A TOY ON EVERY SEAT AT COREL CENTRE

For the 12th straight year, The MAJIC 100 / CJOH-TV Toy Mountain campaign has helped The Salvation Army provide toys for the children throughout the National Capital Region.

On Wednesday, December 15th over 200 volunteers, from TD Canada Trust, Dare HR and local high schools teamed with the Corel Centre to demonstrate the area’s generosity towards this year’s Majic 100 /CJOH TV Toy Mountain campaign. With the support of the community, they placed a new toy on every seat in the Corel Centre until it was beyond full…over 20,600 toys were collected!

“We believe this will be a spectacular way to demonstrate the generosity of the thousands of people who contribute to the Majic 100 / CJOH-TV Toy Mountain campaign each year”, said Kevin Nelson, of The MAJIC Morning Show. Max Keeping, Vice-President of CJOH News and Public Affairs said, “This will go a long way to make sure there’s not a child in our hometown without a toy this Christmas.”

Special thanks to several businesses that helped to build Ottawa’s biggest Majic 100/CJOH TV Toy Mountain, including Speedy Messenger Service, Summit Food Service Distributors, The Corel Centre, Ottawa Senators Hockey Club, Subway, Tim Hortons, Mulligan’s Grocer, Department of National Defence, UPS, Secuircor, Ottawa Professional Figherfighters and the Ottawa Paramedics Association.Toys will still be accepted until December 24th at the 12 participating malls and drop off locations and every TD Canada Trust branch in the region. Find out more about MAJIC 100/CJOH-TV Toy Mountain campaign , by visiting http://www.toymountain.ca/.

Making Christmas dreams come true

tunedin@milkmanunlimited.com is a great sources of news and ideas every day. Like:

As part of a holiday edition “Breakfast with Derringer” event, Q107’s John Derringer, morning host at Toronto’s legendary classic rock radio station announced the final results in his 2004 13 Days of Christmas campaign in support of The Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness and The Martin Kruze Memorial Fund.

In just 13 Days, Q107 listeners granted 56 Christmas dreams for deserving children in Toronto and raised over $ 461,000.00.

“Once again, we’re astounded by the generosity of Q107 listeners” said Derringer. “ Almost half a million dollars is a truly amazing result. We thank all the businesses, organizations and individuals who stepped up and contributed to our 2004 campaign. This will not only help to bring some happiness to many young people who have suffered unspeakable abuse in their formative years but also will help to provide year round assistance to the prevention and victim support programs that are the cornerstones to The Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness and The Martin Kruze Memorial fund.”

Derringers 13 Days of Christmas featured John Derringer reading real life stories on-air, each highlighting a Christmas dream from a deserving child who had suffered from some form of serious abuse. Q107 listeners were then asked to call a toll free line to help Derringer raise enough funds to grant each child’s Christmas dream.

Throughout the campaign, Individuals and corporations responded with cash donations and gifts like bikes, toys, hockey equipment, clothing computers and many other items that went towards granting these dreams.

The Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness advocates for victims of childhood abuse and provides assistance to survivors and support agencies. Their mandate is to lobby for policy reform that will lead to better public safety and reduce the likelihood of others being victimized. The organization provides child abuse prevention programs, child identification and education tools for children and their parents. In addition, they assist in granting dreams for abused and neglected children and women in shelters in conjunction with this annual Q107 initiative.
Earlier this year, The Canadian Centre for Abuse Awareness delivered a national report and recommendation for policy reform to members of parliament. This report was the result of round table discussions with those who protect the safety of children; victims of crime; survivors; front-line criminal justice professionals; community groups; city representatives; and provincial politicians.

This public document can be viewed at http://www.abuserecovery.net/.

Charles S. Fitch: we have until 2009

Grab a copy of the 12/15/2004 "Radio World" (http://rwonline.com/reference-room/iboc/index.shtml) and turn to page 14. The Crystal Ball column by consulting engineer Fitch has lots of rings of truth in it: "IBOC is a technocrat's delight, but no one listens to radio with an oscilloscope. They listen to what's on. New programming and adjustments to the new IBOC universe will need until 2009 to take hold."

He concludes the article, which is well worth reading thoroughly and thoughfully, especially by programmers and personalities:

- One strange upshot of the oil crisis is that we may all need to replace our cars with more fuel-efficient vehicles sooner rather than later, which could accelerate the number of satellite radio receivers in use.

- He says he doesn't see your local car dealer getting excited about pushing IBOC into cars if the money for them is on satellite.

