A Last Minute (No Prep and Easy!) April Fool

Did you hear that April Fool's Day has been cancelled this year?

Yeah. Really. It sure is. Of course it is. Truly. Genuinely. No doubt. Actually.

Imagine! April 1, with no April Fools pranks in 2005.

Yep, that's how it is. Honest. For sure.

I heard that anyone doing April Fool stunts is liable for possible arrest. Be sure to tell your friends. You'd hate to see them get in trouble...

RIP Dr. Don

Hats off to KFRC, San Francisco, PD Bob Harlow for having the smarts to memorialize the station's best known air personality of all time today.

All of us to talk on the radio and work to be entertaining, authentic and topical owe Dr. Don a huge debt. He pioneered our path.

Some history:
www.broadcastlegends.com/rose.html
http://doctordonrose.com/

There's a brief tribute to him from Jaye Trachman's One to One Family Member Jim Walsh: www.121online.net

Familiarity - have you looked at your music research in this light?

A nice article on "Jack" on the front page of the March 18 Wall Street Journal with lots of thought-provoking quotes.

The best, I thought, came from Paragon Media Strategies' Mike Henry: "...listeners want to hear familiar music, but a larger selection and variety of it. So Jack plays only songs people will recognize, albeit from a variety of styles and timeframes. (regarding the train wreck segues of the Jack format)`You're only challenging them on a stylistic level,'' says Mr. Henry. ``You're not challenging them on a familiar/unfamiliar level.''

This hit me right where I live because country has always been 'the train wreck segue' format - and our listeners love that variety from "Baby Likes To Rock It" to "Love Me."

No doubt that's why Jack can hurt a country station who's not prepared for the new approach from pop/rock, normally focused on 'fit' and 'core' sounds.

Suggestion: continue to sort your research (first) on like a lot, (and then) good balance of crosstabs across men, women, young, older, core and secondary users, but, start also taking a close look at familiarity too. Are highly familiar songs with no negatives slipping out of your library, hurting your perceived variety image just because they miss the cut off of pop scores by a few percentage points?

I've seen stations increase their cume and TSL by doing nothing but increasing the average familiarity score threshold of their music, as long as it doesn't require cutting the size of the playlist unreasonabily or compromise 'common threading' across all target segments of the audience.

Even better if it increases it. The same 250 songs played over and over simply don't work anymore!

Saga Leads. Let's ALL Follow

Saga CEO Ed Christian is canceling syndicated shows that also air onXM or Sirius: "when a person gets in a car the choices are AM, FM or satellite. So (he told Inside Radio's Tom Taylor) syndicators, make your choice - them or us."

THAT SURE BEATS SIMPLY RUNNING A "HEARD IT ON THE RADIO FIRST" AD (the same artists also cut ads endorsing satellite too of course).

Congrats on a brilliant and courageous move, Ed. Let's get behind this movement and deny satellite our best personalities and programs!

PS: EMarketer reports a new survey by BIGresearch indicates that interest in purchasing satellite radio subscriptions remains low. BIGresearch surveyed 7,000 US consumers about their purchasing intentions for satellite radio and found that 4.2% of respondents already had satellite radio and that only 2.5% planned to subscribe in the next 6 months.

Just over 16% planned to subscribe "someday." Most, however, said they had no plans to subscribe.

Nearly 25% said they weren't informed enough to make a decision. Younger respondents, those ages 18 to 35, were more likely to be informed about satellite radio and more likely to buy.

Kids Are Media-Saturated TOO

The Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2005 sends this sobering release:

Today’s young people (those 8-18) lead “saturated media lives,” spending nearly 6 ½ hours a day with media. However, because of simultaneous media usage, they actually cram more than 8 hours of media into a day.

As reported by the Center For Media Research, television and music are the big players among today’s youth, with those surveyed spending an average of three hours a day watching TV, and about 1 ¾ hours a day listening to the radio or to CDs, tapes, or MP3 players.

