Monday Monday

70° - scattered clouds at 7:08pm

Good evening from Okemos. Spring weather again today; plan on taking a bike ride with the kids right after dinner. It'll be a short ride. Long winter = very out of shape.

HD Radio. Fred Jacobs points to his firm's (latest) Tech Poll IV that 40% of the survey respondents say they just don't know about it yet. Another 32% think the radios are too expensive. The good news: this can all be improved on.

My take: the HD Radio Alliance still needs to strike a deal with Detroit. I know there's been progress but there's a long way to go. Get that done. Radios (as standard equipment) in new cars will significantly increase awareness better than anything and provide the incentive to invest in the product (programming). And build from there.

Promote strong brands, not (just) the technology. Its all about the content.

Fred's post from this morning here.

Tom Webster of Edison Media Research offers a video from the RAIN Summit HD Radio panel in Las Vegas last week. Here. I have not seen yet.

Added later: I've now seen. Intelligent conversation on the topic. And speaking for Ibiquity is a former Chicago programmer (with whom I share my last name with) - who oversaw an incredible FM in the market back in the 70s. I never knew him; but I well knew his name.

Thinking Small. Harve Alan posted a piece last week that caught my attention. From the eMarketing Association eMarketing Conference: "The Shrinking Brand-Marketing in a Small World".

How to make effective use use of "micro-formats" and making them central to your marketing plan. And how radio is perfectly suited to micro-formats. A great read - and slide-show - here.

AAA rocks. Triple A Radio's Mike Lyons writes:

"I've long advocated the AAA, or the adult-rock format, as one savior for the industry. Thousands of arbitrarily unplayed but obviously worthy songs and artists are available for play. Plus, the appeal of AAA to both boomers and the college demo provides an awfully attractive audience. During the last decade and a half, it's been consistently shown that most commercial AAA stations bill higher amounts than their rated audience share would normally indicate."

"That the AAA "power-rating" (percentage of a market's radio advertising billed by a station versus the percentage of listeners that station gets in a market) has always been among the highest in the business, often between 1 and 2 times. This means AAA stations can charge more per spot because their listeners are extremely desirable and listen longer."

A great piece from "The Forest" at Triple A Radio. Read here. Mike ends the piece, noting:

"...after buying Radio One's Urban AC KRBV-FM in Los Angeles, Bonneville flipped it to AAA, "100.3 The Sound. World Class Rock For Southern California," bringing commercial AAA back to the second-largest market in the country. Reportedly, Bonneville President Bruce Reese's favorite station is KFOG in San Francisco so he's a man with good taste and some business acumen."

Have a good night.

Sunday Night Odds & Sods

25° - overcast at 10:48pm

Watching: As I post this - The History Channel's "1968" - hosted by Tom Brokaw. Great television and worth "rolling tape" on. Lots of music connections.

For a list of future air times click here.

Reading: Multi-tasking tonight watching both the above-mentioned TV show and reading "WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever" by V Scott Beddome.

A wonderful piece on FM rock radio wars in Milwaukee back in the late 70s/early 80s. WQFM vs. WLPX.

Seven chapters posted so far with more on the way. Read here on the 93QFM: The Halcyon Daze blog.

One chapter features comments from former WQFM Program Director Lee Arnold:

“The most important thing- as a program director- is to make your staff believe that you’re going to win- and get then pumped up to the degree that they’ll do anything to make that happen."

"Back then...everybody had a real passion to do great radio. I had a staff of Rangers! We owned the streets! We did stuff to them (LPX) that made them just cry. We were horrible to them! It was great!”

I love reading these stories! Thanks to Scott Beddome for getting it all down in writing - preserving history - about (what had to be) a great radio battle! Can't wait for the next chapter.

Noted: Kurt Hanson's RAIN website now with a fresh redesign. Always worth your time and now easier to read. See here.

I'm still here...

22° - overcast at 9:34pm

Long days. Started a new industry-related job this week.

I haven't had to "show up at the office" since January 24th; working out of the house and keeping my own hours now for months. It was nice - but didn't pay the bills. Not all of 'em.

It will take a new routine to balance all I do; trying to figure it out with varying schedules and workloads. I'll get there.

