The Infinite Dial

I was invited to speak at the Public Radio Program Directors' meeting in Minneapolis on Friday, and as I flew there from the NAB Radio show in Charlotte, it was fascinating to see the kind of parallel 'convention' worlds that Sean posted about here and Tom posted about here.

For me, the most incredible thing I saw was the public debut of "The Bryant Park Project", NPR's new morning show designed for younger audiences than their stalwart Morning Edition. The New York Times profiled this show here, (registration required) and you can go to the show's own Web site here.

Why was it incredible? Because they referenced that they have been piloting the show for months. They researched it. They practiced; threw things out that weren't working, and tried again.

Oh, and they gave the show a first year budget of $2 million.

Compare this to what is usually done in commercial radio, where we almost always just throw a couple of people into a studio and hope they can make it work.

Public Radio has grown 31% in the last eight years, and it's now going after younger listeners. Watch out Commercial Radio -- NPR is doing it right.

Posted by Larry Rosin at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I am sitting right now in a meeting at the Podcast and New Media Expo in Ontario, California. When I got in last night near midnight, the lobby of the hotel was buzzing with activity--conversations were happening in hallways, at the bar, on the floor--everywhere. Though podcasting is still in its nascent phase as far as monetization, there was a palpable excitement and optimism in the air, and a true culture of ideas.

Now, I am not going to make a value judgement on this, but the atmosphere at the NAB was a bit different. On the one hand, I was very encouraged by the commitment many broadcasters were showing (and were enthused about) for expanding their digital platforms. But there weren't those late night crowds of people huddled around the conference floor gushing enthusiastically about the future of the platform. I think a big part of that has to do with the maturity of the platform, of course, but also the nature of the differences between the attendees for the two meetings. I went from being one of the youngest attendees at the NAB...to the 'old man' of the PME. But there are plenty of bright young people in radio, as we saw at this year's 30 Under 30.

Now, before I hear any cries of my being ageist, let me state loud and clear that this is simply not the case. The issue is not one of age, it is an issue of what one's 'investment horizon' is, and I hope my distinction is clear and not misinterpreted. While many of the folks at the PME are just starting their careers in podcasting, what I heard a lot of at the NAB was "just give me 5 good years." But there are a lot of people in radio who want more than five good years, they want great careers in audio entertainment. They just aren't at the NAB, mainly for budget reasons.

Let's get those folks to the NAB. My modest proposal--sell individual lunch tickets to cover and predict those costs, but let stations bring up to five staffers for the current price of a single ticket. Given that broadcasters just don't have the budget to get their music director, or promotions and marketing staff, to the NAB--let's put some skin in the game and broaden the attendance a bit. The attendees of this year's NAB represent only a small fraction of the total contributors to our industry--I'd love to see the NAB do more to broaden attendance and get a more representative attendance.

Posted by Tom Webster at 12:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

The other night I got back from the NAB sessions and caught a few minutes of the NBC premiere for "Life." The protagonist is a former cop who was wrongly convicted of murder, sent away for 12 years, only to finally be exonerated and (oddly) returned to the force as a detective. My favorite scene was a brief interlude of the main character being shown Google for the first time, and, on a lark, Googling his name. To his horror, the whole first page consisted of links about his murder trial, mug shots and even photos of the murder victim. He was, as you would be, horrified.

Googled your station's name lately? You may have mug shots of your own. We heard a lot at the NAB about two of the three primary media platforms: audio and video. Nothing at all, however, about the platform that really makes the web work: text. If you are not actively telling your story every day on the web, posting fresh, new content that really contributes to your listeners' lives, then others may be telling your story for you--and you may not like the stories they tell. Google remembers all.

Posted by Tom Webster at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

A few more things I enjoyed in my NAB/R&R-week listening to Charlotte, N.C., radio:

* Urban AC WBAV (V101.9)'s late-night Quiet Storm-type program and its very smooth female host , C.C., who, as best I can tell, is actually the host for three nights a week;

* N/T powerhouse WBT's morning news magazine, particularly the news segments which had a distinct sense of the old CKLW Detroit 20/20 News punchiness to them.

* Oldies WTHZ (Majic 94.1), which has become a four-share Greensboro, N.C., station, since it took over that franchise from the old WMQX, but also shows in Charlotte as well. I've always liked morning co-host Bill Campbell and the station exuded some nice retro energy as well--and wasn't afraid to use the word "oldies."

Posted by Sean Ross at 9:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

On numerous occasions over the last year, it has been suggested that one of the most obvious solutions to HD Radio's problems in creating valid multicast channel content and radio's overall 12-24 crisis might be to just turn the HD-2 stations over to those darn kids--college students, in the spirit of the late '60s/early '70s development of FM Rock radio.

In the halls at NAB/R&R this week, the stories of the broadcasters who have actually done that are finally starting to pile up, and not just Greater Media's much-publicized WRIF-2 (Riff 2) Detroit, but also its Boston station, Radio You, heard on WBOS Boston's HD-2 channel since May. Then there's Bonneville's indie rock iChannel--the one successful national HD-2 service that anybody could name at yesterday's panel, "HD Programming: The New Frontier."

Also on that panel were Delmarva Broadcasting's Cynthia Morgan and Andy Mussaw, PD of WSTW Wilmington, Del.'s HD-2 modern rock channel Graffiti Radio. Graffiti had begun as a project of the under-30s at Delmarva, Morgan told the panel audience. Now, it's being syndicated to other stations for use on their side-channels.

Posted by Sean Ross at 8:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In between our more pressing concerns about the state of radio, we've been keeping tabs on the new Britney Spears single, "Gimme More," and whether the single's initial momentum was hurt by her VMA performance.

