Sunday Afternoon Odds & Sods

49° - light rain at 5:43pm. Left: downtown Lansing webcam. current image

Good afternoon from Michigan.

Late start on the blog today. I'm not quite sure why. I did wake early - for what is referred to in our house as a "Panera Run".

Panera a regional chain of excellent bakeries; a nice treat as the rest of the house awoke, especially on Mother's Day.

Promotions: Destination Zeppelin. Have seen a few promos for the new Hard Rock Park in Myrtle Beach, featuring the Led Zeppelin Roller Coaster. WAXQ/NYC here. KKFM/Colorado Springs here. Lee Arnold posted about Hard Rock Park here.

Second phase promos: WAOR/South Bend offering a "Flat Screen A Day In May". Here.

Gas: WTPA/Harrisburg is offering free gas here.

And from WBGG/Miami comes "Petty cash". Very cool name - and a very cool graphic. More here.

This is a very sleepy spring in terms of promotions, most likely due to the tight or non-existent budgets in the current economic climate. Fewer stations with "Workforce Cash". The "Harley Days of May" - once a classic rock staple, appears to be gone. Perhaps its time for change, but these promos appear to be replaced by nothing.

Around the blogs:

Seth Godin. Seth posts a great piece this morning (he says its ten years old) on "what every good marketer knows" that is very radio relevant.

Read here.

Wonderful stuff: Rick Kaempfer talks this week to the brilliant Ron Britian. Ron shares memories of WCFL/Chicago; and his own weekly "Subterranean Circus". It was my first real exposure to a lot of album rock...on a 50kw AM blowtorch!

Read Rick's interview here.

More tomorrow.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

57° - clear at 10:20am

Very cool: KUFX/San Jose has put together some great packages that the station will be auctioning off to benefit local charities. What makes this special is that each package involves a member of the station's airstaff, including morning guy/musician Greg Kihn. Very cool. See here.

Listening: This morning to Bob Stroud on Chicago's WDRV. Featuring three hours of this week in 1969.

Very tasty stuff. "Sweet Cherry Wine" by Tommy James playing right now. My evil twin also loved "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" from Paul Revere and The Raiders. Thanks Bob.

Later: Stroud played some Booker T & The MGs. Iinspired, I found myself at Amazon.Com to buy some Booker T downloads: "Time Is Tight" - plus a not-to-major hit titled "Melting Pot" - some great tracks I long forgot about.

Most of Booker T's work recorded at the sloped-floor (a former movie theater) studios of Stax Records in Memphis. But I digress.

Once again, this promotion thing the music industry uses (called "radio") works. Not the only downloads I purchased this morning either - thanks to radio. And my wife will remind me when she reviews our bank statement.

Last Sunday: We noted the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb - stating that we ought to think of our cume as "users" rather than "listeners".

Dave Martin blogged on the topic this past week and offered the words of one Chris Locke:

"we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. we are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp. deal with it."

My take: With respect for all parties - whether you call them listeners or users - they're one of two sets of customers (the other being advertisers). Let's find ways to serve and engage both on the air and off. Its all about relationships.

How to ruin a relationship. Mark Ramsey points us to what I hope isn't a trend. As a program director, one of my primary duties was being an advocate for the listener and preventing things like this from happening. Please read.

Just a good read: Highlights from FMQB's Think-Tank Symposium. Here.

More radio stories. Rick Kaempfer interviews WCBS afternoon news anchor Steve Scott here.

Added: Michael Mallace on "Big Ron" O'Brien - and WCFL - here.

WAXQ Scores in the Big Apple

29° - clear at 7:17am

Good Morning from Okemos.

Just reviewing yesterday's first release of 12+ winter book numbers. In New York, WAXQ rises almost a half point on the Arbi-meter. Classic Hits WCBS-FM remains flat but steady and healthy.

In Chicago - WDRV is basically flat. WLUP down a few notches. That's all 12+....25-54 will tell the real story.

Speaking of Chicago. In an email yesterday regarding the passing of Ron O'Brien, I had a friend in the biz tell me he once got the chance to meet Ron and was invited to sit in the studio during his show at WCFL one night.

Do wonderful moments like that still happen? I hope so.

Consultant Alan Mason has given his blog a makeover - and wrote a couple of great pieces in the last few days. In one post, Alan writes:

"Want to know about one of the most important changes in programming? It’s that it’s no longer “good enough” to have simple announcers trying to be funny or entertaining, or, on the other hand, simply doing the “that was/this is” thing. People want to be more involved in radio, to be more than a passive listener, and that happens when you connect with them."

"OK, most people can agree with that – we need to connect with our listeners in order to develop a deeper relationship with them. But what does that mean strategically? It means we have to have a new strategy, one where “show prep” doesn’t mean a prep sheet or what we heard on another station, but instead starts with the listener and works backwards."

Explore Alan's blog here.

Late Night Add: Radio with Pictures. Television. Bob Pittman thinks "local" (and small). Bob's a principal in Barrington Broadcasting - which owns television stations in the smaller markets. Bob highlighted in a great piece posted earlier today on the TV Newsday website. Pittman on content:

"I like smaller market broadcast television because what we’re seeing is that local means an awful lot to people. Nothing is more important than knowing the local news and what’s going on in the local community."

"The final piece of why it’s an exciting opportunity in the smaller markets is that TV stations can go start the community Internet sites with all the stuff they can’t do on the air—obituaries, school lunch menus, a phone directory like the Yellow Pages, etc. And they can use the power of the TV to promote the sites and re-use all the news and information they gather. They can create another business which in five to 10 years should be just as profitable as the TV stations in those markets."

What Bob says here applies to radio too; especially with websites. The Pittman article here (registration required - free).

