Clear Channel

63° - clear/sunny at 8:25am

Welcome to another work week.

When I started writing this blog post this morning, I had six other topics I was going to include. My first topic however, was Clear Channel and I've run out of room. This is a piece I didn't want to write.

Still doing a lot of reading as details trickle out about Clear Channel's latest changes, including its "Premium Choice" programming, which essentially syndicates some of the company's better talent to stations around the country. I've found it difficult for me to critical of Clear Channel. My years with them were pretty good ones that I would be hard to trade for anything else.

If what I hear is true, its disappointing to hear that "Premium Choice" won't be localized, unlike the out-of-market voice-tracking the company had been doing - where the local PD would actually schedule the music and ship a log, liners and market information to the remote talent, resulting in a local sounding airshift with some good talent.

How weird to be nostalgic for that period!

This must explain the company's rush to "localism", which is essentially an increased PSA load. Advance damage control but hard to do much otherwise with a skeleton staff.

One PD who works crosstown to a Clear Channel cluster recently described Premium Choice to me as sounding like "bad 70s satellite." I hope not! On the other side of the coin, a large market PD with the company told me via Twitter "Wait till you hear how it sounds. I think you'll be stunned."

OK, fair enough. I haven't heard the product yet.

But apparently gone from any station "opting in" (your definition of "opting in" may vary) to Premium Choice is local scheduling of music. The national playlist rears its ugly head. Interesting that this comes from a company that spent a lot of time over the years denying that there was a corporate playlist (and when the did there really wasn't).

While its true that the hits are the hits are the hits, I don't need to mention that there's always been differences from market to market (that's what local music research was all about) and this research is what gave stations a competitive advantage. Added: in the very simple sense, it was finding out what your local audience wanted and giving it to them.

Given the present economy, Consultant Harve Allen noted in this piece he posted over the weekend that "It's the perfect storm--negative cash flow and bland & sterile local radio stations."

And Harve adds: "Are you mad yet? I hope a little bit."

Harve hints at something that I've said many times one way or another: it's unique hard-to-duplicate content that makes for a winning radio station. And I'm simply repeating something that (love him or hate him) Randy Michaels said to group of programmers at a Dan O'Day conference years ago.

Pulling back the local personalities and becoming music intensive (and with a national playlist at that) offers nothing unique and difficult-to-duplicate. Nothing. Anyone can do that!

There was a day when a smart crosstown competitor would take advantage of a situation like that. I really hope those days aren't over yet, but my guess is that the MBAs making the programming decisions at Clear Channel are betting that there's nobody in most of their markets who will come in and kick their ass.

Or maybe they simply don't care.

Celebrating Your Town's Concert History

70° - overcast at 6:45am

If you've read this blog for anytime now - WGRF/Buffalo is one of those stations I love to watch from afar.

PD John Hager has created a station that is all about its market and its listeners.

The station is getting ready for Labor Day Weekend with another great example of listener-generated content (both on-the-air and on-the-web) - plus taking the music it plays and making it "local":

The Top 20 Concerts at Rich Stadium: Vote now

The Buffalo Bills opened their inaugural season at Rich Stadium in 1973. The following summer, Buffalo concert promoter Festival East booked the first ever concert at Rich Stadium on July 6 starring Eric Clapton and The Band.

Over the next twentyfive years, especially in the 1970's and 80's, Rich Stadium hosted Classic Rock's biggest names for some of Western New York's most memorable concerts. The Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Who, Bob Seger, Yes, Lynryd Skynrd, The Grateful Dead, Van Halen, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Fleetwood Mac, Guns 'N Roses, Elton John, The Eagles and many more played the concert stage at what was then known as Rich Stadium.

97 Rock was the radio station Buffalo concert fans counted on for live coverage and free tickets for these legendary shows. And now we want to know what you thought were the greatest Rich Stadium concerts.

On Labor Day, we are going to count down the top 20 Rich Stadium concerts according to your votes.

See the complete piece here.

Years ago I recall Randy Michaels talking about airing and/or creating "exclusive" - or "difficult to duplicate" content on radio stations. I'm not so certain that this feature falls into the "difficult to duplicate" category - but one thing I've learned in programming is that there are those programmers with the passion to make things like this happen. And its that passion that puts those programmers in a "difficult to duplicate" category among PDs.

Chances are your competition across town doesn't have the passion or drive to do this sort of thing. This creates a tremendous opportunity - take advantage of it!

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

67° - mix of clouds & sun at 10:47am

Good Morning from Okemos, Michigan. And welcome to June.