Spears had come into the VMAs with a song that had gained more than 1,000 spins on its previous (partial) week's total. The week after the performance, she was still in the 900+ range.

And now?

According to Mediabase, Spears is up 514 spins this morning over the previous seven-day period, moving 20-17. That's the sixth fastest-growing record in the country, but well behind this week's big-momentum song, Timbaland & One Republic's "Apologize," up more than 1,400 spins.

There also seems to be a change in the tenor of a few of the PD quotes in this week's trade ads. WHTZ (Z100) New York PD Sharon Dastur's lead-off quote is, "People need to stick with 'Gimme More' and give it a fair chance because it looks like it's coming through for us in a big way." WSSX Charleston, S.C., APD Special Ed adds, "Don't let the media, or some of her personal actions affect your decision on playing this record."

Posted by Sean Ross at 8:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

In my four days of Charlotte radio listening, it wasn't until last night that I finally heard my first "welcome broadcasters" stager on Classic Hits WXRC (95.7 the Ride). (That station, by the way, in a throwback to the early days of WMMO Orlando, Fla., promises "no silly morning shows, no stupid contests, no hype" in a Website promo.)

This morning, however, I did hear syndicated morning hosts Bob & Sheri on flagship WLNK (the Link) do a local cutaway in which they first welcomed NAB attendees, then launched into this morning's Charlotte Observer NAB story, "Radio Industry Gets A Bad Signal." While the dire prediction that radio as we know it "would evaporate in 20 years" actually came from remarks by Talkers' Magazine's Mike Harrison, the duo noted that the Observer "just loves any bad news about radio and TV," followed by musings on print's equally problematic future.

Besides, the duo said, Harrison did note that high-profile personalities would be the ones who hung on the longest. "We have people listening to us on streams, we have people listening to us via podcast. We have one woman who listens on her cellphone."

The duo's advice to visiting broadcasters. "Don't forget we have a really cool new Home Depot. Don't just go to the strip club!"

As earlier noted, Charlotte radio has been doing a relatively good job of covering its stopsets on the Web. Modern rock WEND (the End) has now become the first station I've heard to run promos suggesting that listeners let their friends who have moved out of the market know that the station is available on the Web--one of the few stations I've heard actually try to cultivate that following.

Posted by Sean Ross at 7:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Is it the platform or the programming that younger listeners are no longer responding to with radio? There was evidence for both in Wednesday's much-anticipated Jacobs Media/Arbitron presentation, "The Bedroom Project." Going just by the enthusiasm that the study's interviewees showed for texting, iPods, and their mobile phones, but not radio, one might have despaired for the prospects of finding anything that would make an AM/FM radio compelling again for a 20-year-old. And yet, as Fred Jacobs pointed out, those respondents who did have something positive to say about radio were usually motivated by personality--KROQ L.A.'s Kevin & Bean or KPWR (Power 106) L.A.'s Big Boy. Which means that radio still has to figure out whether 12-to-24s left radio or whether radio, through its failure to target that audience, left them.

Not that "Keeping Adults on the Radio" was considered a slam dunk either. Some tidbits from that multi-format panel:

* CBS Radio "Jack-FM" format captain Kurt Johnson noted that legendary WLS (and now WZZN) p.m. driver John "Records" Landecker had been his inspiration for the imaging of his Jack-FMs.

* Johnson also spoke to the New York Times Magazine comments by Columbia's Rick Rubin that rankled many in the industry. In response to the suggestion that younger audiences no longer cared about radio, Johnson asked, "Why did no one challenge Rick Rubin." He also noted that Columbia's label reps were still asking CBS stations to play their records--so perhaps radio mattered after all.

* WQDR Raleigh, N.C., PD Lisa McKay characterized voice-tracked radio as "fraudcasting." Her take on younger audiences' disinterest in radio: "Kids are holding up their hands to be high-fived and nobody is slapping them back." And in a world where few broadcasters see a middle ground between high-profile personality and jocklessness,,McKay told the panel that WQDR was able to forge its relationship with the community without a lot of talk--less than three minutes at a time in morning and primarily over the music in afternoon drive.

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's a little irony in almost any seminar that ends up sharing the hotel with a radio convention. (Remember Country Radio Seminar and the waste haulers?) And this year, my hotel for NAB/R&R is hosting a realtors' meeting. So I asked an elevator full of attendees, "How's the mood at your convention?" "It's very upbeat," asserted one. "I'm from Louisville and home sales are actually holding steady," said another. "I'm from Texas, which is always on its own cycle," one added. But then somebody brought up a recent consumer press story about the real estate bubble bursting. "They do that to us every year around this time," somebody responded. So it's hard to know if the real estate folks are more upbeat than radio people, or just more credible to an outsider in their defiance. But the part about those press stories sounded familiar.

Posted by Sean Ross at 1:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It almost proved to be harder to listen to Charlotte, N.C., radio in Charlotte than on the Internet.

When I got in the cab at the airport, I asked the driver to turn on the radio. "Why would you want to do that?" he asked, clearly a little annoyed. Then he insisted there was no radio in the cab. "You don't need it; we'll be downtown in 15 minutes." I explained--as if I needed to--that listening to the radio was part of what I did for a living. Finally, he grudgingly turned on the radio, but warned that he didn't want to lose the station he was currently tuned to, which turned out to be NPR affiliate WFAE, which was running PRI's syndicated "Here And Now."

Also heard today, in between the NAB registration and the opening reception:

* Classic Rock WRFX (the Fox) -- 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!

