Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

60° - sunny at 10:49am

Good Morning from Okemos.

Listening this morning to Bob Stroud on Chicago's WDRV...who - at the moment is doing a time-warp this this week in 1970.

Just played "Spirit In The Sky", "Instant Karma" and now "Come & Get It". Nice start to morning. Later: Bob's switched gears to 1975...and is now playing Kraftwerk's "Autobahn"....and its off vinyl....complete with ticks and scratches...too cool!

San Diego: Mark Ramsey points out a (copy-protected) campaign from AAA KPRI that tells the market "Don't Listen". A campaign designed to encourage trial. Perfect in the PPM world. Mark observes:

"...our goal should not be recall - it should be trial. The best way to get folks to remember they listen is for them to actually listen. Don't put the case before the horse.

So KPRI's campaign is obviously designed to seduce trial. Not to sell product attributes and benefits or, God forbid, awareness and recall. You can't know whether you like something or not until you try it, so why not?

And even smarter in the world of PPM, by the way."

Mark's complete post - including reader comments - is here. Anyone else here old enough to remember "Try It, You'll Like It" (I thought so..)


Last weekend: had the opportunity to check out night #2 of WCSX/Detroit's Birthday Bash featuring the J. Geils Band. Awesome time and kudos to OM/PD Doug Podell for pulling it off. The band only getting together for shows in their hometown of Boston and their adopted hometown of Detroit. 2 nights that sold out in minutes. Great time!

Speaking of: Noted that WCSX - after months with PPM data - has now shorted its morning drive show by an hour and gets back to music at 9am instead of 10. The station now kicking off its return to music with "9 at 9".

Haven't heard the feature yet, but I'm assuming "9 at 9" is similar to the "10 at 10" feature heard on other stations around the country.

Think summer. The sunshine today has me thinking warm weather (and mowing the lawn). Consultant Dave Lange has put together some ideas for radio in the summertime, noting:

"Radio has a real chance to shine as TV largely shuts down and our mobile medium has the advantage of being able to move with the audience. As they spend more time outside radio goes with them to the patio, the car, out in the community and even to the beach/pool. This is a time to hustle if you want to build your audience for the Fall."

Dave's suggestions for radio - including appearances, music, imaging and more here.

Great read: Rick Kaempfer's interview with Chicago radio legend John Gehron. Its been up for a week - but it was new to me this morning. Here. Also on Rick's Chicago Radio Spotlight is an interview with Chicago radio's Buzz Kilman. Worth the time here.

New Media Webinar: A "power lunch" this Tuesday at noon eastern from McVay New Media. SIgn-up and check it out here.

It's been another tough week for radio with cutbacks and furloughs at a few radio companies. I'm at a loss to offer anything positive. Bless the companies still investing in the product and people, both on air and off. And investing in real localism, radio's single biggest advantage over competitive media in this broadband/multi-media era. Think content that's difficult to duplicate.

There's people and programming assets that too many companies are foolishly throwing away. All in all a loss for listeners who can typically get what content is left through other sources. Example: how many sources are there on the internet for Ryan Seacrest? Don't need the local station for that. I'm just sayin'....

That said - the opportunity is may soon be ripe for a strong local competitor to take advantage of these MBA-programmed stations.

Related: this post from consultant Alan Mason.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

44° - rain at 12:23pm

Good Morning/afternoon from Okemos. Listening this morning to my usual Sunday Morning routine: WDRV/Chicago and WKLH/Milwaukee via the 'net.

I note some fresh imaging (voiced by Nick Michaels) on The Drive; very nice! I also sense that the station is working on their streaming presentation, especially with ad-insertion.

This past week I spent a few hours in Detroit listening to WCSX. OM/PD Doug Podell has really put some life into that station in recent months; at least since my last listen. The tempo is up....the entire presentation, not just the music. The station sounds so alive.

