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.

Brainstorm Session....

Stumbled across this. What could you do with something like this in your market? Perhaps raise some money for charity, bond with your market and strengthen some local pride?

Just thinkin'...

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.

End Of My Writer's Block

38° - overcast at 10:27am

My first post of the year. And it's almost March. Haven't had much inspiration to write. Much has happened in our industry over the last several months, most of it leaves an uneasy feeling. That said, my vision now much clearer; as I hope yours is.

One ritual I have early almost every morning is first reading Tom Taylor's daily column. And R&R's Kevin Carter with his Street Talk Daily. Plus Jerry Del Colliano (pictured above left).

I've had this love/hate thing with Jerry since the days of Inside Radio...going way to the pre-net days when it was a black-on-yellow newsletter that would come in the mail. I feel Jerry focuses far too much on the negative.

But Jerry often makes some great observations - and this morning he wrote:

"We've got lots of ways to direct our listeners to someone other than the person playing the music. And don't get me started on texting. Radio stations by and large don't understand how to use texting in a way consistent with how their audience uses it. It is not a blatant promotional tool even if you think it is. To them, it is social connection.

Someone needs to be home."

More soon - including something brilliant I recently read from David Martin.

49° - overcast at 8:12am

Good Morning From Okemos, Michigan.

Congrats: To WDRV/Chicago's Bob Stroud on releasing Volume 10 of his Rock & Roll Roots CD series, with proceeds going to charity. The CD series an extension of his long-running Sunday Morning "Rock 'N Roll Roots" program. I covered the release of Volume 9 last year here. Read more about this year's CD on The Drive website here.

Election Day: Headed down the street to my polling place on the way to work this morning. Starbucks offering a free cup of java if you go in and tell them you voted. Harve Alan asks: "What "free for a day" styled promotion could radio be doing to rekindle interest in our aging brands?"

Meanwhile - Dave Lange makes some observations with "Lessons for Radio From Campaign 08" - a great read here.

Yesterday I wrote about the cutback virus that is spreading throughout the industry. Not to ignore those who find themselves out of work, but I feel that those who still have a job in radio need some TLC and attention during these tough times.

Dave Martin - in the second part of a series for media CEOs titled "Execution, Not Excuses", notes that 2009 is "mission critical" for HR:

"As a practical matter, making HR important beyond compliance issues will be a new concept for many media firms. We have to start treating our employees like our best customers. Every person on the payroll is talent. Employees help the company achieve its goals by becoming the best at what they do."

"Leadership must create the context in which people can do their best work. An important part of the D in R&D is HR-D. The key to growing profits is growing people. Employees deserve and need an advocate, that's a critical mission for HR."

As I've written here before - PDs have the responsibility of being an advocate for their staff as well as station listeners. Fear is counter-productive - and in talking to others still employed in the industry, there's too much of it getting in the way of the job.

As a sidenote, PDs also now - more than ever, need to be an advocate for their station's sales departments when neccessary...and find ways to make revenue opportunities integrate well with programming and listenership goals.

More later today. Get out and vote!

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

41° - clear at 8:09am

Happy Friday!

Earlier this week I was made privy to Chicago's September PPM release. WDRV a solid #1 P25-54, in a 2-way tie for #3 P12+ (with WLS-FM) and #3 P18-49. All numbers M-Sun 6a-12mid. Congrats again to PD Patty Martin.

Around the dial:

Hot Moms 2008! Who doesn't like Hot Moms? New York's Q104.3 (which scored well in PPM too!) repeating their successful Hot Mom contest. Great web promo. Winner gets 5 grand. There's two age groups (under/over 35).

See the finalists so far plus a video message from the 2007 winner here. A great promotion that's right on target with the demo.

Meanwhile...WGRF/Buffalo is searching for Buffalo's sexiest Bills fan. A great promotion as 97 Rock is the flagship station of the team. See the contestants here.

The People's Hall of Fame. WNCX/Cleveland is putting together their own listener-voted rock Hall of Fame. A great website promotion that can engage listeners. See it here.

Very nice! WKLH/Milwaukee midday goddess Marilyn Mee wrapping up Storyteller Week. The stories behind the songs from the artists themselves. And you've been wondering what to do with all those old "In The Studio" disks in your file cabinet! Check out the audio here.

Last Band Standing. Clear Channel's KUFX/San Jose underway with their 5th annual Last Band Standing contest. Competition is between local classic rock cover bands. This can work in almost market large or small and costs almost nothing to pull off. Details here.

Have a great Friday.

Wednesday Blogs

54° - clear at 7:39am

Good Morning from Okemos

Robert Feder. His retirement is radio's loss. Feder - well known columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times who's written with passion for the medium and his market has announced that he'll be accepting a buy-out package and leaving in the coming weeks. If you followed Chicago radio, you read Feder.