* WIBT (the Beat) -- This Rhythmic Top 40 was doing a few interesting things. Although this market in particular has been doing a good job of filling the online stopsets, they were the first station to run promos welcoming Web listeners and/or soliciting Web advertisers. They ran a "new music" stager that read "96.1 The Beat, excited about ..." instead of "new music from." And their Website invites listeners to submit pictures of their cat under the headline, "Show us your big ol' kitties."

But here's something else interesting about the Beat: I also heard night jock Jojo do a crossplug for the morning show in which he mentioned that the morning show would be stunting from a soon-to-be unveiled (and seemingly polarizing) local sculpture. In doing so, it was the first mention I'd heard of any local news event in two days of market listening.

To be fair, I've been concentrating on music radio so far--and outside morning drive. I've heard plenty about local sponsors and upcoming station events. But I don't feel like I've heard a lot about the city yet. It's a safe bet that my three days at NAB/R&R will include a lot of speeches about the importance of localism. But will it include local content, too?

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few more notes from my advance listening to Charlotte radio:

* This is undoubtedly a problem that the CBS folks are glad happened yesterday. Both R&B WPEG (Power 98) and Country WSOC had their request lines go out yesterday. That left WPEG's fill-in middayer taking an e-mail to give away concert tickets, while the high-profile afternoon team on WSOC was audibly relieved when the phones (obviously a big part of the show) came back.

* Listening to the battle between WSOC and Clear Channel rival WKKT (the Kat) is a lot like the AC battle between the two companies referenced yesterday. WSOC has a personality-driven show in afternoons. You can hear cold segues on WKKT.

* And if you want to hear the market's newest station while you're in town, it's on 102.3, the new WGSP-FM (La Tremenda), the first large-market FM outpost of a regional network that extends from Knoxville, Tenn., to Jacksonville, Fla.

Posted by Sean Ross at 11:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There's an article in today's Advertising Age about Head-On, the "apply directly to forehead" remedy whose ads are, by consensus, awful, and, as it turns out, awfully effective. "Not since 'I've fallen and I can't get up' has such a cheesy spot captured the public imagination," AdAge writes in, "This Ad Will Give You A Headache, But It Sells."

It's hard to remember now, but when GEICO became a saturation advertiser a few years ago, a lot of its early advertising wasn't much less obnoxious than the Head-On spots--redeemed only by what was then more an attempt at humor than actual humor, I thought. Now GEICO is one of broadcasting's most ubiquitous succcess stories.

Posted by Sean Ross at 11:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

One of the things I've appreciated the most about WCBS-FM New York since it returned this summer is the care that has gone into the station's daily "Hall of Fame" feature--used not only to stage special weekends but also a different series of themed "oh wow" songs every day.

The "Hall of Fame" has allowed WCBS-FM to do a "Country Crossover" day (hey, New Yorkers watched the one "American Idol" did, didn't they?), a number of pre-Beatles themed weekends, and, last week, "Turntable Tuesday" with songs played from vinyl. (PD Brian Thomas says a turntable was installed in the studio for the occasion.)

At this writing, the plan was for today's Hall of Fame to be "b-sides." Hear it here.

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are a Mac user, you are gonna want this: Radioshift: Radio on your schedule. I have been a fan of Rogue Amoeba's products for some time now (Audio Hijack is indispensable, and NiceCast is about the slickest way to stream audio from your client I have used to date). Radioshift, though, is a software-only solution to listen to whatever radio you want, whenever you want it. With a very comprehensive programming database of 50,000 programs and stations and an immediately intuitive interface, RA has another hit on their hands. If you don't have a Mac--go get one! This is the closest thing I've seen yet to approximate TiVo for radio.

Posted by Tom Webster at 11:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's an ongoing topic of discussion among radio junkies, but the "name your all-time jock lineup" topic makes it to David Hinckley's column in the New York Daily News today. Apparently, even civilians have some thoughts on the topic although a few industry ringers (Anita Bonita and Jerry Lembo) weigh in as well. As you might expect, there are a lot of votes for the legendary Top 40 WABC and AOR WNEW-FM lineups. But there's also a plug for the original WHN Country airstaff as well. Read it here. And look for something else of interest to New York radio fans tomorrow.

Posted by Sean Ross at 1:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

When I'm headed to a convention, I try to do some of my local market listening ahead of time on the Internet. After all, one's listening time at the actual convention is limited to the hotel room at 6 a.m. and 1 a.m., as well as the cab ride in from the airport. And somehow, having heard the market makes me feel a little more acclimated when I get there.

So in preparation for NAB and R&R this week, I'm spending today with Charlotte radio, in honor of the newly annointed Arbitron market No. 25.

One of the highest compliments I can already give the market is that I've listened to four stations so far this morning and I've actually heard what sounds like local spots inserted in all of their stopsets. Nobody has had flawless web breaks--I've still heard a few truncated fill songs on most stations. But it does sound like some care went into what I heard. It wasn't until I got to my fifth station of the morning that I encountered McGruff the crime dog, whose PSAs are usually ubiquitous on such streams.

And now a few individual notes:

* It was interesting to hear AC WKQC (K104.7) appropriating the "always bright, always positive" liner that is more often used by Christian AC radio. And lest you think that was accidental, the song it was used over was LeAnn Rimes' Christian AC crossover song, "I Need You."

* There was another interesting piece of programming theory at rival AC WLYT (Lite 102.9) where the midday host began the Retro Lunch by asking, over the ID bed, "So when you hear a fun song [from your high school years] does it make you feel old or young? The key is not telling you what year it's from." That's a pretty key tenet of programming theory for most people, but hearing somebody announce it on the air is something else entirely.

* WKQC is one of those ACs that uses the call letters in some form between every song. WLYT, like many of its Clear Channel brethern, was doing a lot of cold segues. Which sounded better depends on where you fall on that issue, but one certainly hears the difference.