Reading. Mark Ramsey's Hear 2.0. Mark posted some great content this past week. Working backwards, Mark features an interview with author Richard Goldman, conducted by radio consultant Doug Erickson. Goldman is co-founder of Men's Warehouse. From that interview:

Radio right now seems unable to manage risk. It's trying to cut its way to profit by slashing "expense," by cutting research, marketing, promotion, management and staff. How did you handle risk, in the face of recession, in your successful retail career?

The easy fix is always to cut expenses. But at some point you run out of expenses to cut. At Men’s Wearhouse, we certainly tried to cut expenses, but more of the effort was spent in trying to increase sales.

You're a marketing expert. Any ideas on how you would market a radio station?

I would get out of the current mindset—if a listener could be transported to any city in the country and turn on any radio station (especially FM), they’d think that they were in their own home town.

Alice, schmalice—I’m sick of the format and disgusted with the way that radio has become so homogenous.

Read the entire piece here. (btw: CBS head honcho Les Moonves said this past week that "more staff cuts to reduce expenses are probably not a good idea. "There comes a point where you’re cutting into the bone." Nice to read. More here. -dan)

Another great Ramsey post featured Seth Godin speaking at the Country Radio Seminar. Read here.

Speaking of CRS: Consultant Alan Mason blogged about a topic he'd be speaking on this past week in Nashville. In a list he's made for a PD in today's environment he notes:

"Think in terms of the future , and new titles. Are you a PD or are you Brand Manager and Director of Listener Experience? Do you have a promotion director, or a director of listener engagement? You can see that one title operates in the past, while the other looks to the future. Of course you actually have to be and act like the new title - this is much more than a change of clothes."

Alan writes here.

Learn from Paul. A Great read from Dave Martin: "Six Lessons from Paul Harvey". Read here.

Chicago's Rick Kaempfer brings us up-to-date on Chicago radio people he's interviewed in the past. Read here. Check out Rick's piece on the late Paul Harvey too.

Have a great Sunday.

Wednesday Blogs

60° - light rain/mist at 10am. Left: view from the day job window - a mixed office/residential area on the northside of downtown Lansing.

Good Morning from Michigan. Clouds/fog/rain - but quite warm this morning. A nice rainy fall day.

Around my blogosphere:

Listener Engagement. We've written about this many times over the last 20 months. This morning Fred Jacobs contributes more to the conversation this morning. With apologies to my friend for overquoting:

"A radio station social networking initiative is about engagement. It is about providing listeners with the chance to discuss, dig deeper, and get even more emotional about your people and your programming. Until now, the audience has been forced to remain passive, with the exception of showing up at station events. With social networking, they can get in the game, participate, and become more loyal and knowledgeable about a station and its brand."

"It's just a matter of providing them with the means to connect with one another. We see this at focus groups and Listener Advisory Board groups. Ten strangers come together to talk about your station, and end up in the parking lot, arguing and sharing their views about music, bands, and yes, your station. Many other consumer brands would kill to have the type of emotional connection that many stations have with their customers."

Would kill indeed! Very cool stuff! Fred's post here.

Telling It Like It Is. Mark Ramsey sums up the current PPM controversy/litigation in a few words:

"This is a case of the interests of the radio industry and its advertisers being hijacked by a small number of selfish parties who don't like PPM because PPM doesn't like them as much as diaries do. Pure and simple."

Mark's complete post here.

Webcasting: Monday's Edison Media-sponsored Streaming/Music Royalties was fantastic (although the audio quality a little less than ideal). If you missed, its archived here.

During the webcast - Attorney David Oxenford had some great contributions to the webcast and offered some great real world ideas for radio, especially the smaller markets to expand their reach and consumer convenience.

David mentioned making your newscasts available for listening anytime on the web...and stations that do local sports offering 3 or 4 area games through web streaming; since you can only do one on the air (of course, HD could change that!). High School sports typically means $ for small market radio.

