Labor Day Weekend On The Radio

83° - sunny at 11:38am

Good Morning from Okemos.

Listening to Bob Stroud's Sunday Morning WDRV program. This morning Bob featuring the music of Labor Day Weekend 1968. As I type this - he's playing a bubblegum classic "1,2,3 Red Light" by the 1910 Fruitgum Company.

Its been 40 years and I'm sad to say that I still know the words - there's brain cells that apparently can't be overwritten. (It was a great pop song - I heard that Talking Heads used to perform it!)

Driving around town a few times this weekend, its apparent that I'm one of the few left in town with most of the normal folk sneaking in one last getaway before summer unofficially ends.

That said - normal weekend listening habits also change - and as usual many classic rock stations around the country are using the 3-day holiday to do something special on the air and working extra hard to build some quarter hours.

In New York, WAXQ (Q104.3) is using the extended weekend to air the Top 104 albums of all time. See the list here.

WZLX/Boston is celebrating the weekend airing blocks of music from the "50 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". See the list of the 50 here. Very cool 'ZLX!

In Kansas City, KCFX (The Fox) is counting down the 500 Greatest Classic Rock Songs Of All Time.

KSAN/San Francisco's Labor Day programming is one created by the listeners with a "Listener Playlist Weekend". See the web setup/playlist recruitment here.

In Tucson, KLPX is putting listeners on the air with the "Cheap Labor Day Weekend". They've got a script posted on their website along with a phone number for listeners to call in and read back for air. I like this. The setup here.

WHLK/Madison (The Lake) is airing the ""Top 93 Album Sides of All Time." Every hour starts with a classic rock album side: "Music the way it was meant to be heard...on vinyl, one side at a time." Very nice!

In Philadelphia, WMGK is doing a "Labor Day Double Play" weekend with 2-fers all weekend long.

And on Monday, WGRF/Buffalo (97 Rock) is devoting the day to something we mentioned here a few weeks back - a countdown of the Top 20 Concerts at (local venue) Rich Stadium. Very cool. Combining listener input to create content that's truly local to Buffalo. More here.

Did I miss something you're doing? Let me know!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Cool Summer Promotions

69° - 85% humidy - hazy at 7:47am

A quick browse around "the dial" saw a lot of stations with ticket giveaways for all the summer tours in progress. Springsteen, The Police, Journey, Sammy Hagar, Scorpions, Eagles, Boston, Styx - among others.

Beyond that there's a few stations taking full advantage of the time of year other stations cut back on promotion activity:

WCSX/Detroit is offering its listeners "Cash, Gas and Grass". Just saying that ought to perk up the ears of listeners for three different reasons. Details here. The station is also offering its Workforce listeners who work outside in hot, humid Midwest summer weather "construction cool offs". See here.

It might be "cool" to have your station van simply deliver cold bottled water to road crews and construction sites.

KCFX/Kansas City - flagship station of the The Chiefs is offering listeners a chance to go to the team's training camp. That can attract many outside the station's P1 audience. More here.

WGRF/Buffalo wrapped up their "Hot Mom" contest. See the winner here.

And...check out the discussion board for the contest here (along with some nice photos!). PD John Hager has been effectively using listener discussion boards on his website for a few promotions and events now and really engaging/involving his listeners; giving them a voice and making them a part of the station.

More as I see 'em!

Memorial Day Programming

58° - sunny/clear at 9:45am

Hello from Michigan. Home today with a sore sinus/throat thing. My 9-year old had something similar for the past few days - so I be thinkin' that I got it from him.

Memorial Day. See lots of stations getting ready to hit Memorial Day Weekend with Top 500 Countdowns. KUFX/San Jose is soliciting listener votes for their countdown with a chance to win Police tix. Here.

KCFX/Kansas City now collecting votes for their Memorial 500 here.

KSAN/San Francisco also compiling listener votes; though its limited to their "Bonehead" club members.

In Fort Myers, WARO is doing a "Top 400" for Memorial Day weekend - with a list to vote from online here.

In Philadelphia, WMGK has started the voting process for its "Philly 500" with a complete (?) list of titles, plus an opportunity to "write in" a vote. See how they're doing it here.