* Charlotte may be Market No. 25 now, but the promo for morning stars Ace & T.J. on WNKS (Kiss 95.1) was a phone call from a listener talking about driving behind a poultry truck when a chicken "splatted" into her windshield. Kiss, for its legendary musical conservatism--still very much in evidence here--was surprisingly edgy in some of its promos.

* On a far more serious topic, Clear Channel Urban AC WMKS (105.7 Kiss FM)--nominally a Greensboro station but with a signal halfway between the two markets--was inviting listeners to log on to its Website for pictures from last week's civil rights march in Jena, La. (WMKS had four galleries' worth of photos; sister WQUE New Orleans had many more.)

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Tomorrow is one of the most widely anticipated days in the lives of many a 12-35 12+ boy. Halo 3 hits the shelves, for those with enough foresight to pre-order it, anyway. Active rockers, Classic Rockers, Young Country even--this one is too big not to talk about. In PPM markets, you'll see the carnage firsthand when you get the weeklies. Since huge chunks of your male (and possibly female) audience are going to be camped in front of the tube for the foreseeable future, you may as well work with the Master Chief instead of against him. There's still plenty of time to put together a commercial-free Halo listening party to be the soundtrack to the destruction of the Covenant--or maybe the Top 20 ass-kicking songs of all time with live Halo 3 party drops. Don't underestimate this one, folks--this is as big a 'hit' as the ole' Long Tail is likely to see in some time.

Oh, and Larry--I am not feeling very well. I think I will be out sick tomorrow.

Posted by Tom Webster at 8:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For the last few months, you've probably seen the trade ads for Hippie Radio, the syndicated format which bills itself as "Radio for Baby Boomers" and positions itself as Oldies without the baggage of the name.

Now, it's possible to hear "Hippie Radio," following WXMP (Mix 101.1) Peoria, Ill.'s switch to the format as WHPI from AC on Sept. 19.

Here's the station between 4:30-5p Peoria time on Friday (21):

Carly Simon, "You're So Vain"
Moody Blues, "Question"
Happenings, "See You In September"
Arlo Guthrie, "City Of New Orleans"
Beach Boys, "God Only Knows"
Aretha Franklin, "Think"
Three Dog Night, "Celebrate"
David Bowie, "Space Oddity"
Eagles, "Take It Easy"
Grass Roots, "Let's Live For Today"
Grateful Dead, "Truckin'"

Some interesting things about the station at first blush:

* It's more apparent if you look at the station's "just played" log, but there are definitely some songs that you haven't heard on Oldies radio on a regular basis recently, particularly from the early '70s Rhino compilation era: Billy Preston's "Space Race", the Sweet's "Little Willy," Sammy Johns' "Chevy Van,," Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show's "Cover Of The Rolling Stone," etc. In that regard, it recalls the early days of ABC/Scott Shannon's True Oldies Channel, without that network's emphasis on early '60s music. (The most recent song seen on the Website listing was Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" from 1977.)

* As in the format's demo aircheck, there are a lot of attempts to be lifestyle oriented. When Aretha Franklin's "Think" played, the jock frontsold it with, "Remember this one from 'The Blues Brothers'?" A liner positions the station as "a brand new radio station for the generation that changed the world." Not all baby boomers think of themselves as hippies--the wisdom of Oldies radio for many years was that it was for the audience that was alienated by hippies and acid rock. But that was in an era when the Doors and CCR were not staples of the format. And who would deny having helped to change the world?

* And, yes, George Carlin fans, the weather is indeed courtesy of the "Hippy Dippy Weatherman." (No other references, however, to "Wonderful WINO.")

Posted by Sean Ross at 5:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I clicked on "listen live" and was startled to see that in order to listen to KGSR one must join its frequent listener club, and give them ALL of the following information: First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number ( ! ), Street Address, City, State, Zipcode, Date of Birth, and Gender! Yes, in order to listen one MUST give 10 pieces of personal information -- and wince through the possibility of getting phone calls at home etc.

I suppose one could lie about all these things, but at minimum you have to put in your correct email address, because in order to listen one must THEN wait to get a confirming email with a password, and then go BACK to KGSR's site, enter that information, and then FINALLY have your opportunity to listen.

Now KGSR is a truly great radio station. But who is going to give them so much information for the privelege? It is as if they are trying to inhibit listening. And perhaps that is indeed the goal.

By comparison, one can go to Kurt Hanson's Accuradio, click on your station of choice and immediately listen. Go to Pandora, type in the name of your favorite artist, and you immediately hear a song by that artist.

If 'terrestrial' radio hopes to have any chance at all to compete on the Internet, doesn't it have to be immediately available? You turn on a regular radio and hear a station INSTANTANEOUSLY. I'd love to see the stats on how many people click on "Listen Live" on the KGSR site, get asked for all that info, and then click away.

Radio -- take your stations out behind the bars of building "frequent listener clubs." Instead, let me listen to your station and then compel me to join the club through offers and benefits that can't be resisted.

Posted by Larry Rosin at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

I'd been meaning to check out WBEW (Vocalo 89.5) Michigan City, Ind., the new younger targeted, more diverse offering from Chicago Public Radio since its June 4 launch, but I'm getting around to it this afternoon as the result of a recent story in suburban Chicago's Daily Herald.

Targeted to "audiences that have not traditionally listened to public radio," in the words of a station spokesman, Vocalo is a mix of eclectic music and listener-generated content.

