Killing Cliches Is Every Consultant, PD and ND's Gig

I just heard an unthinking air personality end his time on the air with the phrase "well, that about does it for me, I'm out of here."

Since neither I nor the radio was going anywhere, it made me wonder who, from this jock's perspective, is more important - me, the listener? Or, him? (the crutch makes it obvious that he's just mouthing words and not even thinking about saying something meaningful to me, unless he's contemplating suicide .. other of course than career suicide, which his choice of self-involved verbiage is "slowly, surely" - to use yet another cliche - doing)

The day of the radio 'show' ended with Arthur Godfrey and Art Linkletter, and even the biggest station that is aware of how folks consume our content today has an audience of just ONE LISTENER. Today's smart personalities talk to that person one to one, engaging them as if they were talking to a friend, not just a microphone.

Radio's strength is our ability to engage the imagination and emotions, creating intimacy and trust. But, it doesn't happen automatically. The words you choose to use either make it happen or do not.

The best pronoun to use is YOU, never the antiquated "editorial we."

News writing coach Mervin Block is the author of "Writing Broadcast News -- Shorter, Sharper Stronger" and I feel confident that he'd agree. He recently caught CNN News engaging in hackneyed writing too.

More Block tips and articles are at http://www.mervinblock.com/. You can reach him (or sign up for his free tips list) at merblo@aol.com.

Canada's AM Band - Is It Over?

Some eye-opening stats from M Street Journal on the amazing decline of AM in Canada.

DX’er Barry McLarnon in Ottawa has been keeping tabs on what’s left of Canada's AM dial and he says that there are just 237 AM stations still on the air (not countin glow-power relay transmitters under 100 watts).

Ontario leads the pack with 54 AMs, followed by British Columbia with 45 and just 28 each in Alberta and Quebec. Prince Edward Island has just 2 AM signals, as do the Northwest Territories and Yukon, and there’s just one in chilly Nunavut.

Barry says Canada now has fewer than half the number of AM signals per capita that the U.S. does — but notes that the pace of AM-to-FM conversions has slowed dramatically, with most of the remaining AMs in large markets where they’ll likely stick around for a while.

..which is why we were delighted last week to see radio awards go to our friends at Harvard-owned CKRM-AM, Regina. Best medium market newscast and the Charlie Edwards Award for Spot News at the Prairie Regional meeting of the RTNDA.

AM won't be viable if we don't offer unique, local, topical and compelling content. (nor will FM for very much longer!) Nice to see that GM Michael Olstrom's Regina crew gets that.

Drive 'em to your website

...With a caption contest! ;->

What's On Your Playlist?

Used to be that folks would say: "your favorite radio station's playlist says a lot about who you are." Now, it's more personal and individual (according to SF Chronicle's Benny Evangelista and readers who responded to his article this week):

You are what's on your playlist - Experts say digital music library reflects listener's personality

What's On Jesus' iPod? Pt. II - Readers respond! Ministry, Moby, Metallica and Morphine, and of course, we are all going to hell for this

Z and C at ACM's

Not to be outdone by Access Hollywood and ET, A&O also has our celebrity specialist covering the ACM's too, Marty Thompson, PD at WUBE, Cincinnati:

"Was at the RCA After Party at Cili in Vegas... Kenny and Renee were there together. They looked very much in love-- at one point Kenny was "air drumming" at her with "chicken skewers". She grabbed one and they had a little pollo duel."

Nighttime Benchmark Ideas

WGCI, Chicago, has just about the most dynamic produced intro on their website that I've heard in some time. Also, over their home page your cursor turns into their signature orange ball, which is mighty cool.

Their night team "The Bad Boys" (Mike Love and the Diz) do some fun features each night...

6:45: "Put 'Em On Blast" (listeners call in to vent)
7 pm: The topic of the day (Love starts it off with a rant of his own on something current)
7:45: Ghettoroke (hmmm.. countryoke?)
8 pm: The Birthday Bash (yes, even hip hop & R&B listeners have birthdays and want to wish their friends happy ones!)

Love told R&R's Dana Hall recently: "You have to stay ahead of the kids. You have to know what they talk about and what they want to talk about. You can't be late on things, because then you sound like their dad."

The Very First

Bob Magruder is a veteran Dallas-based actor of stage, TV, films, documentaries, commercials and talking books. His latest project is a fun book called "The Very First."

What was America’s longest running comic strip?
Where was the first traffic light?
Who was the first real movie star?
What was the first aphrodisiac?
When and what was the first Broadway musical?
Who used the first toothbrush?
Did Jesus turn the water into wine or beer?

The answers to these questions and a couple of gazillion more are contained in these pages, along with the fascinating stories behind them. You’ll find the very first crossword puzzle (ready for solving), the remarkable chronicles of the first postage stamp, the first horror movie, the first anesthetics, the first baseball and football games, the first women’s fashion magazine, the first condom, not to mention the world’s oldest profession (it’s not what you think). You will become privy to the origins of many timeless phrases and well-known events.

Perfect for your show's "fun and games" quiz!