Interactive media come next, with young people averaging just over one hour a day on the computer outside of schoolwork, and just under 50 minutes a day (playing video games.

Reading is close behind, on books, magazines, or newspapers for something other than schoolwork. Here are the dominant media used by young people in a typical day, ranked by the percentage of 8-18 year-olds who use them:

• Watch TV (81%)
• Listen to the radio (74%)
• Listen to CD/tape/MP3 (68%)
• Use a computer (54%)
• Read a magazine (47%)
• Go online (47%)
• Read a book (46%)
• Play console video games (41%)
• Watch videos (39%)
• Play handheld video games (35%)

At least we're in second place, but it's close!

Lovetingle

I can't vouch for who this is or much more than the fact that I received this email from "ellie@lovetingle.com." The front page of the site looks innocent enough, but please check it out further yourself before sending listeners to it to be sure it conveys the values of your show accurately..

SHOW PREP FROM LOVETINGLE.COM
*You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, or use on the air. Credit lovetingle.com*
CRAZY LOVE FACTS
>Canadian porcupines kiss one another on the lips.
>Ladies in nudist camps tend to use more makeup than women elsewhere.
>Marital fights hit their peak in July. It's also the biggest month for riots, criminal violence and filing lawsuits.
>The average person falls in love seven times before marriage.
>10,000 people acquire marriage licenses each year but never actually get married.
>Women can talk longer with less effort than men. Why? Because the vocal cords of women are shorter than those of men and release less air through them to carry the sound.
>Studies by Dr. Karl F. Robinson of Northwestern University prove that men change their minds two or three times more often than do women.
>The average woman uses up approximately her height in lipstick every five years.
>Caesar was 54, Cleopatra 21 when they were dating.
>The longest kiss according to the Guinness Book of World Records lasted 417 hours.

-4 Free ways to show them that you love them TODAY:
> Use a thesaurus to help you describe your lover: charming, beautiful, alluring, stunning, gorgeous, exquisite, marvelous, magnificent, enticing, fabulous etc.
> Leave a trail of your clothes from the front door to the bedroom before they get home. >Hide a love note in a bottle of daily vitamins, or in the pants your significant other will wear that day. >On a cold morning warm up your lover's car for them. (They'll think about you their entire day)
>A lottery ticket and a note: "I hit the jackpot when I married you."

Another great idea:
>Send a dozen roses: 11 red and one white. Write a note that says: "In every bunch there's one who stands out - and you are that one."

Nowhere To Go But UP

WENS-FM switches to country format

CLICK TO CHECK OUT: Real Life, Real Music.. The Hank.

Bob Moody, VP/Programming at Regent Communications on this stunt: "Depends on what Emmis wants to accomplish. It could be an effective "ankle biter", but if you tell a Country listener that you play "anything Country", you better have some old Faron Young and John Schneider albums handy."

Also "brand" new in the last week:

* Rogers' Country 107.1, Abbotsford, BC (eastern suburbs of Vancouver)
* Clear Channel's Q Country 102.9, Centralia, WA (southern suburbs of Seattle)

The price of being on the upswing as a format is that we get the (sometimes silly) competition we really don't need in many markets. Is there a station with a 1.8 share in your market? Are we headed back to 1994 already? Looks like we may be (if you don't know what I mean, call 732 937-5757 for Michael O'Malley or 206 498-6261 for Jaye Albright - we have been here before).

AC guru Mike McVay: "I guess this is disco for the 2000's. AC must be dead. (BIG smile)"

Mercury Research's Mark Ramsay puts it all in context on his blog: It's a Trend...No, it's a Virus

IT'S TIME TO ATTACK YOURSELF NOW.

Those Who Fail To Learn From The Past

Two items in the news today made me think of that old saw.