In the last half-hour or so, I've heard a mix of progressive hip-hop and R&B (Brother Ali's "Uncle Sam," Blackalicious' "Powers" and the maybe-not-so-progressive-anymore "Mighty O" by Outkast) and eclectic rock (The Replacements' "Take Me Down To The Hospital" and Bobby Conn's "[I'm Through With] My Ego"). Those have been interspersed with spoken-word bits from listeners on such topics as dreaming about Mr. Spock and watching a dog kill a squirrel. There's also been a break in which the host discussed the making of the Mr. Spock piece in a way meant to encourage listeners to submit their own pieces.

In intent, it's a next-generation NPR and there's no shortage of agreement on the need for such a thing. In practice, Vocalo alternately recalls a lot of things--the college radio of 30 years ago, the earliest days of progressive radio, and the almost-completely-lost-to-history black progressive radio of the '70s. It is also very reminiscent of the "Open Source Radio" experiment on CBS' KYOU San Francisco.

Check out Vocalo here, I would be interested in your thoughts.

Posted by Sean Ross at 4:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It says something about how our collective thinking on Rock radio has changed that the "everything that rocks" strategy--a paradigm that first took root in a world where there was going to be fewer rock stations--seems to be hanging in there, even now that PPM is making new Rock launches look attractive again. Check out this week's Ross On Radio for some thoughts on three recent launches: CBS' WXRK (K-Rock) New York and WYSP Philadelphia and Clear Channel's WRFF (Radio 104.5) Philly.

Posted by Sean Ross at 2:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Internets love the lists, and here is another cool one that your station might "riff" off of yourself. From CTV's site yesterday, here are the 15 greatest opening riffs in modern rock (note the 'Modern" qualifier, you "Back in Black" fans). Hard to argue with unforgettable openers like "Are You Gonna Go My Way," "Enter Sandman" and "Smells Like Teen Spirit." This would also be a cool phoner for a Classic Rock station--and it would be pretty hard, in my book, to argue with "Back in Black," "Highway to Hell" or any of, oh, two hundred other AC/DC tracks from back in the day. My personal guilty pleasure--the opening to "Stone in Love" by Journey. But I grew up in North Podunk, Maine, so I can be forgiven. What are yours?

Posted by Tom Webster at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Having entertained in public last week's widespread consumer press suggestion that Britney Spears' MTV VMA performance would be a career killer, it seemed only fair to revisit the story again a week later.

So far, anyway, Spears' "Gimme More," the best received of her kickoff singles in many years, is maintaining its rapid growth. According to Mediabase, the song was showing a 1023 spin increase over its previous (partial) week on Sept. 9. A week after the VMAs, the song is +934 spins (vs. a full previous week of airplay) and still the song with the greatest increase in spins.

Interesting also to note that the prominently placed quote ad on Spears' behalf in this week's R&R in which the theme of several of the quotes was that listener interest in "Gimme More" had not declined post-VMAs.

That all said, a ot can happen between No. 20--Spears' current posting--and No. 1. A record with this much publicity will probably be going in to callout research at some stations right about now. Spears has hit a callout buzzsaw before with songs like "Me Against the Music" and "My Prerogative" that also received decent initial airplay. But as "Toxic," which still researches well for some people, has shown, audiences aren't unwilling to admit liking the right song.

Posted by Sean Ross at 1:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Click to continue." Those three words led to an 8.5% increase in click-throughs in email marketing campaigns, according to a MarketingSherpa in-house test. I love little optimizations like this that can move the needle, a few percentage points at a time. Their biggest take-away was to think outside the box in terms of what needs to be tested--but your take-away should be to *test*! Your databases are incredible assets--it is well worth sending a hundred emails here, a hundred there, to see what triggers and influences conversion with your audience.

Posted by Tom Webster at 10:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

WHTZ (Z100) New York has given a lot of on-air real estate to the Z-Zone, one of a number of new social networking sites built around its radio stations, but it recently turned gave the Z-Zone another interesting piece of real-estate: space on the station's Webstream player.

On Z100's website, as well as those of sisters WIHT (Hot 99.5) Washington, D.C., and WKQI (Channel 95-5) Detroit, the "listen live" link now instead reads "listen live and chat." Hot 99.5's player is actually branded to its "Hot Spot" social networking site--making it essentially a chat tool that just happens to stream a radio station.

Bundling the chat and streaming features does a couple of interesting things. 1) It makes signing up easier and puts the Z-Zone, Hot Spot, and WKQI's "The Unit" in front of even those listeners who might not have had any use for MySpace, Facebook or other social networking sites; 2) It pushes anybody who's using the chat tool to actually listen to the radio station. Podcasting, social networking and other non-traditional applications are often thought of radio as following its listeners to their other media choices. So it's nice to think that the social network sites might be used for something as old-fashioned as driving listening.

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Some years ago I was doing focus groups in Chicago for a radio station and discovered that we were sharing the facility that night with the marketing team for a major adult beverage company. It turns out that they were testing a new alcoholic beverage (professional courtesy prevents me from revealing more) and were gauging reactions to the taste, packaging and messaging. What impressed me at the time was the fact that they were bringing in what was, by all appearances, a completely finished product--the bottle design was fully realized, the beverage was brewed and ice cold, and the ads all printed--yet the 'product' didn't even exist outside the walls of their company or that focus group. You never would have known it, however, by looking at the bottle. They had put time and effort into a fully-realized prototype, because you can't be sure about a product by hearing a description of how it tastes--you have to taste it, see it, smell it and feel it to really know for sure.

That was ten years ago. Since then, I have done hundreds of radio station focus groups. Almost all of them have been to take the temperature of an existing product, and very few have been to explore a potentially new, untried format. For those that explored the latter, not one of them provided the potential audience with the same kind of fully-realized prototype that those beverage marketers came up with for their focus groups. Instead, we resort to 'descriptors,' 5-song montages and vague concepts. Of course, anything we bring into a focus group is, by definition, an inadequate proxy for what a consumer might encounter in situ in the real world. But I'd love to see this kind of prototyping done more often in radio, and I will continue to push for it more and more with my clients. You have loads of creative folks in your production departments--why not let them strut their stuff for research purposes?

