Wednesday Blogs

67° - mostly sunny at 8:23am

Good Morning from Okemos.

Always Roll Tape...err...TiVo: Last night I was watching a CNBC special on the Detroit Auto Show; the program highlighted a GM private party where Kid Rock performed.

CNBC interviewed Kid Rock and the result was a great soundbite for Detroit and the auto industry; timely audio that a great imaging guy (in Detroit) could use....just thinking here. Keep that TiVo going when you're watching the tube, you'll never know when you'll hear a good catch.

Steve Palec/WKLH: I've been a loyal fan of Steve's Sunday Morning "Rock 'N Roll Roots" show for a few years now. Milwaukee's Business Journal recently published an article about Steve and what he does when he's not spinning Led Zeppelin. Read here.

HD: Monday in "Net News", All Access published an HD Radio Update. Ibiquity's Bob Struble announced more automaker deals and the availability of sub-$100 consumer radios. On the programming side, ESPN is now offering HD-specific programming for stations.

Still - consumer awareness (not lack of interest) appears to be the biggest problem for the technology. Fred Jacobs ponders this lack of awareness for HD (as compared to the interest in the mandated Digital Television Transition) and asks "What would happen if all analog radio was to disappear on 1/1/2010? Would it be the end of radio as we know it? Or would it be the beginning?"

Read Fred's piece here.

Boston Blues: I note that the HD-2 channel of WZLX/Boston is airing blues 24/7 as "Radio Mojo". Very cool.

Somebody ought to try that in the Windy City!

Tom Becka. Congrats to my friend of 25+ years on the national release of his book "There's No Business Without The Show". Tom - who is hosts afternoons on talk KFAB/Omaha - has been a jock, radio salesperson, radio sales manager, stand-up comedian and talk show host.

All the best to my friend on the success of his book. Tom and I began our friendship at a little radio station off a rut-filled dirt road in Santa Fe. Memo to Tom: I'm waiting for my autographed copy!

Have a great Wednesday.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

78° - clear at 1:27pm

How I've been spending my free time: Certainly (I'm sorry to say) not with this blog. The current obsession is getting the internet station "on the air"; while managing one and a half paid jobs plus life.

Listening: My usual Sunday. Bob Stroud on WDRV/Chicago followed by Steve Palec on WKLH/Milwaukee. Stroud featuring CSN on his roots show this morning; Palec with the theme "sex and music" when I tuned in; plus Ringo Starr.

WDRV celebrates its 7th birthday this Tuesday Night with a free listener concert featuring Crosby, Stills and Nash at the Rosemont Theater near O'Hare Airport. Very cool - and congrats to Greg Solk and everyone at Bonneville/WDRV for seven years of great radio.

Speaking of Bonneville. Consultant Jaye Albright points to the website of the company's new "The Sound FM" (KSWD) and its easy to navigate simplicity. Clean and uncluttered like the station's airsound - and going against conventional radio station website thinking. Jaye's comments here.

5 Essential Tools For Good Imaging. A good piece for PDs and production/imaging guys by Rich Van Slyke in this week's FMQB online. Read here.

Buying TV. Univision Radio Executive VP David Eduardo Gleason writes on his site about the December, 1978 launch of KZNT/San Juan, noting how the launch was promoted:

"A day before the weekend of the launch, the final
few days of 1978, I called the GSM's of the San Juan TV stations
and offered to pay 20% of card for all the unsold inventory that weekend. We ended up with nearly 2000 GRPs for a small investment... and the GSM's got some extra dollars at year-end!"

Its not rock radio - but simply a great radio story. Read here. And do hit "home" and read David's other career highlights and stories.

Weird cover song that works. This tipped by Randy Raley on his blog - with one of my all-time favorite artists doing one of my all-time favorite songs:


More performances of the track by Neil on You Tube. And congrats out to Randy Raley - who has moved from St. Louis to become market manager of a 3-station cluster in the Bloomington/Normal, Illinois market.

Video bonus link. Had an email from Chicago production ace Tom O'Toole yesterday with this.

Heading out of town for a few days with the day job. I'll post if I can.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

82° - clear at 12:30pm

Chicago. Returned from our brief 4th of July road trip last night. Lots of time on the road with typical Chicago road construction and related traffic delays.