1. Why Terri Schiavo? Why now? Heart-rending though her case may be, none of the issues are new. But she has been elevated to a national symbol by cable news, which wasn't as tabloid a few years ago and didn't exist when Quinlan was hospitalized. When I was a New Jersey newspaper reporter in the 1970s, we ran many stories on the saga of Karen Ann Quinlan. The case drew national attention when the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1976 that the 21-year-old brain-damaged woman could be taken off a respirator, although it turned out she survived until 1985. During this furor over Terri Schiavo, I've been looking back at other such cases. Turns out there were a lot of them (read more - Howard Kurtz-Media Notes)

2. This letter to Jim Carnegie, Editor & Publisher of Radio Business Report:

The debate continues on :60s vs. :30s.

My first job out of college was a radio sales position. At that time (1976), thirty second commercials were the local/ regional/ national "spot buy" industry standard. Every station in the market had a published ratecard. The standard rates in every daypart were based on a :30. There was a premium charge of approximately 25-40% for a :60 depending on the station's format. At that time practically no advertisers bought :60's with the exception of car dealers, who needed the extra time for the legally enforced disclaimers, re: finance rates, etc.

As I see it, the issue is NOT really spot length but rather COPYWRITING! When the industry moved to "units" rather than "minutes" and :60's became standard, the need to write and produce really good copy was relaxed. No one that tries to write really effective radio copy will argue with the fact, that writing a really effective :30 is much harder than writing a mediocre :60 that relies heavily on repetition to make a point or deliver a message. The reality is that at the local level, the majority of commercial copy is at best mediocre ( I'm being kind).

Most local commercials regardless of length don't, as Paul Weyland would say, "stand out above the crapisphere!" Agencies are as much to blame for this as local sales people forced to write their own copy for direct accounts. Even large group owned stations that employ copywriters simply churn out formulaic, mediocre copy. In the 70's and early 80's ADDY AWARDS were the most competitive for radio at the thirty second level. Frequently, there would be NO ADDY awarded for a :60, because of the lack of quality entries. I know because I won several of those awards in various markets. Whether, Clear Channel is effective at resurrecting the :30 as a standard unit, will depend almost entirely on the effectiveness of those commercial messages that their stations air for those advertisers.

Reconfiguring the commercial breaks to accommodate selling :30's, is about 25% of what they need to be successful. The harder 75%, of WRITING and producing "EFFECTIVE" :30's that work for their clients is, as I presently "hear it on the air" in this market, yet to be considered, let alone addressed.

If the "less is more" is to have the desired effect on programming and listener retention, the "MORE" part of the equation, needs to be addressed by not only Clear Channel but, the entire industry, regardless of commercial length.

-- Mark CortnerTulsa, OK

IMHO:

Howard Kurtz's question highlights the fact that every generation is not exactly the same and the lessons that one 'thought' they had already learned may not apply to the next one.

Cortner's points are excellent, as long as we remember that all the research in recent months continues to support that move to UNITS because it was soundly based on listener reaction to multiple messages, no matter what the length, and that still seems to apply (witness very recent data from Paragon Media Strategies, Bridge Ratings, and Navigauge).

PS: Mike O'Malley does the math.

If we want the listener to notice our efforts to cut back on clutter we need to reimpose absolute limits on both units and minutes. I like Clear Channel's 12 minutes in the morning and ten the rest of the day, but worry if that opens the door to more than 10-12 units an hour too, regardless of length.

I thought we'd already learned that lesson in the 1980's. Hopefully, we don't have to learn it again now, the hard way.

Another Push to PODCAST

Larry Shannon's www.radiodailynews.com reports traditional broadcasters are also seizing on podcasts as one more way to reach audiences, including those not currently tuned in.

KOMO-AM (1000) was one of the first commercial stations in the nation to offer podcasting, through its Web site, www.komonews.com "There's a voracious appetite for it, once people figure it out," says Stan Orchard, assistant director of news and programming at KOMO Radio.

KPLU-FM (88.5) yesterday launched podcasting for locally produced news stories, "Jazz Kitchen" with Dick Stein and "BirdNote." Its Web site, www.kplu.org and KOMO's provide explanations to listeners on what's needed to set up and receive podcasts.