WAQY/Springfield also with the Top 500 this Memorial Day. Here. Kudos to them on a great graphic:

KLOS/LA is spending the long weekend with listener-suggested sets of music as a "My Tunes" weekend. Very cool. See the entry process here. In the Windy City, Mainstream rocker WLUP is doing a "Loyal Looper 500". See here.

One of my favorite stations - WGRF/Buffalo is letting the listeners vote - and discuss their Memorial Day 500 list.

Incentive for voting is a chance at a trip to the Hard Rock Park. Schweet! See the layout and listener comments here.

More Memorial Day Programming as I come across it.

Follow-up file: This morning I did spot one station doing "The Harley Days of May". Here.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

64° - cloudy at 10:10am

Good Morning from Okemos and welcome to the weekend.

Winter Arbitron. Numbers still rolling in. The Big Story in the last day has been in Tampa - where Cox's WHPT rose from just over a 2 share to almost a 5 and a half.

This growth via the addition of Bubba The Love Sponge in AMD. All Access headlined the news with a line about "worst to first".

AA reports that Bubba "took top honors in Persons 12+, 18-34, 18-49, 25-54 and 35-64, unseating crosstown WFLZ/TAMPA rival MJ from the top spot across the board in a very tight race."

My take: Bubba's strategy appears to be right out of the old Randy Michaels playbook.

In Kansas City, KCFX continues to climb. 12+ demo shows the heritage classic rocker climbing book-by-book. The station up over a point and a half since Spring '07.

Contributing to that growth somewhat has to be the flip of KYYS to AAA; but KCFX is a great sounding radio station nonetheless with an airstaff that really talks to its listeners.

In Denver - the race is pretty tight between Clear Channel's KRFX and Entercom's KQMT. Looking at 12+ there's only two tenths of a point between the two.

The Fox (KRFX) just did a "no repeat April" while KQMT has reportedly tightened up its playlist in recent months. I hope to look at how deep The Fox went with music in April here soon.

WKLH/Milwaukee is up a tenth of a point while crosstown WQBW remains flat.

Noted: Someone on the radio engineering list I subscribe to observed an interesting "race" in 2008 Radio Hall of Fame nominations. In the same category are Dr. James Dobson (Focus on The Family) and....Howard Stern. Miles apart but both have made their impact on the industry.

Also in that same category (national) are Bob Costas and Dr. Laura. Voting is now open here.

Jay Mitchell. He's back with a new post after a long absence - but he's been a busy guy. I should have - but didn't realize this - Jay is also publisher of the Small Market Radio Newsletter.

While I haven't seen SMRN personally in years, I can highly recommend for any medium and small market broadcaster....each issue filled with programming, promotion and sales ideas.

Jay's blog is here.

Hello Phoenix. In the email this morning was a note from Mike Mallace, GM of KAJM and KNRJ.

Mike grew up in Chicago and started in the business about the same age I did - and during his high school years worked at the same suburban radio station (a few short years after I did). Mike blogs about radio, media and life here.

More here over the weekend.

Bringing In The New Year with Classic Rock

26° - overcast at 9:45pm

Classic Rock Radio brings in 2008.

Countdowns appear to be the main event; but there's some other great features around the dial too.

In progress: CFMI/Vancouver kicked off a 500-song countdown on Boxing Day (that's the day after Christmas for us here in the States) and it runs through New Years Day.

KZOK/Seattle began a Top 1000-song countdown on Christmas Day - concluding on New Years Day.

In Scranton - WEZX/Scranton is in the midst of their Top 1007 countdown.

WAXQ/New York is replaying its Top 1043 songs of all-time (it did this over Thanksgiving) starting New Years Eve at 1pm.

Tucson's KLPX is spending the last day of the year counting down the Top 25 Classic Rock Albums Of All Time" as voted by listeners.

WAOR/South Bend is soliciting listener votes on their three favorite classic rock songs for a Top 30 Countdown on New Year's Eve. Voting by text message.

Check out WAOR's execution of the voting process here.

In Kansas City, KCFX is doing their top 1001 classic rock countdown. KZEP/San Antonio is all party songs starting at 8pm New Year's Eve.

WZLX/Boston does it live - live performances of classic rock favs by request starting at noon New Year's Eve. WTKW/Syracuse is bringing in the New Year with an A to Z marathon.

