Previously on The Front Page...Apr/May/Jun 2008
Monday 06-30-08: Last Friday Kevin McCarthy showed me his ...
Kevin whipped out a 1-gig credit-card-sized flash-memory card with a built-in USB extension. Very cool! Even thinner 2gig and 4gig flash cards are available from Walletex, the Israeli company that created them; if you don't buy directly from them, you're racist.
I just bought me a 4gig card from them, with shipping, about a C-note.
As you might imagine, I support Israeli industry. So should you.
UPDATE: Turns out the company is just a few miles away from the city in which my Brother lives and it'll be at my home Wednesday via FedEx! Photos coming.
They wind up in a city 80 miles East of San Francisco, at a radio station that still thinks AM stereo is a happening thang. Maybe some of those cars on the lot at Western Motors have a Kahn or Motorola compatible receiver...
I couldn't get their audio stream to work (what the heck is a *.PLS file?); I don't believe that the station is still on the air (can't find any reference anywhere to AM 630 in the vicinity). Thanks to Dan Joachimsthaler of Collinsville for the link. What a hoot!
Cool website, though, huh?
UPDATE: I've dealt with streaming audio for years, and I guess I've just missed this file type. I'm told it works with WMP and WinAmp; thanks to all who responded about this. I'll try them eventually.
Sunday 06-29-08: Secret Squirrel's bookie says it's a lock ...
John "Coach" Kijowski's recent trip to BIC HQ brought home the corporate green light to convert their 101.1 FM super-signal to Sports Talk 101TM before the end of the year, perhaps as soon as August.
My furry little friend tells me "This whole story is longer a rumor. Got some nuts?" No, but Coach K.TM does for undertaking this project.
Observations and wonderings:
Squirrel says that the Salt Lake City discussion covered the gamut: promotions, strategies, sales and programming budgets, air talent and shows, both locally originated and syndicated.
I hear that Coach K.TM is talking to some of the biggest names in STL radio, sports-types and some you might not associate with the format. I can think of three or four who might consider this an opportunity and any combination of them would be interesting listening.
Watch for the first of those "90-day outs" on certain syndicated programming now airing elsewhere to be exercised soon; expect syndicators to be very quiet about details.
I'm hearing that construction on appropriate studio and office facilities will begin soon at the Palace near Ballas. I wonder if Coach K.TM will be using union electricians again, as they did during the original build, and then had to have their own guys go back through and fix the mistakes the union guys made?
The biggest feature of any sports station is, of course, major league play-by-play and, for Coach K.TM, that's all still up in the air.
The Blues are comfy with KMOX and unlikely to uproot themselves anytime soon.
The Cardinals own half of KTRS but I don't believe that that would keep them from moving the games to a vastly superior signal if the opportunity arose. They could dump their 50% share of the station in a heartbeat -- and at a profit -- anytime they wanted. Or they could donate it to Reverend Larry Rice. Come to think about it, the idea of Tiny Tim DorseyTM co-managing KTRS with Larry Rice pleases me somehow...
The Rams and KLOU have always seemed to me to be a mismatch. I don't know when their deal with CC/STL is done, but I'd bet that NFL PxP will be the first to appear on 101.1 FM. And why would they need a local AM affiliate? It's not like listeners need to hunt to find an FM radio. More bad news for KTRS.
But NFL and NHL games are money losers on the radio, adding only a tiny little bit of sports spiff and you can't eat spiff. MLB PxP is the key. If BIC is serious with this, they HAVE to have the Redbirds and sooner rather than later.
Once Coach K.TM pulls the trigger on Big Sports 101TM, what happens to these guys:
KFNS/AM590, KFNS-FM/FM100.7 and KRFT/AM1190, owned by Big League Broadcasting, and KSLG/AM1380 and WFFX/AM1490, owned by Simmons?
If they have any sense, they'll modestly bow out of the sports format and go away. No one West of the I-170 loop can hear them at home anyway.
Simmons has a long history with BIC and it wouldn't surprise me if they don't already have some agreement to transfer local employees to the new St. Louis Sports Super StationTM.
BLB has always been thought of as an interloper in this market, and they're likely to get out any way they can. Face saving is not an option; financial survival is.
This is also going to have implications for any radio station trying to hit males: KSHE, K-HITS, The Point, 97.1, KMOX, KTRS and so on.
Final question: Is Coach K.TM up to the job? He runs the entire BIC cluster and a sports and/or talk station needs a lot of attention. Who's gonna be directly in charge of the St. Louis Sports Super StationTM?
Wait -- one more thing: Hello from The Conclave in Minneapolis. Not many
people here, but a certain STL PD is making quite the spectacle of herself
by telling everyone she sees that she's looking for a new gig because
one of her stations is going to stop playing music this summer. She's
got a pile of envelopes, probably resumes, and is handing them out like
free samples at Costco. Not a good look.
Wasn't "herself" honored in the recent past by her company as one of their brightest, shiniest stars? And now she's bailing? So much for loyalty. And judgement.
Jules, baby, the key to getting a gig at a convention is subtle marketing...and we've got eyes and ears everywhere!
Note: this story is ©Mike Anderson and ©STLMedia.net. Use of copyrighted and trademarked material herein in other media is welcome, but credit must be given to the copyright and trademark holders and full expression of STLMedia's web address is required in all cases. My intellectual property lawyer is bigger than your intellectual property lawyer. Meaner, too. He drinks Jack-and-human blood cocktails. At breakfast. Mean, mean, mean. Don't make me pull this car over and call him.
Comment here.
 | Saturday 06-28-08: Ozzie loves him some Tasha ...
The Black Lab across the back yard fence thinks our Red Heeler, Tasha, is the best GirlDog he's ever seen.
Ozzie sits and watches as Tasha runs the yard; Ozzie tosses his tennis balls over the fence hoping to impress her.
Tasha does the fence thing with Ozzie but otherwise ignores him.
Ozzie's got a blue collared-buddy who entrances Tasha a bit more, and that keeps the three of them active when they're all out.
It's a canine soap opera and I love watching it. |
 | Saturday 06-28-08: STLRadio vets marry ...
Former CC/STL PD Rob Walker and former KSD-FM SM Della Pizzati did the wedding thing in Vegas on the 15th after a "brief" (eight years!) engagement.
They're currently living in Seattle, where Rob, no longer in radio, is a paramedic and studying to become an EMS educator; Della is DOS for the Entercom group there.
Rob, as always, has a lot going on and you can follow his adventures at his blog.
Best wishes to Rob and Della...they're good people and deserve the best. |
Saturday 06-28-08: Email address alert ...
My mike @ pickeringonline email address is no longer functional, due to an ISP change for that website.
Please use only mike@stlmedia.net to contact me.
Make that change in your address book as soon as possible.
Thanks!
Friday 06-27-08: Thanks to all who came ... to our June STLMedia Meeting, veterans and newbies alike.
Fun facts discovered:
-- Jim Shannon is now doing middays at KZQZ/AM1430. Shannon preceded me at WIL and then worked with me at KIX104. He's a good guy and I wish him luck in his new gig.
-- Former CBS guy Sam Prainito's event DJ work is going nicely, thanks, and he's available on demand thru TKO DJs; ask for Sam by name. And with any luck, we'll have some video of his game show work soon to present to you here.
-- Kevin & Sue McCarthy reminded me that the 8th anniversary of their Travel Planners Show occurs this month, along with STLMedia's! Their show is also featured weekly on the KMOX internet channel, KMOX2.
-- Speaking of Kevin McCarthy, his recent surgery to fix an arthritic hip was a huge success; to show how succesful it was, Kevin danced a bit of a jig and that, dear readers, was a sight to see!
-- Chad Briesacher, ND and AT at Lindenwood College's KCLC stopped by to talk about employment in the radio biz in the 21st Century; thanks to Mike Wall for suggesting he make the trip to Reynolds. I've never heard his work, but Chad's presentation and enthusiasm impressed everyone at our tables.
-- Frank Absher asked me to mention that the ballots for the STLRadio Hall of Fame Class of 2008-2009 will be arriving soon; if you're a voter, please watch your snailmail and return the completed ballots soonest.
-- Jonnie King brought along a CD of his 40th anniversary show on the now-defunct Bill Clevlen channels; listen to it here. And listen to a demo of Jonnie on WDRQ/Detroit and K-Hits96/STL. Jonnie's lifelong fascination with custom cars and hot rods has been tuned into an impressive website. Take a look and be dazzled.
-- Jack Klobnak's as bad a gadget freak as me...and thanks to Jack for his generosity to STLMedia.
There was more intel, of course, but there's that classified thing...
Wednesday 06-25-08: We've had for several years ... an ATT multiphone cordless system throughout the house and office. The screens started to fade and the proprietary batteries no longer hold a useful charge.
Battery replacement for the ATT system, and for another system a friend passed along to us, was cost prohibitive, and it was time to look for another way to go.
