Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

21° - overcast, light snow at 12:38pm

Good Morning/Afternoon from Okemos! Snow coming down...winter ain't over yet.

Signing off: Paul Harvey. I recieved the news last night from KFAB's Tom Becka via Facebook. The end of an era indeed. Good day.

Listening earlier: This morning to WDRV and Bob Stroud's Rock 'N Roll Roots program. Aside from some Who music celebrating Roger Daltry's birthday, Bob also featuring lots of music from the Brian Jones era of the Stones. I think Bob mentioned that Brian would have been 67 today.

Listening later: Steve Palec on WKLH. Steve playing some Jeff Beck as I write along with some sound clips of Les Paul talking about Beck. Very cool; and as usual, Steve's production, planning and use of sound is noted! WKLH: end the madness with your internet fill spots. Enough with the repetitive debt reduction and ad council PSAs!

Congrats: To Milwaukee's Lee Arnold - celebrating the second anniversary of his internet station WORJ-dot.com. Lee the inspiration for my OkemosBrewing-dot-com. I missed the Heartsfield concert he was airing yesterday...damn!

More on "staffing the station." The other day I quoted Jerry Del Colliano - who noted that there's lots of social networking tools (Twitter, Facebook, email, etc.) for talking with listeners, but that all require that "someone be home".

This morning I ran across a post by consultant Jaye Albright about stations on "auto-pilot"...and I'm going to take the liberty of printing Jaye's entire post:

"The flight from Seattle was within miles of Houston when the flight attendant came on the intercom to say “welcome on board Continental Airlines. ” Then, she paused in mid-sentence as the first few rows of frequent fliers came to the realization that what she had meant to say was the traditional “welcome to Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport” announcement, which she no doubt delivers at least three or four times a week.

Instead, unthinkingly, she started to do the typical take-off announcement, which she routinely gives three or four times each day. “If she’s not going to think about what she’s saying, I sure won’t,” I thought.

The same is true on radio. Computers now make it so easy to walk away from the control room and have the station run itself for quarter hours at a time. Meanwhile, request lines ring unanswered, listeners text, email, social network, hoping to interact with you, the brand they hear on the radio.

Radio, of course, was the first interactive medium from the very first days of top 40 radio a half century ago, when Gordon McClendon famously put that juke box in front of KLIF, Dallas, and listeners drove by the station wanting to choose the music and become more engaged. So, previous generations of air personalities have created some expectations out there in radioland.

If you’re on the air, it’s your choice. Take the easy way, do jingle, liner and sweeper auto pilot radio. Sound like you’re a machine. Or, get busy. Commit to answering every phone line as quickly as possible. Record every phone interaction, edit the best stories and integrate them into your content.

Text listeners. Interact with the audience on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, your chat room, your blog and use the best of that on the air too. Yes, it’s a lot to do. But, this I guarantee: you’ll never get bored doing it that way. And, listeners can tell.

Southwest Airlines revolutionized air travel by encouraging their flight attendants to get creative with the take off and landing announcements, even the federally-mandated safety announcements. Their reward? Profitability and some of the most loyal users in the industry. Perhaps those zany announcements had a role in that.

One thing for sure, encouraging their flight attendants to have more fun and ad lib resulted in flight crews who don’t just mouth the same words repeatedly so that they sound like they’re doing them in their sleep. Like a lot of radio stations do today. You?"

Jaye's blog is a must-read, no matter your format.

Related. Heard a story from a friend in Chicago attending a club appearance by a heritage band last night. She noted that the sponsoring station, despite sponsoring the concert, had no on-air staff at the show (there were two former staff members there...). Yipes!

Catching up on Rick. If you haven't stopped by Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight, check in and read some great radio stories.

Have a great Sunday.

Wednesday Night Update

44° - overcast at 9:03pm

If you've been a longtime reader to this blog - you'd think that after two straight posts about Detroit's WCSX, I'd move on to...well, perhaps Chicago's WDRV. But no.

Detroit PPM numbers have been released and WCSX and clustermate WRIF both saw some great numbers, once again showing that PPM is good for rock! All-Access reported today (and thank you Lee for passing along) these rankings for the two Greater Media Detroit rockers:

WRIF: #1 12+; #2 25-54; #1 18-49; #2 18-34
WCSX: #2 12+; #4 25-54; #4 18-49; #9 18-34

Very nice! And congrats to Cluster Director of Rock Programming Doug Podell and his crew on both stations. The market curious as to what becomes of WCSX mornings; details could come as soon as Monday.

