Here I be - up since 3:30am - which will surely catch up to me later. But it gave me a chance again to check out Lansing's live local overnighttelevisionshow.
How many radio stations are "live" overnight??; I can think of one - maybe two in this market.
The local CW affiliate - a "cable only" channel operated by Lansing's ABC affiliate - has a program overnight (1-6am) called "Text Me TV". The show has college-aged hosts discussing the things that college-aged people talk about....meaningful (jobs, relationships, school, etc.) but mostly impromptu "silly stuff".
This morning discussing relationships, candy, road trip stories, fast food, alcohol - and singing theme songs to favorite cartoon shows. Later: homeless people digressing into "what makes a bum a bum"; number of friends on their personal MySpace pages and picking on/mimicking a colorful local car dealer who does his own TV commercials.
Viewers participate by texting into the show with their messages posted on the right side of the screen; just 99 cents a message.
Its consumer-generated media appealing to (and created by) 18-24 year olds. And a few old men.
Many of the viewers texting appear to be "regulars" - similar to regular callers to talk radio.
I blogged here about "Text Me TV" here back in February. Visit the show's website here.
Adrants Daily is reporting that KFC will debut a new TV commercial on tonight's American Idol - and this spot is made entirely of consumer-generated content found on You Tube and MySpace.
We pointed out here the spring TV efforts of Detroit's WCSX with listeners competing to produce the station's spring book TV spot. A great example of CGM - and even more powerful as its advertising for a product produced by its fans.
"Its a whole new world" is quite the understatement. Here's the KFC commercial:
While watching HBO's The Sopranos last night - I heard a piece of familiar music (Floyd's "Comfortably Numb") and wanted to find out who recorded it.
With my laptop in arm's reach, I typed "Sopranos" into Yahoo search and found something cool: a live real-time discussion board where fans of the show were discussing the developing storyline as the show aired:
That inspired some thinking about how radio chats with its listeners on a near real-time basis through the telephone and email. Do we make it easy for them to get through to the station and ask questions about a song or a station promotion? Do we do what friends do?
A few thoughts:
1) Answer the studio phone.Don't allow anyone to "busy out" the lines or let them ring forever with no answer;
2) Have a studio PC dedicated to email thats always on.Consider a common studio email address to make it simple such as "rock@wqnx.com". Make it the same address for whoever might be on the air.
Respond to emails in a timely fashion. Invite your listeners by promoting the phone number and email address on the air and on your website. Break down the wall. Talk to them. Its what friends do. Its about relationships. You learn what they're thinking. And they might turn you onto something you should be talking about on the air.
btw: The version of "Comfortably Numb" heard on last night's episode of "The Sopranos" was from the "The Departed" soundtrack - link - performed by Roger Waters featuring Van Morrison & The Band.
Listening this morning to KKZX/Spokane on the 'net. The "Radiomen" are on the air. Flashback host/VO pro Bill St. James is their imaging voice. sweet!
Mothers Day. Sunday. WMGK/Philadelphia is doing a Mother's Day Request Weekend. If your request is played, you'll also pick up a pair of Def Leppard/Styx tix. KSAN/San Francisco doing 3-song sets for mom on her day.
Practical. WAQY/Springfield giving listeners a chance to get all the junk out of their home. A prize a wife would love. Ends the nagging! Details here.
Another one: "Show Us Your Crack". KTWS/Bend, OR is looking for the biggest crack. Here.
Morning Show TV.KRFX/Denver AM drivers Lewis & Floorwax (aka "The Masters") take highlights of their radio show to Comcast Cable Wednesday through Friday Nights. Here. How many cable systems are looking for programming....??
Not ready for prime time. R&R reports this morning that Arbitron has suspended its eDiary, citing low return rates.
Speaking of Arbitron: the company is now collecting station info on HD multicasts. Instructions and forms on their website. Arbitron says they won't begin reporting HD multicast listening yet. McVay Media's Dave Lange writes about the E-Diary and more here.
Over the weekend in Chicago: Spent time listening to WDRV(surprised?) when in the car...both the Chicago 97.1 signal as well as the far north simulcast on 96.9. Every hour the station runs a recorded promo for HD radio..highlighting the technology, hardware and programming.
More WDRV: On Wednesday May 9th, the station celebrates its 6th birthday with a free listener concert featuring REO Speedwagon and The Ides Of March.
Added:WCSX/Detroit announced the winner of its $20,000 TV Commercial Contest. See the winner here.
Another programmer blogging: Congrats to AC programmer Doug Daniels - most recently of Next Media's WZSR/WWYW - for launching his blog. I became acquainted with Doug after reading this.Like yours truly, Doug is in search of his next great opportunity.