I found a 1.9gHz Panasonic 4-phone (expandable to 6) DECT 6.0 system for just over $100 that uses rechargeable NiMh AAA batteries; problem was, every time I used the base phone (positioned near my wireless router) it knocked out my DSL.
A couple hours of research later I found the answer on an Australian blog: "Move the base away from the router, you wanker."
Worked like a champ. Probably coulda figured it out on my own, but the Ozzies drink way more beer than me. Still a little hash on the audio, but I'll eventually get that taken care of, too. It's always RF that's the issue, huh?
Monday 06-23-08: Sunday morning, Secret Squirrel headed East on Olive ... while Mrs. A and I went West to brunch at First Watch.
Squirrel came home complaining about the humidity and with this tidbit:
This may be
the make-it-or-break-it week for John Kijowski's plan to move Movin'
to all sports. The Bonneville GM currently is packing for a trip to
BIC headquarters this week in Salt Lake City. When he gets
back, things may get even more active than they've already been
around the Palace near Ballas.
Comment here.
Monday 06-23-08: Wonderful W-I-N-O signs off ...
Comic, social critic and author George Carlin died Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles. He was 71. Carlin's passing is believed to be associated with his long history of heart problems.
Carlin was one of the pioneers of comedy on cable and is perhaps best remembered for his "Seven Words You Can't Say On TV".
Jay Philpott sends along links to Carlin's Wikipedia page and a YouTube search for his best work.
Comment here.
Sunday 06-22-08: Greatest hits, for cheap ... See that ad on the upper right on the Front Page? Click on the AmazonMP3 logo and look for your favorites. Download 'em for a buck or less a track.
I just dl'd all of the Spinners 70's hits and burned 'em to one of those old fashioned CD's for living room and iPod playback and posterity. And all of that because I caught the opening guitar licks of the 1970 hit It's A Shame on the supermarket PA.
I played this tune when it was a hit on a 45rpm record at KLEN/AM 1050 in Killeen TX when I was a baby DJ.
I figure the memory added $10 to my grocery bill and it's worth it if I can smile when I shop and spend more money that I should. Beef and chicken costs HOW MUCH?
Sunday 06-22-08: Buh-bye to Kara ... a Secret Squirrel report:
Surprised there was no mention of the going-away party
last weekend for Kara Kaswell. Her last day at KMOV was Wednesday,
6/18. Kara spent 14 years at Channel 4 after a short stint at KPLR. She
broke many, many stories on the police beat over the years and had one of
the best source lists in the city.
The going-away party was at Llewellyn's in Webster Groves. Attendees
included a number of KMOV'ers from in front of and behind the camera,
personal friends from outside the business: KTVI assignment editor Paddy
McPhillips (who used to work with Kara in the 90s at KMOV), JC Corcoran
(who worked with Kara when he was a contributor to KMOV), and former
KSDK and KMOV consumer-investigative reporter Jody Davis.
Sunday 06-22-08: Newspaper layoffs continue ... MediaOne of Utah, the company that prints and distributes the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune and sells advertising for the two papers began laying off employees Friday, according to MediaOne President Brent Low.
Comment here.
Saturday 06-21-08: KMOXAM2 ... which is supposed, I guess, to be an on-line parallel of the station's on-air programming, is not being delivered well.
And it won't be until AM2's schedule fills up and synchs up with the broadcast AM.
If the station offers special programming in place of its regular programming and I choose to listen to it online, it should be available not only then, but whenever I want to hear it.
If it's special enough to program away from the regular programming, it's special enough to make available when I want to hear it.
There's that whole podcast thing (just a downloadable 96k MP3 file).
I'm happy that programming provided by friends of mine is available there, at specific times; I'd much rather that links to their audio and text files be made available by RSS or just as an MP3 download so I can hear them when I want to.
I'm not an appointment listening kinda guy.
Comment here.
Saturday 06-21-08: Satellite radio is a dead man walking ...
I didn't say that.
The Washington Post did.
Read it.
Comment here.
Saturday 06-21-08: This week in the missionary position ...
Big news this past week in STLMedia was the finalization of the power upgrade of Bonneville's 101.1FM signal from 50kw to 100kw which, according to the press release, expands the reach of of the station over the St. Louis metro and into Washington, De Soto, St. Genevieve and Wentzville, MO, and into Troy, Warrenton, Farmington, Sullivan, and Carlyle, in Illinois.
Currently the station is formatted as a Rhythmic AC; in a few months, who knows? Rumors abound, with a strong leaning to sports. We'll see.
But what's most interesting is that the best known iterations of the frequency have been owned by missionary-intensive churches.
When it was WMRY-FM, the station was owned by The Oblate Fathers of the Catholic Church, which to this day sponsor Catholic missionary efforts in more than seventy countries.
Over the years, their station was a St. Louis favorite, playing progressive rock from Mark Klose and real jazz from Leo Chears, the legendary "Man in the Red Vest," along with inspirational messages.
Eventually the station bounced to the ownership of Bonneville International, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormons.
Of course, The LDS is well known for their worldwide missionary work, as well.
Just thought it was worth noting.
More 101.1 history here, from Frank Absher's STLRadio.com.
Comment here.
Friday 06-20-08: Back then, it was all about the hair ...
Here's Fox2's Sandy Miller's turn in a swimsuit at the Miss America contest in 1984; Sandy appears about 6:00 in. Miss Missouri, indeed!
Thanks to Ron Ward of Valley Park MO for the link.
Friday 06-20-08: This showed up in my email yesterday ... a day I took off. It regards the likely joint operation of KPLR/ll and KTVI/2, which will soon be "related by marriage."
Some of it mirrors info we've received here, some of it's new.
I think that it's pretty unlikely that Zell would shut KPLR down, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see ABC shift from KDNL to either KPLR or KTVI, both of which are better signals, with Fox on the other.
I should note that this did not come in anonymously through the Secret Squirrel form; I present, you decide...
I am sure that you are aware that one of Sam Zell's partners purchased Ch 2 recently. That transaction is supposed to be approved in July. One that happens, Zell plans to run both stations as 1 operation, or until as recent as yesterday, I have now been told that KPLR may in fact be in danger of being shut down. Zell is not a fan of the CW and had told their employees back in March that he was going to angle to try and take ABC from Sinclair. Yes Zell and Randy Michales did make a trip to STL to meet with their employees.
Now it appears that in fact that the stations employees will be consolidated, reduced - meaning massive layoffs, or outright firings is the way Zell does business, and that it is very likely that they could shut down KPLR all-together. To further demonstrate this, department heads at KPLR have been told that they are on a budget freeze in terms of spending for basic supplies such as post it notes and pens. "Use them until the ink runs out" is what they have been told. They are going to allow certain hiring only if it is necessary to run news.
I don't really think that they will shut down KPLR all-together, I can't imagine that, but it is clear that a massive consolidation is about to take place and many people in the industry, both at KTVI and KPLR could lose their jobs. If they keep both stations but consolidate, the original plan was to terminate people from both stations until they got to the right fit. But if they shut down KPLR, I would guess they will just terminate the people from KPLR, except maybe in the news division, if they go over to KTVI.
How much of this you are aware of, I don't know. I'm not sure what knowledge or sources you have. I am not a member of your message board, so maybe this has all been or being discussed, but I thought that it was something that would be of interest to the broader community, and not come as a shock when it goes down.
Comment here.
Friday 06-20-08: One OldDog out, one OldDog in ...
After years with Emmis, KIHT/KFTK ND John Cooper is leaving The Powerhouse. Today was his last day; John's wife is moving to Nashville to continue her medical career and he's following her (unusual in the radio biz).
According to an Emmis insider, "John has been a great asset to us on the programming side of things. In fact, over the last couple of years his role on the Dave Glover Show has grown so much that John has even hosted the show a couple times. He is truly one of the few 'utility men' left in the business. John we hate to see you go, but put on your hat and boots and saddle up for a great career in Nashville radio."
Cooper's replacement is none other than Rick Sanborn, who has grazed the meadows of STLRadio since 1986 except for a brief break in, ironically, Nashville, and has been with Emmis/STL since 2005.
According to PD Jeff Allen, Sanborn's initial duties will include only KFTK/FM97.1.
Rick's son Max is also employed by KFTK, where he produces the Jamie Allman Morning Show and does an excellent weekend entertainment show called Max on Movies.
Comment here.
Friday 06-20-08: XM & Sirius shares plummet, but there's an upside ...
InsideRadio reports shares of both satellite radio companies dived more than 10% today after an analyst advised clients to sell on fears "core demand for satellite radio appears to be falling amongst the younger demographic" - which Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienkes says are lured more to MP3 players. There's also concern subscription radio will be a tough sell in a recession.