- Fitch gives us about five years to "give our audience something, some reason to use the new technology. If digital IBOC is going to happen and if Sirius and XM are going to survive, 2009 will be the year things come into focus and congeal for both."

Helping the Helpers

What a nice gesture from www.rbr.com's Jim Carnegie and his wife Cathy in the 12/17 edition of his e-paper: "Bring a Merry Christmas to 40 lonely soldiers in a far away place and seeing the worst of war. Will you help us to help the medics & soldiers during this Holiday Season?"

Ship (via US mail only) to:
SFC Melick
325th Field Hospital
APO AE 09355

Thank you and Merry Christmas!

"KRUD radio"

If you need a laugh and a reminder not to take your job too seriously, click on Jim Radcliffe and Brian Wilson's http://www.krud.com/.

As you budget for CRS in 2005, let's go back a few years and get KRUD's take on one of those famous Country Radio Seminar research sessions...

http://www.krud.com/toon71.html

CRS Seminars we'd like to attend:

* How To Increase Listening In The Restroom. An overlooked target audience.

* How To Increase Time Spent Listening While Playing Record Company Stiffs - This discussion group is hosted by some of Country Music's top record company executives.

* The Regional Record Rep: How To Abuse Him - Most of you already know how to do this. This is for the newcomer to the industry.

* Air Talent: How To Recognize It (Mandatory For General Managers)

* Should The Country Music Industry Move To L.A. ?

* If It's The Best Song On The CD Why Can't We Play It Now? - Why record companies force you to play the stiffs first.

A hot tub morning show in the snow

Take a look at what http://www.bx93.com/bxpromos.asp CJBX London's morning duo Dave and Jacquie did before Christmas to raise donations for the needy:

Join Dave and Jacquie Thursday December 23rd from 8am - 9am as they broadcast live from a Dream Maker Spa, here at BX93. Bring a donation for the London Food Bank, and you'll have a chance to win one of 4 hot tub rentals from Lambeth Pool and Spa! Dave and Jacquie will announce the lucky winners on their show Friday December 24th! BX93 is located at 743 Wellington Road South in London. Merry Christmas and thanks in advance for helping us help The London Food Bank!

Thanks to Jamie at Lambeth Pool and Spa for everything he's done for this event!

And, yes, http://weather.ca/ says that the London weather will contain light snow and below freezing temps.. (http://weather.ca/weather/cities/can/Pages/CAON0383.htm)

Powerful "Power Points"

Mark Ramsey of Mercury Research has one of the most active and thought-provoking (click to read) radio and marketing blogs I can't resist checking at least several times a week. Some sample posts to check out:

- Yes your Sales Staff can make better Powerpoint - Here's a great primer on how your sales staff can build better Powerpoint presentations. Thanks to the folks at Beyond Bullets for the link. Yes your Sales Staff can make better Powerpoint

What Business is Radio In? (Part 1)
Don't fear hate, fear indifference
How to have your Podcasts and eat your revenue cake, too
Heineken doesn't need Radio any more
Let the listeners create your TV spot
Everything a Radio Station should know about Podcasting
Is your station a Lovemark?

If you have a favorite blog or website, please email me or post the link here.

Peanuts in a bottle?

Peanuts in a bottle - what does it mean? More decoding of Tim McGraw lyrics from www.jrfm.com:

Fun Facts About Peanuts
To enhance the flavor of a cola drink, Southerners put peanuts into the bottle.

Boiled peanuts, a Deep South snack, were considered to be a delicacy in the first 30 years after the Civil War. Neighborhood peanut boilings were a form of social status in Southern Communities.

Now, you know the REST OF THE STORY. ;->

Tim McGraw/Back When .. 10 - 2 - 4??

Thanks to Mark Patric (mpatric@jrfm.com), Asst PD at JRfm, Vancouver for passing along the info from the station's swing guy, Dan Baker, (dbaker@jrfm.com) who found the gnawing answer to the question being asked by loyal listener line callers right now:

What is the meaning of "10-2-4"?
An early study on human fatigue showed that human energy dropped to its lowest levels during the day at 10:30 AM, 2:30 PM, and 4:30 PM daily. Therefore, drinking Dr Pepper at 10 AM, 2 PM, and 4 PM would boost energy. Thus the "10-2-4" symbol!

Now, you KNOW.

Leadership

Something that still sticks in my mind from my US Air Force NCO leadership training from almost four decades ago:

The six most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."
The five most important words: "You did a good job."
The four most important words: "What is your opinion."
The three most important words: "If you please."
The two most important words: "Thank you,"
The one most important word: "We"
The least most important word: "I"

If hockey is big where you are..