Free Money Fugitive Tips

Google the above words and you'll find a lot of radio stations creating buzz right now with this contest. PD Reid Morgan and GM Rob Bye at B93, Lethbridge, have done it very successfully for two books in a row now and I know either one of them would be delighted to share what they've learned.

Thanks to an article in the 4/29/05 Billboard Radio Monitor by Katie Hasty, WRVW, Nashville's Promo Director Kate Guido lists these recommendations:

* Make sure your air staff is committed. Nothing else should appear to matter except finding the Fugitive.

* Include it in all of your more strategic sweeper, promo and air staff hype too

* Constant upkeep is required. Update your website constantly, in addition to the stuff on the air. New clues need to keep happening, to make people feel that they are on to something.

* Don't start blind. Talk to other stations who have executed the promotion. Learn about their best clues, how they generated buzz outside the station and how they involved advertisers. For example, to gain an important clue in the 96X, Edmonton, Fugitive last fall listeners had to patronize the drive-through of a Jack-in-the-Box restaurant, causing lines so long that they blocked highways and got TV coverage

* Send listeners to other station events by having clues that will lead them there. Make sure everything the station does ties in to The Fugitive contest in some way. Competing for your listeners' attention with unrelated station events will hurt the impact of your promotion

* Pick a trustworthy Fugitive. The person can live a normal life, go to work and run errands, but they must know that they need to keep up with them without revealing too much to the audience or their friends and coworkers

* It isn't cheap. 107.5 The River spent thousands on nesting direct marketing phone calls, mailers/fliers and posters with the same theme as their website ("The Fugitive is On The Loose in Nashville, Find The 107.5 Fugitive")

* Imposters pretending to be the Fugitive can be a pain (sometimes competing radio stations encourage them just to mess with your promotion). Be prepared to deal with them

Four ELEMENTS Of A Great Morning Show

And, if Laurie Beth Jones book (The Four Elements of Success) is as on target as it sounds, I do mean ELEMENTS.

It caught my attention because I loved her last one, "Jesus CEO." Again, she applies powerful metaphors to the human side of business.

She types personalities as "earth," "wind," "water," and "fire." She says every successful enterprise needs a good balance of each one.

- Winds - like a fast-paced environment
- Waters - prefer predictability
- Earths - want stability
- Fires - can be combative but make things happen

I came away from the book feeling like a good morning show, in order to be as relatable as possible, needs at least one of each.

Her explanations of how to figure out which one of the four types you are, the strengths and weaknesses of each and tips on how they can productively work with one another would be a worthwhile read for a morning team and their PD.

Then, do something with the insights you gain by talking about it together.

Sending CARE packages to the troops

Dos and don'ts are at: http://www.thenationalguardexperience.blogspot.com/

Albuquerque's KAGM offers the "Runaway Bride" a job

Tom Taylor reports in www.insideradio.com that American General Media's KAGM is offering Jennifer Wilbanks a nightly talk show or the job of co-hosting its morning show. The gig promises a $30,000-a-year salary. A poll on KAGM's website finds listeners prefer she decline by a three-to-one margin.

I love it. They make fun publicity hay while the topical buzz sun is shining and literally have to actually do almost nothing!

The Missing Info From The Arbitron Spot Loads Study

Two presentation graphics with very different persepctives on whether it's better to stop for two six unit breaks or three four unit breaks from what was announced yesterday were omitted. I happen to have obtained those two slides.

If you know why the decision was made to not announce the other side of the "fewer but longer breaks vs more but shorter ones" research, I'd love to hear about it. If you'd like to see the two missing slides from the public presentation, drop me an email and I will send them to you. Warning: the choice of whether to stop twice or three times an hour when you have a 12 unit commercial limit won't be quite as clearcut when you see them, as the info made public makes it appear.

Meanwhile, here are some highlights from Arbitron and Edison Media Research, Spot Load Study 2005: Managing Radio Commercial Inventories for Advertisers and Listeners.

Free Radio Is a Good Deal: Eighty percent of consumers say that commercials are a "fair price to pay" for free radio programming.

Fewer Commercials, More Listening: Forty-seven percent of consumers say they would listen to a radio station "a lot more" if that station had noticeably fewer commercial breaks; 44 percent say they would listen "a lot more" if that station had shorter commercial breaks.

Most Stay Tuned During Commercials: The majority of consumers say that they "never" tune away from radio commercials at work (63 percent) or at home (49 percent).

Button-Punching is Rare: Relatively few radio listeners say they switch stations upon hearing the start of a commercial break. Six percent of those listening at work say they switch immediately; 11 percent of home listeners and 28 percent of those listening in a car do the same.

Spot Reduction Awareness: Just under one-quarter of respondents were aware of radio stations that played noticeably fewer commercial breaks than they used to (23 percent) and noticeably shorter commercial breaks than those stations used to (23 percent).

The study includes recommendations on how radio stations can use the findings to develop a spot load strategy that boosts listening and reduces tune-outs. To download the complete study and see a recorded webinar presenting the study, visit http://list.arbitron.com/t/21142/136250/345/0/.