But inside every cloud is a silver lining...Italian sports car manufacturer Automobili Lamborghini will include Sirius as standard factory-installed equipment on its Murcielago beginning later this year with the 2009 model. Included with the $345,000 price of the car is a
lifetime subscription.
I was actually thinking of trading the Lincoln in for something a little more fuel efficient...
Comment here.
Thursday 06-19-08: Taking some time off ... I'll be out of touch today and most of Friday.
Wednesday 06-18-08: Yeah, this was bound to work ...
From InsideRadio:
The Future of Music Coalition has been studying airplay data and concludes four broadcasters aren't living up their end of an April 2007 deal with the FCC settling a payola investigation. FMC says it wants the FCC to investigate whether CBS Radio, Citadel, Clear Channel and Entercom fulfilled a pledge to air 4,200 hours of independent and unsigned artists.
Yup, all four of those named outfits are likely to want to play unproven, unresearched music. FMC really expected them to carry thru on this deal?
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-18-08: Running out of ideas for reality shows, please help ...
From Variety:
The man who brought the world "Big Brother" and "Fear Factor" is asking TV fans to come up with the next big reality hit.
Endemol co-founder John de Mol's Talpa Media Group has launched a website, TalpaCreative.com, that reality fans can visit to pitch ideas.
The site launches this week. Users will register as members and then receive an opportunity to submit ideas as well as respond to assignments posted by de Mol and Talpa execs.
"Everyone has an opinion about TV," de Mol said. "But for people not a part of our business, it's extremely difficult to get a meeting with a network. This is a platform where people with good ideas can come."
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-18-08: The AP has lost its mind ...
The news gathering agency is now charging non-subscribers as much as US$2.50 a word to excerpt their articles.
AP's all in a hissy because they just do not like that Copyright Act Fair Use provision.
The AP's biggest problems seem to be with bloggers and websites like this one that occasionally quote parts of an article and then either comment on it or ask for comments, while using a weblink back to the whole story.
Ironically, the AP regularly excerpts articles from blogs and websites without either crediting such material or offering a link back to the original source.
Like, say, STLToday.com.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-17-08: What, no Mexican or Arabic SatRad channels?
Guess they didn't piss and moan loudly enough.
From the Washington Post:
Senior members of the Congressional Black Caucus yesterday criticized a compromise plan for the proposed merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio companies, saying the deal does not provide enough opportunities for minority-owned programming.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said over the weekend that he would support the merger after XM and Sirius voluntarily agreed, among a series of other concessions, to lease 4 percent of their radio spectrums, or 12 channels, for programming run by minorities and women.
Members of the black caucus on Capitol Hill have been arguing for the merged company to lease 20% of spectrum to companies owned by racial minorities.
This is greenmail -- give us money or a piece of the action and we'll shut up and leave your deal alone.
I hate that XM & Sirius might merge, but only because it's a violation of the original law that set them up.
Mel Karmazin is so eager to get this merger done that he'll agree to the CBC's ridiculous demands. Mel will do anything to turn a profit, even pay off these extortionists.
Check back in a year or so to see how well Karmazin's served his 20% masters and count the number of commercials SatRad runs every hour on every channel.
There is no way that SatRad will succeed with a fifth (or more) of their programming, newly and specifically developed for women, blacks and immigrant minorities who'll assert their claim to SatRad bandwidth as soon as they can find lawyers happy to represent them.
God bless the ACLU.
Thank them for the loss of your special SatRad listening and all those damned spots.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-17-08: Secret Squirrel picked this up downtown ...
Belo has told KMOV mgt that they want to get rid of all news part timers.
Well, now. That's pretty damned unfriendly. Guess Belo full timers ought to get ready for some extra long work weeks...
And Belo hasn't even sold their stations to Sam Zell.
Yet.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-17-08: Cold snap in Hell... women and minorities most affected!
Unbelievably, STLToday.com has published a story about a website, written by the worstest media writer ever, Diane Toroian Keaggy.
And actually, the story's pretty well written, except that online there are no live links. Wuzzup wif dat, online editors, hey?
The story's all about Bill Streeter's Lo-Fi STL site, which is very cool and is actually the Web2 version of the work begun by Pete Parisi all those years ago.
The language in the videos on the site is occasionally NSFW, but Streeter's video work is amazing.
Photo above by John L. White/P-D.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-17-08: DelColliano channels Clear Channel 3.0...
And it ain't a pretty picture. Below's a taste; read all of what what Jerry says here.
-- More pink slips are coming as these non-radio owners will do what they do best – look for economies of scale.
-- That means more stations carrying Ryan Seacrest doing his national show mornings or midday's on a local medium. Believe me, these bean counters are not going to get caught up in the local radio argument. They need cost concessions. So, what's wrong with an LA morning show in many other markets. Or so they think.
-- Voice tracking and program duplication will increase.
-- Cheap talent will be employed.
-- Multitasking will continue or grow – one PD to run many stations. One GM to – well, you know – they’re doing this now. And these PDs are likely to have their private parts cut off meaning they won't be able to stand up and do what they know has to be done.
-- Increased use of syndication.
-- Pruning expensive air talent.
If I was a St. Louis CC guy, I'd be looking into changing my name to Gomez and learning yardwork.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-17-08: A while back I purchased ... an anti-bark collar for Tasha, that delivers a tiny little shock from a 3v battery. It's a PetSafe product and I picked it up for less than a hundred bucks (including spare batteries bought online) at one of the big-box pet stores.
It took almost no time for GirlDog to understand that when she wore it and barked, she'd get a mildly unpleasant jolt on her throat, similar to what you get by putting your tongue against both terminals of a 9v battery.
Tasha learns quickly and now just putting the collar on, without activating it, is sufficient deterrence most of the time (until she manages to push it around, away from her thorax, and resumes her ACD-itude).
I highly recommend the product.
Tuesday 06-17-08: Women owning radio stations ... get outa here!
Sheesh. Next thing you know they'll want to vote, wear pants and make men have babies.
Chicks. Can't live with 'em, pass the beer nuts, etc.
InsideRadio says the FCC is pushing back the deadlines for filing comments in its proceeding looking at ways to increase the number of new owners in media, particularly among women and minorities. The deadline for comments is now June 30 with reply comments due July 14. A coalition of broadcasters and public interest groups had requested the extension.
Just in time for the bankers who will soon take control of the Clear Channel empire to start spinning the stations off to gubmint preferred buyers.
Comment here.
Monday 06-16-08: Finally caught the culprit in the act ...
What with the neighborhood raccoon issue, I put the trash out on Monday just after sunrise.
This morning, I caught the P-D delivery guy driving by, flagged him down and told him in no uncertain terms to stop littering my driveway with free copies of the paper.
"Oh, no," he said, "It's not me who leaves 'em, it's the Journal guy."
Bullroar. I get three or four free copies of the STLP-D a week, including Sunday's edition, and all of the useless Journals.
Don't read any of 'em, just toss 'em in the trash can.
Hey, Lee Publishing, quit it! There's nothing in the dead-tree I want that I can't get online!
You're using the throwaways to enhance your circulation figures and make your worthless rags more valuable to advertisers with baloney ratings and I don't want to be part of your fraud.
I don't want the P-D or the Journal on my driveway and, no, I don't want to have to call your circulation monkeys to have it stopped.
You should be calling me to ask if I want your junk. And I don't.
Comment here.
Monday 06-16-08: FCC Chief supports SatRad merger ...
The Washington Post is reporting that FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin said yesterday that he will support a merger between the nation's sole satellite radio operators, XM and Sirius, a decision that could remove the last regulatory hurdle in the lengthy and heavily criticized move to make the companies one.
Note that this will require the approval of two of the other four Commissioners before approval of the merger.
Comment here.
Monday 06-16-08: Best Fathers' Day gift for a geek like me ...
Mrs. A popped for a UPS for the Main System and she and Jason installed it while I vegged out on reruns of The Deadliest Catch.
Now all the data is protected not only by the RAID multiple-drive system, but also by an incredibly powerful surge-protection system that also offers a half-hour of backup-battery-power to shut down the system safely in the event of a catastrophic power failure. Damned thing weighs a ton.
Not like anything I have here is worth saving...
Well, maybe billing records and the latest Tasha videos.
Monday 06-16-08: Bad news, good news ...
The bad news is that I asked too much of my Flip Ultras when recording the UMSL Media Halls of Fame ceremony. The Flip lenses just were not up to the zooms requested (although I'd recommend these little cameras for almost any other purpose; I should have set mine closer and all would have been good). The good news is that a DVD of the entire program is on the way and that video will be available here soonest. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Monday 06-16-08: We could certainly do worse ...
And we probably will this November.
WorldNetDaily reports Popular late-night radio host George Noory says that with many issues of concern to him and his vast audience not being addressed, he's once again pondering a run for the White House in 2012. "With the millions of listeners to Coast to Coast AM, I get constant feedback from people who are not happy with the current candidates," Noory told WND.
Noory 2012: the legend continues.