(read more - Bill Virgin-Seattle PI)

The Best Advice I Ever Got

Fortune Magazine has what could be the start of a great phone topic..

Warren Buffett
You're right not because others agree with you, but because your facts are right, says the 74-year-old CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Meg Whitman
Be nice, do your best—and most important, keep it in perspective, says the 48-year-old CEO and President of eBay.

Jack Welch
Be yourself, says the 69-year-old former chairman and CEO of General Electric.

Sallie Krawcheck
Don't listen to the naysayers, says the 40-year-old CFO of Citigroup.

Vivek Paul
Don't limit yourself by past expectations, says the 46-year-old president and CEO of Wipro Technologies.

Dick Parsons
When you negotiate, leave a little something on the table, says the 56-year-old chairman and CEO of Time Warner.

Andy Grove
When 'everyone knows' something to be true, nobody knows nothin, says the 68-year-old chairman of Intel.

Anne Mulcahy
Remember the parable of the cow in the ditch, says the 52-year-old CEO of Xerox. "One piece of advice I got has become a mantra at Xerox. It came from a very funny source. It was four years ago, and I was doing a customer breakfast in Dallas. We had invited a set of business leaders there. One was a plainspoken, self-made, streetwise guy [Albert C. Black Jr., president and CEO of On-Target Supplies & Logistics, a logistics management firm]. He came up to me and gave me this advice, and I have wound up using it constantly. 'When everything gets really complicated and you feel overwhelmed,' he told me, 'think about it this way: You gotta do three things. First, get the cow out of the ditch. Second, find out how the cow got into the ditch. Third, make sure you do whatever it takes so the cow doesn't go into the ditch again.' Now, every time I talk about the turnaround at Xerox, I start with the cow in the ditch. The first thing is survival. The second thing is, figure out what happened. Learn from those lessons and make sure you've put a plan in place to recognize the signs, and never get there again. This has become sort of a catchphrase for the leadership team. It's just one of those incredibly simple commonsense stories to keep people grounded. I bet that businessman had no idea what kind of legs his story would have."

Brian Grazer
All you really own are ideas and the confidence to write them down, says the 53-year-old Academy Award-winning movie and TV producer.

Rick Warren
Regularly sit at the feet of Peter Drucker, says the 51-year-old Minister, founder of Saddleback Church and author of The Purpose-Driven Life "In life you need mentors, and you need models. Models are the people you want to emulate. I recommend that your models be dead. I'm serious. You don't know how people are going to finish up. A lot of people start out like bottle rockets. They look great, but then the last half of their life is chaos. That can be quite devastating. In my life, I've had at least three mentors: my father, Billy Graham, and Peter Drucker. They each taught me different things. Peter Drucker taught me about competence. I met him about 25 years ago. I was invited to a small seminar of CEOs, and Peter was there. As a young kid—I was about 25—I began to call him up, write him, go see him. I still go sit at the feet of Peter Drucker on a regular basis. I could give you 100 one-liners that Peter has honed into me. One of them is that there's a difference between effectiveness and efficiency. Efficiency is doing things right, and effectiveness is doing the right thing. A lot of churches—not just churches, but businesses and other organizations—are efficient, but they are not effective. Another important thing that Peter has taught me is that results are always on the outside of your organization, not on the inside. Most people, when they're in a company, or in a church, or in an organization, they think, Oh, we're not doing well, we need to restructure. They make internal changes. But the truth is, all the growth is on the outside from people who are not using your product, not listening to your message, and not using your services."

Jim Collins
The real discipline comes in saying no to the wrong opportunities, says the 46-year-old author of the bestseller Good to Great.

Peter Drucker
Get good—or get out, says the 95-year-old business consultant.

Ted Turner
Start young, says the 66-year-old founder of CNN and former vice chairman of Time Warner.