While piled behind hundreds of cars attempting to get through a toll booth on the Indiana toll road, my wife remarked that "at least the music is good". We were listening to Chicago's WDRV. (surprise? I think not)

And while I listen to that station a lot on the internet here in Michigan, the station (and others) always seems to sound better when you're actually in their market.

More great radio. Fred Jacobs turns us on to Entercom's KSEG/Sacramento and some on-air special programming that keeps the format fresh. A great read (plus audio) here.

Aircheck Critiques. Dave Lange posted a piece back on Tuesday about aircheck critiques of air talent. Something that should be a top priority, yet is taking a back seat these days with PDs juggling multiple stations and increased workloads. Dave offers some great tips here.

Imaging. Jaye Albright (via Paul Orr) turns us on to another blog - and some thoughts on keeping imaging fresh even when you're suffering from "writer's block":

"Ask ANY writer: the only solution to a creative block is to just start writing. So, what did you create today to make your station's brand imaging more topical and fun? And, like Morneau (and Orr), what did you do to share it with other people?"

Jaye's piece is here. And be sure to check out the comment section. Start your own blog and get noticed. Avoid secrets you can't reveal but share your work once its on the air.

More Seth Godin. The other day I mentioned one of Seth's pieces and hinted at another one. Here's a bit of that second one:

"What happens when marketers stop arguing on behalf of their corporate or organizational client and start arguing on behalf of the customer instead?"

Seth's post here. I'm not suggesting for one moment that we forget this is a business - but Program Directors need to argue on half of the listener and become their advocate. If not the PD, who?

Have a great Sunday.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

35° - overcast at 10:45am

Good morning and Happy Easter from Michigan.

Apologies for the lack of posts this past week. I'll spare you the details; but recent days spent recovering from a virus I've been suffering with for several weeks.

Spring officially here - but winter returned with 3-4 inches of white stuff on the ground Friday Night/Saturday Morning. Michigan State: Great win last night over Pittsburgh with MSU moving on next Friday. Go Spartans!

Listening: My usual Sunday Morning fare. Also the past week spent lots of time with Lee Arnold's WORJ-dot-com.

Around the blogosphere:

FMQB. Some great pieces posted on their site this weekend. One on radio and the web in an interview with the brilliant Mel Taylor. Here.

Another on sweeper production written by Rich Van Slyke. Some great ideas on coaching your outside voice talent on the type of delivery you're looking for. Read here.

Radio BS. No, I'm not going negative. But Mark Ramsey points out some of the dumb things radio stations say on the air. Mark points to a line he heard: "At last, a radio station that fits your lifestyle." Whatever that means. Read here.

Reminds me of an ad I saw a year or so ago; station looking for a program director. The ad said "must live the classic rock lifestyle". I wasn't sure what that meant, so I emailed the person placing the ad who replied "if I have to tell you, you're not the person we're looking for".

Observation: This past week I had a chance to listen to a station from a nearby market - a market larger than Lansing.

The station's afternoon drive jock was apparently MIA; so instead of a substitute, the only thing heard was segues from the automation. Song to song, song to stopset and the like. This station an Arbitron leader in its market. Disappointing.

Catching up on things today.

Your Station Voice

30° - overcast at 2:30pm

Your mileage may vary - but its been my take for the longest time that the days of the deep "balls-to-the-floor" snarly imaging voice for classic rock stations is pretty much over.

Different voices - even a combination of different voices...male/female, different accents both regional and national - as well as listener voices can make your imaging stand out.

Rather than the same voice all the time, a different voice 2, 3, 4 times an hour can perk up the ears. Think surprises and not the same old.

Yesterday Mark Ramsey offered a great post on using different celebrity voices for imaging in a audio interview with Wes Stevens - President of voice talent company VOX, Inc. Read/listen here.

Related: some thoughts on branding yesterday from David Martin's blog. Read here.

Disturbing. More cutbacks announced today. Can you really save your way to cash flow? Just asking.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

31 - overcast at 1:43pm

Welcome to Saturday. My weekend adventure started last night as my wife's notebook PC suddenly displayed the blue screen of death. Had to order XP OS disks from Dell to repair or reload.