It was time well-spent and kudos to Edison Media's Tom Webster for putting it all together.

Scratch. Pop. Click. Vinyl on the air. Randy Raley's doing it once a week...tracking an album on his classic rock station in Normal, Illinois. Very cool. Read about the adventure here.

Have a great Wednesday!

Monday Monday (Late Edition)

61° - cloudy at 10:29pm

Took the weekend off from the blog (not intentional) - hope it was good for you.

Around my blogosphere:

Dave Lange. Dave blogs about "Authenticity - The Key To Reviving Radio" here. Authenticity the backbone of progressive rock in the 60s and 70s - and AOR in the 70s and 80s. Part one of a great piece here.

Coincidently - after reading Dave's post today, I overheard the syndicated Ryan Seacrest weekday program on an office radio..and I swear I heard a sweeper soliciting listener "phone calls". This on a recorded/recycled bits show from Ryan's Los Angeles AMD program. How does that work? I certainly didn't hear any "listener calls" on the air. I immediately thought of Dave's piece where he writes about "gimmicks, hype and illusion". Whatever.

More authenticity: Coincidently, consultant Alan Mason writes about voice-tracking on his blog today. With apologies to Alan for over-quoting:

"...now I’m seeing talent and on-air PD’s who voice track their shows because they’re too busy to be on the air. I’ve even heard of talent who didn’t like their shift, so they voice track instead of being live. I can’t help but wonder, when did being on the air stop being a priority for on-air talent?"

"Yes, I know all the arguments about how busy you are, but let me ask you a question: How do you explain that to the listeners? "Well, I’d like to be engaging and interactive instead of just announcing, but I’m just too busy?”

"Think they don’t notice the difference? In case you haven’t noticed yourself, listeners are becoming more interactive, and want more relevance. It’s a big challenge to do that in voice tracking. But there’s an even bigger question: With all the competition from other media, and life becoming so busy for the listener that they often feel overwhelmed, isn’t it important for us to be as good as possible? And do you really think you can do that through regular voice tracking?"

Alan's complete post here. Full disclosure: As a PD, I've been put in the position of voice-tracking my shift simply because I was too busy. Handling multiple stations, I should have not been on the air at all. Not my call. And I'm certain there's many other PDs in the same situation.

More PPM: 20 MORE Things explained - numbers 6 through 10. From Paragon Media Strategies here. Numbers 1 through 5 here. The complete list without narrative here.

Mad Men. Must-see TV in my house, though not with me (yet). My wife and oldest son both addicted. Mark Ramsey blogs about AMC's smash hit and what it means to radio here.

Help. Asked over the weekend via email to help spread the word. From Dave Martin's blog this morning:

"Deborah Chesher is a published photographer [Amazon info]. Her rock star gets include George Harrison, Jerry Garcia and Frank Zappa. Now, her daughter is having brain surgery and Deborah is selling prints to help pay the bills. Get the story, see the prints here. If you're not able to buy a print, please share the link."

I read Deborah's story last night; please do what you can (and her work is wonderful).

More tomorrow including stuff I didn't have time for tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

84° - partly sunny at 2:25pm

Good afternoon from Lansing. A stay-home weekend in our plans. Enough traveling for a little while. And its great to have the kids home from their time in Denver.

Surfing around the web during lunch today:

Your Website: McVay Media's Dave Lange blogs today about ways of making your website just a little more sticky. From Dave:

1. Podcasts - Some stations use them but I bet 90% of you have only 1 or no podcasts on your site.

2. You Tube clips - How much as your station or team posted from station events, guest shots on the morning show, or even just a tour of the station with some pranks from the staff.

3. Collections of morning show bits.

4. Replay the phone calls from your afternoon show.

5. How about a new rock pod cast every week that doesn't air on the transmitter but only on the web with comments on new artists and songs.