WABX/Evansville doing all requests ("happy YOU year") from Workforce members now through New Year's Day.

PD John Hager and WGRF/Buffalo celebrating the last day of the year 6am to 9pm by playing "the last cuts from Classic Rock's greatest albums".

Starting at 9pm its a commercial-free request fest with live reports from Buffalo's (and 97 Rock's) 20th Annual Ball Drop. Just like Times Square - but in Buffalo.

And on the first day of 2008 - John keeps the theme going with "by playing the first cuts from Classic Rock's greatest albums". All-Request starting at Midnight.

WKLH/Milwaukee is giving the airstaff New Year's Day off with a schedule full of syndicated specials - many of them encore presentations from the past year. See the lineup here.

Sunday Night Odds & Sods

39° - rain at 5:53pm

A great plan but a sleepless night: last night was the Christmas Party for my wife's employer; and the dinner/party included rooms for the night in the hotel/event center.

But with a significant freezing rain/sleet fall it meant they'd be clearing the nearby roads and event center parking lot during the course of the night. Backup signal beeps. Lots of scraping. Barely any sleep; caught up on snooze time this morning.

WCSX/Detroit. In the process of counting down the top 94 albums of all time. The station has a great spread on their website featuring Top 10 lists from station staff. See here.

Ringing In The New Year. KCFX/Kansas City will be counting down the 1001 Greatest Classic Rock Songs of All Time. The station is currently soliciting listener suggestions for the list - see here.

KLPX/Tucson is getting ready to present the Top 25 albums of all time - as voted by listeners. Its set up very user-friendly on the web with a drop down menu of well-known albums the listeners can choose from. See here.

KRFX/Denver in the middle of Classic Rock A to Z. Production wiz Roger King always does a great job imaging Fox's A to Z. Listen online here.

CDs For The Troops. Covered a similar promotion here back in August. Now - in time for the holidays, WLAV/Grand Rapids is collecting music CDs - both new and "gently used" - from listeners - for our troops overseas. A great promotion. Check it out here.

My brother. Daytime job he's a graphic artist for a Chicago-based toy company. At night he programs his own online TV station. Sort of. Check out "WTV" here. WTV short for "Willinois Television". All for fun.

Jeff and family reside near the IL/WI border north of Chicago; thus "Willinois". Great use of Flash video sequencing; perhaps an idea for a radio station website!

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

58° - cloudy/windy at 10:11am

Summoned this week for my civic duty - but escaped the call to serve.

Last night: Storms and tornadoes hit much of Mid-Michigan with at least three different warnings affecting our town between 8pm and 1am. Tornadoes reported to have touched down doing damage just east of here.

More winners from the summer book: WGRF/Buffalo - programmed by the brilliant John Hager posts its best 12+ numbers in five books. 97 Rock - another station that is totally locked into both its market and listeners. Another one to admire.

And in Minneapolis/St. Paul - longtime 12+ leader KQRS does it again . I wrote about KQRS the morning of the bridge disaster in that market - during the summer book here.

Added: More 12 + numbers released Friday. In Milwaukee - WKLH up a half point. KCFX/Kansas City up just shy of a full point.

Added even later: Randy Raley emails to point out the performance of classic hits KCMO-FM/Kansas City. KCMO-FM is #2 12-plus in the summer book; its best performance in at least four books. My bad for overlooking!

Randy also with some kind words for KCMO-FM PD Don Daniels: "He is truly one of the last great guys left in the business and I couldn't be happier for him."

Verizon rocks. First AC/DC. Now Zeppelin. Fred Jacobs writes here and calls it "The marriage of classic rock and digital technology".

Admitting your mistakes. I give a lot of credit to Clear Channel/Chicago RVPP Darren Davis for saying this yesterday: "I obviously made a mistake in replacing MELISSA a year ago, and the ratings have suffered."

Darren referring to replacing morning drive talent Melissa Forman with syndicated Whoopie Goldberg on Chicago's WLIT. Davis now dumping Whoopie and returning Forman to the morning drive shift. There's much credibility and respect to be gained by admitting "you blew it" to your listeners. Kudos to Darren!

