Missing a Radio Station....

There's no doubt that Google does a pretty good job at ranking search queries and the results people "click-through". Their search algorithms are the best in the biz; highly tuned and refined.

This morning I typed in the name of this blog and saw something that caught my eye:

Out of nearly a half-million results for the term "classic rock fm" - the fourth ranked result is KZPS in Dallas - a radio station that went off the air in April of 2007 - nearly one year ago! See here.

I might have this all wrong, but my gut tells me that there's a lot of people in the Dallas area who just might miss this radio station.

Oh - and the fifth-ranked search result is kind cool too!

More here later.

Summer Arbitron, Music & Stuff From The Web

59 - partly cloudy at 10pm. Frost warning!

Back to the book - format winners in summer ARBs released since Monday: KMOD/Tulsa gaining over three points and tied for #1 12-plus. Congrats to OM/PD Don Cristi.

Another big gainer: WCMF/Rochester with over a two point jump. A great win for this heritage rock station.

WKLR/Richmond up over a point; in Columbia, SC - WMFX also up over a point; likewise with both WSFR/Louisville and KKCD/Omaha.

WSKZ/Chattanooga up nearly a point; likewise WRFX/Charlotte. In Knoxville - WIMZ is up a bit over a half point as is WROQ/Greenville-Spartanburg.

In Tucson its a classic rock battle. KHYT is up almost a point; longtime market rocker KLPX maintains a half point lead. KHYT PD Darrin Arriens making some progress.

New music (or not). A tough call for stations that label themselves "classic rock". There's many classic rock artists still producing new music: Mellencamp, Clapton, The Who, Tom Petty, Bob Seger - and Bruce Springsteen (who's at #1 for a 3rd week).

McVay Media's Dave Lange makes the case for "new rock music for 25-54s" here.

As a classic rock programmer - I've played a limited number of currents by core artists that were hard to ignore.

Those tracks were played with the proper staging and setup - including "then and now" 2-fers; and at the very minimum a live jock intro.

But (I feel) it really comes down to audience expectations for a classic rock station. If you can celebrate and make a new release "an event" it can work real easy.

Here in Michigan a year ago I couldn't pass on the opportunity to play Bob Seger's "Face The Promise" CD - after snagging a leaked copy of the CD days before its official release to radio.

An "event" that my station's audience expected. And we delivered. Bob Seger is Michigan. And that celebration continued with Bob's tour.

Other odds and ends: Clear Channel's WAXQ/New York is advertising on the web via Google adwords.

Caught my eye when an ad appeared in the Google ad space on this blog last night.

Dave Martin blogs about troubled CBS-owned talker WCKG/Chicago - saying the problem with WCKG is not the format.

And writes about dealing with talent: "When I hear that a certain talent is "difficult" it's music to my ears". Another great one - read here.

And in the news: Opie & Anthony done at WYSP after trashing both the station and its PD on air.

All Access reports today that Opie wants to "take down 'YSP" as well as rival WMMR morning team Preston and Steve - and is willing to work for free to prove it. Whatever.

50 Years Ago Today...

I'm reminded this morning by our friends at Google about an event on October 4, 1957 that totally rocked our world:


Sputnik. The first man-made object to orbit earth. 183 pounds and the size of a basketball. It changed everything.

More - including audio - here.

Afternoon Update

"Overnight we have scores of PPM experts offering station and group folks assistance. Some of these same experts would have us believe they are qualified to confront Arbitron and take the lead in what amounts to an ongoing ratings police action. My opinion is most of these so-called experts are not qualified to discuss the subject matter at any serious depth." - David Martin.

Read Dave's post here.

All Access reports: "the cumes for an in-tab based on the partial sample that was improperly processed was just about the same as the full properly processed sample."

Meanwhile: Paragon Media has been updating readers on the Arbitron Consultant Fly-In with its new blog. A recap of yesterday posted this morning; I'd expect another one soon. Read here.

Other notes of interest:

You Tube: Using embedded You Tube videos on your station site? Google's new You Tube ad strategy is now kicking in.

Do you mind their ad inventory on your website? Something to ponder. Your mileage may vary. Jaye Albright on that topic here.

btw: kudos to Google for monetizing its You Tube investment in a user-friendly way. More from Mark Ramsey here.

Satellite merger update: All Access reporting (Wednesday) that Entravision has told the FCC that if the Sirius/XM merger were to happen "the agency should allow existing terrestrial licenses to form a consortium and proceed to establish and operate a qualified competitor".

The company also "asks the FCC to require SIRIUS and XM to relinquish their spectrum so that competition can resume".

Giving up half of the combined spectrum entered my mind early into this merger talk. (this last piece reposted from yesterday; it wound up on my "bumped" list. I was "oversold". Poor inventory management on my part...oops...LOL)

What Are They Saying About Me?

Well, not me. My radio station. Or my morning show.

There's some tools on the web to see what your listeners and others may be writing - be it in their personal blogs, MySpace site - or on the web about your station or its personalities. Or your competition.

Type your call letters or slogan into these blog search engines and see what comes up:

Google Blog Search
Ice Rocket Blog Search
Technorati
Blogpulse
MySpace Search

Try it also with the regular web search engines too - like Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc.

A little time-consuming, but sometimes the results can be revealing.

And btw: Spring book begins one week from today!