Hot Stuff

Great stations like the crew at 93.7 JRfm, Vancouver do big things that make their market take notice. (www.jrfm.com) How? PD Gord Eno for Pattison Group in Van gets his terrifically-creative crew together once a week for a Hot Stuff brainstorm. First, they list as many local buzz topics that might be important to their target listener. Like these from a recent www.mcvaymedia.com daily prep sheet:

FEATURE MOVIE: (Moviefone)

Move over, Lara Croft! In 'National Treasure' (PG, 100 min.) Nicolas Cage stars as Benjamin Franklin Gates, an all-American "treasure protector" sworn to keeping a valuable secret out of the hands of greedy archaeologists. The deadly scavenger hunt leads Gates to the Declaration of Independence, which features an invisible map with the key to the ancient prize.

WHAT’S HOT THIS WEEK:

The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (PG, 90 min.)It was only a matter of time before Nickelodeon's popular animated character grew too big for the small screen.

Bad Education (NR, 105 min.)A film director is seduced by a handsome stranger from his past (Gabriel Garcia Bernal), awakening memories of a dark childhood secret in Pedro Almodóvar's most personal film to date.

Kinsey (R, 118 min.)Liam Neeson plays controversial sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, a private man who interviewed thousands about their most personal subject.

NEW ON DVD:

ElfWill Ferrell stars as a boy who grows up at the North Pole believing he's an elf. Once he gets too big, he has to return to the real world.

TV . . .

Desperate Housewives scoring its best ratings yet following last week's Monday Night Football scandal and leading ABC to a ratings win Sunday night. CBS finished second in ratings and NBC placed third. (Eonline)

Robin Quivers inking deal with Sony Pictures Television to host a daytime talk show next season. (Eonline)

Fox ordering eight more episodes of Nanny 911. (Eonline)

Dr. Phil McGraw reupping his contract for his syndicated Dr. Phil show for three more years, per The Hollywood Reporter. (Eonline)

Is "A Current Affair" coming back to life in syndication? Sources said that Twentieth Television could be reviving the newsmagazine, which aired in syndication from 1986-96 and featured Maury Povich as its first host. "Our strategy is to look at the titles in our library, see what performed well and possibly develop new shows based on those titles, reviewing them on a case-by-case basis," a Twentieth spokesperson said. The spokesperson confirmed that "Affair" is one of the shows Twentieth is reviewing but emphasized that no decision has been made. (Hollywood Reporter)

TNT has snatched up the off-network rights to CBS' second-year series "Cold Case" for $1.4 million per episode, sources said. The deal with Warner Bros. Domestic Cable Distribution means that TNT will be able to begin airing the series as a strip starting in fall 2007, sources said. WBDCD declined comment, while reps for TNT could not be reached by press time. Sources said that A&E originally had an exclusive period in which to bid on off-net rights to "Cold Case" without competitive bidding as part of a copyright dispute settlement with Warners over the cable network's similarly titled series "Cold Case Files." Following the expiration of that period several months ago, WBDCD reportedly began shopping "Cold Case" around to other networks. It's unclear whether TNT's deal includes a repurposing component. However, WBDCD's deal with TNT for CBS' "Without a Trace" does have a once-a-week repurposing component, and it's possible the "Cold Case" deal would follow the same model. (Hollywood Reporter)

THEN.. they ask: who cares about this? Our target? What BIG things are we gonna do to make it OURS, given that probably every other station in town will do something about it too? How are going to set it up, execute it to get max on air fun and off air PR from it and then get out of it (anticipation, realization, memory) in a way that resonates with our brand image and the core values of our listener?