Comment here.
Monday 06-16-08: Channeling my inner Beavis & Butthead ...
When the LA Times headlines a story about the departure of Jeff Weiner, the executive vice president of Yahoo's network division, with Weiner Out At Yahoo, that's funny!
Sunday 06-15-08: John Harold Anderson ... Legendary typographer and fine printer, WW2 cryptographer with USAAF service in the CBI Campaign, who "flew the Hump" over the Himalayas in a non-pressurized C-47 and who was also my Father, in front of his first print shop which was, I believe, directly below our home on Walnut Street in Philadelphia.
UPDATE from my Brother, Rick: As I recall the picture you published was of the shop at 54th and Spruce Street. It was the first shop in Philly, and the first called Pickering, but Pop had a shop in Atlantic City and in New York as well, I think. His first shop was called the Bantam Press.
Saturday 06-14-08: Apologies for no new entries here ...
Just worn out from a long week, no really new news, and the recurrence of a sinus infection have kept it quiet yesterday and today.
Thursday 06-12-08: For those of you who hate Tasha ...
Here's a couple minutes of raw video of the STLMedia WatchDog chasing a laser dot on the closest oak in the yard.
Thursday 06-12-08: I've annoyed the hell out of people for more than forty years ...
Usually by just being there, but often by, when, for example, the song Papa Was A Rolling Stone comes on the radio or whatever player is in use.
With that endless intro, I'd wait...and wait...and then, at exactly the right instant turn to them and say "What day was it?"
"It was the third of September..." the Temps would sing and then life would go on, albeit a little less pleasantly for whomever heard me do that for the second time.
That brings me to this:
How many of you OldDogs still habitually talk up songs you hear from the very first note, tossing in your favorite set of calls to instinctively hit the vocal?
How many of you can still bring to your mind's eye the colors of the label and the intro and carted (not the record, because the length of a 45 was always to zero mod and that was useless) lengths and the exact execution point to start the next tune or the backsell into a stop set?
Computers don't know that a song's over when it's usefulness is done and that may occur before the audio chain kicks it out. Makes me crazy when a tune goes on and on, way beyond it should.
I still have this weird involuntary reflex that kicks in when I hear music I played as a hit.
You, too, I bet; for me, the calls are always K-H-J, each letter spoken clearly, distinctly and separately.
The way Mr. Drake would have wanted it done.
Comment here.
Thursday 06-12-08: Formerly local sports pub cuts back ...
According to AdAge, The Sporting News, the nation's first weekly sports magazine, will become a bi-weekly in July and begin a free daily online version; they'll cut the press run from 700k to 600k in September.
The new print magazine will come in a larger, glossier format and will focus more on features than breaking news.
The Sporting News was purchased by American City Business Journals in 2006.
"We didn't buy it 18 months ago to keep it the same," said Ed Baker, the magazine's publisher.
Nope, they didn't. They bought it to make money and you can see that they're morphing it into a web-only pub to defeat the dreaded dead-tree dilemma.
Expect it to go monthly as soon as they can, then quarterly, then...
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-11-08: Everybody sent me this story ...
I wonder what they meant by that?
Used to be, when you were given notice, you would, on your last day, do one of the following:
1. You'd go quietly into the good night (usually the best choice).
2. You'd take the bulk eraser and run it up and down past every spot cart in the rack.
3. You'd leave a note for management telling them that you had recorded an extra and unwanted word (f**k, s**t, etc.) on one of their 700 recorded spots and you wished them good luck finding which cart held it before it aired.
Then Hong Chae, who police say was fired from Korean Media in Atlanta two months ago, walked into the station's building and tried to throw a Molotov cocktail inside, only to severely burn himself.
Ol' Hong raised the bar for vengeance, I'd say.
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-11-08: A teeny little guy from Cleveland ...
...spent four hours on the Senate floor reading all the big legal words that followed this:
Resolved, that President George W. Bush be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors, and that the
following articles of impeachment be exhibited to the United States Senate.
Oh noes! Can I haz peachymum burger?
Please -- before you respond by telling me what an a**hole I am, be sure to read all 65 pages of the impeachment articles so you don't embarass yourself.
'Cause he sure did.
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-11-08: WIL's Cornbread becomes a daddy ...
It's a Happy Fathers' Day story: Congrats to BIC/STL's WIL Morning Guy Cornbread and wife Lisa on the birth of their baby girl, Adeline Lucille on 9 June 2008. Lisa, of course, did all the work.
Wednesday 06-11-08: You gotta be kidding me ... Airplay sells music? Get outa town!
R&R actually published a story from MediaWeek that goes a little something like this:
"There is a direct correlation between the number of 'spins' (plays on free, local radio) and the sales of albums or singles," the report concluded. "It is this promotion -- free advertising -- that drives record sales and represents just one of the many ways local radio provides value to artists and contributes to their financial and commercial success."
A couple things: first, this was demonstrably true years ago when there actually were physical representations (records, tapes, CD's) of music to sell and research; second, nobody buys music anymore and even if they did the current metrics to measure sales are woefully inadequate.
And, of course, there's also the fact that most new music in any given format is crap.
All involved in this study are officially AssHats.
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-11-08: As promised ... Ninety seconds of video digitized from KXOK Production Director Richard Ward Fatherly's 8mm film. It's a little tour around the Radio Park front yard and some mopic of the nattily dressed KXOK softball team. Thanks to Frank Absher for the VHS to DVD transfer.
And speaking of Frank and KXOK, he's written a great piece (with photo) about the station's long-time home. Check it out here.
Tuesday 06-10-08: Halls of Fame 2008 Program ... Saturday's souvenir booklet as a PDF file, all 20 pages of it, so you can play along. Get it here and pity us attendees for the shrimp and beef tenderloin meal we were forced to eat by heavily armed media meal guards. That chocolate thing at dessert? Boo-yeah!
Then we had to listen to all that blah-blah-blah and who really cares about all them old folks anyway...
Tuesday 06-10-08: Flying this Summer? Fly Derrie-Air ... serving US air travelers from humble beginnings in Salamander MO.
Tuesday 06-10-08: Congrats to Emmett McAuliffe ... one of your more prominent Renaissance men, Emmett has been appointed to the Missouri State Council on the Arts.
McAuliffe is also a KMOX talk personality, an Intellectual Property attorney with Spencer Fane Britt & Browne, an AFTRA Board member and has been awarded a Gold Record by the RIAA.
On a personal note I should also mention that he's truly one of the good guys and was instrumental in helping Mrs. A successfully push through a difficult patent application a couple years ago.
Congrats, Emmett!
Tuesday 06-10-08: Apologies to Larry Hoffman ... for misidentifying him in the KXOK group photo below. Hey, it was a long weekend...
Monday 06-09-08: Last Friday I noted the passing of Bill Dial ... an Atlanta radio personality and a Hollywood screenwriter, whose work is remembered from the classic show WKRP and others.
Radio consultant and STLMedia reader Ed Shane was a long-time friend of Dial's and kindly passed this along:
When he retired to the marshes of South Carolina’s Low Country, he began listening to radio again and found a medium nothing like the one he was part of before his success in Hollywood. He found stations that seem not to be connected to their audiences. There was one instance of a sports station that accidentally ran network cues all weekend. We asked him to share his reactions to what he heard with our clients.
Bill Dial writes:
I've been away from the radio business for almost 40 years. But not really.
I was in on the first two seasons of WKRP in Cincinnati. Then I tried to re-start the franchise in 1991 with a syndicated version of the show. Unfortunately I was not as lucky with the casting the second time around, and by the time I thought I'd finally figured it out, MTM was bought by Pat Robertson's company, and they decided our show was a little too raucous for them.
I wrote an episode called "Moss Dies."
There was a mysterious off-screen character in the original show, the midnight to six jock named Moss Steiger. We never saw him, but we learned about him through various episodes by things he left behind in the studio -- a KFC box of chicken with, strangely, only the wings eaten and put carefully back into the box with the rest of the uneaten bird; an oddly scented, half-burnt candle; a book of poetry by Rainer Maria Rilke; etc.
[WKRP creator] Hugh Wilson never brought him on-stage, so I decided, when I returned to the show, to kill him off. Major rule in comedy writing: Nothing is funnier than a dead guy in the refrigerator. What takes the sting out is that no one really knew him.
One of my favorite exchanges was in the first scene. Johnny Fever returning for a guest appearance, had the following exchange (as well as I can remember it) with ace newsman, Les Nessman.
Johnny: I heard Moss died. How did it happen?
Les: Well, he went up onto the roof to have a smoke during one of those long Grateful Dead tracks.
Johnny: Moss loved the Dead.
Les: Yeah, well somehow he fell off the roof.
Johnny: Wow...seventeen floors...
Les: Not exactly. He landed on top of the marquee of the theater on the north side of the building.
Johnny: Oh.