Thank You. To Dave Martin for the plug today.

Bedtime for Bonzo. Have a good night.

RIP: "Big" Ron O'Brien

I was saddened to learn tonight that Ron O'Brien has passed.

I remember him so well from his days at WCFL/Chicago back in the 70s - and later at KFI/Los Angeles (which boomed into Santa Fe when I lived there; and in CQUAM stereo too!).

Big Ron was part of an era of Chicago radio of all-star talent. Ron an incredible jock who never failed to deliver. Great pipes and energy, tight, yet relaxed and comfortable - combined with great personality. A radio natural.

Above: WCFL 1974; below right: WOGL 2008; bottom: KTLK/Denver 1970.

From The Philadelphia Inquirer (today 4/27/08):

"Big Ron" O'Brien, afternoon disc jockey on WOGL (98.1) and a former WFIL "Boss Jock," died this morning of complications of pneumonia.

Mr. O'Brien, believed to be 56, had been ill for nearly two months and was hospitalized at Paoli Memorial Hospital before being transferred to a rehabilitation center in West Chester. He seemed to be improving about a week ago, Jim Loftus, the station manager, said.

Mr. O'Brien had been at WOGL, a classic hits station specializing in music from the 1960s and 1970s, since 2002. Loftus described Mr. O'Brien as a musicologist who not only knew his play list but was well-versed in contemporary music.

"I never knew a guy who loved being on the air as much as he did," said Anne Gress, WOGL's program director. "There was such joy in his voice. He was put on this earth nothing other than to be on the air." Mr. O'Brien's first stint in Philadelphia was at the top-40 WFIL, a home of rapid-fire disk jockeys, from 1976 to 1979.

A Midwesterner, he started his career in 1969 at KUDL in Kansas City, according to a biography from the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. A year later, he went to KTLK in Denver. In the next six years, his radio station stops included WQXI in Atlanta, WCFL in Chicago, WXLO in New York and WOKY in Milwaukee.

He landed in Philadelphia at WFIL, toward the end of its "Famous 56" halcyon days. In 1979, he moved to Los Angeles, where he worked first at KFI and then at KIIS before moving to KWK in St. Louis in 1985. He stayed for nine years, until his return to Denver at KZDG. He returned to Philadelphia in 1996, when he joined WYXR (Star 104.5). In 2002, he joined WOGL, where he hosted the 3p.m.-to-7 p.m. weekday shift. He won several Achievement in Radio awards in Philadelphia.

"A lot of guys like me looked to guys like him to inspire their careers," said Loftus. "We are incredibly saddened. He was one of the greats." He is survived by his mother. Funeral arrangements were pending, but the station said services probably would be Friday.

Added: John Rook remembers Big Ron. Read here.
Added: WOGL website tribute to Ron. Here.

Another Hit for Chicago's WDRV - 97.1 The Drive

When Tuesday's mail arrived here at the Kelley home - it included a package for me from my brother Brian.

Inside was a copy of Bob Stroud's latest Rock 'N Roll Roots CD - Volume 9 - which has been for sale in Borders Book Stores in the Chicago area for a couple of weeks now.

Bob does middays on classic rock/classic hits WDRV/Chicago; and if you're a regular reader to this blog you might also know he produces and hosts a program airing Sunday Mornings called "Rock 'N Roll Roots".

The show focuses on the music that made an impact on the Chicago AM & FM dials in the 60s and 70s. The stuff I heard growing up in suburban Chicago.

The show is a labor of love for Stroud - something he started after joining Chicago's WMET in 1979. A history of Bob's journey up and down the dial is documented here.

The annual CD project features the music thats played each week on the show - a good chunk of it appearing for the first time on compact disc.

The album artwork is excellent too - acknowledging Chicago's musical heritage. Inside - the liner notes document the airplay each song received on the local airwaves back in the day. Very cool!

Bob explained the process to me in a recent email:

"Every April I solicit for suggestions from "The Stroud Crowd" for the upcoming Rock 'n Roll Roots CD release. At the end of the month, I tally up the votes and try to license the songs that received the most votes. Every year over 500 different titles are submitted!"

"We work with SRO in Minneapolis who do all the leg work of tracking down the songs and their publishers. Each year we press up 5,000 copies and retail them at Chicagoland Borders locations. When they're gone, they're gone. I've seen Volumes 1 through 3 goes as high as $75 on E-Bay! Previous Volumes are also for sale through sellers on Amazon."

"This year was the 1st year that we couldn't license a song that had never been on CD before. Volumes 1 through 8 all had songs that hadn't appeared on CD before, most were midwest hits from Chicago bands that were played frequently on WCFL and WLS."

For those outside the Chicago area: WCFL and WLS were the dominant Top 40 AM stations in the market in the 60s and 70s.

Since 2002, WDRV has donated at least $60,000 to charities from sales of the Rock & Roll Roots CDs - and each year its been a different charity:

"It has been a different charity every year while here at The Drive. We try to select one that has a music angle for obvious reasons."

"Children's Home + Aid offers music lessons, amongst many other academic offerings to children who come from needy families. They are also the charity that has been closely associated over time with this year's corporate sponser, Merlin's 200,000 Mile Shops."

Congrats to Bob and the staff at WDRV. The CD is not only a great charity project - but one that reinforces the passion for the station's music and its relationship with audience and the City of Chicago.

I've observed (from afar) others attempting to duplicate WDRV's format in other markets - even calling their station "The Drive". And most have failed - not understanding the attributes that have made WDRV a success.

And the first mistake imitators make is using the name "The Drive"; its a name that is uniquely Chicago and loses all significance almost everywhere else. There's only one "Drive".