An editorial in the 12/15/04 Canada Post noted that the NHL didn't exist when Lord Stanley proposed the Stanley Cup as a prize for the nation's best hockey team each year.

So, the Post asks, why not get fans organized to take back the Stanley Cup this year and organize a playoffs among all active professional hockey teams for the 2005 Stanley Cup?

This is a campaign I bet your listeners could get behind in a big way..

KISS COUNTRY, MIAMI "REINDEER GAMES"

Here's how PD Bob Barnett is celebrating the Holiday season (bob@wkis.com) in Miami:

Several times each weekday, the Mystery Reindeer for that day is announced. Throughout the day, at the cue to call, a designated caller who correctly identifies the Mystery Reindeer wins a pair of tickets to the 2005 Kiss Country Chili Cookoff, featuring live performances by Hank Williams Jr., Keith Urban, Montgomery/Gentry, Big & Rich and Katrina Elam at C.B. Smith Park in Pembroke Pines, two GameWorks gamecards and a copy of the board game "Cranium."

Each winner also becomes qualified to win the grand prize, over $33,000 worth of merchandise, including a 2004 Ford Ranger 4X2 Edge Supercab, a $1,000 Sports Authority gift certificate, a Honda Four Trax Rancher 4X4 ATV, an NPS 50 Ruckus Scooter and 24 one hour GameWorks gamecards. The grand prize drawing was scheduled for January 2, 2005.

[Gene Autry song clip] "You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen... [Voice-over/sleighbells sfx] It's holiday time in South Florida! No snow in the forecast, but than means perfect weather for some Kiss Country Reindeer Games! [Clip] From now on gang, we won't let Rudolph join in any reindeer games! [V/o/music bed] Here's your chance to win a 2004 Ford Ranger 4X2 Edge Supercab from GameWorks! You'll need a big tree this year, 'cause we're gonna load you up for the holidays! You'll win a thousand bucks worth of goodies from Sports Authority, a Honda Four Trax Rancher 4X4 ATV and an NPS 50 Ruckus Scooter from Rick Case Honda Powerhouse and more! [Santa sfx] Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho! [V/o] Here's how to win it. Throughout the day, we'll announce the name of the Mystery Reindeer. Then, when you hear the Rudolph Touchtones, be the ninth caller at 550-99-99! If you can name that day's Mystery Reindeer, you'll win a pair of tickets to the 20th Anniversary Chili Cookoff, starring Hank Jr., Keith Urban, Montgomery/Gentry, Big & Rich and more! You'll get free GameWorks gamecards for the kids, 'Cranium,' the outrageously fun smash hit party game, where you'll sketch, sculpt, act, puzzle and even spell backwards to win! Go to Cranium.com. Plus, be in to win the Reindeer Games grand prize package, valued at over 33,000 bucks! For complete rules, go to WKIS.com. Play Reindeer Games and win! Good luck, from GameWorks and... [Santa sfx] Ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas! [V/o] 99.9 Kiss Country!"

[Reindeer Games cue to call/Gene Autry song clip] "All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names!... [Touchtones sfx] ...They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. [Female Voice-over] Call-Call-Call now."

Trendwatch: top AOL searches of 2004

Which people, moments, news and trends captivated Amerwicans in 2004? AOL(r) Search, America Online's popular search destination, announced the year's top searches based on what people and topics received the highest volume of online queries on the AOL service and AOL.com. CLICK FOR: More... (with thanks to www.rbr.com's Jim Carnegie for sharing 'em)

Dave & Carole's (Milwaukee) Digital Days of Christmas

From WKLH's email newsletter:

If we had to spend our own money, we'd be giving away fruitcakes and neckties for Christmas, but thanks to American Furniture, Electronics & Appliances , you can win something really cool...like a JVC MiniDV camcorder or an Apple iPod loaded with 'KLH Classic Hits A to Z during Dave & Carole's Digital Days of Christmas. It all ends Friday, so Click here to register now.

Over 3,000 of Milwaukee's neediest kids were overjoyed when they received toys, a warm holiday meal and visit with Santa, and all the fun that came with our 19th Christmas is for Kids party, last week. Thank you for helping us make it happen. You can still help by buying our latest CD, Fahrenheit 96.5, for only $11.96 at a Times Square Watch Shop in your favorite mall, or just click here to order online.

If this doesn't get the phones ringing, nothing will..

From http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/TheNote/TheNote.html ..