Les: They were running a Dennis Hopper retrospective.
Johnny: Sorry I missed it.
Les: Anyway, apparently a window air conditioning unit came loose and dropped on him, and that knocked him into the street.
Johnny: My God...
Les: And that's where the bus hit him.
Johnny (Mulls this over for a moment): It's how he would have wanted to go.
One thing after another goes wrong: Moss's body is mixed up at the morgue with a Chinese guy. After the cremation his body is accidently shipped out as part of a station promotion. At his wake everyone smokes some of his favorite cigars and they flick the ashes into the urn.
The next day when his mother arrives for the final commital, Johnny says “It'll be fine” -- looking at the ashes -- "Unless she knows him awfully well, I don't think she'll know the difference."
The focus of the show really was on all of these folks who, it turns out, never really knew Moss. At the wake they all try to say something nice about him. For example, the dippy receptionist tells everyone, "I'll never forget the time he called one morning. I said, 'WKRP, serving the Ohio Valley for 36 years,' the way I always do, you know. .And he said, 'Really? I just wanted to know what time it is.' And I told him it was 10:30, and he said ‘Thank you,’ and hung up. But in a nice way."
So it was up Johnny Fever to sum it up.
"We're here to say goodbye to a fallen colleague. I guess I knew Moss better than anyone here, but I never really knew him that well. He really liked The Carpenters, and once told me he felt like he could have saved Karen at the end if he had only been there. I mean, he said, how hard is it to get somebody to eat something.
“Anyway, Moss lived by night. He chose to spend his waking life on the flip side. But for whoever was out there in the dark, Moss was always here. He was a warm, human voice in the night. That's what radio is, or sure ought to be. A voice we love to hear, a voice we need to hear, a voice that tells us everything's gonna be all right.
“Moss should remind all of us not to forget that."
And that, my old friends, is what I think a radio station ought to be.
A voice. A comfort.
Someplace to turn to when you need the help.
Comment here.
Monday 06-09-08: Something I noticed ... at the STLMedia HOF ceremonies Saturday night was the dearth of under-40 attendees.
I 'spect that a lot of those at the ceremony had their way paid in by the company and the $90-a-pop price put off many who didn't have that bennie or that much cash to drop on a night out for two. There was a lot of grey hair across my field of vision from the back of the Khorassan Room.
That should trip the triggers of media buyers who inist that 18-34's have it all going on and that the 54+ demos are nothing but losers and not worth attending to.
But I'm willing to bet that a lot of younger media types just do not care about such things as Halls of Fame and wouldn't have gone to the show regardless of the price.
Comin' up, I remember engaging in many hours of discussion about the history of the radio execs and jocks and formats that preceded my generation...that probably doesn't happen anymore, likely because there aren't very many memorable execs, jocks or formats.
I remember the hunger to get to back-then OldDogs, to talk to them, to argue music rotations and format basics and talent styles with them. And that was back when Long Distance phone calls cost real money.
If you're an OldDog, tell me, when was the last time a newbie asked you about the way things used to be, how things were twenty, ten or even five years ago, let alone in the 1960's?
How can it be that any industry will dispense with its cultural wisdom and dna as thoroughly as has broadcasting and insist on recreating the wheel again and again without at least scratching the layer below to see what's there that might be useful and expect any level of success?
Santayana's Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it sounds trite, even simplistic.
But it's invariably true.
Comment here.
Sunday 06-08-08: A long way back in Chase Park Plaza Field...
My assigned seating last night, at the 2008 STLMedia HOF Inductions in the Khorassan Room, was at Tables 20 and 21, along with the KXOK'ers there.
In baseball parlance, we were deep into right field.
I set up my Flips, with their zoom extended all the way out on a tripod and hit record. Results were a bit iffy but I'm doing my best to optimize as I edit. Next time I'll get the cameras closer.
UMSL did some serious video recording, and I hope to get a copy to share. Additionally, over the next day or so, I'll scan the excellent program so you can play along.
Observations:
It was a great evening for renewing acquaintances and putting faces to names with whom I've only been in touch online.
Many of the inductees past and present had tables-full of fans, family and friends who went wild each time the photo of their honoree showed up on the video screens during the show-before-the-show. Loyalty is a wonderful thing, huh?
One more photo to share, courtesy of Larry Hoffman...
(l-r: Dick Fatherly, Bud Connell, Bill Hopkins, Larry Hoffman, Frank Absher, Steven B. Stevens and Robert R. Lynn)
There wasn't a dry eye at either of our tables when KXOK GM Jack Sampson was inducted; his speech was memorable, and audio will be available soonest.
I believe that Ted Simmons, inducted into the PR/Advertising arm of the HOF, may be one of the only people ever to effectively use the word "s**tfaced" in an acceptance speech. I guess that's why he one of the great Ad Men.
The tribute to Marty Hendin was especially touching. In all the years I've worked in media, I can only remember two or three others who were as universally loved and respected as Marty.
Betsy Bruce and Allan Cohen were the two inductees who were most notable in mentioning that what they've accomplished did not occur in a vacuum...and they named names!
Question: what's the difference between Y98's Guy Phillips and KMOV/4's Vickie Newton and Larry Conners when valet parking goes bad?
Well, one couple was smart enough to con their way out a few minutes before the rest of us, one stood quietly while the problems were being worked out demonstrating her grace and dignity and the third stood next to me volubly bitching and moaning about what an inconvenience it all was and how incompetent the valets were. I'll let you decide which is whych.
Comment here.
Saturday 06-07-08: A long, long day ... that began with almost no sleep.
Picked up KXOK's Dick Fatherly from his personal rail car at the downtown AMTRAK "station" at "16th Street under Highway 40" as it's described. Take a look:
Because of four sidings along the way from KC to allow UP freight cars to pass the AMTRAK train was an hour late coming into the "station:"
This ramshackle piece of junk is an embarassment to a nation that should be able to present great local train stations. No organized parking, hardly any paving, no services and unbelievably filthy inside and out. American rail passengers deserve much better.
Nonetheless, got friend Fatherly on board the Town Car and zoomed him to The Chase Park Plaza; I zoomed back home to get into a suit for the HOF Presentations; napped for a half-hour and then zoomed my way back to Kingshighway via Page, 170 and Forest Park Parkway. By the time I got there, KMOX' John Carney and his producer Trevor were already on the air. Carney did a remote show from 6-8PM, dressed in sports and shorts. Way to respect your elders, John.
I leave you with this incredible photo of four STLMedia HOF'ers you never thought you'd see together without handguns. Bill Hopkins, Dick Fatherley, Ron Elz -- the original Johnnie Rabbitt -- and PD Bud Connell; it's their first time together since PD Connell and GM Sampson fired Elz in June 1964, replacing him with Don Pietromonaco.
Comment here.
 | Friday 06-06-08: I really hate these guys ...
Looks like a herd/pack/group/whatever of raccoons has moved into the neighborhood.
Next-door Mike & Judy got hit, then we had a trash can tipped and spread across the driveway.
So now the cans will reside in the garage and not go to the curb on trash day until sunlight.
Yeah, they're cute, but they're pests, and prone to rabies and hurting pets. The .410 is locked and loaded. |
Friday 06-06-08: As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly ...
The guy who wrote that line for the classic WKRP episode died this week.
Bill Dial, who worked in Atlanta radio and moved on to films and TV as a writer and actor, passed in coastal South Carolina, where he had retired.
His friend Ed Shane says “Bill wrote what TV Guide called the single funniest line in TV sitcom history."
Dial was also occasionally in front of the camera on WKRP, as chief engineer Bucky Dornster, who always had a beer in his hand.
Ed Shane says “Bill’s other credits include ‘Simon & Simon’ and ‘Sliders’ on the Sci-Fi Channel, plus contributions as executive producer for several shows.”
Thanks to Frank Absher, Tom Taylor and Ed Shane.
Thursday 06-05-08: Speaking of birthdays...
Today is the 39th for a young man whom I considerably respect and admire.
Mike Lemons (Coordinator/Assistant Professor, Radio Broadcasting and Mass Communication at Lewis and Clark Community College, Godfrey IL) moved years ago from radio sales to education.
Lemons is one of the very few educators at any level and in any subject who truly understands what a student needs to know.
When I taught there Mike allowed me amazing latitude in the creation of my own curriculum. I still hear from my students after classes they attended more than ten years ago. That makes me think that my work there made a difference.
I credit much of that to the way that Mike managed his Department and his teachers and instructors.
Lemons is a good guy, a talented educator and one of the few slim hopes who remain in the education of young people who, for hardly reason at all, want to enter radio and tv as a career.
If ya know Mike, call him (618-468-4940) and say Happy Birthday.
Thursday 06-05-08: Missed mentioning this yesterday...
Future STLMedia Radio Hall of Fame member George Noory just had a birthday. I believe that he's much, much older than he claims, and that his appearance, youthful demeanor and unnaturally coal-black hair is aided by space alien technology reverse-engineered by scientists at Area 51.
