By Mike Lyons Mike Lyons started his career in Orlando back in 1971 by publishing the city's first underground newspaper and promoting the first rock show at the Citrus Bowl (Cactus, Bloodrock, Potliquor and Dr. John for $3). He was MD/announcer for WORJ, WDIZ and WHTQ in Orlando, PD for Abrams' 98 Rock (WXTB) in Tampa, and spent the last eight years of his radio career as mornings/APD at WZTA Miami. From 1995-2000 he was VP of AAA Promotions at Lee Arnold Marketing. Lyons prefers to call himself a "post millennial pop culture theorist" instead of a "former record promotion weasel."

6/22/08

RADIO'S CAVALRY MAY BE ALL HAT AND NO HORSES
 
     This is a followup to last week's column on Sam Zell, Randy Michaels and Lee Abrams' newly purchased Tribune Company newspapers. I suspect that upcoming massive cutbacks at their company and other large remaining American newspaper publishers could help damage, not only journalism itself, but render individual columnists extinct as costs are cut. Just like radio did with their on-the-air personalities after deregulation.
     That my local daily, the Orlando Sentinel, is the first of the Tribune papers to display a new so-called, revolutionary design today, it's close to my heart. I started my journalism and radio career in this town. And as the radio industry has continued to decline in its almost suicidal elimination of attractive product in music and personality, there has been an ongoing theory in the radio industry that the Tribune company, with it's recent accumulation of former radio (Clear Channel particularly) programming notables such as Michaels and Abrams, might result in the company picking up the remnants of the Mays' family debacle in taking Clear Channel private, where they had to sue the banks to complete the deal.
      My fellow Web columnist Jerry Del Colliano keeps reminding me, Zell loves to buy on the cheap. Buy low, sell high.
      The next step in this theory is that Zell, by buying many of the remaining  Clear Channel stations, could rejuvenate the business.
      However, this theory may be just a pipe dream.
      The following is from Rick Edmunds of the Poynter Institute, the iconic journalism and media school in St.Petersburg over on Florida's west coast. The company owns the St. Petersburg Times and the Congressional Quarterly, among other publications. Under the headline "It's The Debt, Stupid," Edmunds wrote last Tuesday June 17, 2008 :
     "When Sam Zell and his lieutenants opine on the state of the newspaper industry and the drastic remedies required, as they have in recent weeks, it puts me in a mood to scream. "
     "Yes, times are tough. But the draconian cuts they are imposing on employees and readers are going largely to service the ridiculous levels of debt they had the bad judgment to take on."
    "Let's take a look at the numbers. Zell's Tribune began last December with more than $12 billion in debt. Goldman Sachs analyst Peter Appert wrote then that the company would face around $1 billion in debt payments this year, which cash flow from its operations would barely cover. Things aren't even working out that well, with revenue declines much worse than expected."
     "For the first quarter of 2008, Tribune reported cash flow of about $200 million from operations. Interest payments totaled $263 million.
     "Forget profits, obscene or otherwise, the company operated at a loss."
     "If an industry, (newspapers), loses 20 percent of revenues over two years, even more in problem spots like Florida and California, you don't need an M.B.A. to figure out the necessity of bringing down costs. Still, I think operators like Zell are squishy, where others (Scripps, N.Y.Times, Washington Post) are forthright on the concurrent need to keep heft and quality in the print product and most aggressively in new digital operations."
     "Frankly, I don't think they (Zell & the Tribune Company) have the money to do it - because the banker has to be paid first"
         
     See what I see? Zell doesn't even have the money to make his debt payments for the papers he bought at the Trib. How can he afford to buy Clear Channels radio stations even at fire sale prices? He can't.

BIZ: If you're wondering about the new Tribune company design that began with today's Orlando Sentinel. It's not much. Lotsa graphic changes and bulletin points on front pages of each section. Despite my fears, columnists in all sections are highlighted at the top of the front page of that section, so they're still employed. On the down side, stories are noticeably shorter and they're all in boxes and there are less of them, especially in the front section. Much ado was made of including items from the Web but there were just four single paragraph excerpts from four different political bloggers in the Opinion section and I had never heard of any of them. So it doesn't look like bodies are going yet but the changes don't really amount to much. If you're wondering about the new "more column-inches" edict to justify salaries, the only time I noticed anything different was sports columnist Mike Bianchi's 1,800 word bloviation on Florida Gators coach  Urban Meyer. Ads were everywhere (maybe they made their 50/50 goal) but Susan was happy. The comics were still there in four page color. So we won't cancel the subscription yet...For those who may have missed it this week, the rage for journalists and media types period was Tribune Company Innovation V.P. Lee Abrams umpteen point blog about the re-invention of journalism. "I am surprised reporters on Iraq are actually in Iraq!" Perhaps pictures of the reporters dodging bullets would be cool! I've enjoyed Lee's stream of consciousness rambles for many years and, yes, I thought some of his points had validity but many of his points sounded like stoned ramblings. One journalist-critic summed it up best in a parody demanding "The Tribune papers should use a BIGGER FONT. Like 24 pt Alburtus Extra Bold!" At least it was fun. If your job wasn't on the god-damn line.