Not even Christmas is non-partisan any more. Jennifer Skalka of the Chicago Tribune looks at a Web site called Choose the Blue, which helps Democratic voters who are stumped in their holiday buying choose merchants and companies that contributed to Democratic candidates. LINK

Phone cards for wounded G-I's

Artist manager and talent booker Maria Cooper-Bruner (Insightmgt@aol.com) writes:

FYI: The number ONE request at Walter Reed hospital is phone cards.

The government does not pay long distance phone charges and these wounded soldiers are rationing their calls home. Many will be there throughout the holidays.

Really support our troops -- Send phone cards of any amount to:

Medical Family Assistance Center
Walter Reed Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20307-5001

I have checked this out and it is legit…the cards will make a bunch of brave kids happy. It is better than a ribbon on your SUV.

The Top 10 Dance Tracks Of 2004

From: Katelynn@aristomedia.com

Club Connection Announces the 10 Most Popular Country Dance Hits of 2004

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - This year, Marco Music Group¹s Club Connection surveyed over 170 clubs and prominent dance instructors nationwide to determine the most played and most requested country dance songs of 2004.

Big and Rich were the big winners, capturing the first and third spots with their breakout hit "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" and its accompanying dance mix. Fellow Music Mafia member Gretchen Wilson captured second place with her smash debut single, "Redneck Woman" and rounded out the top 10 with her follow-up "Here For The Party."

Bar themed music closed out the top five:

The Top 10 Dance Tracks Of 2004 per the Club Connection Survey

1. Big & Rich "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" Album Cut
2. Gretchen Wilson "Redneck Woman"
3. Big & Rich "Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)" Dance Re-mix
4. Toby Keith "I Love This Bar"
5. Mark Chesnutt "Lord Loves A Drinkin¹ Man"
6. Wayne Warner "Turbo Twang"
7. Blake Shelton "Some Beach"
8. Keith Urban "Who Wouldn¹t Wanna Be Me"
9. Tim McGraw "Live Like You Were Dying"
10. Gretchen Wilson "Here For The Party"

According to Jon Gunter, Coordinator of Venue Marketing of Club Connection, "Dance clubs have certainly been a part of Country music¹s resurgence over the last twelve months and many of the songs that became big radio records translated into hits at the dance club level as well.

We are excited that so many clubs chose to participate in this year end "Best OfŠ" survey."

For more:

Jeff Walker ­ 615.269.7071 ext. 123 ­ jwalker@aristomedia.com
Jon Gunter ­ 615.269.7071 ext. 145 ­ jgunter@aristomedia.com

10,000 snowmen

Is your city up for a little competition? Wanna get some publicity and have some fun?

Do you have enough snow to give Winnipeg a run for the money??

There are even rules here for 'how to build a snowman,' should you need step by step instructions.. CHECK OUT: http://www.snowmancity.com/

Thanks to Janet Trecarten, PD at QX-104.1, who let us know about it. CBC is the media sponsor, so it's not exactly competitive with commercial radio and she is reachable at CFQX: jtrecarten@qx104fm.com if you'd like to say hey or ask her how it's going or set up a report from her (http://www.qx104fm.com/main/main.asp) intrepid morning crew of Ron Able and Caroline Hunter on how the city's campaign is going. They can also fill you in on their "Christmas Fill-Up" and "Waking Crew Big Stocking" events as well..

Dwight Douglas on the Fly-In

It was terrific to run into former Burkhart-Douglas consulting partner Dwight (now at RCS) at ARB's Consultant Fly-In. As usual, his sardonic wit and cut to the chase style was much in evidence in his email recapping the event in a nutshell last week:

DDouglas@rcsworks.com writes: "In a strange way, it was a total time warp. I have not attended the Consultant Fly-In for more than eight years and many of the presentations were exactly the same…
People Meter Study…
Sample Sizes…
Telephone problems….
Freaky…

Julian Breen on the ARB Fly-In

Julian Breen, former VP of Greater Media and the inventor of "Super Trends" extrapolation software moderates the terrific A r b i t r o n D a t a U s e r s F o r u m for the Discussion of Radio Audience Measurement.

From: "Julian H. Breen"
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2004 14:33:38 -0500
Subject: Arbitron Fly-In

As you've probably seen in the trades, Arbitron held it's annual consultant Fly-In on December 9. While not all all-inclusive, the following notes will give somewhat more detail than was published in the trades along with some perspective.

The turnout was almost double that of last year when I thought the event was about to become an endangered species. In fact, there wasn't quite enough space in the lunchroom for all the participants, so the turnout may have even surprised Arbitron.