Noory knows some guys...
Thursday 06-05-08: Really Smart Guys agree with me ...
Not that that's all that surprising.
On 17 May, I commented on the RAB recommendation that the radio biz adopt the TV practice of "posting," wherein stations guarantee to advertisers a specific rating goal and offer makegoods or refunds if those goals are not met.
Sounded like BS to me then, sounds like BS to me now. Now some of the Really Smart Guys are speaking up...
From Tom Taylor:
Small-market owner Jack Taddeo chimes in behind Ed Christian, about “posting.”
The subject is guaranteeing a minimum audience level for a specific advertising buy. Midwest owner and consultant Taddeo read the Saga CEO’s skeptical remarks in T-R-I on posting and emails this: “As usual, Ed hit the nail squarely on the head. If you are in a disaster area like, say, the top 10 markets, you are scrambling for a way to kiss up to the agencies and buyers. Since the major and large markets did such a poor job of selling (see: definition of cost-per-point), they are now reaping the ‘rewards’ of their own laziness. Why in the world would the rest of us want to follow them down the rabbit hole? As Ed suggested, in markets with only two books a year (and even some with four), we are already discussing ratings that are six months to nearly a year old. What possible advantage is it for the station or advertiser (notice I did not say ‘rep or agency’, since they are not actually paying the bill) to base a buy on posted numbers? Message to the RAB and big group owners: Please leave the rest of us alone. We’re doing just fine with one-to-one relationships and results-based selling.”
Comment here.
Wednesday 06-04-08: Well, foo, an OldDog no-show ...
Email from 630KXOK's Ray Otis:
I had looked forward to spending time with you and Fatherley and the guys. Was all set to go then found out that the family planned a 70th birthday party for me that weekend. I regret not being there for Jack Sampson's induction. He was the most effective GM that I encountered in my career. Good dude.
Former KXOK GM Jack Sampson will be inducted (along with many other media types) into the STLMedia Halls Of Fame Saturday night; the Good Lord willin' and my digital video cameras workin' as they should, you'll be able to see all of the inductions as soon after they happen as possible.
I'm still learning this video editing thing...wish me luck.
The Town Car will be engaged Saturday and Sunday by Storz KXOK Production Director and WHB Program Director Dick Fatherley and his guest, Dr. George Chance.
Not only will I have to wear a suit Saturday night, I'll be busier than hell all weekend. Having to wear a suit is the ultimate indignity.
Wait to call me until Monday. Maybe Tuesday.
Me in a suit. Sheesh.
Wednesday 06-04-08: The Paul Harris World Tour continues ...
According to DCRTV.com, the former KTRS'er and KMOX'er will be filling in in the nation's Capital.
Paul Harris To Sub On MAL - 6/3 - DCRTV hears that DC radio veteran Paul Harris will be doing fill-in work on talker WMAL (630 AM) from 6/9 to 6/13 in the 8 PM to 10 PM slot. Harris, who had worked at DC101, WARW, WCXR, and at WMAL over the past 20 years, recently got budget-cut from his gig at St. Louis talker KMOX. He now runs a fill-in hosting service from a studio in his Missouri home.....
Thanks to Todd Gaddy for the tip.
Wednesday 06-04-08: Goodbye to Bob Sheehan ... Sad to learn that old friend Bob Sheehan, a long-time STL radio, tv and WW2 (belly gunner on a B-25!) vet passed away on Sunday, 1 June 2008 at 86.
Funeral from the KRIEGSHAUSER WEST Mortuary 9450 Olive Blvd., Olivette, MO, Thursday, June 5, 2008, 9:30 a.m. then to St. Monica Catholic Church, 11126 Olive Blvd. for Funeral Mass celebrated at 10:00 a.m. Interment Calvary Cemetery. Visitation Wednesday 4-8 p.m. at Kriegshauser West Mortuary.
I had the honor and privilege of working with Bob and his partner-in-crime, the late Jack Warnick, at Broadcast Center in the late 1980's. Sheehan was the erudite one, who did crossword puzzles in ink; Warnick was the acerbic Abe Vigoda lookalike. Almost an Odd Couple kinda thing.
Both had a rapier-like wit and once we had our students set up for their one-hour self-guided lessons, the three of us would escape to the print shop in the basement and trade one-liners for the next half-hour, until we had to go back and listen to the student tapes.
I think they "adopted" me when they discovered that I had written into the huge BC dictionary, on the blank page following the letter
"M", this entry: Write additional words here. That was their kind of humor.
Warnick took a fall in the print shop while leaning on a sorting table; he broke his hip and subsequently died from complications of the injury.
Shortly after that accident, I excused myself from Broadcast Center to concentrate on newly assigned duties as PD at KIX104.
I only met with Sheehan a couple times after that; both times he was working on the NYT crossword. In ink.
Bob and Jack were great friends to eachother and to me and much of what I know about media history here came from listening and talking to them.
I'm honored to this day that these two wonderful broadcasters bothered to take me under their wing. They're both sorely missed.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-03-08: Last month Learfield Communications ... tossed their co-founder, Derry Brownfield, off the bus for Derry's political, business and social opinions.
As COB and CEO Clyde Lear writes: He didn't mind controversy or taking on giants like the Monsanto Corporation. He thought they were bad for farmers, too big for their britches and generally bad for America. Increasingly he's been saying so, without seeking balance, in my opinion.
Presumably, Clyde gave his former partner an equitable payout. But what prompted Lear to dump Mr. Brownfield?
Learfield's website and the associated sites of major company players, including Clyde's, are guided by Steve Mays, who characterizes the President on his personal blog as a "dick-wad."
I do not understand how this one unhappy, BDS-affected man can fairly guide the entire network's online services, in news, sports, farm news and weather, for hundreds of radio stations in the middle of America.
Those of you who use Learfield's services need to ask your client service reps what the company really believes in and how their political stance affects their product.
If the answer you get is unsatisfactory, maybe it's time to for a new regional ag, sports and news network.
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-03-08: JonesTM gets all tingly up their legs over HDRadio ... and figures out how to make a few extra bucks on this misguided technology.
From Tom Taylor:
JonesTM CEO David Graupner's manifesto/sales offering says “For better or worse, HD Radio is the future. We can disagree about the effectiveness of the commercials [promos] that have run. We can disagree about the technology. We can even disagree about the very name, HD Radio.
But what’s done is done. Now is the time for all of us in the broadcast community to come together and get behind HD.”
That’s the stick-out-your-neck part of his “open letter to HD-2 programmers.”
Then comes the offer: JonesTM will sell a jingle package, an imaging library or a production library to any HD-2 station for 50% off, through August 31. That's in recognition of putting best-quality programming on the new "channels-between-the-channels" of HD-2.
Graupner’s final line: “Lastly, I want to thank [CBS Dallas programmer] Kurt Johnson for making me sit in his car for an hour and listen to how good and how cool HD can be.”
At gunpoint, perhaps? Or maybe it was the only HD receiver in DFW?
Or maybe "Holy crap, here's a totally unexploited market for all of our old stuff!"
Comment here.
Tuesday 06-03-08: Monitor exchange ... That storm last week that blew out one of my new Samsung monitors (still under warranty) taught me a great lesson about how cool the future we live in is.
Mrs. A took the monitor to Best Buy and confirmed that the power thingie was shot (no charge for the diagnosis even though we didn't buy it there); she contacted Samsung, and soon there will be a brand new monitor at my local UPS Store, for which I will exchange the broken one.
Warranty repairs and exchanges used to be so complicated...
And, yes, we'll be upgrading the Office with stronger surge protectors.
Tuesday 06-03-08: Secret Squirrel's curious email... presented here exactly as received Monday afternoon:
Movin update. There will be a switch to mainly sports, but probably not until Labor Day. Slaten does have a job offer from them, but the non-compete has totally messed things up.
Plan is for Imus in the morning and Slaten in the afternoon. College sports for now,
Rams when the deal is up.
In the meantime, they're running it on the cheap and using it to "screwup Y98 and make clients think we're not changing" all summer.
Greg Solk in Chicago is making all the decisions and
now negitiating with ESPN for affiliation. That's so John can deny everything and stay out of the process because he really won't know what's happening.
They're losing clients on Movin because of things like the Ceaser article so John has to say nothing is changing to save the billing.
What a disaster this is going to be.
The one glaring issue I have with this note is the plan to use Imus. He's never had any impact here and the show is way too New York-centric to appeal to St. Louis.
Comment here.
 |
Tuesday 06-03-08: Wente out at KWMU ...
The emails arrived all day yesterday alerting me to this STLToday story:
Patty Wente was fired today from her GM position at KWMU.
Now officially a Ronin, Ms. Wente apparently has no immediate plans.
Comment here. |
Monday 06-02-08: Top 40 fans alert ...