And the beverage? It was a mixture of ginger ale, vodka and pure evil. It never made it to market--and that, no doubt, saved them a fortune.

Posted by Tom Webster at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Until Howard Stern and Tom Joyner, the history of radio programming was essentially a history of streamlining--putting everything in the best, tightest, most codified package possible. The Drake format of the '60s gave way to the "Q" format of the '70s and the AOR-influenced presentation of the late '70s. Detractors accused each new paradigm of sterility, but it really depended on the PD and air talent involved and how well they worked within the new guidelines.

So it is with the new presentational tightness heard on many of the Clear Channel stations. WHTZ (Z100) New York, even with a cold segue here or there, still has a lot going on. But not every station does. Some thoughts on the larger issue of cutting clutter without sacrificing content here.

Posted by Sean Ross at 12:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A few weeks ago, Clear Channel switched KPKL (Kool 105) Portland, Ore., from Smooth Jazz to a '60s/'70s-based Classic Hits format as Kool 105.9 and, in doing so, went almost head-on against CBS' KLTH (K-Hits 106.7). At that time, I remarked that Oldies fortunes had, with the help of PPM, reversed to the point where there were actually two stations in a market that doesn't yet have PPM competing for the Oldies/Classic Hits franchise.

It was equally surprising last Monday when Clear Channel switched longtime gold-based AC WVMX (Mix 94.1) Cincinnati to Modern AC as Radio 94.1. CC positioned the station to a local business journal as a "guitar and pop" format, but it's actually a slightly poppier variant on CC stations like WDVI Rochester, N.Y., KJMY (My 99.5) Salt Lake City and the recently launched WRFF (Radio 104.5) Philadelphia--very accessible, library-driven stations that stake out the area where Adult Modern and Modern AC meet.

What's so interesting about CC's choice here is that Bonneville's WSWD (the Sound) had already staked out similar territory. As the music monitors show, WSWD is a little more in the more male, more "legit rock tradition" of stations like KBZT (FM 94/9) San Diego, where WVMX will play Dido and Nelly Furtado. But they share an emphasis on library and stylistic breadth. And around 12:30 today, it was possible to punch from 311's "All Mixed Up" on the Sound into Toad the Wet Sprocket's "Something's Always Wrong" on Radio 94.1--two songs that might have played next to each other before Modern Rock radio hardened in the mid-'90s.

It's also a little interesting to see so much activity flowing back into the gold-based Modern area. As noted elsewhere on this page, that format didn't work out so well when all the KBZT imitators showed up in 2003-04. But this version of the format is less based in the '80s modern rock songs that few people heard with more emphasis on the '90s songs that more people did here. And some of those songs have been off the radio for a while now. (Unless you work for a station that plays 311's "All Mixed Up," you probably last heard it sung by Blake Lewis!) And the PPM-era momentum is also with Rock radio as well.

Here is The Sound at Noon yesterday:

Soundgarden, "Fell On Black Days"
Staind, "It's Been Awhile"
Flyleaf, "All Around Me"
Radiohead, "Karma Police"
311, "All Mixed Up"
Breaking Benjamin, "Breath"
O.A.R., "Crazy Game Of Poker"
All-American Rejects, "Move Along"
Switchfoot, "Meant To Live"
Papa Roach, "Time Is Running Out"
U2, "Pride (In The Name Of Love)"
AFI, "Miss Murder"
Clash, "Train In Vain (Stand By Me)"

And here is Radio 94.1 at the same time:

Chris Isaak, "Wicked Game"
Matchbox 20, "Back To Good"
Lifehouse, "First Time"
David Bowie, "Let's Dance"
Nelly Furtado, "Say It Right"
Toad the Wet Sprocket, "Something's Always Wrong"
Dido, "Thank You"
Cure, "Love Song"
James Blunt, "1973"
Coutning Crows, "Mr. Jones"
Stray Cats, "Stray Cat Strut"
Norah Jones, "Thinking About You"
Sugar Ray, "Every Morning"

Posted by Sean Ross at 8:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I've been meaning to put this up for a while, but here is a great term for those of you who think "podcasting" is still too cute for the room. Nik Goodman reviewed the UK's Radio Festival a while back and noted the use of the term "Non-Linear Radio," which may not catch on with the digerati, but is a pretty accurate turn of phrase, nonetheless. As I noted in an interview with TechNewsWorld last week, non-linear consumption of audio content requires a level of engagement that goes beyond "passive listening" and requires the listeners to experience a little friction (less each day) to find and subscribe to the content they are most interested in.

That's why podcasts are such a great revenue opportunity--you have a much better chance of moving the needle in terms of advertising effectiveness if your listener makes a point of downloading your content and listening to it later at the gym, or even in the car. That's why radio must resist the urge to make podcast sponsorships "value adds" to a spot buy, and instead focus on finding sponsors that make sense and making smart partnerships. If your morning show can do a "What's Going on in [insert your town here] this weekend" podcast that gives busy folks like me 5 things to do this weekend, that is a real service. Pair that up with a sponsorship from a local restaurant, or (PLEASE) a good babysitter, and you've struck gold.

So while I'm busy running around trying to get Sammy off to daycare, and responding to Larry's withering torrent of early morning EMails and instant messages, providing "non-linear radio" is a fantastic way to engage me during my "non-linear" day. Consider that a potential audience for such programming is likely to be busy, stressed out folks with too many soccer games and meetings, and the marketing and sponsorship possibilities should start leaping out at you. Podcasting isn't about "features," RSS or even iPods--it's about being there, when and where I need you.