Great interview. KINK/KLTH Portland PD Dennis Constantine. Deep roots in progressive rock radio and one of the original KBCO/Boulder staff.

See FMQB here.

WCSX & More Fall Promos

67° - heavy rain/thunderstorm at 8:10pm

Another busy one. Trip to Detroit and back to drop our house guests off at the airport. My in-laws from Denver. Had a great time during their visit.

Driving around Detroit - I had the pleasure of listening to Greater Media's WCSX for an extended period.

WCSX is simply a great classic rock station. Strong and well-produced imaging. Great features ("Linkletter" is something we've discussed here before); plenty of cross-promos for other shifts; and a great personality in middays: Karen Savelly.

Station was running a great promotion with the Workforce Listener of the Day. Very cool. WCSX really taps into the at-work listener; the station sure to enjoy a big PPM payoff when that day comes.

More fall promos:

Speaking of WCSX - next week the station kicks off "Workforce Cash" - $100 an hour and a drawing for ten grand.

Interesting note on their Workforce Cash web page: Listeners are required to pick up their prizes on Mondays between 3 & 5pm.

Not sure if a set time is completely listener-friendly - but having one allows the station to have a camera ready to snap photos - and a prod room ready to catch some audio from station winners.

WKLH/Milwaukee - another great classic rock station - kicks off the "'KLH $100,000 Bank Heist" on Monday with a Workforce song of the day. More here.

Likewise: WGRF/Buffalo is "hiring" - giving listeners a chance at earning $100/hour beginning Monday. Read here.

KMJX/Little Rock recycles a promotion from radio's past. "...ask everyone you see: Are you the Magic 105 USA Drug Ten Thousand Dollar Mystery Person?" Clues on air and hidden on the station's website. Details here.

Gift Cards, Free Gas & Cash: Next week, KSLX/Phoenix kicks off Thousand Dollar Thursdays, Free Gas Fridays and Gift Card Mondays.

KHYT/Tucson is playing "Stash The Cash" - stretching a cash budget with appointment listening. More here.

Recycling Football Cume. Chiefs flagship KCFX/Kansas City has a "Thousand Dollar Monday Chiefs Song Of The Day".

KCFX announces a song title during Chiefs broadcast on Sunday with song played during morning drive on Monday. Details here.

List Of Classic Rock Lists

You might find some of these a good reference for your own features and special weekends.

Its great that these stations make these song lists available for their listeners on their websites.


Special kudos to John Hager at WGRF/Buffalo.

Top Song Lists:

WAXQ/NYC's Top 1043 Classic Rock Songs Of All TIme
KZOK/Seattle's Top 1000 Song List
KCFX/Kansas City's 1001 Best Classic Rock Songs Of All TIme
WLVQ/Columbus Memorial Day 500

Other Lists:

Top 97 Artist List - from WGRF/Buffalo.
A to Z List - from WCSX/Detroit
Another A to Z List - from WGRF/Buffalo
Z to A List - from KZOK/Seattle
Beatles A to Z List - from WGRF/Buffalo
Halloween A to Z List - from WGRF/Buffalo
Artists A to Z List - from WGRF/Buffalo
Drinking Songs A to Z List - from WGRF/Buffalo

Plus: check out WAXQ/NYC's collection of Top Ten Weekend Lists.

Hey Batter Batter (Listeners Playing Hooky)

Major League Baseball kicks into high gear today with home field stations using the season opener buzz to get out in front of fans and listeners. What an excellent opportunity to bond with listeners and your market.

Detroit Classic Rock WCSX is live all day long 5am to 6pm from three different locations - one per daypart. You can bet Detroit baseball fans are ready to rock again.

WKLH/Milwaukee is live 10a-2p with a tailgate party for the Brewers home opener. Likewise, WMGK/Philadelphia is live with their midday show outside the ballpark.

In Kansas City, KCFX has their Fox Ticket Scalper at the Royals game. If listeners spot him and recite the phrase that pays, they win Clapton tix for a Monday night concert.

WOFX/Cincinnati goes into pub crawl mode following Bob & Tom with opening day ticket giveaways - plus free rides for fans to the game in the "Budweiser Shuttle Bus". Denver's KRFX has a pre-game party planned prior to the Rockies season opener.