Jodi is beginning to show the signs of computer withdrawal.

This morning it was time outside with the snowblower clearing the six inches of snow we had in the last day. See here. Later today its finally replacing the CD/DVD drive in my kids Desktop PC that stopped working some time ago.

Listening. This morning to William Shatner's 2004 album Has Been. Cool and interesting. An adventure.

Heard a track from the CD driving to work yesterday on MSU student-run WDBM - which is all I seem to listen to in the car as of late. Alternative/modern rock.

Later: Lee Arnold's WORJ-dot-com. Lee's online radio station has really come a long way in the last few months. Commercial sensibilities with lots of adventure. Just my take.

Watching: Yesterday to JJ Abrams - speaking at TED on the value of "mystery". Via Mark Ramsey's blog where he asks the question "How does your station create mystery?" Read/watch here.

Do iPODs create mystery? Adventure? I think not. I've mentioned that radio's biggest asset is localism. Another asset might be creating surprises - but deep tracks 24/7 aren't for the masses. Mystery and adventure doesn't always mean eclectic - and also includes the spoken word.

Reading: Dave Lange writes here on about getting organizated and creative with your imaging. Dave writes:

"How well organized is your imaging clock? Take a look at the MOST VALUABLE images you need and want to convey. Then take a look at how much 'inventory' you have to invest in building the image. You need both a long term plan for the campaign and also a short term clock to execute it."

"Creativity counts big time. Every second counts and at the same time you can't overcook it. You also can't just let the same imaging piece ride for weeks on end. It needs to be freshened."

"Another fact seques are back and should be used. Many may shutter at the 'dead air' as 2 songs just blend together. How will they know who they are listening to? Guess what - they have some brains and if you've done your job in building the brand and your stationality they will know."

Thank you Dave. More over the weekend.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

15° - overcast at 12:25pm

Welcome to the weekend.

Randy Michaels. Its good to see him back in the biz...running Tribune for Sam Zell. If there's one guy I feel can run the legendary WGN Radio/Chicago, its Mr. Michaels. He gets it.

And I do believe the dead-tree biz will see a revolution too.

Bonus: From the new Tribune employee handbook - under the Zell/Michaels regime:

"Rule #1: Use your best judgment."
"Rule #2: See Rule 1."

"7.1. If you use or abuse alcohol or drugs and fail to perform the duties required by your job acceptably, you are likely to be terminated. See Rule 1. Coming to work drunk is bad judgment."

"7.2. If you do not use or abuse alcohol or drugs and fail to perform the duties required by your job acceptably, you are likely to be terminated."

Pretty simple stuff, eh? More here.

A case for cume: Its all about cume and reach in the world of PPM. Dave Lange blogs about the need to begin selling cume - saying "The sooner we start to 'prime the pump' for selling Cume the better off we will all be." PPM market or not. Read here.

Positioning lines and PPM: Mark Ramsey this past week writes about the need for clear positioning in the world of PPM.

Not the throwaway radio lines we've been repeating over-and-over again for the last 20 or 30 years - but credible lines backed up by actions:

"You need to make sure you - and your current and potential audience - can answer these basic questions:

1. Who are we and what do we stand for?

2. How is this different from the competition in a way that matters - a lot - to the audience?

And if you can't answer those questions, you don't have a position...
...whether or not you have a positioning line."

I couldn't agree more. And you just can't say it what you stand for and what your differences are. You've got to demonstrate it with your programming and actions.

Listening to Chicago's WDRV as I write. Just heard a sweeper - voiced by the pipes of Nick Michaels - reminding me that "while it seems Chicago Radio changes like the weather - The Drive hasn't."

"We promised you a music intensive morning show without the silly games and phone calls - and we live up to that promise today." Not the exact copy; but as I recall it.

And with WDRV - a new look. If you've read this blog for long you'd know its one of my fav stations. They just updated their logo. There's a cool flash banner on their website now that rotates different Drive artists with each site visit:

Thanks this past week. Kind notes from David Martin (via his blog) and from WSHP/Lafayette, IN PD Rob Creighton. They all mean a lot.

