Wednesday Blogs

70° - overcast at 8:20am

Good Morning from rainy Mid-Michigan.

Caught the Don Felder interview last night on Bloomberg; interesting insight into the politics of The Eagles. Video here.

Added: More spring winners: KQRS/Minneapolis up over a point a half to break a 10 share 12+. WRFX/Charlotte rebounds after a few rough books.

News: WAXQ/New York PD Bob Buchmann resigns, leaving Q104.3 in great shape with great numbers. I hope he's moving on to something wonderful after years of success in the Big Apple.

Around my blog-o-sphere:

Jaye Albright's "Favre" Stunt. Read here.

Dave Martin. Dave shares a great "trade secret" regarding Mel Karmazin negotiating with a potential hire. Read here. As a PD (and in life), we've reached that point in negotiations.

And if you missed it, Dave shared another trade secret/tip with this blog in comments a few weeks back. Scroll to the bottom of this page to read. Share with your air talent and web people. Well worth your time.

Sounds like a great radio station:

"A healthy balance of depth tracks and familiar hits. A true connection to community. A strong moral compass. Relatable human values. Direct audience relationships."

Paragon's Mike Henry on "Boss Radio" here. (I've had the "experience" Mike writes of four times in my own life...)

Added: Consultant Alan Mason writes about branding and radio. A great piece:

"...the tangible parts of your “product” are what first attract people, but the intangible parts are what bring them back again and again, and build loyalty. In a radio brand the music or talk/news programming are the tangibles, and any facet of them, except how it adds to the experience, are still tangibles. So slight variations, shades of gray, aren’t meaningful to the consumer. That’s why smart brand marketers, like Apple, always advertise based on the intangible parts - those that live in the mind of the consumer."

"How’s your imaging today? As you listen, are you focusing on the experience and intangible parts of your station? Or are you, like most of us, still talking about the beans and the water?"

Read more here. And in a second post (here) - Alan writes:

"The “everything counts” principle simply lays it out that there is no neutral, or any get of of jail free card in anything we do. That no only includes the commercials, but also how the receptionist answers the phone. Or rather how the voice mail answers the phone these days. It includes how your your talent act at the remotes. It includes you having voice-tracked “weak ends” instead of weekends. It includes jocks who aren’t show prepping and sound like it."

"It includes the jock who tried to make a date on the Internet who turned out to be a cop. It includes the salesperson who demeans the product by giving it away at a ridiculously low price."

"Anything that doesn’t reinforce and solidify the brand then detracts from the brand."

Read his second post here. And Alan promises more tomorrow!

Have a good night.

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.

KQRS - Local radio on the job

Another one of radio's finest moments: Listening to classic rock KQRS/Minneapolis via the web - and the morning after. Eyewitness stories from listeners and staff. Updates. Ways to help. Compassion.

Listen here. An incredible job - on air and on the web. Be proud.

KQRS is part of Classic Rock's #1 12-plus Club in the spring book.

Wednesday Blogs & ARBs

77° - sunny at 10am

Welcome to August.

Last night was a great one for a bike ride around town and through the bike trails with a big old pink red moon overhead. And I did finally water my (browning) lawn. At least the front yard.

Frustration. I'm going to try again - but yesterday I had sent a note to introduce myself to a GM at a ratings-challenged station in a market I'd like to be in. This morning an Outlook return receipt showed that it was "deleted without being read". At least I know it wasn't something I said...lol.

More ARBs. Looking casually over the release spring numbers from the past week - a few stations really stood out: One is KQRS/Minneapolis. The station is #1 12-plus. Added: KQRS dominates 18-49 and exceeds a 12 share 25-54!

WGRF/Buffalo is #3 12-plus - a solid #2 A25-54 and #1 M25-54. Very nice.

From my blogosphere:

Records & Radio. From press reports it appears the recording industry woo'd Congress yesterday with their request for airplay royalties.

This morning Jerry Del Colliano writes about "Radio Royalty Hardball" - read here.

And Fred Jacobs notes here that "...the recording industry still doesn't "get it" that their best avenue for exposure, artist brand building, and sales is still good old radio".

Conclave. From Jaye Albright: materials and session recordings from last month's Conclave are now available - some of those resources are free. Check out Jaye's blog here.

