Sunday Night Odds & Sods

21° - scattered clouds at 9pm

I truly appreciate the pings despite my absence. I'm anticipating a return to daily posts again in the very near future as one contract position ("the night job") slows down. But its all been good.

Over the weekend - in addition to getting caught up on sleep, family and such - I've been catching up with radio. I'm finding that if I miss a morning I miss a lot!"

Congrats to Greg Ausham. Back in radio programming Rock WRQK-FM/Canton - plus Talk WHLO-AM/Akron. Thanks to Lee Arnold for the email on Wednesday. Lee also shares the news on his blog here.

Although I've known Greg's name forever, I've only got to know him in the last three years via his (now former) job with Envision Radio; he's simply a great radio guy and a great hire for Clear Channel. Yes - I'm just a wee bit envious - he gets to program!

Madonna. In the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Despite being a fan of her music (I have this alter-ego...lol) - I shook my head in disbelief when I heard the news this past week.

I guess that begs a discussion about the question "what is rock & roll?"

Dave Lange's Xmas List. For PDs. Read here. No arguments here about anything on Dave's list. Among the standouts Santa can bring is #5: More talent.

My take: Radio without talent is just someone else's iPOD.

And with talent comes this from Fred Jacobs. Fred - writing here about the return of Bubba The Love Sponge to terrestrial radio - notes:

"...radio personalities are being let go, left and right, in markets big and small. In what can only be called a "radio recession," many owners and managers are clearly concluding that highly paid personalities - especially in so-called music dayparts - just aren't worth the freight. Thus, big names are hitting the streets at a particularly crucial point in radio's lifespan."

With one company laying off talent as a "re-expression" (a term coined by one market manager from that company to explain the layoffs) - it might present a great opportunity for an aggressive competitor to acquire some great name talent that has suddenly become available.

There are still some great companies not - as Fred puts it "Mortgaging the future in order to"re-express" better results this quarter".

Fred also blogging on Friday about "Led Zeppelin: Opportunity Lost or Found" - running down stations that took advantage of this monumental musical event - and thinking about those that didn't.

Fred offers comments from an industry friend, reviewing playlists via Mediabase, remarking "many music logs looked like they might have been scheduled two weeks before. There simply wasn't any extra Zeppelin content".

Fred adds: "as he pointed out to me, a new definition of "In Through The Out Door" may as well have been "Out The Door At 5." Sad to read; reminds me of what I wrote here this morning regarding weekend service elements in a weather emergency.

Also mentioned are some upcoming opportunities for classic rock stations to sound current. A great read right here. Mark your calendar, pull the staff together and use your imagination.

Jay Mitchell: This past Monday Jay emailed me a copy of his new newsletter "Radio Voices" - aimed at on-air talent and filled with some great wisdom and advice.

Jay also offering a free teleseminar for air talent on January 3rd. Details here at his Killerjock website.

More Jay Mitchell: On his blog this past week Jay writes about "The Procustean Problem". A great read here and something I've seen too many times.

Still reading: The story of the Lee Arnold and the WQFM/WLPX (Milwaukee) early 80s rock war in "WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever" here at 93QFM: The Halcyon Daze. A great story authored by Scott Beddome. Chapters 1-15 now online for your reading pleasure.

E-Mail: Received a note on Thursday from WHLK/Madison's Jim Bartlett. The station (93.1/The Lake) was hosting an all-day radiothon to benefit the Madison police canine unit. JB writes:

"We've taken the morning show's last letter game and stretched it out all day. (Somebody requests a song, and the next request has to start with the last letter of the previous one.) We've got cops and dogs in the studio, and plenty of music we don't usually get to play. It's already produced some of the coolest radio I've heard in a long time."

I unfortunately didn't get a chance to listen online - but doing something special out of the ordinary (and creating the staging for an opportunity to "dig deep") is very cool. Thanks again for sharing Jim!

Advice of the week: "Be so good they can't ignore you." That advice from the brilliant Dave Martin - who notes here that he's been offering that response year after year when asked about how to get the big job or the big break.

Dave's blog is required reading each day.

More tomorrow. Its on the calendar.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

58° - clear at 9:22am

Welcome to Friday; Sun shining this morning for what seems to be the first time in days. Nice autumn weather.

More news to programmers from the NAB during the weekend.

The Boss. Appeared this morning on NBC-TV's "Today Show". I knew about it; missed it - but just caught the video here on the web. Very cool.

Paul Shaffer. That nutty guy from the Letterman Show. Now doing radio. "Paul Shaffer's Day In Rock" - a sixty second daily feature distributed by Envision Radio. Just picked up starting Monday by WAXQ/New York City.

Demo is great. Listen here. Book it by calling Greg Ausham at (216) 831-3761 or grega@envisionradio.com.

Cara Carriveau. Cara's latest podcast has her chatting with Jim Peterik - formerly of Survivor and The Ides of March, along with former Survivor lead singer Jimi Jamison and Night Ranger singer/drummer Kelly Keagy.

All three are performing together next week at MelodicRockFest in South Bend, Indiana. Listen at Cara's Basement here.

Dave Martin. Yesterday Dave wrote here about employers, job seekers and manners:

"In recent years I continue to hear from folks who are out of work and not able to get employers to return a phone call nor respond to an email. Folks are doing as they are told, following instructions and making application for employment - never to hear anything in response. So it would seem the days of a proper rejection letter is over. The majority of the time it seems employers today are not offering any response whatsoever. Folks apply for a job and nothing happens...."

"It's bad manners and there is simply no excuse. Understanding there will always be a few bad actors out there, in the ranks of the employed and unemployed, it seems today there are just too many rude folks at work on the employer side."

Guilty. Me. On the employer side I've had applicants fall through the cracks that I never responded to. Most I did. But that doesn't matter to the ones I failed. As Dave said - there is no excuse.

Its something that might not seem mission critical until you become the job seeker. One soon discoveres how valuable a response - any response - is to the applicant. Think of the impression of you and your company in the eyes of the applicant.

Noted for my future. And thanks Dave.