Posted by Tom Webster at 2:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I held out as long as I could, but I finally had to join my colleagues in the "what is Classic Rock" debate:

I'm a big believer that nobody should ever have to apologize for the music they like. Music is to make the user happy, not to impress other people. You have the right to listen to Journey and not Nick Drake or the Smiths. So if Classic Rock listeners want to focus only on the songs they liked in their high-school years and not take posterity into account, that's fine with me.

What is programmed on Classic Rock radio could as easily be described as "the biggest hits of Rock radio from 1967 through 1990 that endure with today's Classic Rock listener." Programmers and listeners understand that and nobody spends too much time worrying about whether "Hitch A Ride" by Boston is one for the ages or not.

Programmers tried to give the Smiths and Nick Drake their own Classic Rock format. During the Gold-Based Alternative boom/bust of 2003-04, "How Soon Is Now" and "Pink Moon" both got their chance to be on the radio again. And what most PDs found is that it was very hard to find a quorum for those songs--which most people just aren't familiar with--or the format in general.

That doesn't meant that I didn't enjoy those stations personally. And on the Infinite Dial there should be a channel for "timeless, quality music" that transcends the current boundaries of Classic Rock. And, by the way, if you tell me that it should not also include "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Loved You)" by Aretha Franklin, then you're being just as arbitrary as any PD or consultant.

In fact, I have often found myself pondering the notion of a "Lite FM for Rock Critics." There are, after all, those songs that are as familiar and ubiquitous among collectors as "Every Breath You Take" is to the average listener of WLTW, New York's former "Lite FM." The Smiths and Nick Drake songs are among those. So is "Last Goodbye" by Jeff Buckley. Or "A Million Miles Away" by the Plimsouls. Or "London Calling" by the Clash.

So I'll throw this out there and see if anybody else is intrigued enough by this concept to suggest titles. The parameters is that we're looking to program 350 enduring songs that are this subgroup's biggest hits. There's no rule that actual hit songs that civilians have heard of can't be included. "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley and "Brass In Pocket" by the Pretenders are still great songs, no matter how much commercial radio plays them. But if you were looking to do a more esoteric Lite FM (oxymoron acknowledged), what would it sound like?

Your thoughts are now invited.

Posted by Sean Ross at 11:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

An incredibly interesting discussion is brewing in the comments to Tom Webster's post about what defines a "Classic" rock song. Amazingly, it echoes many other discussions among Art Historians on our college campuses.

Some people believe in transcendence. The idea being that some art (in this case, Rock songs) has an innate genius behind it, one that can be recognized by anyone and that this quality endures. Thus, one would argue that even centuries from now, the best Rock music will be recognized for its essential greatness, just the same as we still recognize the work of Shakespeare or Mozart centuries after their time.

Others believe that art can only be viewed through the prism of one's current experience. Thus we appreciate Mozart, or Shakespeare, or The Beatles today, because they meet current definitions of greatness, but that succeeding generations may reinterpret their work, through their perspective, as less-than-great.

My experience with popular music leans me to the transcendence side of the argument. It doesn't matter when you were born, it is almost impossible to hear "My Girl" and not believe that you are hearing a Mona Lisa level pop song. It is, in my opinion, a thing of beauty that will be seen as such forever, even as time passes and modes change. Same with much of the Beatles songbook, with the best Led Zeppelin, and, I agree, the best Nirvana. These are true Classics.

And, certainly, there a zillions of examples in Art History where classics were not appreciated in their day. So perhaps Nick Drake's time will yet come.

Posted by Larry Rosin at 9:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I didn't chime in when Kelly Clarkson's "My December" was released this June, but I did listen to it right away and felt that it was much better than its advance publicity had made it out to be. For all of Clarkson's abortive attempts to become Linkin Park, there were still songs that had the tenor of CHR radio hits to them--particularly "One Minute" and "Can I Have A Kiss." Maybe they weren't "Since U Been Gone," but they were on the order of "Walk Away," good uptempo records that would allow Top 40 to play something by its No. 1 image artist, even if "Walk Away" and "Sober" didn't last.

Fast forward a few months and, with the exception of those stations still playing "Never Again," and a few scattered spins on "Sober," Clarkson's new album is almost entirely MIA at Top 40 and Hot AC. No further singles were serviced and no PD took it upon themselves to go find their own song to play.

To some extent, they didn't have to. There were records that filled the "Since U Been Gone" spot on Top 40 playlists this summer, particularly Pink's "U + Ur Hand" and "Who Knew" and Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend." But PDs who feel that life will go on perfectly well without Clarkson should consider the following:

During her summer horribilus, Clarkson has remained at No. 1 on the artist chart at HitPredictor.com, ahead of Christina Aguilera (2), Justin Timberlake (3), Pink (4), Daughtry (5), and Carrie Underwood (6). And whatever you think of HitPredictor which uses an on-line database to rate artists and new songs, the biases of on-line/database music research would tend to mediate against a mainstream pop artist with a conspicuous public failure.

All of which tends to reinforce my belief that the failure of the Clarkson project was as much about the negative buzz building on itself--many of them consumer press stories written before anybody had heard the album--as what was actually on the CD.

So now consider the calls I've gotten from reporters in the last few days asking what will happen to Britney Spears' "Gimme More" as a result of the bad publicity stemming from her MTV VMA performance. "Gimme More" was off to a great start at Top 40 radio and had, on its first listen, managed to elicit a "hey, that's alright" from even the most cynical of my co-workers who heard it. So did listeners wake up Monday morning and decide it was a bad record after all, just because it was performed badly on TV?