More this weekend.

Flashback! comes To TV Land

17° - clear at 7:43am

Classic Rock's FLASHBACK has come to TV. Well - at least in spirit.

One of its production concepts (or "ear candy") appears to be influencing the present imaging campaign running on TV Land.

FLASHBACK - a syndicated longtime weekend staple of many a classic rock station for over 20 years - has been well known to combine music and sound bites together in themes. TV Land has taken this concept to their present on-air promos - combining 1980-era pop hits with TV clips - all taken from different TV Land shows - all with a common theme.

Some themes seen over the past week include "Who Can It Be Now" by Men At Work and "Breakin' The Law" by Judas Priest. My wife and I frequently watch M*A*S*H reruns on the channel...

Congrats to the original team at Radio Today Entertainment - who introduced FLASHBACK to the world via NBC's Source Radio Network back in the early 80s; and continues running to this day with original host Bill St. James via the ABC Radio Network.

Monday Monday

12° - clear at 11:50pm

Tonight was the annual Michigan Association of Broadcasters Christmas Party. A good time spent with a great bunch. Jodi and I leaving earlier than usual to pick up kids at sitter. And there was work for yours truly still to do tonight - and (of course) the blog!

Does Imaging Still Matter? There's been some movement to shy away from a lot of imaging elements - perhaps an attempt to be more "iPOD-like".

My own take: there's valid arguments on either side - depending on the station, format, market and so forth. Programming is art - all very subjective.

Sean Ross writes about this topic in depth. Read Sean's words and some great follow-up comments here.

I recall Bob Pittman launching AOR WKQX/Chicago back in 1977 with a "no-hype" approach. Of course the liners Bob recorded touting "no-hype" was in fact "hype" - and was the station's imaging. It was just a different twist.

Led Zeppelin (again): Caught up with Bob Lefsetz' blog last night - and his thoughts on the Led Zep reunion shows last week:

"I don’t buy this hogwash that it’s a one-off. All my sources tell me there’s going to be a tour. No one will CONFIRM a tour, but it’s a well-known fact that they’re going to go on the road."

Read Bob's complete piece here.

More R&R Hall of Fame: Fred Jacobs and I had to be thinking the same thing. I commented on one new inductee into the Cleveland institution. Fred has his take here.

And thanks - to Dave Martin. Appreciate the kind note tonight.

Bedtime for Bonzo. More soon.

Wednesday Blogs

32° - cloudy at 9:45pm

Good evening from Okemos.

From my blogosphere:

Great post: Mark Ramsey on being "Hyper-Local". Read the original post and follow-up comments here. Mark writes about being relevant in a local emergency - using the Southern California wildfires as an example.

My two cents: I couldn't agree more with Mark. In addition to his thoughts - its my thinking that those stations that focus on being local and relevant each and everyday that are the real winners.

I suppose there's a place for automated jukeboxes - but the real successful stations are the ones that truly connect to their local market.

Its a long-term investment - but marketed right the revenue usually follows - and increases the "sticky" factor of your product. Attributes that create a great offense.

I still hear many stations not taking advantage of one of their biggest assets: the world within its coverage area.

Then there's thee stations that really get it. You hear and feel the buzz of their market. And those stations are wonderful to listen to.

AFDI. A term coined by Lee Abrams. And a favorite of mine. In his latest blog post - Lee comes across some old emails from the early days of XM - a great read.

One of those emails concerns the topic of artist IDs:

"..Whenever you get artist ID's, make certain you get them to cut ID's for Christmas, Labor Day and other Holidays. Come Christmas, you will have dozens of custom ID's, and other stations will freak wondering "Where did they get those"!...it's the XM way of going the extra mile".

I'll bet we didn't AFDI this one too well. These are the "little details" that separate radio from AMAZING RADIO. So---It's your choice:

a) Show me I'm totally wrong and pull them out;
b) Suffer through endless pounding of this at future meetings;
c) Start plugging in the hundreds we DO have (special thanks to Mike) and remember to AFDI this at all future ID sessions. .....

The right answers are A or C. Again, it's those little details. The bottom line: Let's flood the appropriate formats with Artist XMas ID's that we have in house...we have a ton in Dalet.