I love this logo. Too cool. From San Diego's new classic hits XHPRS 105.7 - my old bud Dave Mason apparently doing mornings there. Listening online this morning; Dave to celebrate the anniversary of Sgt. Peppers on his long-running Sunday Morning Beatles Show, formerly heard on KGB-FM.

Classic Randy Michaels. The above-mentioned Mr. Mason interviewed in a recent Chicago Business story on Randy:

"As a radio programmer in Cincinnati in the early 1980s, Mr. Michaels once used the airwaves to label a programmer at a rival radio station a "spineless, gutless wimp" for refusing to talk to him when he dialed in to the rival's live talk show, recalls Dave Mason, the target of the vitriol and now the morning man at San Diego radio station 105.7 FM, who counts himself an admirer of Mr. Michaels'."

More here. I might add that Dave (pictured left) did wind up as a PD/Morning man for Jacor/Clear Channel under Michaels in San Diego.

When yours truly did mornings on a classic rock station in New Mexico tormenting a AMD jock/PD at the crosstown alternative station. The reality is I admired his talent and wanted him to work for me. I finally succeeded - though it took several years.

This is a free concert? Wow! WDRV/Chicago will be celebrating its 7th birthday on date with a free listener concert featuring Crosby, Stills and Nash. Score another one for Greg Solk and company.

Speaking of numbers: WDRV scores big in latest Chicago trend released this past week #7 to #9 25-54. My source for the numbers also says Steve Dahl's AMD performance on WJMK is no fluke. Mr. Dahl is solid.

Other Arbitron trend successes: In LA, KLOS up a few clicks 12+; likewise in San Diego with KGB-FM. WKLH/Milwaukee flat but solid. Same story with WCSX/Detroit and KUFX/San Jose.

Website Review. Jaye Albright looks at a couple of country radio station websites and opines here.

"Radio is doomed" - headline from Look Magazine, April 26, 1949. Courtesy of Dave Martin. More quotes here.

Rick Kaempfer Update: Rick catches up with Greg Brown (WZZN), Phil Manicki (WDRV), Cara Carriveau (WTMX) on his weekly Chicago Radio Spotlight post here.

Working on "the station". My internet hobby station. Yesterday spent with more ripping; registered a few URLs; and put the automation "online" with my home wireless network. Can listen via my laptop anywhere in the house; love it!

There's something I'm forgetting. More later if/when it comes to mind. Enjoy your Sunday!

Back On The Job

33° - clear at 10:10pm

It's been a long week. Not yet caught up on rest. And the blog!

A couple of highlights from the Great Lakes Broadcast Conference and Expo held in Grand Rapids on Monday and Tuesday: One was a session on station websites "60 in 60: 60 Web Ideas In 60 Minutes", hosted by Fred Jacobs and Tim Davis of Jacobs Media along with Chris Brunt of Greater Media's Detroit cluster.

My only regret was not being able to see the entire presentation with my conference responsibilities. But there were plenty in the almost-packed room feverishly taking notes. Thanks to Fred, Tim and Chris for making the trip from the Motor City - and congrats on a great hour of website ideas.

The other highlight was the Tuesday Night Broadcast Excellence Awards. It served as a reminder of the many great stations still doing all things local and doing them well. In both large, medium and small markets in the State of Michigan.

Lee Abrams teamed up with Randy Michaels. During the Michigan conference I had a rare chance to check my email and there it was in a R&R news bulletin.

All I could think is "wow". Lee - on his blog (here) writes about Randy:

"He’s possibly the smartest guy I’ve ever met He MIGHT be crazier than me…at least I won’t have to fear being too out there. We ARE going to re-write the future of media. He’s the kinda guy you want to do it with."

First Randy and now Lee. Tribune is one to watch in the coming year.

Congrats: To WKLH's Steve Palec. The longtime host of the station's Sunday Morning "Rock 'N Roll Roots" program adds weeknights 7-9pm to his schedule with the "Legends of Rock". A very cool move.

And speaking of WKLH. I can't help but love this graphic around Bruce Springsteen's appearance Monday Night in Milwaukee. Monday is St. Patrick's Day!

More congrats: To the legendary Tom Kent - who's just launched The Tom Kent Radio Network. Listen for his programming to come to an oldies/classic hits station near you.

Somewhere in my collection I have a quick aircheck of Tom on WHBQ/Memphis in the early 70s. Very few could match the combination of talent and extreme high energy that Tom displayed night after night back then.

And oldies. Edison Media's Sean Ross takes a look at "The New Oldies". A good read here.

I'm still catching up on my reading.

The Weekend Classic Rock FM

15° - overcast at 12:25pm

Welcome to the weekend.

Randy Michaels. Its good to see him back in the biz...running Tribune for Sam Zell. If there's one guy I feel can run the legendary WGN Radio/Chicago, its Mr. Michaels. He gets it.