Bob Coburn/Rockline. One of the best programs on the air; and Bob signs a new deal with Dial-Global for distribution. Program website here. The program sells its archives on the site (not for broadcast use); the collection is priceless.

Speaking of archiving: Back on Sunday, this blog made reference to John Gorman's Buzzard (Book) Blog and the fact that aside from lots of great stories, John offers some audio and visual glimpses into the history of one of the world's heritage album rockers.

I wrapped up the post, suggesting that stations need to archive their audio assets and preserve them for future use; and that brought a note from the legendary Mr. Gorman himself:

Dan,

The original WMMS archives, which were well maintained from the early seventies on, were destroyed in the early nineties when the station moved to a new, smaller location and was under management that had little interest in preserving its past.

The archives contained nearly every interview, every concert broadcast, and hundreds of hours of random airchecks and classic spots.

At the time we didn't know why we were saving everything. We felt there would be historical value to it someday. The Internet wasn't even a dream at that time - but had they been saved, an Internet site could have been set up to house the material, much like the Wolfgang site did for Bill Graham's concert broadcasts.

Different management and different times. The new managers viewed a room full of tapes as reusable goods and the few tapes saved were shipped off to the unheated, no-air conditioned transmitter site, where most were destroyed by natural elements - flooding, critters, etc.

We learned of the archives' fate when I paid a visit to the transmitter site in 1994 and chewed up and unrolled tapes submerged in six inches of water. A few were apparently lifted - and some showed up years later at garage sales and flea markets. In fact, I was just contacted by someone last week who bought a couple of concert tapes at a rural flea markets hundreds of miles away.

Nearly all of what I have been able to recover so far has come from former listeners' taped-from-the-radio private collections. The Townshend interview came from a listener who later became an intern at the station and, today, manages a group of stations.

I stress to every radio station to find a way to save as much as you can. You never know....

A very sad story indeed. If you have an archive, official or not, preserve it. Share your heritage with your listeners if not on the air, on the web. Just save it.

More tomorrow.

Sunday Evening Odds & Sods

75° - clear at 9:15pm

Good Evening From Michigan. Most of the weekend spent ripping music for the internet radio project. Did catch a bit of Bob Stroud's Rock 'N Roll Roots show this morning on Chicago's WDRV - first of a two-part salute to The Who.

Catching up on reading:

Great posts - both related. Fred Jacobs wrote Friday on a new JupiterResearch study showing that "despite all the other music discovery media and methods, radio is still #1" for discovering new music. Fred's post here. And back on Thursday, Mark Ramsey wrote a piece on Pandora - and radio's advantages - both music and non-music. A must read here.

Dave Lange. Dave asks "Sales solves all problems?". Read here.

Industry heros ignored. This past week Lee Arnold blogged that "the inductees for 2008 into the National Radio Hall of Fame were announced today (Friday). Scott Muni, Tom Donahue, Bill Drake, Thom O'Hare, Bill Vermillion and Jack Benny were not among the inductees." Lee - I think you and I need to start a campaign for next year. I'm certain others would join the effort.

Chicago Radio Spotlight. This week Rick Kaempfer interviews WERV/Aurora production director Jim McInerney. More great radio stories here.

Larry. Getting back to the state broadcaster's conference I attended early this week. Tuesday Night the annual Michigan Association of Broadcaster Hall of Fame Awards were announced. Five individuals were inducted into the Michigan Broadcaster Hall of Fame - all very deserving.

Among the five: Larry Estlack.

Larry has been in the business since his high school days in Muskegon, Michigan; has been an air personality, programmer, engineer, teacher and friend to many.

His influence is statewide - having (as engineer) constructed many facilities throughout the state - plus (at least) two television stations from construction permit to air in Lansing. Larry's day job is that of Director of Technology for the state broadcast association.

As an air personality and programmer, Larry's been on-air at several Lansing area stations during his career - and for the last 20+ years, has been hosting the All-Request Saturday Night Show on the classic rock station I formerly programmed here in Lansing.

