Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

32° -cloudy at 1:06pm

Been up since 5:30 or so. Working the day job from home.

Listening: Since 8am (ET) to Bob Stroud on WDRV with "Rock 'N Roll Roots". Seaver on The Drive right now. Good tunes.

Been listening: To Lee Arnold's WORJ.COM much more frequently as of late. Always hearing oh-wow songs that bring my head back to certain points of my career. Lots of stuff I played on the radio when it was originally released.

I can recall the album and label art when I hear some songs - can picture them playing on that big old Gates 16" turntable (or in some cases - a Technics SP-10).

Lee surprised me late Friday afternoon with a track from Renaissance - and did I hear some Splinter in the last day too?

He programs from home with automation and music scheduling software. Very impressive.

Still contemplating my own Live 365 station; discussed the possibility with a potential partner-in-crime this past week.

Speaking of Mr. Arnold: I did finish reading "WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever" - written by V. Scott Beddome. You feel the drama, pain and triumph with the words written by Scott.

Read the entire book online here.

Could something like this still happen in today's corporate environment? Perhaps. But given that there's so few real rock wars happening anywhere these days there's little incentive.

Rick Kaempfer: Overlooked this last Sunday. Rick's Chicago Radio Spotlight was on WLUP/Chicago night talent "Byrd".

Byrd's story is pretty awesome: from International Falls, Minnesota to Chicago - with stops at KSHE/St. Louis; 98 Rock/Baltimore; KOMP/Las Vegas - plus airwork north of the border. Read Rick's interview here.

Amazed. Still by the number of classic rock stations that did nothing special for Christmas - and apparently nothing special for New Years Eve/New Years Day. All it takes is a little effort and imagination.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

30° - overcast at 11am.
Where did all our snow go???

Good Morning. Another week where income took priority over the blog. Lots of catching up to do....

Listening. Bob Stroud's Rock 'N Roll Roots on WDRV/Chicago. All Xmas!

Still Reading: Scott Beddome's story of WQFM/Milwaukee; its battle against crosstown AOR WLPX - and Lee Arnold's Who promotion.

Thirty Chapters of "WHOoPLA: The Greatest Rock Radio Stunt Ever" posted here so far .

David Martin has also been reading WHOoPLA - and under "full disclosure" offers these words (here) on Lee Arnold: "In the previous century I served as valet, defense attorney and part-time concierge to the great Mr Arnold".

Explained: Lee Arnold spent time in Detroit as PD of WLLZ. And the VP of Programming for owner Doubleday was the one and only David Martin. Very cool indeed.

The last year has been great for radio books - both released and planned.

Chicago's Rick Kaempfer released his radio novel "$everance" this past year.

John Gorman in Cleveland just released "The Buzzard" and the story of his days at WMMS.

Now Scott Beddome's "WHOoPLA". All great works!

Looking forward in early 2008 for "The Radio Gypsies" - written by programmer Jay Blackburn ("JDB") - a novel-based-on-true-events "The Radio Gypsies". Written and already at the publisher.

And now JDB is writing a follow-up book and recruiting others to contribute stories to the cause...yours truly invited to contribute.

JDB - along with DJ and engineer extraordinaire Bruce Miller Earle - was recruited by broker/consultant Art Holt back in the late 60s and 70s to travel market to market to do turnaround projects. I'll save more for later - but there's many stories waiting to be told - most for the first time.

One JDB turn-around project was WSDM Chicago; and out of that WLUP was born. JDB describes the station as one he fell in love with.

HD Radio's New Campaign. Lots of words being written about a new campaign launched by the HD Radio Alliance. The campaign positions HD against traditional AM/FM. Yipes! That all from Fred Jacobs - one of the few ouside the Alliance to hear the commercials.

After reading Fred's comments - posted here on Thursday - I found that the link to the actual spots on the HD Radio Alliance website had become password protected. I can only assume the Alliance doesn't want anyone to hear them now. Huh?

Like Fred - I really do want to see HD Radio succeed. More consumer choice and more opportunties for programmers from the smart operators. However - I don't feel HD can succeed given the Ibiquity licensing fees.

Make the addition of HD in radios attractive to the manufacturers so it becomes "standard" - and then begin some smart marketing.

You can't sell HD like satellite radio.

Mark Ramsey sums up Fred's comments (and the reply from Alliance head Peter Ferrara) here by correctly concluding:

"The right thing for Peter and the Alliance to do isn't simply to reply to a blog post (although that's a good start), but to invite Fred and others who care about radio's future to serve on an industry board of advisors, just the way Arbitron does."

More later.

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.