And I do believe the dead-tree biz will see a revolution too.

Bonus: From the new Tribune employee handbook - under the Zell/Michaels regime:

"Rule #1: Use your best judgment."
"Rule #2: See Rule 1."

"7.1. If you use or abuse alcohol or drugs and fail to perform the duties required by your job acceptably, you are likely to be terminated. See Rule 1. Coming to work drunk is bad judgment."

"7.2. If you do not use or abuse alcohol or drugs and fail to perform the duties required by your job acceptably, you are likely to be terminated."

Pretty simple stuff, eh? More here.

A case for cume: Its all about cume and reach in the world of PPM. Dave Lange blogs about the need to begin selling cume - saying "The sooner we start to 'prime the pump' for selling Cume the better off we will all be." PPM market or not. Read here.

Positioning lines and PPM: Mark Ramsey this past week writes about the need for clear positioning in the world of PPM.

Not the throwaway radio lines we've been repeating over-and-over again for the last 20 or 30 years - but credible lines backed up by actions:

"You need to make sure you - and your current and potential audience - can answer these basic questions:

1. Who are we and what do we stand for?

2. How is this different from the competition in a way that matters - a lot - to the audience?

And if you can't answer those questions, you don't have a position...
...whether or not you have a positioning line."

I couldn't agree more. And you just can't say it what you stand for and what your differences are. You've got to demonstrate it with your programming and actions.

Listening to Chicago's WDRV as I write. Just heard a sweeper - voiced by the pipes of Nick Michaels - reminding me that "while it seems Chicago Radio changes like the weather - The Drive hasn't."

"We promised you a music intensive morning show without the silly games and phone calls - and we live up to that promise today." Not the exact copy; but as I recall it.

And with WDRV - a new look. If you've read this blog for long you'd know its one of my fav stations. They just updated their logo. There's a cool flash banner on their website now that rotates different Drive artists with each site visit:

Thanks this past week. Kind notes from David Martin (via his blog) and from WSHP/Lafayette, IN PD Rob Creighton. They all mean a lot.

More this weekend.

Wednesday Blogs

22° - scattered clouds at 10:19pm

Welcome to Wednesday. Spent part of yesterday watching the FCC sessions via the web on proposed localism rules.

Lots of proposed rules that can impact your station and your bottom line. You can read about those elsewhere.

Added: Didn't intend to get into this - but Fred Jacobs has a great read about the possible return of the overnight jock - based on proposed FCC rules requiring 24/7 staffing. Read here.

I hope that's the case - though in smaller markets I predict some midnight sign-offs (meaning less service and no overnight EAS).

Dave Lange also writes about a the proposed rules and community service here.

HD Radio. Missing an opportunity. Fred Jacobs comments on something the HD Radio Alliance should have/could have. Read here.

Streaming & Stopsets. David Martin touches on one of my longtime pet peeves here. There's simply no excuse for execution we'd never tolerate on our terrestrial signal. My rant published back in February here.

Greg Kihn goes national: Best known to most of the country for his 80s hit "Jeopardy"; though I'm more partial to "The Breakup Song (They Don't Write 'Em)".

Greg's been doing mornings in San Jose at Clear Channel's KUFX for many years now - and has dabbled in some syndication and voice-tracking to other markets.

Now he'll be rockin' the 7pm to Midnight daypart nationwide. I'm expecting a voice-tracked assembled show via satellite much like Alice Cooper's nightly show. Read the release from Jones Radio here. Tipped by Tom Taylor

Randy Michaels...back? Them be the rumors all over the trades this afternoon. Running Tribune for Sam Zell.

Like him or hate him, he's a radio guy who "gets it". And I welcome him back.

Wednesday Blogs

58° - clear skies at 10am

More summer ARBs: CBS Radio's classic rocker WZLX/Boston is on fire - with their best 12+ performance in recent history. I can only imagine the target demo. And in Detroit - WCSX posted a half-point 12+ gain over spring. Very nice!

From my blogosphere:

David Martin reviews the numbers and notes the success of programmers Jhani Kaye (KRTH) and Brian Thomas (WCBS-FM). David writes: "It's not the format (song), it's the singer (the execution)." With apologies for abusing my privilege to quote - Dave adds:

"The winners mentioned in this post are programming their stations in real time. They are working in a living performance art. One of the oldest and last "live" performance arts. They understand. It's about going to work every single day totally obsessed with one goal - to commit great radio. All that's important is what comes out of the speakers, what's on the screens. Everything else is a footnote. Let me also remind you - as has been written here for some years now - it's not about radio, it's about audio. Period. Paragraph. The secret to success remains clear...you must create proprietary intangibles (innovation!)."