Accepting his award Tuesday Night, Larry thanked one guy for the music he plays - and thats consultant Fred Jacobs. Larry and Fred attended (and taught) at Michigan State University together.

It was Fred Jacobs who nominated Larry for the Hall of Fame this year. Fred, along with many others were at the ceremonies to see and hear Larry accept the award; and yours truly fortunate to be there too. And glad to call Larry Estlack a friend.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

78 - sunny at 11am. Left: Michigan's Mackinac Bridge - as shot by my wife heading north this past Monday.

Hello from Okemos!

Feeling out of touch: the past week a fast one - between an elevated work schedule and my wife out of town most of the week (in Michigan's "U.P." on business) - which left me to take care of all the house and kid duties. The blog, unfortunately had to take a back seat. Getting back on schedule...

Spent much of yesterday working on my forthcoming internet station. Still ripping CDs, entering required MP3 meta data on the individual cuts to meet the RIAA requirements. While its possible to put something "on the air"; first impressions are everything - so a formal debut will have to wait. Meanwhile in testing, the nearly 10-year old Pentium III (XP Home/648k RAM) running the automation is performing nearly flawlessly 24/7.

Speaking of streaming: This past week, Edison Media's Sean Ross wrote a great piece on streaming radio and the stopset situation - specifically looking at the Atlanta market. Here. Sean notes many of the thoughts that go through my head while listening to streaming radio stations. My conclusion is that streaming is just a mere afterthought - still - when putting a great online product together should be as high a priority as the terrestrial product. But I've said that here before. Why bother if you're not making it the best it can be?

Another great piece this past week was one on Friday from Jacobs Media's Keith Cunningham. The topic was talent. Using the NBA's Boston Celtics as an example, Keith wrote:

"....if a station is really looking to change the game, they may need to get honest with themselves and agree to invest in hiring great talent. The right mix of music can’t be overlooked – but take a cue from some of Radio’s iconic brands that many emulate – they have big talent."

"It’s also worth noting that The Bone in Tampa (Cox) went from a mid-pack player to virtually #1 across the board with men, almost immediately, by adding Bubba the Love Sponge to morning drive back in January. The Bone’s music mix was right all along, but there’s no substitute for big talent. Whether it's radio or the NBA, talent wins. Just ask anyone who lives in Boston."

Keith's entire piece here.

Speaking of talent. Lee Arnold writes on something I've touch on before. Another wonderful read here.

Mark Ramsey. Mark shares his view on positioning:

"As I have often said, "positioning" has never been about a "line," it has been about a "position." And a position is about standing for something. And if you stand for something that means you should be doing the right things to support that something. Because that means you're real. And a brand is as real as you and I are."

Mark's piece here.

Spending the morning getting caught up on my reading before an afternoon trek to the ballpark to see our local minor league Lansing Lugnuts (currently #1 in their division) take on the Ft. Wayne Wizards. It's a beautiful day for a ball game. Have a great Sunday....more tomorrow.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

78° - overcast at 1:20pm

Good Afternoon from Michigan. A nice morning on the back deck.

Listening: This morning/early afternoon to Steve Palec on Milwaukee's WKLH. Lots of Santana this morning. And a tribute to Elvis Costello. Cool! Another great show Steve! Memo to 'KLH: Spend a few hours listening to your stream with a critical ear.

The new iPhone: Radio isn't AM and FM, towers and transmitters anymore. Its distributing content through multiple platforms. There's other ways of getting our content delivered besides FM tuners (or lack thereof). Opinion: The NAB needs a think tank on the subject and spend less time dealing with the "tuner" issue.

Lee Arnold. Lee had a great post a few days back - about listening to the radio, hearing a great track and waiting for the jock to ID it:

"The Jock came on, gave the call letters and went into a spot cluster. NO SONG IDENTIFICATION!!! I went ballistic. I started yelling and cursing at the radio. I pounded on the dashboard a couple times and got out of the car, SLAMMING the door."

Lee's full post here.

Progressive rock radio's past: News Blimps. Remember them? News pieces with topical music. Distributed by the Progressive Radio Network. Was chatting with a friend about these the other day...turns out he (and a friend of his - today a well-known industry consultant) actually produced a number of these during their college days - along with free-lancers from all over the country.

Meanwhile - I did a Google search and found some old News Blimps from California's Bobby Blue online here. Added: Found some more News Blimp audio from WORJ.COM here.