Later This Week:
Tuesday (5/1): Patti Smith on NBC-TV's Jay Leno Wednesday (5/2): Alice Cooper on NBC-TV's Carson Daly Thursday (5/3): Alice Cooper on CBS-TV's Craig Ferguson Thursday (5/3): Bob Weir on NBC-TV's Conan O'Brien Saturday (5/5): Cinco de Mayo
Some comments: The production values of these spots far exceed what I ever imagined. With the availability today of inexpensive high-quality digital video gear - including cameras and editing software - almost anyone with a little talent and imagination can turn out some great video.
Add professional voice-over work as needed and you'd swear some of these spots were the work of production pros. A few entrants even understood the concept of a logo "bug" in the corner of the screen throughout the spot!
Another observation: You can tell that these listeners really get the positioning statements and programming attributes of the radio station.
They know 'CSX: The no-repeat work week, the morning show, the "five o'clock funnies", etc.
Having listeners help produce content - be it on the radio or on television - gives them ownership and turns them into advocates. WCSX just set the bar a few notches higher. Congrats!
This morning Keith Cunningham of Jacobs Media writes about radio's ability to react fast - but suggests it could be slow to get into the game. Read Keith's comments here.
Last Friday: We noted here that Cincinnati's WOFX (92.5 The Fox) is repeating the 6am hour of Bob & Tom middays 10-11am. Now Miami's WBGG (Big 105.9) is extending morning drivers Paul & Young Ron until noon.
Lee Abrams: Over the weekend Lee blogged about Washington, DC's new 94.7/The Globe - and wrote in depth about his XM Radio "check list" for a great station. Some more great thoughts from Lee on how to think about your radio station.
Added: Dallas loses classic rock KZPS - and with the change - Clear Channel gets rid of....commercials. Read here. More:Fred Jacobs on KZPS - as quoted on All Access:"In a major market, for a classic rock station to change formats is really an anomaly"..."You could make a nice, long, healthy list of top five stations that are classic rock, and several would be No. 1 or No. 2 in their markets". Me thinks the door just opened for a new classic rock convert in Dallas; or adjustments at 93.3 The Bone. Yet More: Dave Lange on the launch of the new KZPS "Lone Star 92.5" - here. Tony Soprano rocks. If you saw last night's episode of The Sopranos, you heard another great classic rock moment.
Tony and Paulie hit the road with the radio cranked to Fredricksburg, VA's WWUZ/Classic Rock 96.9.That's too cool! Congrats to their staff.
Later this week:
Tuesday (4/24) - Iggy Pop/The Stooges on ABC's Jimmy Kimmel. Wednesday (4/25) is Administrative Professional's Day Thursday (4/26) is "Take Your Daughter (Or Son) To Work Day"
left: still from live webcam - San Francisco Peaks/Flagstaff, AZ - this morning 8:20am Mountain Daylight Time.
Flagstaff: one of my favorite towns.
Listening to Seaver this morning on the Deep Tracks stream from WDRV. Playing right now: "Simple Man" - Skynyrd. Later: "Route 66" - Stones (which mentions "Flagstaff, Arizona" - heard just after I posted the above picture..weird!)
Imus (one more time): If you've watched any of the cable news channels in the last week - plus ESPN - the Don Imus situation continues to be the hot topic. It's Time Magazine's cover story this week with a story written between CBS Radio's suspension and cancellation.
Edison Media Research's Sean Rosshere about life after Imus.
Heritage Station Salutes: About a month ago, we wrote about "The Station Music Expert" - and specifically "Downstairs" Dan Hansen at WKLH/Milwaukee - who features the 'ZMF Flashback during his shift - paying homage to the legendary AOR station in the Milwaukee market back in the 70s. Very cool.
Found WNCD/Youngstown doing the "Wizard Sunday Morning" from 8 to 10am. WSRD - aka "Wizard" - was Youngstown's original Prog Rock station back in the 70s and early 80s. The show on WNCD is hosted by "original Wizard Minion Thomas John". Another great example of getting real local.
Playlist notes:WDRV/Chicago surprised me yesterday (delightfully) with REM's "Its The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" from 1987's "Document". Not for every station and your mileage will vary greatly.
But the conversation about aging demos and newer music is a good chat to have. I remembering adding Def Leppard for the first time to a classic rock station playlist years ago with some trepidation; now the band is a core artist for many stations. PPM For TV. I see that starting in September, Nielsen's version of the PPM will start tracking television viewership wherever it occurs - such as bars, restaurants, gyms, etc. Read it here. This should provide some interesting data!
