Sunny/71° at 9am
Good Morning...CFMI/Vancouver morning host Bro Jake is looking for "The Funniest Person With A Day Job" - an amateur stand-up comedian competition featuring station listeners. Even the bad ones are good.
It's a great promo with web and NTR components. Listeners can submit their own video or have the station tape one for them. Check out the webpage here to see videos and details.
There's some other cool promotions on CFMI's website.
Have your sales manager look at "The Balls Are Back". Sales managers love promos for car dealers.
This station rocks - and knows how to have fun!
This isn't a classic rock; but any start-up is an education. Yesterday, Clear Channel flipped Rumba 104.5 (WUBA) to alternative as "Radio 104.5".
Been listening online and hearing a lot of gold and recurrent; very familiar stuff.
Its a music intensive launch with very short dry voice imaging. Refreshing. And the station is taking the "help us build the station" approach to a new level.
The station's website is soliciting not only playlist suggestions - but has expanded that to include indie and local bands. And they're allowing listeners to apply for a shot to be a jock.
Although the station has not announced a commercial policy similar to Lonestar 92.5/Dallas - All Access is reporting that "a charter group of advertisers will become music sponsor partners and be offered unique advertising opportunities that will allow their businesses to be showcased in RADIO 104.5’s unique environment."
Despite my classic rock roots, alternative is one of my favorite formats to listen to. And as I've pointed out before, there's always ideas in this format that can be applied to CR. This is one to watch.
Listen online here.
Stumbled across these while surfin' around early this morning:
Strip A to Z: Yesterday, KRFX/Denver kicked off artist A to Z - promising to play one song by every artist the station has ever played.
And there's a web component: everytime the station switches letters, "The Fox Babe" will shed one piece of clothing. Click on a letter here.
See Me. Feel Me. Paint Me. Miami's WBGG PM driver Doc Reno held an in-studio competition between 3 listeners to paint a vintage Who T-shirt logo on half naked women.
The video is certainly a great draw to the station website.
Good Morning from Chicago. We're actually staying at my brother's home in the community of Gurnee - north of Chicago right near the Wisconsin state line.
Had a family reunion last night in Deerfield - my hometown. Good times.
More Lone Star 92.5: Pollack Media Group's Jim Kerr - writing in his company's weekly "Pollack Media Confidential" observes that the revamped KZPS is "a radio station built to be streamed".
Jim makes the point that with station's new commercial policy - no traditional recorded spots - the station eliminates all AFTRA streaming issues. And with that, Lone Star 92.5 can receive full credit from Arbitron for any online listening.
If you were not aware - Arbitron will not give your station credit for online listening if the stream isn't 100% simulcast with the on-air signal......commercials and all. Should Jim's piece be available online at some point, we'll be sure to pass it along.
Mike McVay. Mike writes about an old pair of shoes and creating emotional attachments with listeners. Here.
Jay Leno. Chicago's Rick Kaempfer shares a great story about a Jay Leno moment on his "Celebrity Snippets" blog here. And do check out Rick's Chicago Radio Spotlight this week for his interview with former radio writer/performer Jeff Hoover. I never get bored reading and hearing radio war stories.
More here Monday.
I intended to save this for Wednesday; but there's lots of tongues a waggin'.....Me: Its sad to see a heritage classic rock station disappear. I can only speculate the reasons and the events that led to the decision.
That said - I listened to the new Lone Star 92.5 for about an hour yesterday and found it refreshing; The music, overall presentation - and the commercial policy were fantastic. Only time will tell whether the format has legs - and if the ad community will support this new paradigm. I hope so.
Fred Jacobs comments more this morning here about the change in Dallas - and suggests that the station's new commercial policy might have been better tested with the prior classic rock format.
Edison Media Research's Sean Ross gives the new "Lone Star 92.5" a first listen here. Sean notes that the music is mostly grounded in......classic rock.
We noted the words of McVay Media's Dave Lange yesterday; but here they are again.
Whats your take? Click to listen to Lone Star 92.5.
Where did the week go?
Listening this morning to Cincinnati's WOFX (92.5/The Fox); they're recycling an hour of Bob & Tom into middays (10-11am)....not a "best of" hour - but the 6am hour from earlier in the morning.
This blog: Appreciate the comments this past week from more than a handful of readers. Its a labor of love for the format and the industry while I search for my next great opportunity.
Another blog: Randy Raley. Former midwest AOR jock turned self-described "sales slug". In this post he talks about the "art of backtiming". Sometimes we still have to do that! Very nice!
Two notes. Seth Godin. Classic rock listener. Short post but cool.