Thanks to Jay Philpott, we now know that ReelRadio is presenting Ron Jacob's Cruisin' re-created airchecks of the greatest air talents, including Jack Carney.
You'll need to subscribe to Uncle Ricky's website to hear the goodies; no more than a dozen bucks a year.
But you can always send more to keep this treasure online.
Monday 06-02-08: Handheld digital videocams for sale ...
Both (SD card memory), plus AC and auto chargers and a spare lithium battery for each, have been tested by me and happily approved.
Aiptek GO-HD 720p Camcorder with 3x Optical Zoom (about $200 at Amazon)
Aiptek A-HD 720P 5MP CMOS HD Camcorder (about $140 at Amazon)
$325 for the whole package, including manuals and a mini-tripod.
HD Video in your pocket and for cheap...doesn't get any better.
Must sell now.
Monday 06-02-08: Back to the Sixties ... Well, maybe.
Wasn't all that great a decade when I lived it.
Sunday 06-01-08: I hate ants and crickets and mosquitoes and flies ...
Have since I was a kid, my time in Vietnam didn't make them much more inviting, and I hate them more today than yesterday. The bad news is that this is the time of the year for them; the good news is that my town sprays regularly outside and so do I, inside. Bugs=yukko.
Sunday 06-01-08: Edison says Podcasting is a good thing ...
They found the number of Americans who downloaded and listened to an audio podcast grew from 13% to 18% in the past year. Edison says stations should create as much "podcast-able content" as they can.
Ya know, if every station did maybe an hour or two, with music or with just talk, a listener could make up a pretty interesting day of listening for himself...
Comment here.
Sunday 06-01-08: Slaten's non-compete hangs tough ...
A St. Louis County judge grants a temporary restraining order stopping Slaten from hosting a sports program at other stations in the market.
Slaten was fired from Big League Broadcasting's KFNS/St. Louis last month after airing a caller without informing the person he was live. Slaten recently filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination over the incident.
The PD supposedly reports that the restraining order will remain in effect until hearings on the lawsuit -- scheduled for June 5 and 6 – take place.
The paper's web site has such a pitiful search engine that I cannot find the story.
Comment here.
Sunday 06-01-08: Good apartment deal ... condo for rent near Lindbergh and Schuetz, 2 bedrooms, 2 full baths, covered parking space, recently remodeled, ready for move in. On the 91 bus line which goes west to Chesterfield Mall, and east into St Louis via Olive. $750 monthly rent, $1000 security deposit. Leave a message for Judy at 314-576-7936.
Sunday 06-01-08: The US has never had a real, working emergency broadcast alert system...
And now the gubmint is looking into new ways to alarm us.
Even CONELRAD in the 1950's and 1960's was just a way to draw the nuclear target away from major cities.
How would you get it done today?
Reverse 911 is an option...but how else?
Comment here.
Sunday 06-01-08: Reality-show budgets are being cut ...
How low can they go?
From Hollywood Reporter: Long considered the cheapest of programming genres, reality programs increasingly are under the gun to cut costs. Producers are being urged to shoot shows faster than ever and use indoor settings to help reduce expenses.
Comment here.
Sunday 06-01-08: Randy Wright writes well ... from the Columbia MO Tribune, via RadioDailyNews:
When I started at the old KFMZ radio - now off the air but formerly at 98.3 FM - I was 14 and "volunteered" after school cleaning carts and taking out the trash. It was so long ago that anyone at a radio station today likely would have no idea what a cart is, or was, but suffice it to say it took a lot of rubbing alcohol and razor blades to clean them so that the next commercial or song could be recorded.
Sunday 06-01-08: Ya know those thunderstorms ... the ones that rolled thru STL Friday and then again late Saturday? Somewhere along the line they blew out one of my monitors and as a result XP's placement of application windows got seriously hinky. Took until late Saturday evening to get it figured out and now we're getting updates online as fast as we can. Sorry for any delays.
Thursday 05-29-08: GoMizzouTigers wrote an interesting entry ... on the STLMedia MB regarding a TV firing in Columbia/Jeff City.
Here's my response:
Television stations are looking everywhere for ways to cut costs. And right after they bring on board the "One Man Band" news reporters (what we used to call photo journalists and what was, in the 1980's, presented in the short-lived series Max Headroom), the next area of over-burdening expense is sports.
Many companies have already cut expense at the anchor level; trust in the anchor and their level of experience is less important than their telepresence. That's why Fox/CNN/CNBC/MSNBC hires babes with big boobs who used to be lawyers. No, Courtney Friel was never an attorney. But she fits all other categories.
Weather has to be there but trust in the 'caster is becoming less important as technology advances. Weather types have made their jobs less defensible by insisting on more and better gadgets that do what the humans used to do, using their own skills and knowledge of the market.
And, no, the new technology is not more accurate. But it's weather, and trying to predict it is like playing roulette. Ya spins the wheel and ya takes your chances.
And traffic? Don't get me started. What, with the exception of the odd accident, makes yesterday's or tomorrow's traffic flow different from today's? The herd moves in the same direction at the same time every work day of the year, knows by heart every choke point and obstruction, and knows to expect a delay now and again. But, if you can sell a sponsorship to tell them what they already know, more power to ya.
The good news is that traffic info is cheap to acquire and deliver.
So sports is up to bat next, if you'll forgive the expression.
As much as it pains me to say it, who needs a twenty-three year veteran broadcaster to read scores and narrate video when a guy with two years experience can do it just as well, albeit without the long-term knowledge? And, of course, that silly six-figure salary?
Pro teams are killing themselves with outrageous rights fees and affiliate inventory demands; colleges are right behind them on the too-much-pay scale. High school football can still be a moneymaker, if you can air it with low-cost talent and be satisfied with the revenue generated from businesses owned by the parents of the players.
No, I'm not a sports fan, but being a fan has nothing to do with understanding the realities of running a business answerable to investors and Wall Street.
It all comes down to "debits on the left, credits on the right" and that there had better damned well not be any red ink on either page of the accounting ledger. That's media mentality in 2008.
By the way, it's particularly ironic and just a bit hypocritical that newspapers are bemoaning the loss of a beloved local TV sportscaster when dead-tree operations across the country are firing and/or forcing into early retirement their best and longest-serving employees themselves.
Comment here.
 | Thursday 05-29-08: All your station are belong to Google ...
First there was Search and GMail, then there was AdSense and now Google offers full automation for scheduling of all your station's elements.
If I had me medium- or small-market radio stations in one or more markets I'd sign up with both of those deals in a hurry, just if it meant that I was able to sell unused inventory.
Reports, logs, podcast and VPN control, it's all built in. Run your radio station and add new programming while you're on vacation, even on a cruise.
All you need is a laptop.
Comment here. |
 | Wednesday 05-28-08: So cool ...
The guy at left is my brother and he lives six time zones to the East of you and me, in Israel.
We just finished a great half-hour phone conversation on Skype.
If you want MidEast insight, you could do worse than using Rick as a resource.
He and his family have been and grown in Israel since 1967.
Contact me; I'll put you in touch. |
Wednesday 05-28-08: Movin' 101 to Sports ...
Secret Squirrel says: The Bonneville thing is looking as though it will happen, but it's
not imminent. It's WELL off. But the rest of it looks legit.....and
it's not just "sports" guys they're looking at, btw.
Kids, I told ya almost three months back that this is the deal. Just wait, you'll see. I bet the deal includes the Cards. And that the P-D will steal another story from me.
Comment here.
Wednesday 05-28-08: Layoffs at KMOV ...
Secret Squirrel says: Looks like the layoffs are to begin at KMOV in the next week or two. People are really worried out there.
Comment here.
Wednesday 05-28-08: I never heard a thing ... but I wondered why Tasha was so antsy and wanted, needed a hug in my lap.
GirlDog heard the sirens, I guess...I did not.
Here are cell phone photos of the funnel cloud sighted at Page & 170 yesterday at 12:30PM: Thanks to JC "Twister Boy" Corcoran for sending them along.
Tuesday 05-27-08: Three weeks ago, May 6th, was the 71st anniversary ... of the Hindenburg crash at Lakehurst NAS NJ when WLS/Chicago's Herb Morrison uttered the immortal words... And we all thought reporting was so much better way back when...
Tuesday 05-27-08: Completely lost track of this ... When I came to WIL in 1985 to do the morning show, I was the replacement for a guy called Wilkie.
The station's management and their consultant sang his praises but I don't remember ever hearing word one about him from listeners once I'd dug in for a few weeks, even from the management or the consultants.
Maybe they were just glad to be rid of Wilkie and his issues.
Wilkie was apparently enormously talented and magically entertaining, but apparently he had a self-destructive streak that wound up with him dying in a drink-and-drug induced auto accident in late 1984.
Now reader Frank Hawkins wonders if there are any airchecks of him.