Seth Godin. Seth writes a short blog post about "Toxic" employees. Read here.

My own experience and growth has helped me avoid such hires and to better manage "pre-existing conditions".

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

Happy Friday!

Classic Rock Winter ARBs. They're rolling in. Classic rock continues to show its strength in many markets.

In New York City, WAXQ PD Bob Buchmann - on the station website - tells listeners: "Just a quick word of thanks for all your support of Classic Rock on Q104.3. Many people said we would never be a long-term success...the morons!"

"You have proven them wrong with your support of the station. Arbitron says we have nearly 1,400,000 listeners. Many of our newest listeners are your kids. You're certainly bringing them up right!"

"The Winter 2007 numbers...thanks to you: In America, the largest rock station! In the New York Tri-State, the #1 station for Men 25-54!"

In Chicago: WDRV continues to "drive over heritage rockers" in the market (per Robert Feder in the Chicago Sun-Times). In Denver, KRFX has their best 12+ showing in recent history. And in Minneapolis, KQRS leads the market 12+. Very nice.

Marketing. A must read (and listen) here from Mark Ramsey - as he visits with Punk Marketing author Richard Laermer. Thank you for sharing Mark.

David Martin continues his excellent series on hiring and recruitment. Yesterday Dave wrote about the interview process and checking references. Read Dave's blog here. More education.

Rick Kaempfer. Former morning radio show producer and one of our favorite writers. His blog is one of our "just for fun" links to the right.

His "Radio Producers Handbook" is excellent - and now he's released (just out this week) a satirical novel about radio and the broadcast biz: "$everance". Its available here and at independent bookstores.

I'm waiting to read! See this promotional video for the book. I hope its a million-seller Rick!

More here Sunday Morning. Have a great weekend.

Cool Spring Promotions - Part One

The Spring book begins Thursday - the most important book of the year for media buys in the third and fourth quarter.

Spring brings promos to extend TSL and build those quarter hours.

Here's a few that caught our eye in the last week:

New York's Q1043 is combining CGM and appointment listening plus a web component in a variation of the "Workforce Payroll". Listeners can win $104 - and a chance at the grand prize of $104,000 as "Honorary Station Music Director".

I'd love just winning one of their coffee mugs.

Speaking of The Workforce Payroll - I've run this promotion a number of times over the years and it hasn't missed yet. Here's a couple of stations we've seen so far launching the contest on Thursday:

WZLX/Boston. This classic rock station is doing its version of the Workforce Payroll with $500 Thursdays for VIP Club members. Think it might add some new VIP members and expand that listener database for future email blasts?

Likewise - KQRS/Minneapolis is doing the Workforce Payroll with $100 an hour; and building that listener database for future promotions.

Its all about winning the battle for at-work listening and the all-important 6a-7p daypart in the Arbitron war.

More Spring promotions in the days and weeks to come.

CGM Weekends

It's a CGM Weekend!

Perhaps I wouldn't use that term on-air, but "consumer generated weekends" can accomplish a couple of goals: more weekend tune-in and listener loyalty in the radio station.

As we've written before: CGM means ownership; and ownership turns listeners into advocates.

Here's some examples to start your next brainstorming session: WCSX/Detroit is currently asking its Workforce Listeners to contribute for a "MyTunes" weekend. Look here. How cool is it for Joe listener when his/her name is mentioned on the air as programmer of the next set of music? Ditto with this from KQRS/Minneapolis.

Listening online a week or so ago, I really got hooked on WKLH/Milwaukee's "Ten Best". Ten great songs - centered around a year or theme; many qualify as "deep cuts" or "lost classics". And submitted by listeners. Look here.

Sidenote: "deep cuts" - used as spice with the proper set up or staging reinforce music credibility and can often change repetition perceptions. Too much spice can kill the meal. Your mileage may vary.

During February, Baltimore's 100.7 The Bay featured listener-programmed theme weekends from phone and email requests to "The Homemade Block Party Weekend". Look here. update: link now gone 4/5/07

With some effort - weekends can add more quarter hours from your audience. Ideas similar to what I've mentioned here can generate both TSL and listener loyalty - by making them part of the process.

Added: "The world of media is changing, and you’re not going to stop it, because you’re no longer in control – the consumer is." -Alan Mason via his blog yesterday.