David Neeleman
Balance your work with your family, says the 44-year-old CEO of JetBlue.

Mickey Drexler
Bail out of a business that isn't growing, says the 60-year-old CEO of J. Crew.

Brian Roberts
Let others take the credit, says the 45-year-old CEO of Comcast.

Marc Benioff
Incorporate philanthropy into your corporate structure, says the 40-year-old founder and CEO of Salesforce.com.

Hector Ruiz
Surround yourself with people of integrity, and get out of their way, says the 59-year-old CEO of AMD.

Donny Deutsch
If you love something, the money will come, says the 48-year-old CEO of Deutsch Inc. and host of CNBC's The Big Idea With Donny Deutsch.

Klaus Kleinfeld
Keenly visualize the future, says the 47-year-old CEO of Siemens.

Tom's TSL Tip

The average person listens to radio approximately two hours per day and samples three different stations within that one day of listening. Take that two hours per day (which is 120 minutes), and divide it by the three stations they have sampled, and you will find that you have someone using radio for about 45 minutes-to-one hour per day -- not all-in-a-row. They take "snapshots" of your programming throughout the day: A little bit in morning drive, a bit during the workday, and then some in the afternoon. If you look at your research you will see that after 7:00 pm, the bell-shaped curve drops significantly with the 25+ demo as they go to TV, family, movies, ect. Therefore, it gets down to what “benchmarks” or “triggers” do you have built into your programming throughout the day that make your station memorable (read more about TSL at www.tomwatsononline.com)

Arbitron has appointed Bob Michaels to Vice President, PPM Programming Services (visit Arbitron)

How Does Your Legal ID Compare?

www.tophour.net is a web site that has been 'up' and 'down' for three or four years .. devoted ONLY to legal ID's! Brian Davis just relaunched it at www.tophour.net and it's worth browsing, contributing to. Enjoy!

Ya Simply GOT To DO it

M Street Journal relays a cautionary tale (actually TWO of them):

If you miss doing a correct legal ID for ten straight weeks — it may lead to a big fine. Like $5,000. It’s been ages since the FCC has cited a station specifically for violating 73.1201, the line in the rules that requires stations to identify with their call letters and city of license “hourly, as close to the hour as possible.”

So it was an eye-opener to see the Commission propose a $5,000 fine against Leighton Enterprises’ KBOT, Pelican Rapids, MN(104.1) for failing to run a legal ID for 10 weeks. KBOT told the FCC it was an “inadvertent”programming error in its automation system that replaced the proper top-hour ID with a promotional announcement that included the station’s slogan(“Wild 104”) — but not the calls and city of license.

An expensive phone call for a Montana station. KZMN, Kalispell (103.9) broadcast a call in November2003 between DJ Paul Gray and a woman who called the station to complain about a turkey that was hanging froma window of the station’s building. (The turkey was thereto advertise the station’s Thanksgiving food drive.) The woman was transferred to the studio to talk to Gray, who was taking food drive pledges on the air. So far, so good— except that the woman then handed the phone to a coworker, who apparently wasn’t told the call was being broadcast. The co-worker wasn’t pleased (especially after Gray told her to “quit complaining...and listen to the station”).

She filed a complaint. KZMN fired Gray and apologized to the woman — but the FCC says that’s not enough. It imposes a $6,000 fine.

You know what to do: legal ID every hour and notify every single caller that they may be on the air. Ya got to do it.

Nashville Star Weekly Recap

If you are following Nashville Star each week and are afraid you may miss an episode, Karen Byrd is charged with PR for the show from her Franklin, TN., office and emails a quick recap right after each week's program. Then, she posts one at http://nashvillestar.yahoo.com later in the day.