Boneheads. No, we're not talking about some classic rock station. But about a company based on disturbing news that I hope is nothing more than a nasty rumor.

Read Jaye Albright's blog post here.

Classic Rock gone. Oldies in. Indianapolis has a new oldies station. Edison Media's Sean Ross offers his thoughts in a first listen here.

Lee Arnold. Lee sends us to Rolling Stone with a list of the songs that DJs forever have played to make a trip to the men's room. Read here.

Speaking of: Lee's very cool internet radio station "WORJ.COM" can now be heard on smart phones and PDAs everywhere.

Still radio; just a different distribution system.

RAIN reporting Live365 (Lee's streaming provider) "announced new mobile service that lets on-the-go listeners use the streaming audio service via their Radio365-Mobile software for all smartphones, pocket PCs, and PDAs running Windows Mobile 5 or 6." Read here.

Have a good night.

Wednesday News and Blogs

76° - very cloudy at 2pm

Good afternoon from Michigan.

Imus. Lots of speculation about where he'll turn up next now that him and CBS have settled.

Is Citadel Broadcasting in his future?

Added - from All Access: "Employment is a large driver of ratings in a PPM world. In examining MEMORIAL DAY ratings, employed respondents showed much lower listeneing levels versus non-employed respondents. Much can be attributed to their non-commute on a holiday and no in-office listening." PPM market or not, Classic rock is ready-made for long weekend specials to keep your at-work audience listening. Here.

Royalties. The NAB drove a point to members about the discussion of performance royalties for terrestrial radio by sending a mock invoice to its members. Read the NAB release here.

Steven Van Zandt said it best a few weeks back: "I am a songwriter and a performer and I own record companies and publishing companies and I do not believe radio should pay anything to anyone. And I mean every kind of radio."

Meanwhile: RAIN reports that the new internet streaming royalties are in effect - even though Sound Exchange may not be enforcing them pending ongoing negotiations. More here. Danger Will Robinson: liability for the new rates has begun and is very real.

Little Steven on WCBS-FM: "...don't tell us WCBS is back, implying that it's back the way we remember it—we being the demographic that you decided meant nothing when you blew it up and now you're praying is still there."

(from Steven's upcoming column in Billboard later this week).

More Management. Consultant Gary Begin writes this week on All Access about "Managing Beyond The Basics". Some great thoughts. See "Consultant Tips".

This piece also found on Gary's website here.

Fred Jacobs wrote yesterday about an experience I've had more than a few times in my career...while dining with management and staff.

Share this with your GM or sales manager.

Have a great day.

Wednesday Blogs

82° rain - a downpour at 11am - nice!

Last day of the spring book...

From my blogosphere:

Day of Silence. From what I've been able to read this morning, it appears yesterday's effort generated plenty of consumer action.

Bridge Ratings offers the first of a two-part release on the day's impact here (scroll down on page). Jerry Del Colliano offers his thoughts on the day of silence here. Update: Latest RAIN coverage, including links to press articles here.

Performance rights: Clear Channel is asking independent musicians to waive their rights to performance royalties for consideration of airplay- and its something the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) isn't happy with.

Attorney David Oxenford recently discussed the Clear Channel offer on NPR's Morning Edition - and offers more on his blog here.

My take: Clear Channel is doing the right thing - its a win-win for both broadcaster and artist. You cannot enjoy the benefits of promotional exposure and fairly collect performance royalties for that exposure.

Perhaps the real issue with any coalition or licensing organization might be one of control.

HD Radio. McVay Media's Dave Lange writes "We all know the saying Hindsight is 20/20 all too well. As I keep looking at HD Radio there are so many things that we, as an industry and Ibiquity as a producer, could have improved on."

Read Dave's complete piece - plus comments from some guy in Michigan - here.

Harland Williams. We wrote here a few months back about actor/comedian Harland Williams and his daily afternoon drive show on Denver's KRFX.

Last week the Rocky Mountain News ran an interview with Harland - discussing how the radio gig came about and how its put together. Read here.

Mark Ramsey with Seth Godin. Mark has his full interview with the Agent of Change - discussing radio's future - both audio and transcript - on his blog here.

Buzz Marketing. Fred Jacobs offers up some examples of some great buzz marketing campaigns on his blog here. Good read!