Dave's complete piece here. Another great read. Randy Michaels once referred to this obsession for great radio as a "sickness" - and that he was honored to be part of "the club". Me too.

Footnote: The "Z Channel" graphic lifted from a poster for a fantastic IFC documentary about one cable programmer's obsession. More here.

Ideas & Resources: Had an email a few weeks back from George Cook - with links to some more resources that came out of the 2007 NAB/R&R Convention - some since mentioned on this blog.

One terrific one I haven't yet passed along was the Mike McVay-moderated "75 Ideas in 75 Minutes". Download the powerpoint via McVay Media here.

Some of the powerpoint really needs the missing narration - but you can still get a lot out of it.

BTW: George Cook has a great blog: The GEOmetric Media Blog. I'll be adding to my blogroll here shortly. And thank you George!

Production Wizard: I missed mentioning on Sunday. Rick Kaempfer's Chicago Radio Spotlight interviews Bonneville/Chicago's Matt Bisbee - on radio, his career, promos and life. Read here.

I seem to recall a "Matt Bisbee" attending Columbia College/Chicago about the same time I did in the mid-70s.

The day job awaits. Have a great Wednesday!

In The Game (without the play-by-play)

81° - cloudy/overcast at 1pm

Good afternoon from Okemos....

Football season has arrived - and there's a number of Classic Rockers that are flagships or affiliates of NFL and College teams.

The demos and lifestyle are a perfect fit.

And there's some Classic Rock stations using this great match to tie themselves to a local team each week - right up to kickoff - without any play-by-play rights!

In Philadelphia: "Bird" fans can get their dose of classic rock plus "the PERFECT AMOUNT of Birds FOOTBALL ANALYSIS + INSIGHT!" with WMGK's "Classic Kickoff" - live from a sports bar blocks from the stadium.

'MGK is telling listeners and fans to: "Stop by and see us before the game + by all means BLAST MGK IN THE STADIUM LOTS while you're tailgating!" Very cool.

WFBQ/Indianapolis was the flagship station for The Colts until this year. But the station isn't letting the lack of play-by-play rights get in the way this year.

WFBQ promises "the best Colts coverage" - with a pre-game show live from The Marriott in downtown Indy.

Up north - South Bend is home of The Fighting Irish - and WAOR has the "Blue Gold Hour" every Saturday Morning.

A "Notre Dame Pre Game Show with interviews, analysis and special guests!" - and hosted by WAOR's AM drive team.

KSHE/St. Louis is presenting "The Miller Lite Ultimate Tailgate Party" before each Rams home game - broadcasting live 3 hours prior to kickoff.

"Drink the coldest beer around and enjoy our "Taste of Tailgating" featuring the best wings, brats, pulled pork, and Philly cheese steak sandwiches!". Sounds like a real party!

And WZBA/Baltimore is hosting 3-hour pre-game tailgate parties for Ravens fans - raising money for a local charity too!

I'm reminded of a story that Randy Michaels told during a session of Dan O'Day's Radio Grad School more than a decade ago - about his early Taft and Jacor days - and AM radio wars in Cincinnati.

His station didn't have the play-by-play of a local team - but according to Randy you couldn't tell it on the air. They were all over the team the other guys had the rights to - with pre-game and post-game coverage - plus reporting and imaging through the week.

Randy said his station got a lot of diary credit from the competitor's PBP simply because they did a better job of imaging the station with the team!

Go that far with a classic rock station? Maybe yes. Maybe not. But its great inspiration of what could be - especially if the PBP is with an AM station in your market. Idea: "own" the team on FM.

A DVD and audio cassette of that Randy Michaels session "Positioning Your Radio Station" still available through Dan O'Day's website.

Have a great football season - and go Broncos!

Wednesday Blogs

Thunderstorms here. 63° at 8:45am.

From my blogosphere:

HD Radio: Talent and Programming. Two great names with two great pieces yesterday. First - Ralph Cipolla of Jacobs Media writes about developing upcoming talent on your HD2 channels. Here. Second - Dave Lange of McVay Media with some great ideas of programming to make HD Radio work. Here.

Mark Ramsey. Mark has some great reading on his blog: Lessons from Clorox. Opie & Anthony reality check. And a good audio interview with Dave Van Dyke of Bridge Ratings. Here. I remember listening to Dave Van Dyke on 94.7/Chicago back in the 70s. "Rock In Stereo-WDAI".

Rock & Roll Dead? We don't think so. But Toby Keith does. More from Jaye Albright here.

Randy Michaels. Jerry Del Colliano on Randy - and a return to radio. Here.

Head to the ballgame this morning. No rainout; yet.