Brings back memories of the old Earth News and Zodiac News services. And (unrelated) the trade publication Walrus.

Added: J Blackburn writes this morning about "news blimps" that were rolled locally at WLUP/Chicago in 1977. Noting that the FCC had content requirements back then: "News had to roll all day, so we put music under it. With FM, it was so much easier. The content depended on the target and the culture. At The Loop we rolled news blimps and illustrated the stories with appropriate music."

Unscientific music research. Or maybe just observation. Cool bars with cool jukeboxes. What are people spending their coin to listen to?

Not long ago, I was in a local watering hole and noted the what was being played; heard some great tracks from Stevie Ray Vaughan, Zeppelin, Seger, John Mayall and others. Most of the coins were being dropped on tracks not heard on the radio.

Would it make sense to get a list of what tracks were being paid for and perhaps include a few of the top ones in a music test? Just thinking...

Redecorating. Consultant Harv Blain shares here.

Great interview: Rick Kaempfer interviews Chicago's Jim Smith. If you don't know his name, you'll know his stations. A must-read for any programmer or radio geek. Here.

In The Motor City

75° - scattered clouds at 7:20am. Above: Detroit's skyline captured on webcam this morning. current image

Lack of posts: Found myself with another busy week between the day job, my free-lance work and kids. I need 30-hour days, not 24. But its all good.

In Detroit yesterday (suburban Sterling Heights, actually); had an opportunity to listen to Greater Media's WCSX over-the-air, instead of the 'net. Listening on a car radio in the market during afternoon drive a completely different experience than listening from afar via the internet.

Speaking of Detroit. Lee Arnold posted a bit of nostalgia on his blog earlier this week that I'll rip off and share here:

Dave Martin - who was Lee's boss at the time offers some more thoughts on Lee's event here.

More later today - and certainly over the weekend.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

84° - clear at 10:11am. Above: the skies here Friday around 7pm.

Back to the blog. Just not enough hours in the past few days. Lots of severe weather here the last two nights...thunderstorms and funnel clouds.

Aside from work - my wife and I had to deal with someone stealing my debit card information and purchasing $500 worth of software on my dime. Contacted the company and had the money returned to our account; and with the help of the company (also a victim) was easily able to trace the culprit back to a telephone purchase I had made in the past month. I then exchanged email with the CEO of that company about his "people problem" and had my bank cancel the card. All minor in nature vs. the horror stories of others.

Listening: My usual Sunday morning habits. WDRV now. WKLH later.

Making HD Radio work. Dave Martin introduces a new blog dedicated to the cause. Here.

As I've point out before in this blog - in a reply to comments posted by one of the angry anti-HD fanatics: "HD is here - its the job and obligation of broadcast industry professionals to make it work to the best of our abilities. Our employers expect nothing less." Let's get the dialogue going.

Kudos to Randy Michaels, Lee Abrams and Sean Compton. The new branding and programming changes on WGN America have been noted. In recent years, I've found little reason to watch. Channel surfing Friday Night brought me to WGN and WKRP reruns. Schweet!

Also caught promos for WGN America's new primetime lineup. All this early in the game. I can only imagine good things down the road. And was that Casey Kasem doing the voice work?

P.S. to Randy: consider the name Neal Sabin if you haven't already. A guy in Chicago television who "gets it". I don't know Neal, but I know his work. He's a brilliant tv guy who could probably be a great radio guy too.

Speaking of WKRP: Dave Lange notes:

"Perhaps WKRP could have been a winner if the team had been paying attention more to the audience than how much office space Les Nessman had or who Jennifer was dating this week. But that wouldn't have been funny. KRP is not real it's a sitcom."

Dave's post - with his point - here.

Alan Mason. I've really been enjoying Alan's observations in his blog, especially over the past month or so. His latest post starts with a quote from a Tim Manners: "When that authenticity is compromised, the brand enters decline."

Alan refers to his cell-phone provider's "fine print" that qualifies their coverage claims compares this to what radio has done with its listeners in recent years:

"It’s not that far off of the kind of thinking that says, everyone else is running 16-18 minutes an hour of commercials, so I can too. Everyone else is voice tracking, I can too. Forget that the people formerly known as listeners have plenty of options to choose from, or that it’s doubly difficult to connect and engage through voice tracking, everyone else is doing it so the radio consumer should understand. Wow!"