Normally, I would expect "Gimme More" to hang in for a few weeks, at least until the first callout came back, at which point Spears could have really used the help that a well-liked VMAs performance would have generated. If it does immediately lose steam, though, it will be one more example of the buzzkill taking on a life of its own. Which is too bad--radio could benefit from a real Britney hit right now and from a viable Kelly Clarkson single.

Posted by Sean Ross at 1:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's one of the year's most interesting press releases. This morning, Vallie-Richards-Donovan consultant Greg Dunkin announced that heritage AC WBEB (B101) Philadelphia would "incorporate" the Fresh FM brand, which would now be "incorporated into the [station's] programming and marketing." In doing so, the heritage AC powerhouse becomes the second "official" user of the name, following WWFS (Fresh 102.7) New York's successful January debut.

That announcement, of course, set off buzz around the industry that B101 had "gone Fresh." As of today, anyway, B101 is still called B101 and very much sounds like B101--there are still at least two '70s titles an hour (and sometimes more) on the station, which still goes as far back as 1967's "Brown-Eyed Girl." The "fresh" word appears several places on the Website. On-air, Edison's Larry Rosin reports hearing it several times in one break. But I tuned in a few minutes later and went for a half-hour without hearing it. "Most music" and "soft rock" still remain the dominant images on the station with a mix of other images also present ("five in a row," "great songs to sing along to,").

We'll revisit B101 in a future blog post. But here's B101 from 2:50-3:25 p.m. this afternoon:

Billy Joel, "She's Got A Way"
Gloria Gaynor, "I Will Survive"
Cyndi Lauper, "Girls Just Want To Have Fun"
Del Amitri, "Roll To Me"
Kelly Clarkson, "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
U2, "With Or Without You"
Mariah Carey, "Hero"
America, "Sister Golden Hair"
TLC, "Waterfalls"
Elton John, "Your Song"

Posted by Sean Ross at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Reuters today reports that the Music industry is betting on the 'ringle' format to drive CD sales this holiday season. The format is basically a CD single that includes the original song, a B-side/remix or two, and a ringtone, all for 6 or 7 bucks. When I can buy a single online for 88 cents (Wal-Mart) or 99 cents (ITMS), why on earth would I pay this much for a single and a ringtone? The whole "ringtone" industry has always been a massive ripoff--you pay three times as much for a shortened version of a song you can get for a buck? Even worse--according to the Reuters article, you have to go online anyway to actually redeem the ringtone?

It's 'products' like this that encourage piracy and illegal downloading in the first place. Ringtones should be a cheap, frictionless purchase to make an incremental quarter or two off a hit single. But charging 6 or 7 bucks for a 'Ringle' just highlights the serious price disparity between online music sales and CDs, which are needlessly expensive. It costs 10 bucks to buy a digital 'album,' and nearly twice that to buy a CD at your local Borders (since the record stores are out of business...hint). When pricing is fair and purchasing is frictionless, fewer people opt for piracy--the data there are clear.

Posted by Tom Webster at 1:08 PM | Permalink

I'm not usually so big on simply linking to articles found on the web, but I did find this interview with Chief Marketing Officer-types from HubMagazine.com quite fascinating. I especially find useful the comments by the Hotel guy on why he likes radio promotions because they are measurable. But the biggest reason I think I reacted to it is how it shows the perspective of this kind of 'radio customer'. They don't care about media, they care about what sells their product. And they aren't 'out to screw us' as I so often hear, they just want to be able to measure the results of their expenditures. Find the PDF of the article here.

Posted by Larry Rosin at 12:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There is a great article from the Wall St. Journal's Sarah McBride about the changes PPM is bringing about in Philadelphia. One of the 'shake-ups' reported is that Men listen to a lot more radio than reported in the diary methodology, and that rock is more popular than heretofore thought in Philadelphia, something our telephone surveys have shown there for years. And those men switch around a bit more than they might have otherwise indicated on the diary--for instance, while many Rush Limbaugh fans might just block out 12-3 on a diary, a PPM review may show a far different pattern.

There has been some grousing about PPM, some of it legitimate, some of it not. One thing PPM definitely does represent is change, and change isn't change if it doesn't break a few eggs on its way to an omelet. We should all be cheering passive measurement on, however, for one very important reason. Increasingly, advertisers and marketers don't care about how many 'points' they are buying, they want to buy results. Anything radio can do to drive the sales needle for our advertising clients, we can and must do in order to show the value and power of radio as a platform. Consider the diarykeeper who might block out 3 hours of listening to Rush, but actually switches around to WMGK, WMMR or WJJZ. It is entirely possible that someone who reports an uninterrupted block of listening to Rush never hears one of the show's key sponsors, because they actually spent almost as much time with another station. And when that happens, Rush's ratings (and rates) may go up, but their sponsors aren't getting value, because you can't drive traffic and sales if no one hears the spot. That is an unsustainable (and deadly) situation.

What we want to happen is for people who are reported to have heard a spot to have actually heard the spot...and visited the dealer, made the toll-free call, or logged on to make a purchase. That puts radio "on the same level playing field as top TV stations and the Philadelphia Inquirer," according to Greater Media's John Fullam, and that is truly in the best interest of your station, and radio as a platform. Media buyers may buy ratings, but they, like the people they are buying for, are really buying results. PPM offers a way to align those results with advertising expenditures like never before, even if we break a few eggs.

We are very proud to work with Greater Media in Philadelphia, and greatly admire their unwavering commitment to doing whatever it takes to understand--and master--the new landscape of PPM. The only "trick" to PPM is to make great radio, every day, and leave deeper footprints on and off the air. Embrace change, and it'll hug you back.

Posted by Tom Webster at 12:50 PM | Permalink