I'd like to hear them too...I've never known what my predecessor at WIL sounded like.
I can't find anything about Wilkie online and that's kinda sad.
Comment here.
There are no more excuses.
Sunday 05-25-08: That was quick ... Kent Weissinger sent along links to tribute sites for WQAM and WFUN, both in Miami, along with this book review:
The Rise of Clear Channel and the Fall of Commercial Radio
Writer Alec Foege's interest in the subject of radio in general and Clear Channel in particular was piqued when he became aware of the uniformity of radio stations' programming during a longish family car trip. He wanted to know why the music was so bland and over-familiar.
Sunday 05-25-08: Happy holiday weekend ... to the vile, puerile asshat who used the anonymity of the Rumor Form to alert me to his (or her) hatred of Tasha, the STLMedia WatchDog.
Here's the deal: hate me, hate what I write, fine. But if you need to anonymously email your hate and threats for a dog, you have some real problems.
Please feel free to stop by The Manse, as you offered. I'd love to introduce you to my friend, Mr. Mossberg.
Sunday 05-25-08: Since I launched the 630KXOK tribute website ...
... in 2003, there's been an explosive growth in the number of similar websites across the US and around the world, celebrating the memory of long-gone but readily-remembered and much-loved radio favs of the past.
What's really amazing is that many, if not most, of these are being put together not just by OldDogs like me, but by folks much, much younger, who discovered them through airchecks.
Ricky Irwin's ReelRadio has been, of course, since 1996, the best aircheck collection site, and is likely the place where these new listeners discovered the wonderment of what was radio. But there are many other websites that hone in on a single station in one market at a particular point in time.
And their publishers have gone to a lot of effort to research the history of the stations and dig up images relating to their projects. I'm impressed.
I'm told by Really Smart Guys that younger folks have a declining interest in broadcast radio; the effort I see them expend in their tribute projects somewhat belays that.
The stations that are being profiled went way beyond just playing the hits. They entertained with bigger-than-life air personalities, they informed, and they fully served their home towns.
Keeping up with the new sites is a challenge, but in the next few days I hope to have an updated list available on the Front Page, below, at left.
And I'm restaging the 630KXOK.stlmedia.net area as well, adding cleaner audio and new photos and video. That'll take a while, so please be patient.
Yup, great radio still exists, even if it's only in edited 96kb MP3 files.
The good news is that you can carry it all around in a gigabyte or two on a portable media player or flash drive.
The bad news is that you can only imagine it happening as you listen.
So now I'm just wonderin' why no one is launching tribute websites for no-longer-published newspapers?
Comment here.
Sunday 05-25-08: From STLRadio OldDog David Blair ... Over a decade ago, I wrote a piece which, to my surprise, I've seen repeated over and over across the Internet. I wrote it because of how I feel about Memorial Day, and those whose lived are celebrated, honored, and mourned by us as a nation. I'd like to share this with everyone again.
Every year at this time, I sit and try to write something moving, something which will express my gratitude and respect for those who surrendered their lives in service of this country.
Every year, I fail.
It isn't that I can't craft the words.
The problem always is the same. Our language doesn't contain words vivid enough, deep enough, moving enough, to get the job done.
This is the day set aside to honor a special group of veterans. These aren't just those who served- that comes in November. This day- Memorial Day- is for those who served and lost life in that service.
I am a free man because of the sacrifice of those who served, and those who died in service. I am free to read what I choose, to protest our government, and to disagree with those whose views differ.
I am FREE.
This freedom I have was paid for by the blood of those valiant men and women who we honor today. As long as I am alive, I will be grateful to them, and when my time comes, I hope one of the first opportunities I have in the next life is to thank them personally.
To those who lost loved ones in service: Your loss was not in vain, and I am forever in your debt, too. May your sorrows be assuaged by the knowledge that your loved one(s) made the world, and our home, better and safer.
Comment here.
Saturday 05-24-08: If Dan Caesar wrote it ... it must be right!
From STLToday:
Are you ready for another sports radio station?
If four aren't enough, sources say management at a fifth outlet has been thinking seriously about switching to the jock-talk format. But things would be radically different at No. 5, with the signal booming out on the FM dial and the goal probably to take over the market, not co-exist. The station also might pursue the play-by-play of at least one local team.
Multiple sources have said that Bonneville International, which owns three stations in the St. Louis market, has been contemplating switching WMVN (101.1 FM) from its female-oriented music lineup to another genre, with sports under heavy consideration, and it is believed overtures have been made to several people with big names in the St. Louis sports-talk scene.
Huh. Good story, Dan.
Don't want to deflate your ego or anything, young Mr. Caesar...but one of those "multiple sources" first made extensive mention of this possibility two and a half months ago. Click here and scroll down to 11 March, to the original piece I wrote.
Damn. Ripped off again by a dead-tree guy.
Comment here.
Friday 05-23-08: Heartwarming as the above video is ... the original is still the best. Here's an MP3 of Kate Smith performing the Irving Berlin song she introduced to the nation.
Friday 05-23-08: A bigger music list for the weekend ... It's all country and courtesy of Lon Helton's Country Aircheck, from the Green Book of Songs:
Big & Rich/8th Of November
Waylon Jennings/America
Randy Travis/America Will Always Stand
Charlie Daniels/America, I Believe In You
Phil Vassar/American Child
Toby Keith/American Soldier
Trace Adkins/Arlington
Emmylou Harris/Bang The Drum Slowly
SheDaisy/Come Home Soon
Toby Keith/Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)
Merle Haggard/Fightin' Side Of Me
Lee Greenwood/God Bless The U.S.A.
Darryl Worley/Have You Forgotten
Darryl Worley/I Just Came Back From A War
Tim McGraw/If You're Reading This
John Michael Montgomery/Letters From Home
Craig Morgan/Paradise
Charlie Daniels/Ragged Old Flag
David Ball/Riding With Private Malone
Collin Raye/A Soldier?s Prayer
Kathy Mattea/Somebody's Darling
Johnny Cash/Song Of The Patriot
Dixie Chicks/Travelin' Soldier
Aaron Tippin/Where The Stars & Stripes...
Aaron Tippin/You've Got To Stand For Something
 | Thursday 05-22-08: John Brown's new book ...
KTVI/Fox2 anchor/reporter John Brown's latest book, Missouri Legends, a biographical listing of famous people from the Show Me State, is hitting the stores this week.
John says "It's a fun read and I think people will get a kick out of the list of famous people who grew up here."
It's a cool Fathers' Day book and a great read for kids who need to learn more of their state's history.
Brown's media experience would make this a great radio segment, too.
Touch base with John here. |
Thursday 05-22-08: Once again, JDC nails it ...
Four basic rules for the radio PD of the future's GM --
1. Give your PD enough rope to either do some great things or hang him or herself.
2. Demand great ideas that you can use now.
3. Never disrespect the owner.
4. Illustrate and demonstrate your ideas.
Read it all at Professor DelColliano's blog, InsideMusicMedia.
Interestingly, Jerry's fourth point was one of the first things I learned from the first GM/owner for whom I PD'd (Joe Mackin, in St. Joseph MI):
Always prepare an audio demo of any format alteration or change in delivery execution you expect your dj's to carry out. Just telling them how to do it, or, worse, telling them in a memo, will just leave them confused.
Mackin went on to explain that that confusion was why we could hire, in 1972, full timers for less than eight grand a year and pay the minimum hourly wage to sportsguys who were making the station a fortune broadcasting high school football games.
Joe just didn't think that announcers were all that bright; after all, if they had any smarts, they'd be in sales, right?
I didn't include that bit of management wisdom in my instruction to the staff. But Mr. Mackin was rich and I was not, he was the owner and I was not. I was going by Rule #3.
Things haven't changed much, huh? I mean, even adjusted for inflation...
Comment here.
Thursday 05-22-08: Can a dead brand live again?
A small company in Chicago, called River West Brands, figures that it’s definitely worth something, and possibly quite a lot. The firm did its own research a year or so ago and claims that among people over the age of 25, Brim had 92 percent “aided national awareness.” What this means is that if you ask people anywhere in America if they have ever heard of Brim, about 9 out of 10 will say yes. If true, that’s potentially a big deal. Building that level of recognition for a new brand of coffee — or anything else — from scratch would involve an astronomical amount of money, a great deal of time, or both.
Too bad all the good domain names are already taken...
Comment here.
Thursday 05-22-08: This is a great promotion ... From Tom Taylor:
“Shred Fest” is where listeners bring their old bank records to be destroyed. Journal’s “Star 104.5” KSRZ and its TV sister KMTV just did this promotion for the second year, resulting in the delivery and shredding of 12 tons of old bank statements, loan records, phone bills and other documents that might – in the wrong hands – lead to identity theft.
Journal says authorities have busted two separate rings in the area, and one of those involved the theft of bank statements. Star and Channel 3 say people lined up t |
