Did you miss the Ross On Radio dedicated to Michael Jackson? Also in this issue were readers responses to the most unlistenable PSAs heard on web-only stopsets of your favorite station streams.
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Have you gotten your Ross On Radio newsletter yet? If you didn’t get last Thursday’s (June 25), here’s what you missed:
A look at the worst PSAs on the streaming radio
A profile of Citadel’s Modern AC WDVD Detroit
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"Just call it radio."
So, I was told, said Pandora's Tim Westergren recently while in the midst of a conference call discussing strategies for Internet radio or online radio or streaming radio or IP radio or whatever it is that comes to your devices via the internet and sounds pretty doing it.
Radio, Internet radio, it's all the same thing, argued Tim. And he's not wrong, but he's also not quite right.
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In case you haven't yet signed up for the new Ross On Radio newsletter, here's what you missed on Tuesday, June 23, Issue #3, a special all-New York issue:
• How Rhythmic AC WKTU is edging closer to Top 40;
• Why 92.3 Now FM hasn’t kicked in as quickly as L.A.’s Amp Radio;
• Why New York still needs a Country station.
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As you may or may not know, there has been a controversy regarding this year's Mercury Awards. Tom Taylor of "Taylor on Radio" asked a thought provoking question of his readers. He asked, "Should the Radio Mercurys be about ROI, and not just creativity?" I sent the following reply to his request:
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Supporters like to point out that PPM is better because it uses a passive method of measurement. Using the word passive conveys the impression that participants are somehow uninvolved in the process, but participants are far from passive when it comes to PPM.
First, a participant has to remember to carry their meter. Leave the meter at home and there is no measurement, and the participant earns no credits. Do that too many times and the participant could be de-installed (fired).
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If you just signed up, or if you’re getting this newsletter forwarded to you, here’s what was in last Thursday’s Ross On Radio, Issue #2:
• A “Final Listen” to R&B legend WAMO-FM Pittsburgh;
• A sign of the times: offering a finder’s fee to find a job;
• How Pitbull released four singles on four labels and was propelled to the top 10 by an indie dance label that doesn’t even have him signed as an artist. And what that says about today’s singles-driven market.
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The debut issue of our new twice-weekly newsletter, Ross On Radio went out Tuesday, June 16. If you didn’t see it, here’s what you missed:
• First listen to Hit Nation, the national CHR format on Clear Channel’s iHeart Radio that just happens to parallel the “Premium Choice” national CHR content on some of its stations;
• A look at the “New Oldies” weekend on KRTH (K-Earth 101) Los Angeles and the ongoing incursion of the ‘80s at Oldies/Greatest Hits formats;
• A Hip-Hop radio ratings success story from Austin, Texas, that bucks the national trend;
• Why Blink-182 is like Journey, but 3Oh!3 is like the Human League.
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Radio's institutions are all reacting differently to the triple-whammy of Time, Technology and Tight money. The responses that these institutions choose will obviously weigh heavily on the reactions that come from Radio. One institution that I wrote about a few weeks ago, NAB, has chosen to seek new leadership. In the meantime another, Radio and Records, decided to go ahead and jump off the Tallahatchie Bridge. Here's another, very different, example:
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Guest writer Megan Portorreal is back this month, with another music review from the perspective of a listener. This month, she introduces us to "The Script."
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The weekly radio column "Ross on Radio" is now a twice-weekly delivered newsletter, which you can subscribe to, free. Sean Ross, VP of Music and Programming for Edison Research adds double duties as the new Executive Editor of Music and Programming for Radio-Info.com, bringing his unique insight and analysis of the radio programming and music industry worlds.
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Well, there's no radio in the new iPhone.
And some folks argue that's because listeners don't want one there.
Interestingly, pretty much all the research indicates this is wrong. People DO want radios in their iPhones and iPods.
So why doesn't Apple drop an FM chip in? And why do phones or mp3 players which do contain radios generally sell no better because of them?
One answer is that FM attachments exist in the marketplace already. It's a problem with an available solution, in other words.
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In September 1994, Lowry Mays, Chairman/CEO of Clear Channel, had just completed a market visit to New Orleans. It was his tradition to gather staff together and journey around the corner to Nick’s Bar. There, he would spend time with everyone from the janitor to the jocks on the air. As I stood outside the bar, Lowry approached me in his very deliberate manner.
“Sherman, what would you think if Clear Channel would expand not only its ownership stake in Urban Radio, but at the same time, utilize the resources of the company to develop African American ownership?”
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You're up to your elbows in Radio & Records tributes already, and though I don't usually like to be the fifth or the fiftieth person to write about something, I still had to weigh in. R&R was too personal to me to do otherwise.
Reading R&R was my education in the business. On Friday afternoons, I took the subway to its Washington, D.C., bureau, whose staffers then included Joel Denver, to scrounge a free copy of that week's issue. Just as Variety was the only way to get the film grosses in those years, R&R was the only easy way to see playlists -- back when just knowing what a playlist was set you apart from all those other ... civilians.
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It should come as no surprise to anyone today that we live in crazy economic times! Who knows what will happen next? The day GM files for bankruptcy, the Dow goes up over 221 points! As of this writing, it is still over 8,500, but you can’t help but cringe wondering what will cause it to drastically dive again. It’s great to read from Dan Mason and others that radio inventories are beginning to tighten up. Maybe we’ve seen the bottom of radio’s recession, but then again, who knows? Who thought that after 36 years, R&R would close up shop?
