Listening to WKLH/Milwaukee....

70° - sunny at 11:37am

During the couple hours I was compiling and writing my post below about the NAB and R&R Conventions, I was listening to WKLH/Milwaukee on the 'net.

Once again I found myself very caught up in 'KLH's programming, imaging and execution.

Started this morning with "The Best of Dave & Carole" (the station's weekday AM drive programming). A Saturday Morning show - with prior week show highlights.

These "best of" bits accompanied by lots of fresh tracks by the Dave & Carole together talking about whats happening in the Milwaukee area throughout the weekend.

All done conversation style like the weekday morning show - not a quick calendar run-down. Blended well with the best-of tracks.

This was followed at 10am central by 'KLH's Marilyn Mee....starting her time coming out of Ringo Starr's "It Don't Come Easy" to lament about the Brewer's 6-3 loss to San Diego last night - putting an end to hopes for post-season play. Live and so local.

WKLH also soliciting listener votes (with an excellent promo) for the "Greatest Guitar Solos of Classic Rock" - to be featured on air October 12th. Workforce members eligible to vote on the 'KLH website.

More listener-generated content; making them part of the programming!

Great radio stations are great inspiration for any programmer. You know one when you hear one - and WKLH is part of that club!

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

57° - rain/drizzle at 11am

Good Morning from Michigan; feels like an inside day today.

It appears there's more rain headed across the lake later.

Listening yesterday to WKLH/Milwaukee and their "Storytellers" weekend. Marilyn Mee on the air - very much "live & local" chatting about the previous night's Brewers game. WKLH doing a great job with "Storytellers" - very casual with the air talent introducing segments - not overproduced.

Check it out today online after 1pm eastern.

Its not difficult to pull off what 'KLH is doing. Whether you pull sound bites together on your own or using a production service such as ABC Radio's Avalanche - a great resource for artist and song setups. Turn an ordinary weekend into something special.

Quoting David Martin (again) from his blog yesterday: "Take advantage of lazy competitors".

Listening this morning to the new Ann Wilson (see below); followed by Bob Stroud's Rock & Roll Roots on WDRV/Chicago.

Your dog, your listeners and loyalty. A terrific post from Mark Ramsey:

"Your dog isn't loyal because you ask her for loyalty. She's not loyal because you enter her into a contest where she has a one-in-a-thousand chance of a doggie treat."

"Yes, she'll jump through hoops for you, but she doesn't do it because you demand loyalty. She does it because she loves you." More from Mark here.

Phase one summer ARBs: The numbers start to roll out tomorrow.

New music: The Eagles. WZBA/Baltimore has the first single ("How Long") off their forthcoming CD posted on their website. Listen and download here.

The album - titled "Long Road Out of Eden" to be released in late October.

As we mentioned with Bruce the other day - another release classic rock radio should embrace and celebrate.

Heart's Ann Wilson has her first solo album ("Hope & Glory") coming out September 11th. It features covers of songs by Led Zeppelin, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, John Lennon and others - and guest appearances by many.

Check out a few tracks here. Ann's vocals still rock - as strong and great as ever.

Be sure to listen to "Immigrant Song". With apologies to Mr. Plant, you can clearly hear all the words.....

Added: Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews Scott Dirks (WLUP, WRKR, WXCD, WZZN). A good read with lots of war stories - here.

Enjoy your Sunday.

Weird Al, CBS-FM, Letters & More

69° - sunny at 10:30am

Last Night: Took my kids to see "Weird Al" Yankovic - appearing at our local Common Ground Fest. Near capacity crowd.

While a little bit of Al goes a long way with me - it was a good show - pretty much kid friendly; and I found that both my boys knew the words to most of his parodies. I later shook my head and began questioning my parenting skills. (I'm kidding. Well sort of...)


WCBS-FM returns today. 1:01pm in New York City. Streaming here. Interesting to note the artists featured on the revamped webpage; can you say "classic hits"? This morning Jerry Del Colliano wrote about the station and "classic hits vs. oldies" here.

Added at 1:19pm: Just caught a great year-by-year montage leading up to the 1:01pm kickoff of the "new" WCBS-FM. Great presentation. "The Greatest Hits of the 60s, 70s & the 80s". First song: "Do It Again" - the 1968 Beach Boys classic. First 80s definite "classic hits" type song: "Glory Days" from Springsteen. Start-ups are always awesome...and perhaps even more with this "rebirth".

Forwards or backwards? WCSX/Detroit kicked off "A to Z" this week. And in Houston, KKRW is doing it it reverse: "Ziggy Stardust" to "A Day In The Life". Backwards makes it fresh - especially if you've done A to Z in recently.

Streaming. With no quick legislative relief in sight - and a report today in RAIN that the US Court of Appeals has denied a stay of the new CRB royalty rates - many webcasters are making decisions about their future.

New rates kick in this Sunday.

Meanwhile: can you afford not to stream? Especially when there's a Wi-Max future not far down the road. Read Mark Ramsey's blog here.

A cool week for email....

Tuesday I received a nice note from Greg Solk, VP of Programming for Bonneville - on my posts about his company's WDRV/Chicago. Thank you Greg!

And yesterday brought wonderful things in my Outlook inbox: First from Marilynn Mee of Milwaukee's WKLH - writing that my comments about her show yesterday "made her day".

Listening to the stream, Marilynn made my day mentioning this blog on her air at least twice!

Another email was from original 1977-1978 WLUP/Chicago air talent Les Tracy - who stumbled across these posts written about WLUP's beginnings a few months back.

I put him in touch with original Loop PD Jay Blackburn and talent Tom O'Toole. Les (or "Lester" as he often called himself on-air) was one of my favs on WLUP "back in the day". His note also mentioned seeing Lee Arnold's name here.

Les Tracy is also a veteran of west coast stations KGB, KPRI, KZAP, KOME, KSMJ - and perhaps a few more call letters in his on-air and programming career.

The Summer of 'KLH

70° - mostly cloudy at 12 noon

Good afternoon from Okemos!

Cooler weather here made for a long bike ride this morning with my eight year old. Riding not far behind me at one point, I turned my head to hear him sing "Sweet Home Alabama - where the skies are so blue". My kid for sure.

WKLH/Milwaukee is pulling a great sounding two-punch this summer. Been listening this morning via the web.

'KLH midday talent Marilynn Mee is taking workday listeners through the music and events from 1967 through 1987....from Sgt. Peppers to The Joshua Tree. Year by year on the midday shift. This morning Marilynn putting the wraps on 1969 and segueing into1970. Its great music accompanied by some killer imaging.

Marilynn also inviting listener participation to share events and memories year-by-year via email. Another excellent quarter hour builder; hyping "no repetition" and the perfect staging for those deeper cuts. Very sweet! More here.

Quoting from the 'KLH website: "Music isn't a destination, its a journey...over three decades long!"

Added: I just heard the station play "The Rapper" by The Jaggerz. Tell me your listeners wouldn't remember this. That followed by CCR's "Travelin' Band" and John Lennon's "Instant Karma". Then Santana's "Evil Ways" followed by Badfinger's "Come And Get It". Classic 1970. And it rocks - with Marilynn's content and enthusiasm - plus solid imaging. Give it a listen online.

And...WKLH is also doing a prize "A to Z" - with an opportunity to win something from every letter of the alphabet.

Very nice twist that reinforces an A to Z image - and very sales friendly. Get a better idea here.

All of this just coming off Milwaukee's annual summerfest celebration - which the station heavily attached to.

WKLH isn't having any lazy days this summer. More great examples of why I've written before about WKLH simply being a great radio station. An excellent study for any classic rock programmer.