Latest On Streaming

79° at 12:05pm.

Too nice to be inside!

If you haven't been following the proposed streaming royalty rate legislation, written to protect America's webcasters and streaming radio stations - here's an update:

We wrote here before about HR 2060 - introduced into the House to overturn the CRB decision on royalty rates. Kurt Hanson's RAIN reported last Thursday that a similar bill has been introduced into the Senate. Read more here.

And please contact your Congressman to ask for his/her support on HR 2060 - as well as Senator for support on "The Internet Radio Equality Act".

More here tomorrow.

Wednesday Blogs

My wife - in Florida for a few days with her job - sent pictures last night of the ocean as well as this sunset shot from an outdoor patio.

Happy Wednesday. From the blogs:

Stimulate An Audience. A couple of writers sharing some thoughts: First, Alan Mason on "The Cry For Creativity". Then Fred Jacobs on something that "morning shows and entire stations ought to aspire to".

"It's the environment songs are in that often make them sound bad". Lee Abrams talks about the art of song placement - and lots more - in his latest post here.

Streaming Royalties. In case you haven't heard, the Copyright Royalty Board denied all appeals on the new rate structure. Is it now a matter of legislative relief?

Kurt Hanson's RAIN has the latest.

I hope to write soon about ideas to monetize your webstream - something I'm certain your management is thinking about.

Your station website: McVay Media's Dave Lange introduces us to "widgets" and what they can add to your station website here.

Dan O'Day is presenting his 12th Annual International Radio Creative & Production Summit in Los Angeles August 17th & 18th. Dan's workshops - this and his "PD Grad School" - held annually in February - are always packed full of ideas that you can use back at your station. More info here.

This year's summit will include voice-over pro Don LaFontaine - "The King Of The Movie Trailers" - who is currently being seen on-camera in Geico Insurance commercials.

btw: Don's website is fantastic! Have a great Wednesday.

Wednesday Blogs

Wednesday already. From my blogosphere:

Satellite Radio interest appears to be slowing - at least with listeners of rock radio. This morning Fred Jacobs discusses findings from the latest Jacobs Media Tech Survey on his blog. See graphs from the satellite portion of the survey on the Jacobs website here.

Meanwhile...in Our Nation's Capitol: Yesterday, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin made another apperance in Washington to answer more questions about the proposed Sirius/XM merger. David Martin reviews his performance here.

Streaming. Appeals have been filed against the new royalty rates announced by the Copyright Royalty Board. Kurt Hanson's RAIN has been providing excellent coverage on this issue. Read the latest here.

The Secret To Making Them Smile. Some thoughts on how its getting more difficult to shock an audience without crossing the line - and how "simply delighting them with effective service" might be the better path.

Lessons for radio programming here from ChaosScenario.

E-Diary. While much has been written about Arbitron's PPM rollout; the new E-Diary affects almost everyone right now. McVay Media's Dave Lange discusses on his blog here.

Latest Favorite Quote: "I would have made this shorter but I didn't have the time." - David Martin. Have a great Wednesday.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

The Sky looking west over Michigan's State Capitol Sunday Morning 9:20am.

As I write this morning, I've got the stream of WDRV/Chicago cranked up - listening to Bob Stroud and his "Rock & Roll Roots" program. This week Bob is playing the music as heard on the radio this week in 1969. "The Letter" by The Arbors was wonderful. Thanks Bob.

Random ramblings:

Streaming worries. There's no question that radio needs to stream as the broadband world expands. Can online ad revenues keep up with the increasing costs? See the complete breakdown of the new streaming royalty rates set by the Copyright Office - courtesy of Kurt Hanson's RAIN here. Jaye Albright with more here. added: Mark Ramsey's post.

Daylight Savings TIme Reminder. We spring ahead early - one week from today (March 11th). Four weeks earlier than it used to. Not all computers are ready. Work with your technical staff and automation vendor now. (I've always made an early morning trip into the station twice a year to make sure everything is on time....no sleep well otherwise).

Wisdom. From SBR Creative's website - a collection of great quotes on radio, marketing and music here.

History. Progressive rock signs off in the Milwaukee suburbs circa 1979.. Its WZMF. Listen to the last hour here.