Hear It Now, See It Tonight, Read About It Tomorrow

Radio's greatest strength against IPod's, the internet and satellite radio: localism and immediacy.

Howard Christensen of Canada's Broadcast Dialogue reports: The number of online adults who prefer the Internet as their main source of news has grown by over 35% in the last four years – and this at the expense of TV and newspapers.

Market research firm Jupiter Research says more than 26% of online adults prefer the Internet for national and international news, up from 19% in 2001.

But the survey also shows that overall numbers using the Internet for daily news has stayed flat over the last few years, at about 50%. The number of online adults preferring to use the Internet for local news is also growing, but has yet to exceed 10%.

The Audit Bureau of Circulations says US newspaper circulation has experienced a 1.9% drop in daily readership and a 2.5% decline on Sundays over the last six months compared with the period a year ago. Analysts say it’s the largest circulation loss in more than a decade. The rate of decline has been 0.5% to 1% since newspaper circulation peaked in the mid-1980s.

Note to all voices prepping to talk on terrestial radio: there's a new basic which must be added to your tool kit - information. Does your audience trust that you know what's going on in their world right now?

There is only one way to be sure of that: talk about it, relate to it, with fresh point of view and interaction on the latest info which they care about affecting their life at this moment.

Are You Planning To Do A Runaway Bride Weekend?

Yes, I know it's Mother's Day and giving away copies of the DVD of "Runaway Bride" seems like a very original irreverant turn on the traditional holiday in light of last weekend's Jennifer Wilbanks story.

However, note those two words "last weekend" and pat yourself on the back if you did something fun to capitolize on the event when it was news. I just clicked on Yahoo's Most Popular news story search and it now doesn't even make the top ten.

Timing is everything, and rather than do a stunt which is based on last weekend's big event, please do some scenario planning now that assures that you won't be the third station in your town to do the same try for publicity in just the last few days.

(end of rant, thanks for listening)

Paula Abdul To Be Voted Off Idol?

Far be it from a straight and narrow company such as A&O to ever pass on unsavory rumors that might possibly drive viewers to ABC-TV this week. BUT, should your curiosity get the best of you, we can keep our reputations intact and still refer you to The Drudge Report's recap of the latest.

KSON Operation Helping Hand

KSON, San Diego's Cliff & Company is...

* giving away free gas for two hours each morning. At 7 a.m. they announce that day’s location, then pump free gas for two hours.

* doubling a military paycheck each day

* on Thursday morning the station will surprise 50 military moms by taking them for a day at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California.

Morning host Cliff Dumas has a wonderful resource they call Cliff's Kids as well.

For more info, contact PD John Marks or click on KSON to see photos of the stunts.

WUBE "Taste of Cincinnati" Country Lineup

B-105.1's Free Country Music Stage at Taste of Cincinnati will feature Blaine Larsen, Miranda Lambert, Jeff Bates, Hot Apple Pie, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Keith Anderson and Steve Azar.

This is the 15th year WUBE has produced the B-105 Free Country Music Stage at Taste of Cincinnati, the nation's longest running culinary arts festival (Memorial Day Weekend on Central Parkway in downtown Cincinnati).

For advice on booking talent for an event like this, email PD Marty Thompson or APD Kat O'Conner, who've been working on it for many months.

ACM Awards Trivia

Q: Why might Brooks & Dunn be receiving a thank you note from a fit and free Martha Stewart?

A: Thanks in part to a lot of line dancing to the duo’s hit “Boot Scoot Boogie,” Martha Stewart dropped 20 pounds while serving time at a cushy correctional facility in Alderson, W. Va. A favorite activity of Stewart’s was attending line-dancing lessons.

.. and lots more like the above, thanks to Tree Paine at the ACM by clicking on TRIVIAKIT.doc

Academy of Country Music Awards
Tuesday, May 17
8:00 PM (ET/PT)
LIVE on CBS

40th Anniversary Celebration
Wednesday, May 18
7:30 PM (PT)
Scheduled to air in December on CBS

"Honkytonk University" - Toby's album special

Toby Keith's forthcoming LP is titled "Honkytonk University."

Dreamworks has a radio special on the new LP available now. Sign up with Sharla McCoy at 615-504-1268 or 615-529-1088 (or email sharlam@dtccom.net).

The first tune to be released to radio is now available from Promo Only: "As Good As I Once Was." Call your Dreamworks rep or email VP/Promotion in Nashville, Bruce Shindler to find out who your rep is.

The Old Stunts Are The Best Stunts

A&O is proud to consult both KIX 99.5, Kitchener and also BX-93, London. So, far be it from ME to take sides in a hockey bet. However, I have to take my hat off to KIX's Joel & Linda who lost a bet with BX's Dave & Jacquie and not only (reluctantly) paid off.. but also had the good sportsmanship to share what it sounded like with us..

CLICK TO LISTEN: KIX995BX93bet.mp3

For more info, email LMartelli@KICXFM.COM (Linda Martelli)