The Need For "Code Red": As the Virginia Tech story was unfolding the other night - I heard one cable news network explain a little about their own "code red" procedure - how everyone on staff is alerted and brought into the fold when a major news story breaks.
Anyone on your staff including overnight board ops, sales assistants - whoever - need to be empowered to contact a key management person when they hear of something critical...be it news or weather related - or an on-air personality crisis. At 10am on Wednesday or 3am on Sunday. And even if it turns out to be insignificant, they should be thanked and encouraged to do it again.
In this recent post, McVay Media's Dave Lange writes about two recent situations that radio had to respond to. One external (Virginia Tech); and another internal (Imus). Dave makes a great point about having a plan and being ready to take quick action.
Code Red: How are key players notified? Who? Think GM, OM, PDs, News, GSM, Engineering, etc. What situations might justify a quick call to your consultant? Its just having a clear plan with everyone on board. Put your thoughts together and take them to your GM.
Rant: Beyond Code Red. I mentioned above that any staff person should be empowered to notify key management on critical situations. In today's environment of automated - often unattended radio - especially on nights and weekends - every staff person should be encouraged to contact designated management when they hear something wrong on the air...be it dead air to outdated commercial copy.
I can't express the level of frustration - after I've personally heard and resolved a situation...only to be told (by an AE, receptionist, whoever) that "I heard that same problem" (hours prior) - but didn't call anyone...figuring "someone else" would take care of it.
Insert Sam Kinison scream here. Rant mode now off.
Have a great weekend. More here Sunday morning.
...a favorite phrase of mine to describe great things.
Here's one.
It's the last season of The Sopranos. And New York's WAXQ (Q104.3) is into it - big time - with this page on their website.
Of course, you've heard Q104.3 on Tony's radio in past episodes...and that's way cool.
Over the years as an Operations and Program Director, I've had the occasion - more than once - to ask air talent "what were you thinking?" (This has always been followed by my own self-analysis of what I didn't do as a manager to prevent the incident from occuring.)
From "Inside Radio" this morning:
A really bad idea - using "nappy-headed ho" as "the phrase that pays."
17-year WSBG, Stroudsburg, PA personality Gary Smith was riffing on the Imus blowup and that's why Nassau canned him instead of issuing a suspension. At the same time - the Pocono Record newspaper notes that Smith laid down quite a record of community service in northeastern Pennsylvania.
An apparent momentary lapse in judgement that turned into an unfortunate situation for the station, its listeners - and the air talent.
Last Night I read Lee Abrams' latest blog entry - and where he shares a memo from the early days of XM on the topic of creating memorable names for features and programming. Lee makes the point that "Historically, crazed inventive names GET REMEMBERED, and enhance your image." Its a great read.
With this thinking in mind: I've always liked the idea of creating memorable names for on-air staff. They can project an image and go a long way to burn your brand into the brains of your listeners.
One station doing this well is Clear Channel's WNRQ/Nashville. Listen to this line-up of air talent: "John Boy & Billy" (syndicated) in the morning; "Proud Mary" in middays; "Joe Elvis" does afternoons; "Squeegie" at night. The weekend line-up includes "Jimmy The K".
On my last station, we had "The Hippy", "Joey Pants", "Beagle" - and I was known as "Dead Air Dan" (which just slightly fit me...lol). Memorable names. Right: Dead Air Dan's webphoto (photo actually a young Bill Gates circa 1975).
Obviously you wouldn't want to change the name of an established air talent in your market. But think about it next time you make a new hire. Added: Lee Arnold on this topic here.
Back to Lee: a guy who shares excellent ideas, killer memos and great stories. Spend some time on his blog and check out his video on "XM Diversity". It may change the way you see your radio station. The link is close to the top on the right column under multimedia.
As a footnote: I spent a couple of hours with Lee during his days between ABC Radio (Z Rock, etc.) and the start-up of XM. Had to be 1998. My (then) Capstar regional VP Scott Parsons brought him in to visit. Lee had pages upon pages of his Z-Rock programming memos and notes with him - and allowed me to copy them. I still cherish them - and many of those Z-Rock ideas can still be adapted today to formats like classic rock and AOR. Thanks to Lee Abrams for continuing to share.
As I mentioned in a post on Friday - this past weekend my two sons and I hit the road to visit relatives - and we documented what tunes we heard on the radio the entire way.
It's Classic Rock FM Road Trip #1 - WVIC to KRNQ. Song by song - station by station - mile by mile.
This likely means that I've got too much time on my hands. See it here.
Sunny/71° at 9am
There's some other cool promotions on CFMI's website.