My impressions:

All of the Arbitron people as well as Steve Goldstein, the Saga executive and Chair of the Arbitron Radio Advisory Council, think some form of metered measurement, replacing the diary sooner or later, is a foregone conclusion even though ARAC has not yet endorsed Arbitron's PPM.

However, Arbitron's PPM is not the only game in town. The British are testing several other forms of electronic measurement as well as the PPM. It seems to me a similar approach would serve us well before we get stampeded into Arbitron's PPM-land. Of course, the Arbitron folks are not talking about the metering competition. Perhaps we should and get the alternatives out on the table.

The Arbitron people spent a lot of time selling the PPM's capability of producing minute-by-minute data. They say program directors want it. However, we all know the people who sign the checks-- general managers and the like -- are scared to death of it. There will be minute-by-minute data released in the upcoming Houston PPM test, but it will be raw unweighted numbers of meters, not weighted audience estimates. This is an effort to keep the sub-AQH data out of the sell-buy arena where buyers are likely to beat down rates with it.

My take: While minute-by-minute data would be an excellent research and programming tool (and likely put some of the radio research companies out of business as Arbitron scarfs up the dollars they now earn), it's potential impact on radio revenue is substantial and scary. I think we as an industry need to have an agreement with Arbitron-- signed, sealed and delivered-- regarding what kinds of information Arbitron will provide from its meters before we agree to encode our signals and buy the data. If it exists, there's no practical way to keep minute-by- minute data out of the sell-buy arena any more than we have been successful in preventing people from selling and buying based on Arbitrends or even extrapolations of Arbitrends.

As Steve pointed out in his excellent opening talk, "granularity [of the published PPM audience estimates] is the genie in the bottle."

More on the Houston PPM test: The four Cox stations and three Radio One stations are still encoding holdouts. So, with Infinity now agreeing to encode, Arbitron has encoding commitments from 42 out of 50 radio stations, 15 of 16 TV stations and 44 of 46 cable networks. XM and Sirius will not be encoded. First station-level data is expected to be issued as a Spring 2005 book with some 2,100 meters (780 households) among respondents 6+. Nielsen is not directly participating in the Houston test and a final decision on the Nielsen- Arbitron PPM joint venture is not expected until the first quarter of 2006.

In other news: Arbitron continues to slug away at offering an on-line E-Diary as a option for respondents instead of a paper diary. While Arbitron's Dr. Ed Cohen says it's a priority, there's no timeline for completion as yet.

Arbitron continues to test ways of including land-line-less cell phone households in its sample frame. These households are estimated at about 5% nationwide, but up to 20% in some heavy cell phone markets, and mostly younger demos. There are legal hassles involving dialing cell phones with RDD equipment as well as some basic research issues. Arbitron doesn't expect to be able to include cell phone numbers in its sample frame until 2006 at the earliest.

In the past Arbitron has determined race/ethnicity on a household basis. That means all persons in a household were assumed to be of the same race/ethnicity. This will change to the determination of race/ethnicity on a personal level which could be different for each person in a household. The result is likely to be a shift of some people from black or Hispanic to other, Arbitron's catchall category for everyone else.

There is a new initiative to smooth out the sometimes substantial bounces in the 104 markets Arbitron measures on a condensed (limited demos) two book a year basis. Since the broadcasters in these mostly small markets won't pay for additional sample and Arbitron won't foot the bill on its own, the idea is to take the existing sample and spread it over 48 weeks with a new report issued each quarter based on the preceding 48 weeks of diaries-- sort of a rolling average although each quarterly report will be based on reweighting the entire 48 weeks of diaries. Data will be available for narrower survey periods such as 24 weeks and 12 weeks, but with greatly restricted dayparts and demos. The idea is to promote sell-buy on the 48 week quarterly books, but give some idea of trending with the 12 and 24 week "quick look" data. Implementation begins with Spring 2006 and will be fully installed by Spring 2007.

I think everyone can agree with Steve Goldstein's observation that this is a very compromised solution to a serious problem. But, without additional sample, it's probably the best Arbitron can do in the circumstances.

If you have any comments about the Fly-In or any other audience measurement topic, please send them to forum@supertrends.com and I'll send them out to the full list.

Every year we take Arbitron's survey schedule and break it down by Phase and Week on a 12 month calendar. Many people find it useful and your copy of the 2005 edition is free for the download at http://www.supertrends.com/JHB/arbisurv2005.pdf

Happy Holidays, - Julian

Subscriptions are free to Julian's ADE Forum. Just send an e-mail to forum@supertrends.com with "subscribe" (no quotes) in the body of the message.