6. Maybe a place for local bands to showcase their videos and music complete with reviews and chats.

Dave doesn't mention - but msuci on podcasts might involve additional licensing - but still worth exploring. Dave's complete piece - a great read - here. And some of this material could also be used as stopset filler on your internet stream...lots better than another Ad Council PSA or a pesky P.I. ad.

Meanwhile: Mark Ramsey blogs about non-music content - and as part of his piece talks about value - plus something as simple as labeling:

"Is there a market for the entire podcast of your morning show from February 11, 2008 (for example)? Or is that morning's show so much like every other morning's show that the value of any one episode is diminished and not worth sharing or seeking out?"

"And how do you label such a show, anyway? I may want to find Howard Stern's interview with Pamela Anderson, but not "Howard Stern's show from February 11, 2008."

Good thoughts. Of course as Mark points out, the material has to be worth hearing again too! And someone has to be in charge of selecting the material and getting on the web in a timely manner. Read Mark's complete piece here.

More Alan Mason. Alan promised more the other day and delivers. Check out "There's No Instant Brand" here.

More over the weekend.

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.

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.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

57° - clear at 10:20am

Very cool: KUFX/San Jose has put together some great packages that the station will be auctioning off to benefit local charities. What makes this special is that each package involves a member of the station's airstaff, including morning guy/musician Greg Kihn. Very cool. See here.

Listening: This morning to Bob Stroud on Chicago's WDRV. Featuring three hours of this week in 1969.

Very tasty stuff. "Sweet Cherry Wine" by Tommy James playing right now. My evil twin also loved "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" from Paul Revere and The Raiders. Thanks Bob.

Later: Stroud played some Booker T & The MGs. Iinspired, I found myself at Amazon.Com to buy some Booker T downloads: "Time Is Tight" - plus a not-to-major hit titled "Melting Pot" - some great tracks I long forgot about.

Most of Booker T's work recorded at the sloped-floor (a former movie theater) studios of Stax Records in Memphis. But I digress.

Once again, this promotion thing the music industry uses (called "radio") works. Not the only downloads I purchased this morning either - thanks to radio. And my wife will remind me when she reviews our bank statement.

Last Sunday: We noted the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb - stating that we ought to think of our cume as "users" rather than "listeners".

Dave Martin blogged on the topic this past week and offered the words of one Chris Locke:

"we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. we are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp. deal with it."

My take: With respect for all parties - whether you call them listeners or users - they're one of two sets of customers (the other being advertisers). Let's find ways to serve and engage both on the air and off. Its all about relationships.

How to ruin a relationship. Mark Ramsey points us to what I hope isn't a trend. As a program director, one of my primary duties was being an advocate for the listener and preventing things like this from happening. Please read.

Just a good read: Highlights from FMQB's Think-Tank Symposium. Here.

More radio stories. Rick Kaempfer interviews WCBS afternoon news anchor Steve Scott here.

Added: Michael Mallace on "Big Ron" O'Brien - and WCFL - here.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

60° - clear at 11:52am

Good Morning from Mid-Michigan. Bike ride with my 9-year old this morning brought us down the road to Okemos High School (aka "The Taj Mahal" by locals; its very nice).

Listening. To my usual Sunday Morning lineup. Stroud on Chicago's WDRV featuring the music of Badfinger this morning. One of all-time fav bands; both the Apple and Warner years.

Bob Stroud also seeking votes for the next volume of his Rock 'N Roll Roots CD (it will be number 10). See here.

Post bike ride: Steve Palec on Milwaukee's WKLH. A good dose of Linda Ronstadt this morning as "The Root Salute". Ronstadt covering Tom Petty's "The Waiting" was wonderful! Thanks Steve.

The ROI. David Martin discusses the Radio 2020 initiative from the NAB, RAB and HD Radio Alliance...and calls for goals, scorecards and accountability.

This goes beyond simple "feel good" reaction (or otherwise) from inside the industry. Read here.