Sean Ross of Edison Media writes more about Feder here.

Weekly Update. Longtime friend and consultant Dave Lange now posting a weekly review of radio news with "The Radio Week That Was". Check it out on Dave's blog here.

More Voices. Audience Development Group's Kevin Robinson and Tim Moore are both offering their take on the business - each with a weekly email. Just started receiving this week. Subscriptions are free here.

Around The Dial: WZLX/Boston offering listeners a chance at cash with "Dilating For Dollars". Staffer Heather from the station's morning show is expecting.

The listener who comes closest to the date and time of birth wins. See more here.

Congrats to WLAV. The Grand Rapids classic rock station wins two Marconi awards at last week's NAB. Very awesome!

Will have more tonight. Have a great day.

Fall Book Promos: President or VP?

70° - overcast at 9:09am

Good Morning and Happy Friday from Michigan.

Fall book begins in less than a week. Starting to see some promotional activity around the country....I'm certain more stations will roll out there first phase plans early next week. Here's what I've seen so far:

Buffalo's WGRF is giving its listeners an opportunity to become the "President of 97 Rock". The station used imagination and resources to put together a great prize package that looks like a modest cash outlay. See here.

WAXQ/New York is offering listeners a chance to become the "VP of Rock"...in a twist of the Workforce Payroll promo. Also adds a CGM element to the mix as listeners get to make their favorite classic rock song part of the contest. See the web execution here.

Very cool in Detroit: WCSX is giving its younger listeners a chance to go to the "School of Rock" with a song-of-the-day promotion. Plus win an autographed guitar. Another high-impact/low-cost promo! More here.

KGB/San Diego and its Dave, Shelly and Chainsaw morning show (one of the best, IMHO) is offering listeners $1000 a day in September. Here.

With AC/DC hitting the road to support their new release, there's opportunities for lots of station promos and tie-ins this fall. Have seen a few already around the country. WBLM/Portland is one of 'em - offering listeners a chance to attend a "secret dress rehearsal show". Here.
AC/DC tour dates

More promos as I see 'em!

Local Hero

67° - drizzle at 7:09am

Good Morning from Michigan.

This is simply a great promotion - from WPYX in Albany. Has localism, heart, community and listener participation. And can be done with any similar jobs in your community.

With the anniversary of 9/11 coming up, this is very timely. But it really can be done anytime of the year.

Check out WPYX's web execution here.

A great job WPYX!

Catching Up...

66° - light rain at 11:45pm

Back after a busy couple of days - between kids beginning the school year and busy schedules with the jobs. The research work has really picked up as of late in the past several weeks.

Congrats: Again to Chicago's WDRV...for pulling off the next-to-impossible now with two pre-currency PPMs in a row. I wish I could share - If what I've seen is any indication of the future, the Drive is going to rock the Windy City.

Special kudos to WDRV PD Patty Martin who simply pilots a great radio station; if you've read this blog for any length of time, you know its been one of my favorites for years now.

So Long: To Don LaFontaine. A man who motivated millions - most never knew his name. The movies will never be the same.

Wow. Google's new web browser. Lightning fast. Tried it last night. Still in beta; test with caution - there's still a few issues to be worked out.

Changing radio station behavior. On Tuesday, Dave Martin wrote a great piece that began:

"One of my goals in 2008 is to meet the person that first decided it was a good idea to ask users to do something and then, when they do it more than
expected, you tell them that they've broken "the rules"
and that they're wrong. Bad user!"

"One call per month. One winner per household every thirty days. One "major prize" winner per household per year."

"What is happening here is the reverse of any effective heavy user program. The heavy user is being punished rather than rewarded for expressing your brand as a preference. We catch them behaving exactly as instructed and then we tell them that they're wrong. "How dare you show up again at another of our on location broadcasts!"

Dave's entire piece here. How do you reward heavy listeners? Share.

Around the dial:

Today is Zeptember 3rd. Celebrating Zeptember...WZLX/Boston, WCSX/Detroit and WLAV/Grand Rapids....very cool! WCSX devoting their HD-2 channel fulltime to Zeppelin through September 7th. A full rundown of special WCSX "Zeptember" programming here.

WDRV/Chicago kicked off A to Z yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon at 3. A feature that still brings high TSL everywhere I've done it!

Thanks for stopping by.

Brainstorm Session

65° - mostly clear at 11:00am

Driving into downtown Lansing this morning, I was tuned to NPR's Morning Edition. On the air was Reporter David Greene with one installment of a series titled "Take Me To Your Leader"; interviewing andspeaking with leaders (who are not neccessarily politicians).

In this morning's installment, he spoke to a small town fire chief and the challenges of his job. Listen here.

