Wednesday Blogs

70° - overcast at 8:20am

Good Morning from rainy Mid-Michigan.

Caught the Don Felder interview last night on Bloomberg; interesting insight into the politics of The Eagles. Video here.

Added: More spring winners: KQRS/Minneapolis up over a point a half to break a 10 share 12+. WRFX/Charlotte rebounds after a few rough books.

News: WAXQ/New York PD Bob Buchmann resigns, leaving Q104.3 in great shape with great numbers. I hope he's moving on to something wonderful after years of success in the Big Apple.

Around my blog-o-sphere:

Jaye Albright's "Favre" Stunt. Read here.

Dave Martin. Dave shares a great "trade secret" regarding Mel Karmazin negotiating with a potential hire. Read here. As a PD (and in life), we've reached that point in negotiations.

And if you missed it, Dave shared another trade secret/tip with this blog in comments a few weeks back. Scroll to the bottom of this page to read. Share with your air talent and web people. Well worth your time.

Sounds like a great radio station:

"A healthy balance of depth tracks and familiar hits. A true connection to community. A strong moral compass. Relatable human values. Direct audience relationships."

Paragon's Mike Henry on "Boss Radio" here. (I've had the "experience" Mike writes of four times in my own life...)

Added: Consultant Alan Mason writes about branding and radio. A great piece:

"...the tangible parts of your “product” are what first attract people, but the intangible parts are what bring them back again and again, and build loyalty. In a radio brand the music or talk/news programming are the tangibles, and any facet of them, except how it adds to the experience, are still tangibles. So slight variations, shades of gray, aren’t meaningful to the consumer. That’s why smart brand marketers, like Apple, always advertise based on the intangible parts - those that live in the mind of the consumer."

"How’s your imaging today? As you listen, are you focusing on the experience and intangible parts of your station? Or are you, like most of us, still talking about the beans and the water?"

Read more here. And in a second post (here) - Alan writes:

"The “everything counts” principle simply lays it out that there is no neutral, or any get of of jail free card in anything we do. That no only includes the commercials, but also how the receptionist answers the phone. Or rather how the voice mail answers the phone these days. It includes how your your talent act at the remotes. It includes you having voice-tracked “weak ends” instead of weekends. It includes jocks who aren’t show prepping and sound like it."

"It includes the jock who tried to make a date on the Internet who turned out to be a cop. It includes the salesperson who demeans the product by giving it away at a ridiculously low price."

"Anything that doesn’t reinforce and solidify the brand then detracts from the brand."

Read his second post here. And Alan promises more tomorrow!

Have a good night.

Wednesday Blogs

60° - light drizzle at 9:19am

Left: Eagle Harbor off Lake Superior in Michigan's Upper Peninsula this morning. current image

Good Morning from Michigan.

From my blogosphere:

Southern Fried. Edison Media Research has a great blog in The Infinite Dial; and Edison's Sean Ross is in Charlotte for the NAB. While there he's blogging his impressions of Charlotte radio. Here's his notes about classic rocker WRFX:

"At a time when many Classic Rock stations have gotten older and softer, they were relatively crunchy in middays: a Don Henley here or an Elton John/"Rocket Man" there, but also AC/DC "Shoot To Thrill" into Styx/"Renegade," as well as the Southern Rock that you'd expect--Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, and a Charlie Daniels Band threefer!"

Jaye Albright. Jaye Albright explores what Clear Channel could do to get some PPM numbers for its country HD2 product in New York City. An interesting read here.

Could similar tactics work for other market "exclusive" formats that are only available on HD?

Jaye also shares some great words on branding here; its about artists - but very relevant as you think of your radio station as a brand.

Wisdom from David Martin: "Arbitron PPM is about getting into places, it's about penetration of personal and public spaces; you need to be played to be exposed and to be played you're going to need to be invited. Getting invited requires you to be known and "findable."

Read Dave's complete post from Friday here.

Bruce Springsteen. Amazon debuts another song/video from "Magic" - scroll down here; and Clear Channel station websites give fans a preview of the album. See/listen here.

Bogus Led Zep tix. From Radio & Records: "QPrime Management has alerted R&R that there are unethical scalpers offering Led Zeppelin concert tickets that they don’t actually have for the band’s show in London on Nov. 26 at the 02 Arena."

Flying with a Poophead. Consultant Harv Blain shares an airline experience with an computer executive here. Harv: "Do you have any spoilers that would tarnish your brand?"

Have a great Wednesday.