"Where did things go so wrong, that we try to fool and manipulate the consumer? No wonder people change cell providers all the time, and there’s no loyalty. No wonder listenership and TSL is slowly planing down, there’s no loyalty. Like cell service, we’re in danger of becoming a commodity, where the cheapest (fewest commercials) radio service will be in the lead. You can’t fool Mother Nature, and you can’t fool your radio consumers. It’s not 1965 any more, and you don’t have a monopoly in attention. There are too many choices out there, and if we continue to lower the quality of the content, we’ll soon hear our own “boop-boop” as the consumers tune way, not tune out, but tune away."

Alan's complete post here. Apologies to Alan, I've just printed about half his post!

Gas prices. Lee Arnold comments on the travesty of it all and writes:

"Everyone in your audience is being adversely affected by this. To ignore it is to be out of touch. If you're not being hurt by this because you make lots of money, pretend it's hurting you. You can not have this disconnect from your audience and still be credible."

Lee blogs here (and also offers up a great video example on branding from Harley posted too!).

Have a great Sunday.

Wednesday Blogs

68° - cloudy/overcast at 6:35pm

Had an interesting new experience on the day job with a presentation before Michigan's House of Representatives Energy and Technology Committee. The process of informing lawmakers about changes in the broadcast industry plus hearing from their constituents is fascinating.

Topic: the digital television transition.

Back to radio:

Mark Ramsey. Mark tips us to a story in the Washington Post...quoting:

"...Yet the more I listened to the likes of Pandora.com, Last.fm, Slacker.com and all manner of music blogs and Web radio, the more I heard the sound of automation -- sleek, efficient recommendation engines scientifically selecting the music I am most likely to like, yet missing out almost on what radio once offered: a glimpse into the hearts and passions of personalities who knew what music was new and cool, voices that offered a guided tour of unknown worlds, and sometimes even a frontal assault of the unexpected."

The complete Post article here.

Lee Arnold. Received an email today from Lee regarding his latest blog post - a great one for any PD. Lee writes "Our stars always understood what I wanted from them because I told them what it was that I wanted. They always delivered." Check out the example Lee gave his air talent as well as the "million dollar takeaway" here.

Your Wildest Streams. Fred Jacobs writes about streaming - and the excuses stations have for not streaming - and of those who do stream aren't quite ready for prime time.

Read this and then spend some time listening to your stream.

Grand Openings. Author/Change Agent Seth Godin writes:

"Most overnight successes take a decade (okay, four years online)."

"The grand opening is a symptom of the real problem... the limited attention span of marketers. Marketers get focused (briefly) on the grand opening and then move on to the next thing (quickly). Grand opening syndrome forces marketers to spend their time and money at exactly the wrong time, and worse, it leads to a lack of patience that damages the prospects of the product and service being launched."

"The best time to promote something is after it has raving fans, after you've discovered that it works, after it has a groundswell of support. And more important, the best way to promote something is consistently and persistently and for a long time."

IMHO, there's a here lesson for radio. Read Seth's entire piece.

The day job awaits. More later.

Legends and Heros

55° - drizzle and clouds at 7:25am

Legends and Heros. In the past few days, Lee Arnold has blogged about a topic close to my heart.

Lee asks - with relation to the various radio industry honors - "Where The Hell is Bill Drake and Tom Donahue" as well as some other known and not-so-well known names in our industry's past. Read here.

I agree with Lee that there's a lot of be learned from our past - we all need to be students "of our shared radio history". And regardless of format. Dave Martin (here) comments on Lee's piece and added some names of his own, all deserving of honor. Jim Schulke? You bet!

I'd still love to hear the stories, strategies and thinking from those legends who may have dropped out of the biz. A few of the legends do blog. Others just need to be tracked down and interviewed.

The name Buzz Bennett came up again in conversation this week. There's another name. Buzz apparently MIA.

Bonus: yesterday Lee printed a letter from the legendary Joe Kelly (another name!). Joe writes about the late Thom O'Hare. Read here.

Much thanks to Lee - plus the contributions of Dave and Joe for bringing up this topic in the blogosphere again.

More here on the blog tonight.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

44° - clear at 11:55pm

Good Evening from Michigan.