For Nashville Star assistance:

Karen Byrd Public Relations
2020 Fieldstone Pkwy. #900-219
Franklin, TN 37069
Phone: 615-595-1500
Email: karenbyrdpr@comcast.net
Fax: 615-595-6844

She adds: "Don't miss the next episode of "Nashville Star" on Tuesday, March 29, on USANetwork at 10 PM ET/PT/9 PM CT. PHIL VASSAR will kick off the "Original Songs" episode with a medley of his biggest hits, and LeANN RIMES and BRET MICHAELS will perform a special duet. Plus, we'll get to check out thesongwriting talents of our remaining contestants. Last week, (Episode #4), Sara Evans looked and sounded great as she opened the show with her #1 smash'Suds In The Bucket.' Casey Simpson was eliminated from the competition (see details below)."

Get Great Listener Testimonials For Your Promos

Hoppy Gilmore (Send E-mail to Hoppy Gilmore), PD/Morning cohost at Froggy 99.9 FM, Fargo says they never have a problem getting fresh, new testimonials because every single morning as their morning stunt person goes out they play "The Froggy UM Game."

To win a prize, every listener is recorded saying why they like Froggy - the more specific the better - and to win they have to go the full :30 without ever saying "um" or "uh."

This practically guarantees that every listener has a lot of energy and a big smile in their voice as they talk about what matters most about your station to them. Then, run don't walk back to the station and add this great real life, real listener stuff into your self-promotion so it sounds like real people are the voice of your radio station.

Ear Worms = Fun Phone Topic

To the tune of "It's A Small World After All," "Living La Vida Loca" or "Disco Duck.."

Why that song sticks in your head: Seattle PI

KLOS Goes Classic Rock After CBS-FM Goes Jack

Fred Jacobs has a great blog on the issues facing rock formats, and a lot of his brilliant musings are universal truths.

i.e. when one station vacates a format, it always seems like one company's dead lawn is another one's greener pastures.. and so it is in LA right now:

First: No "Happy Jack" In L.A.? Not long afterward: Jack LA - Postscript

Does Your Morning Show Suck?

It does, says Mercury Research, San Diego's Mark Ramsey if it has stopped trying new things - and occasionally failing at these experiments: Does Your Morning Show Suck?

He adds: If your station is in a head-to-head format battle, then you're in a "drag-race." And here's a great example of how to compete in a drag-race to win from my friends over at Marketing Playbook. The players in this case are iPod accessories, but the rules are universal.

E-quest Text Alerts - Check This Out!

I just got an email from WMIL, Milwaukee's "Moo Crew" morning team: "Have you ever wondered when FM 106.1is going to play your favorite song? Are you convinced we play your song right after you turn off the radio?

"We’re going to make it so you never have to wonder again. Introducing FM 106.1’s E-Quest Alerts. Just click here, select your favorite songs and we’ll let you know by email or text message exactly when they will play.

"FM 106.1 is participating in a test of this brand new system. You will be one of the first people in the entire country to try it. We believe this will be a lot of fun and want your opinion. Watch for feedback links in your alerts and let us know what you think."

What Karen Dellesandro, Scott Dolphin and Radar are referring to is called "E-quest alerts."

More info from: Hal Fish - hjfish@radiotraks.com 866-614-1499 or Bill Hard - bill@billhard.com 609-654-7272.

Who Is Surrounding YOUR Listeners?

Hats off to R&R Marketing/Management/Sales Editor Roger Nadel (rnadel@radioandrecords.com) for a thought-provoking column in the 3/18/05 edition called "Insights from Radio's Biggest Customer."

It's a synopsis of Home Depot VP/Merchandising and Marketing John Costello's keynote speech at February's RAB Managing Sales Conference. Costello says that Home Depot has developed a simple strategy for its media partnerships:

1. Segment. Build strong relationships with your (and their!) most-valued customers.
2. Stand out. Differentiate your brand from others.
3. Surround the customers. Determine how to connect with customers.
4. Do more with less. Make productivity a way of life. It's all about Return On Investment.
5. Choose the best (marketing/promotional/merchandising) partners. Great partnerships equal great results.

Sounds like a system we should be using with ours too!