Great Stories.Rick Kaempfer on Marilu Henner. Actress. Radio guest. Read Rick's stories about Marilu appearing on John Landecker's Chicago radio show here.
Hoping for a high of 50 here; have a great Sunday!
Welcome to Wednesday. Yesterday in mid-Michigan we had great spring weather; hitting 73°. This morning its light snow and 34°.
Blogs and more:
FM IPOD. The feature most IPOD owners would like to see on their IPODs are an FM tuner. That from the latest Jacobs Media Tech Survey of 25,000 rock radio listeners. Read more from Fred Jacobs here.
Survey sez: Classic Rock listeners are least likely to own or purchase an MP3 player among all rock listeners surveyed.
More IPOD. Mark Ramsey discusses the IPOD and why Apple only offers FM as an add-on. Read here. Alan Mason of Goodratings Strategic Services offers his thoughts here.
Intelligent Radio. Music industry veteran Steve Meyer writes about creating a radio station that focuses on the quality of music. Read here. Actually, I can think of a few Classic Rock stations that focus on the quality of the music they play.
Imaging Inspiration. What imaging did your station do around St. Patrick's Day or for the start of the baseball season? Get some motivation from this post from Lee Abrams on what XM does - and think how you can turn those ideas into short imaging pieces on your station.
Son Of The Year Award. I'm sure your morning show was talking about it - but if you missed this little tidbit from Rolling Stone Keith Richards yesterday here it is.Keith does the job to get his name in the news. Can Britney top this?
REO Speedwagon. We wrote a few weeks back about the Bob & Tom appearance by the band. Thursday Morning, members of REO joins WKLH/Milwaukee's Dave & Carole during morning drive (Central Time Zone). Listen here.
And speaking of WKLH's Dave & Carole - they've released their new TV spot for the spring book...enjoy:
Left: Downtown Okemos- at 11am today... and a view of The Travelers Club International Restaurant and Tuba Museum (really). Partly sunny and 60°. Nice. Watch friends and co-workers today. It is April 1st! Pass along a link to this Seth Godin post to any parent you know. Imaging = 2 Million Dollars.McVay Media's Dave Lange hereon treating your imaging as if its a $2 million investment. Thank you Dave.
Another Great Read. Find out what you love and dedicate yourself to it. More here and a recommended book from ChaosScenario.
Booger! WKRP Season One out on DVD April 27th with most of the original music licensed and restored. Finally!
Read more details with unrestrained enthusiasm from Lee Arnold here.
And now (seems like) our weekly WDRV/Chicago post:
No Soup For You! Just for fun - video below of Larry Thomas on the air last year with Jim Kerr/Q1043 in NYC. Is that an aquarium over in the corner?Too cool! Looks like a comfy studio to work in.
Classic Rock and Baseball. Sunday is opening day for the 2007 season of Major League Baseball. This season, Grand Rapids' classic rock WLAV will air Detroit Tiger night and weekend games.
I'm sure WLAV is hoping the Tigers can repeat the success they had in 2006. Sports isn't foreign to classic rock; many carry the NFL. Anyone else with baseball?
Next Thursday is opening day for our local minor-league Lansing Lugnuts. Best value for the money in our family. Minor league baseball understands that its the experience, not just the game. My two boys (8 & 11) love it!
Rush On Tour. Been receiving lots of email blasts from classic rock stations coast-to-coast with pre-sale info and on-air ticket giveaways. Check out the tour schedule here. Rush will have a new CD "Snakes and Arrows" on May 1st.
Sound Bites: Catch ZZ Top on "King Of The Hill" - Fox Television Sunday Night. TiVo or roll tape for imaging drops. Ahappy ending out of Santa Fe (a market where I spent seven years in the late 70s/early 80s). The story: corporation sells local radio station to religious broadcaster. Employees and friends of the station rally and successfully save "their" station. Read about KBAC here.
Failure To Launch. Is it me - or are we seeing a lot more format launch failures in the last few years as compared to the past? Not too many years ago, failure to sustain and grow seemed to be an periodic issue with some start-ups. You'd see a great launch with lots of buzz and excitement - but for any number of reasons - after a book or two - the station would become stagnant.
Of course the great ones were fed, nourished - and continued to grow into legends. But these days there seems to be a epidemic of launch failures. DOA. We likely would come up with the same list of reasons. Edison Media Research's Sean Ross just wrote a piece on this topic here. I guess its not just me.
This morning, I'm listening to the Bob & Tom Show (via the web) and an interview/acoustic studio performance with REO Speedwagon. Great radio.
