where to next. Promoting "radio" is best targeted at the ad community. For listeners, its all about brands and programming.

Think "users".
Mark Ramsey points us to Inside Radio and the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb:

"radio needs to stop thinking of its cume as “listeners” and consider them to be “users.” He says “Listeners are engaged only when the radio is on. Radio users connect with you in other ways.”"

Mark adds additional comments
here.

Records. Lee Arnold gives us the trailer of a forthcoming film on the death of the independent record store. Places where I spent much of my youth exploring. See here.

Amazingly, I was just told this past week that a "record store" just opened in nearby East Lansing.


Jaye Albright's open letter.
To a Los Angeles broadcaster. Jay notes an air personality leaving this broadcaster's station to move to Huntsville, Alabama (apparently to make more money). Read here.

Jaye also points us to Detroit's WYCD...doing something radio does best.
Here.

Would the RIAA do this? Author Seth Godin encourages readers to loan a copy of his book "The Dip" to others. "If I could double the number of people who read the book, it would be pretty cool."

Seth writes
here.

Speaking of.
Driving home Thursday afternoon I heard a song on MSU's student run and programmed radio station. And when I got home went online and bought the MP3 download. Isn't that the way its suppose to be? Radio remains the record industry's biggest promotional resource.

Howard Who? While the latest Arbitron satellite listening report shows him king of satellite radio, has the mainstream forgotten him?

Friday Night on Letterman - NPR's Ira Glass revealed that he was a major fan of Howard Stern. Said it twice. No studio audience reaction...no applause, nothing - although Ira (and Dave) appeared to be waiting for it. As if they didn't know the name anymore. Or cared. Just an observation.


Cindy Gatziolis.
Don't know the name? Doesn't matter. Cindy share some great radio stories this week in Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight. Think Larry Lujack. Jonathan Brandmeier. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.

Friday, March 23, 2007

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

This morning, I'm listening to the Bob & Tom Show (via the web) and an interview/acoustic studio performance with REO Speedwagon. Great radio.

I remember playing these guys on the radio starting with the REO/TWO album in 1973. They've got a new CD package hitting stores in April that includes a DVD.

Streaming Rates Explained. Boulder's SBR Creative Media has put together a white paper PDF read on how the new copyright rates affect webcasting. Its a great reference piece. Find it here.

Meanwhile - Mark Ramsey writes here about "The Coming Internet Radio Boom".

We noted a few days ago the passing of Calvert DeForest. Check out
this classic 1983 Larry "Bud" Melman clip from Late Night with David Letterman.

More here Sunday.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Goodbye Calvert

Even though retired since 2002 - he remains a late night cult hero for a generation.

Calvert DeForest
- aka Larry "Bud" Melman on the David Letterman Show - passed away this week at age 85.

Read Ray Richmond's short but wonderful tribute to this comic genius here.

Friday, February 16, 2007

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Left: yours truly circa 1973. PM drive/Highland Park, IL. Age 17.

NASCAR's Daytona 500 happens on Sunday. With the news of cheating in recent days, Fox Television should enjoy some great numbers (I detected a bit of gloating on Fox News Channel this morning). And your morning show been talking about this, yes?

Caught this on Mark Ramsey's site this morning: "Jack is also a TV channel". Great stuff. Reminded me of some other ways stations are using You Tube: A couple months back, longtime friend Tom Becka (KFAB/Omaha) sent me this link to his "behind the scenes" video. A great example of breaking down that wall between performer and audience...something David Letterman taught us all on Late Night back in the 80s.

WCSX/Detroit has posted a whole lot of video as a listener resource on their website. And its hard to ignore the video resources Clear Channel has on many of their station websites.

Late Friday Update: Mark Ramsey writes more on this topic and offers this NY Times article.

I appreciate all the kind comments and constructive feedback I've received in the past week. It means a lot. Have a great weekend.