My take: Dave is right on. Unless there's measureable results, you'd never know if its time, effort and money well spent or otherwise wasted. And where to next. Promoting "radio" is best targeted at the ad community. For listeners, its all about brands and programming.

Think "users". Mark Ramsey points us to Inside Radio and the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb:

"radio needs to stop thinking of its cume as “listeners” and consider them to be “users.” He says “Listeners are engaged only when the radio is on. Radio users connect with you in other ways.”"

Mark adds additional comments here.

Records. Lee Arnold gives us the trailer of a forthcoming film on the death of the independent record store. Places where I spent much of my youth exploring. See here.

Amazingly, I was just told this past week that a "record store" just opened in nearby East Lansing.

Jaye Albright's open letter. To a Los Angeles broadcaster. Jay notes an air personality leaving this broadcaster's station to move to Huntsville, Alabama (apparently to make more money). Read here.

Jaye also points us to Detroit's WYCD...doing something radio does best. Here.

Would the RIAA do this? Author Seth Godin encourages readers to loan a copy of his book "The Dip" to others. "If I could double the number of people who read the book, it would be pretty cool."

Seth writes here.

Speaking of. Driving home Thursday afternoon I heard a song on MSU's student run and programmed radio station. And when I got home went online and bought the MP3 download. Isn't that the way its suppose to be? Radio remains the record industry's biggest promotional resource.

Howard Who? While the latest Arbitron satellite listening report shows him king of satellite radio, has the mainstream forgotten him?

Friday Night on Letterman - NPR's Ira Glass revealed that he was a major fan of Howard Stern. Said it twice. No studio audience reaction...no applause, nothing - although Ira (and Dave) appeared to be waiting for it. As if they didn't know the name anymore. Or cared. Just an observation.

Cindy Gatziolis. Don't know the name? Doesn't matter. Cindy share some great radio stories this week in Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight. Think Larry Lujack. Jonathan Brandmeier. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

36° - overcast at 11:15am. Snow earlier.

Good Morning from Michigan. Busy week between the day job and house guests. Its all good.

I'm late to the party here on the blog - but earlier this week I was following WLAV/Grand Rapids' Kevin Matthews who made the committment to stay on the air until the Detroit Tigers won a game.

After losing their first six, Matthews vowed to stay on the air until the team won a game. The Tigers finally won a game 36 hours later - and Kevin generated some great buzz and local press. Fred Jacobs describes this more in-depth here.

Classic Rock WLAV is in its second year of carrying the Tiger network along with a sister AM station. Night and weekend games are airing on the Classic Rock station with the remainder on the AM.

Listening this morning: To Bob Stroud on WDRV/Chicago. Tangled Up In Blue from Dylan playing right now. This morning's theme on Rock 'N Roll Roots is "colors".

As usual, its then on to Steve Palec on WKLH/Milwaukee as he features ELO this week on his Rock 'N Roll Roots. I'm reminded again of what an awesome job Steve does with sound bites and production elements.

Edison Media/Arbitron Study The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio's Digital Platforms. Survey says Online listening at an all-time high. Work hours (10a-3p) are the prime hours for online radio. Radio use still beats iPODs/MP3 players/satellite 3-to-1 or more.

Observation: quoting Fred Jacobs from this past December (again): "So how can a medium with this kind of reach be struggling so mightily? Just asking."

Edison/Arbitron study notes HD Radio still has awareness problems. See complete study here.

Back to streaming: Mark Ramsey concludes that "radio is better when its on the radio. Not online". I disagree. Its apparent that at-work online listening is important to the audience. A matter of convenience. Same product but another delivery method.

I do agree with Mark to the extent that radio station should offer more online audio options (in "chunks"), but in addition to their over-the-air streams. Mark's complete piece here.

Great interview: Triple A Radio's Mike Lyons interviews Emmis VP Programming Jimmy Steal on the launch of WXRP/New York. Read here.