It was great storytelling and terrific radio. What came to mind as I was listening was how a classic rock station could do something similar. And not with just "leaders", but with everyday listeners.

I feel there's lots of interesting stories you can share listener-to-listener...be it about their job, hobbies and activities - including sports and volunteer work...even great concerts they've attended.

Of course the common denominator is that they listen to your radio station!

Thought for use: 60 to 90sec stopset fill for your internet feeds. Beats the crap out of Smokey Bear or another McGruff PSA. Make them available as podcasts/downloads on your website. Plug them on the air using the names of the listeners. Make your listener "stars". Everybody has their 15-minutes...why not with your station?

All a great way to bond and make them love you for life. The kind of word-of-mouth that no ad budget can buy. Some stations have been doing this visually on their websites (example above right and here) for some time now - and thats wonderful too. Perhaps these audio pieces could tie in with a like campaign.

Thought for production: Edit the bits well so they don't get too slow. Background music is likely appropriate; but watch licensing issues if you'll be podcasting.

Thought for recruitment: Don't make this a "sign up" feature on your website. Its not a contest.

Interviews could be part of a Listener Advisory Board meeting; or you could do what has been suggested on this blog before and have your airstaff call listeners in your database to thank them for listening; perhaps do a little informal perceptual research on their feelings about the station; and then probe them a little for what they do for work, their off-time hobbies and interests and the so forth.

With this "screening" process, you then can suggest that you'd like to talk further with either an invitation to the station or go out in the field with a recorder. Sometimes natural sound in the background can add lots. Bring some swag to show thanks.

You and your staff you could take this, refine, improve and take to the next level.

Radio needs more storytellers. Why not have some of those stories come from your listeners and make them part of the product? Think "ownership".

I'm reminded of something Dave Martin contributed to this blog a month of so ago. In a comment on this blog, Dave shared a "trade secret" he gives his TV clients:

"One of our best practices is called "Names make news." We are in the hunt for local folks doing things right,locals celebrating (new job, promotion on the job, anniversary, wedding, birth, achievements by their children), locals coming together for good (church bake sale to benefit a family, charity auctions)."

"When people get together they talk about PEOPLE. Our clients are never challenged on this because the competition thinks it's goofy. It is goofy only to those in the business."

This idea certainly similar in nature.

Just a little brainstorming this morning....have a great Wednesday.

Political Fun in Denver

With the Democratic National Convention in town next week, Denver should be abuzz with politicians, tv, show biz, music and other celebrity-types.

Classic Rock KRFX morning drivers Lewis & Floorwax are taking advantage of the party by offering listeners cash prizes for getting the famous on the air with "Political Cellout 2008".

"If you can get them on your cell phone, and on our show, you'll have a chance of scoring cash, and our eternal respect and admiration."

An idea that can be adapted for other big events that might be happening in your town!

See more at The Fox website here.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

69° - clear/sunny at 9:40am

Good Morning from Okemos.

Listening. My usual Sunday Morning routine with Bob Stroud on Chicago's WDRV. Bob featuring music from the summer of 1968....and as I write has just played Eric Burdon & The Animal's 7-minute + epic "Sky Pilot" - followed by Clarence Carter's "Slip Away". Wonderful stuff.

Later logging into WKLH to catch Steve Palec's Rock 'N Roll Roots.

Rockin' The Workforce: Back on Thursday, Fred Jacobs wrote a great piece on marketing to those at the workplace - and radio's increasing importance.

Noting that American's are now spending 60% of their waking hours on the job - an all time high - radio is the ideal medium to reach those workers.

Read Fred's piece here. Share with your sales manager.

More PPM: This week's FMQB features Pollack Media Group's Pat Welch reviews what we know so far. Pat opens with:

"...programming tactics that are more PPM friendly should be done regardless of how soon your market is scheduled to make the conversion. Think of this as the world’s largest research project, and take advantage of the lessons learned from markets that have already made the conversion."

Pat's thoughts here. PPM market or not, learn from the research PPM is providing into listener habits.

"Monday is the new Thursday in PPM." #3 in a list presented last week at the Morning Show Bootcamp. See the list here. Jaye Albright points us to a simple promotion to hype Mondays from country KYGO/Denver. Here.

Launching A New Station. Consultant Harve Alan launched a radio station this week and shares the excitement in a piece here.

There's nothing like a start-up!

Seth Godin. Seth writes about the "experience": "A concert isn’t about the music, is it? And a restaurant isn’t about the food." Read here.

Think about "the experience" with your radio station; I do everytime I go to the ballpark.

In case you missed (I did). Last Sunday, Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight was on WLS/Chicago PM drive talent Bill Leff. Read here.

Have a great Sunday.

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!