I remember playing these guys on the radio starting with the REO/TWO album in 1973. They've got a new CD package hitting stores in April that includes a DVD.
Streaming Rates Explained. Boulder's SBR Creative Media has put together a white paper PDF read on how the new copyright rates affect webcasting. Its a great reference piece. Find it here.
Meanwhile - Mark Ramsey writes here about "The Coming Internet Radio Boom".
We noted a few days ago the passing of Calvert DeForest. Check out this classic 1983 Larry "Bud" Melman clip from Late Night with David Letterman.
A few weeks back, a friend sent me a link to a video on You Tube that brought back memories. The classic "Cuz" spot - originally produced by WLUP/Chicago in 1991. The entire video below.
Being the curious sort I am - I surfed by the website of the original syndicator of the "Cuz" spot - Robert Michelson Inc - and saw that the spot was still being marketed 16 years later! I soon shot Bob Michelson an email - to say hello again after many years - and to find out the history of the spot.
DK: Can you give me a little history of the "Cuz" campaign?
RM: "CUZ" premiered for The Loop (WLUP-FM) in Chicago in 1991. "CUZ" - aka Robert Marena - got his name because his cousin filmed him dancing initially for use in a music video for his demo reel. When it was being edited, The Loop's advertising agency saw the video - and one thing led to another and it became their TV commercial instead.
Norm Weiner - Program Director of (crosstown) WXRT-FM - contacted me about the spot. We (Robert Michelson Inc) had just completed a TV campaign for KGB-FM in San Diego. KGB's Program Director - Ted Edwards - informed me that they wanted to purchase a new spot that The Loop (Chicago) was using.
After viewing the spot - I flew to Chicago and had meetings with The Loop's advertising agency, Jimmy DeCastro - President of Evergreen Media, and Larry Wert - General Manager of The Loop. Shortly thereafter, we entered into a syndication agreement. Fifteen years after the original commercial aired - we went back to the original site in Chicago and re-shot CUZ/Robert Marena in high definition for The Loop's new TV campaign welcoming Jonathan Brandmeier back to the station. There is a whole new generation of young listeners that can now view the CUZ TV campaign in high definition. CUZ has become an internationally syndicated campaign. It has run in Australia, Italy and was purchased by Richard Branson for use in England.
DK: I see that you've now produced a new take on the CUZ campaign for Jack FM in LA...
RM: Our most recent TV campaign, "You Can Dance", features real people improv dancing on a theater stage. It has already been purchased in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles and is the top-selling campaign for the Variety Hits format. It has already crossed over to both Hot AC and Rhythmic/AC formats. The "You Can Dance" campaign will be posted on our website shortly http://www.rmitv.com.
My thanks to Robert Michelson for sharing the "Cuz" story with us. And do check out the new "You Can Dance" spot. I can best describe it as "Cuz" meets Napoleon Dynamite. If its not on his website yet, it will be shortly - or email RMITV here. The WLUP spot from 1991:
There's been a lot written about Consumer Generated Media (CGM) ... You Tube, blogs, podcasting and more - and now comes "Text Me TV".
It just debuted here in Lansing on the local CW affiliate (a cable channel here - also seen on the ABC affiliate's HDTV secondary channel). For a mere 99¢ per text, one can broadcast their message to the world - or at least to those watching in the Lansing market.
Tuning in this past Tuesday at noon, the show had two hosts giving away prizes - conducting polls on "best revenge you ever had on an ex"; plus talk on Britney, Lindsay Lohan and more. The hosts commented on messages; suggesting new topics when response slowed, much like talk radio. Live and local TV. Check out the Lansing Text Me TV website here. Read an interview with a late-night Text Me TV show host here. At best, I'd classify this show as "semi-professional"...the hosts are primary students at Michigan State University. But it doesn't matter. Its different - and talking right to its demo.
What could text messaging do for radio? Interacting with your audience. A text scroll on a website or streaming player. Requests. Questions. Polls. Opinion. Fun. Make it ad supported. Another chance to bond with the audience. Community. How about HD radio with its text abilities?
In just recent weeks - CBS country WYCD/Detroit introduced text messaging as a way of communicating with their audience. And the age demos of country are pretty broad.
How 'bout Classic Rock? As Fred Jacobs wrote days ago: "You can't run away from technology, so why not try to embrace it?"
"...his insights and commentary on Classic Rock and Rock are well thought out and are always a valuable use of your time. Some smart operator should grab him up." -Lee Arnold
The Hobby
Okemos Brewing Company Listen Live - Quality Rock 24/7
58° - mostly cloudy at 5am
Viewers participate by texting into the show with their messages posted on the right side of the screen; just 99 cents a message.