Lee Arnold. Lee wraps up this week with what is just an excellent post on his blog: "Dick Meeder-The Best GM I Never Worked For". An excellent piece - followed by a great video of the late Mr. Meeder here.

Lee also recalls the GMs he did work for - and this sounds like the story of my career too (and I'm certain many others):

"Some were great at what they did. Some were “dear” friends. Some left me alone to do my job. Others meddled constantly. Some were generous and out going. Some were cheap. Some were leaders. Some were afraid of leaders."

Jaye Albright. Jaye accurately says "uh oh" when noting that once internet hits vehicles, radio will have more competition that ever with traffic and news reports (and the revenue they provide) - suggesting that a plan to upgrade your content might be in order.

Forgetting radio for a moment, there's a bigger concern given the photo used in Jaye's post. The thought of someone watching streaming video while driving doesn't make me feel too safe being on the road at the same time. Jaye's post here.

And: yours truly closer to launching a hobby radio adventure on the internet. Using a portion of our household "economic stimulus" check, wrapped up the purchase of some affordable automation and music scheduling software today from Spacial Audio and Music 1. Still ripping CDs as time allows - but getting closer to the goal.

More over the weekend as time spent with family and rest allows. Have a good one!

Sunday Afternoon Odds & Sods

49° - light rain at 5:43pm. Left: downtown Lansing webcam. current image

Good afternoon from Michigan.

Late start on the blog today. I'm not quite sure why. I did wake early - for what is referred to in our house as a "Panera Run".

Panera a regional chain of excellent bakeries; a nice treat as the rest of the house awoke, especially on Mother's Day.

Promotions: Destination Zeppelin. Have seen a few promos for the new Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, featuring the Led Zeppelin Roller Coaster. WAXQ/NYC here. KKFM/Colorado Springs here. Lee Arnold posted about Hard Rock Park here.

Second phase promos: WAOR/South Bend offering a "Flat Screen A Day In May". Here.

Gas: WTPA/Harrisburg is offering free gas here.

And from WBGG/Miami comes "Petty cash". Very cool name - and a very cool graphic. More here.

This is a very sleepy spring in terms of promotions, most likely due to the tight or non-existent budgets in the current economic climate. Fewer stations with "Workforce Cash". The "Harley Days of May" - once a classic rock staple, appears to be gone. Perhaps its time for change, but these promos appear to be replaced by nothing.

Around the blogs:

Seth Godin. Seth posts a great piece this morning (he says its ten years old) on "what every good marketer knows" that is very radio relevant.

Read here.

Wonderful stuff: Rick Kaempfer talks this week to the brilliant Ron Britian. Ron shares memories of WCFL/Chicago; and his own weekly "Subterranean Circus". It was my first real exposure to a lot of album rock...on a 50kw AM blowtorch!

Read Rick's interview here.

More tomorrow.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

48° - mostly sunny at 9:08am. Above: driving in downtown Lansing is a challenge these days with construction and orange barrels/barriers everywhere.

Welcome to Friday.

Evaluation: Looking back at my blog posts over the last couple of weeks, I've been leaving out much of the everyday programming nuts and bolts that were the original intent of this blog....who's doing what - sharing programming and promotion ideas.

The other issues our industry faces has also been important; and adding it to the discussion will continue also. All about balance. Here's a promise to get back on track soon. And thanks for continuing to drop by.

The Classic Rock Community. Fred Jacobs writes about being acknowledged by R&R this past week. And how great programmers are creating classic rock communities with their stations and websites. Here.

Radio stories. WMMO/Orlando. Inside Radio's Mike Kinosian interviews original WMMO programmer Cary Pall about the success of rock/ac. A great read here.

Invitation to steal: David Martin - inspired by Lee Arnold - writes about "blocking and tackling".

A great Friday Morning read here.

And: I became "uncomfortably numb" when I read what one radio group head told Wall Street yesterday. The broadcast exec stated that "cost cutting is ongoing" and "every air shift also must be justified".

I'm certain that tough talk sounded great to Wall Street, not so sure about the rank and file inside the stations. And its unclear was "justified" really means.

Added/Related: Consultant Alan Mason offers his two cents. Here.

Lurking on your streaming player. Or perhaps on your RDS display: Internal notes such as "voice track", perhaps? Sean Ross writes about this here.

More over the weekend.