More from Lee - including thoughts on great audio imagery, on PDs providing direction to talent and the product - here.

Passion. Once again - Lee Abrams:

“They don't make records like "Pinball Wizard" anymore. Literally. There was this acoustic guitar in one ear. And then, all of a sudden, twenty five seconds into it, an electric BLARED into the other."

Can't you just hear that song intro when you read that?

(Oh - the term "AFDI". In case you don't know what that means - find the term highlighted here)

Great blog: Edison Media Research's "The Infinite Dial". Lots of fresh observations about our industry - almost daily - from Sean Ross and Tom Webster. Make it part of your daily routine. Here.

And more WGRF/Buffalo. Have I ever mentioned that I think this station "gets it"? A great listener email went out this afternoon highlighting something very local to Buffalo that happened on-air in AM drive:

Breaking news for Bills fans - and giving those who didn't tune-in a chance to hear. Tomorrow would have been too late. Great stuff!

Monday Monday

39° - scattered clouds at 11:45pm

A very productive day; hope yours was the same. More than a 50% chance of snow here tonight. There's something wonderful about the first snowfall of the year - and being on the air sharing the moment with listeners when it happens.

Branding the station in the mind of the listener. Tipped by Jaye Albright: a cool presentation from WHTZ/Z100 NYC Creative Services Director Dave Foxx.

Dave's piece was seen at the European NAB a year ago - and as Jaye says "....I promise you it's still worth the ten minutes' time." Watch here:


Great radio transcends format boundaries. Thank you Dave Foxx.

Congrats. To Chicago's Steve Dahl for making the transition to the world of Jack FM - and a return to morning drive after...how many years?.

Fresh 105.9 took to air late today on the former talk WCKG frequency. This morning, Radio-Info's Tom Taylor expressed the same thoughts I wrote here yesterday: that CBS bluffed crosstown AC WLIT into adopting their annual "all-christmas" presentation early to provide a great environment to launch "Fresh".

Steve Dahl ringtones?: Search engine deception or the real thing? Google Adsense caught Steve's name here; resulting in this:

Wednesday Blogs + A Few Small Details...

50° - scattered clouds at 9am

..and happy halloween.

From my blogosphere:

Mark Ramsey: "Embrace digital realities or die". The future is about great content and multiple distribution platforms. Read here.

Fred Jacobs: TV commercials and music. Something we touched on here back on Monday. Fred's blog makes a good read - here.

Minutia:

This Friday: Its National Traffic Director's Day. A day to show your traffic director some love.

Aside from the chore of deciphering sales orders, she or he is the one adjusting the log everytime you decide to change the clocks or schedule that special programming.

As one who has done traffic on oversold radio stations more than a few times - more often than not- its just a thankless job.

The TDGA has some suggestions here.

With that, I recall a Market Manager (was it Cindy Schloss?) once say "we can't be sold out - I'm still hearing music on the air".

Daylight Savings Time: This Sunday Morning at 2am. Think about some clever imaging to remind your audience to turn the clocks back an hour.

No need to go overboard - perhaps once an hour - maybe tie in with legal ID. Begin on Friday during PM drive.

Arbitron Notes from Holland Cooke

79° - sunny at 11:04am

Welcome to September!

Its "green" here as Michigan State kicks off another season of Spartan football today at noon.

McVay Media's Holland Cooke came back from Arbitron's Consultant Fly-In with some great notes he's sharing with the rest of us. A great read - no matter if your market is (or will be) PPM, diary based or unrated. Holland's notes can be found here.

"...doing good programming, and constantly inviting new cume to sample it, remains the formula for success" -Holland Cooke

Bonus: See video of his Arbitron fortress visit in Columbia here.

But wait! There's more: Cooke is offering a free peek at his monthly newsletter. Holland is a news/talk consultant - but there's plenty of great ideas applicable to classic rock and many other formats.

In his September newsletter - check out his thoughts on station imaging ("consider NOT using an announcer") ; buying TV in January - and talent coaching tips. All part of "8 ideas in 7 minutes". Read here.

Thank you Holland. And thanks to consultant Jaye Albright and her Breakfast Blog for the lead on these resources.