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Just because satellite radio's business model is having a hard time finding profitability doesn't mean that paid terrestrial radio content can't be viable.
This space is all about ideas and one that I'd like you to consider is the possibility of offering radio content -- or streaming/podcasting content -- for a price.
There is precedent for this micro payment approach.
It is called Apple apps.
And there is a company called Peepcode that sells $9 screen casts and even more expensive subscriptions to people who want to learn website development.
You can also get a paid subscription to the site that earns discounts but the important note is that there is a change taking place -- a change that the radio and record industry is not tracking.
That change: paid content.
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It is time for the Radio industry to prepare to leave the NAB. Scary, I realize, but it is absolutely time to get ready. That's not to say that we should pull out immediately. It is, however, time to recognize that this, the most important of our organizations, is failing us just when we need them the most. Without a clear change in the direction and leadership at the very top, we must be fully prepared to go it alone, with a new national organization dedicated exclusively to the needs of Radio.
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For an industry that has trumpeted the amount of cash it throws off; what happens when that cash flow evaporates? We are witnessing what happens--it's happening in the radio business right now. Forget about debt service...forget about stockholders...forget about EBITDA...simply look at the most basic of measures--a station's/cluster's the top line revenue minus the expense line and what we are beginning to see is red ink. As I talk with people around the country and hear stories of business, in some cases, declining 30 or 40 percent over last years weak performance something has to give.
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It could, conceivably, have been a hard year to come up with an uptempo, feel good summer hit. Dire economic times could have turned America's gaze inward and songs like John Rich's "Shuttin' Detroit Down" and Hank Williams, Jr.'s even starker "Red, White and Pink Slip Blues" could have spawned imitators beyond Country.
Instead, as you look at the available music going into Memorial Day weekend, one either senses a soundtrack for very cautious optimism or, if you're not willing to go that far, a need for distraction. There's no shortage of tempo and energy - always a prerequisite in this column for "The Summer Song." (The other rules, for those who haven't seen previous columns in this series, are that a song's radio run has to cover the bulk of the season, and that it can't be a song that peaked in spring and carried over.)
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Big Name. Big Reputation. Big Boy. He’s the host of his own syndicated morning show, based out of Emmis’ KPWR “Power 106” in Los Angeles, and heard on the company’s WQHT “Hot 97” New York, as well as dozens of other stations across the country. While speaking to Big Boy for this interview, I realized he is simply one of those natural personalities: a person who you feel comfortable talking to and listening to. He’s not a hater (thank you!!) and he’s not a clown (double thank you!!). He’s created a show in which he’s surrounded himself with talented communicators, and they all have a conversation with a little fun and games added in each morning.
While there are arguments for and against syndicated programming, Big Boy isn’t going to get into the debate. He’s just “working on creating a good product, for anyone wants and needs it.” Like many in radio, his career started as an intern, who eventually got on air, and then got his shot at his own show. His warm personality and natural affinity for entertaining took over, and his radio career on air took off.
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There was that moment during the 2004-05 peak of Bob- and Jack-FM-mania in the U.S. when some well-respected industry voices felt the Hot AC/Classic Hits hybrid would change the face of radio forever. Others were quick to dismiss it as a fad format -- secure in the knowledge that if they said it long enough the heat would eventually dissipate. But those with a long view of format booms-and-busts could likely predict what would really happen:
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This weekend I was sitting around thinking about what is happening with our economy and our country. I was trying to get inside of a crystal ball and look out to see what was happening. It was harder than it seems. But here is what I have come away with:
1) There are business PEOPLE that are doing okay. Note I did not say businesses.
2) There are things people are still shopping for
3) People are going out to dinner and movies
4) People are complacent about the price of energy
5) Duty Free Shops are tanking
6) TV as a medium is under attack
7) Newspaper.... well it is soon to be no more
8) And this is the biggie..... the radio Industry, even in these times of massive unemployment and under employment cannot attract good people.
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There's iPod, iPhone, social networking, YouTube, Hulu, texting, smart phones, filesharing.
Now -- there is something on the horizon that may be coming along within months -- certainly within the year -- that will pose a new threat to traditional media -- radio, television and the music industry.
It's a product that Apple is said to be working on right now.
Of course, Apple is tight lipped about anything in its pipeline, but the huge Apple underground says this product is most certainly on the way.
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On April 1st, hundreds of industry professionals attended a free webinar hosted by Coleman Insights. A video was created that contains the full presentation offered during that webinar, as well as the audio of a Q&A session held between the webinar attendees and the Coleman Insights executive management team.
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One of the most overused and misunderstood business terms these days is "partnership". It seems like anyone who wants our station to do a promotion calls it a partnership, and we lose sleep when our “partner's” price demand means giving the store away. What's a radio sales professional to do?
Let's go back and take a look at the actual definition of a partnership:
part*ner*ship 1: the state of being a partner 2: a legal relation existing between two or more persons contractually associated as joint principals in a business 3: a relationship resembling a legal partnership and usually involving close cooperation between parties having specified and joint rights and responsibilities (Webster)
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