TV: Well, you know it's officially the dog days of summer now and there's little on that's new or special. Wimbledon starts Monday and runs for the next two weeks if you're into Maria, Ana and Roger. Tennis still suffering from a lack of charismatic new stars...Guests this week on new Daily Shows With Jon Stewart will include actor James McAvoy on Monday, Coldplay on Wednesday and Ted Koppel on Thursday, guests on new Colbert Reports will include author Barbara Ehrenreich on Monday, Will Smith on Tuesday and authors Paul Goldberger and Neil DeGrasse Tyson on Wednesday...New Letterman's this week with Tift Merritt on Wednesday and Wild Street Orange on Friday. Coldplay will be on with Dave next Monday the 30th...Leno and Conan in repeats this week with Sheryl Crow again on Leno this Thursday and on Conan, it's another  chance to see the Drive-By Truckers on Monday, Billy Bragg on Tuesday and The Raconteurs on Friday...Craig Ferguson is new with Amos Lee on Monday night and Phantom Planet on Tuesday...Cyndi Lauper will be on a new Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday...NBC announced this morning that Tom Brokaw will be hosting Meet The Press on NBC's Sunday mornings through the election. Bet on MSNBC Political Director Chuck Todd to end up in the chair full-time after that. I just got a feeling.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "New VH1 Show Cancelled For Not Being Pathetic Enough."
'Unfortunately, the program, (Knight Life), lacked the petty and reprehensible acts that demean all humanity and make for good, compelling television," said Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman. He added that VH1 would consider bringing the show back if series star Christopher Knight were to become so distraught by the cancellation that he had to be hospitalized for an unsuccessful suicide attempt.

MOVIES: The only positive reviews were apparently uttered under the Cone of Silence but Warner Brothers' "Get Smart" opened about $5 million better than expected, taking in $39.2 million over the weekend to top the weekend box-office. "Kung Fu Panda" had $21.7 million in second. "The Incredible Hulk" finished close behind with $21.6 million for third. Paramount's "The Love Guru," with Mike Myers, stumbled into fourth place with just $14 million. Way less than tracking indicated, ($20 m), so don't look for any franchise extension on this idea. Opening next weekend is Disney/Pixar's latest, "Wall-E," about people leaving earth and forgetting to turn off the last robot, sorta like the story of the rest of Dana Perino's year. Voices are from Sigourney Weaver, Fred Willard and Jeff Garlin. Also opening is "Wanted" with Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy. It's an extremely well-reviewed version of a graphic novel, not too unlike "Mr. & Mrs. Smith," that may be  quite a sleeper. Also opening is "Mongol," a Russian biography of a young Genghis Khan. I, uh...

SCHMUTZ: I still think a deal will be struck but the Screen Actors Guild could begin their strike a week from Tuesday (July 1) shutting down TV and movie production again. Something tells me the producers are ready to cough up new DVD  and Internet rates though. They don't want to go through this again. The actors will win by getting something and also signing a shorter deal. Three years instead of 5 or 10...The XM and SIRIUS merger is all set now but their stocks got shredded Thursday when Goldman Sachs analyst Mark Wienke told clients to pass on both companies because " any imminent merger-related strength has passed. Declining cash-flow shows no signs of turning back up."...It became official this week that our old friend Harry Shearer from "Spinal Tap," "The Simpson's," and KCRW's "Le Show" will get his star on the Hollywood Walk Of Fame next year...iTunes sold its five billionth song last week. It's also selling/renting 50,000 movies a day now,  by the way...Great AAA panel coming up Friday morning at the Conclave in Minneapolis. Format bright light Brad Savage from WCNR in Charlottesville will be joined by Steve Nelson from KCMP, Jeni Grouws from KDEC in Decorah, Iowa and Susan Groves from WLCE in Springfield, Illinois along with Marc Ratner and Drew Murray on the label side. This will all happen after the breakfast buffet featuring "some kind of meat..." Enjoy.
The Forest will return in two weeks on July 6.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 6/15/08

- 30 -
 
     "I'd like to do this tonight for a longtime friend of the E Street Band who passed away suddenly. Tim Russert was an important, un-replaceable voice in American journalism. I watched him hold our politicians feet to the fire on many Sunday mornings. He was always a strong voice for honesty and accountability in American government."
     "But beyond that he was a lovely presence, a good father, husband and good guy. He was a regular at many E Street Band shows and I'm going to miss looking down and seeing that big smiling face in the crowd."
     "We send this out all the way back to the states tonight for his son Luke, his wife Maureen, his dad Big Russ, and all the Russert family."
     "Tim, God bless you. We will miss you."

      - Bruce Springsteen introducing "Thunder Road" Saturday night at Cardiff Millennium Dome Stadium in Ireland
     
     Personally, I couldn't have said it any better in dealing with the sudden death of NBC's Washington Bureau Chief Tim Russert this past Friday afternoon.
     What?
     You're kidding me.
     He was only 58.
     Goes without saying that I admired Russert for his steady non-partisan questioning of politicians and the analysis of what was really going on during his 20+ years at NBC. Particularly during the recent and seemingly endless parade of Democratic presidential primaries.
     However, what Russert really represented to me was good journalism and I see journalism getting lost in the flattening of the world in our new digital age.
     In last week's Forest I mentioned the abrupt ending of coverage of radio at the Washington Post and the New York Daily News.
     On Thursday the Tampa Tribune cut 250 jobs.
     A week ago Thursday, the Tribune company's Sam Zell and Randy Michaels, during a Wall Street conference call, talked about measuring productivity in the future based on the amount of column-inches a reporter produced. They had discovered that the average journalist at their Los Angeles Times averaged 51 pages of words annually while the reporters of sister paper, The Hartford Courant, averaged 300 pages annually.
     What this had to do with journalism was not made clear but both Zell and Michaels emphasized that the Tribune Company was now aiming for a 50/50 split between news and advertising at all their papers and, as Michaels put it, "This is a new thing! Nobody ever said, 'HOW MANY COLUMN INCHES DID SOMEONE PRODUCE?"
     They both acted like they'd discovered cold fusion and cured cancer all at the same lunch. It was all such nonsense. Just a way to justify more bodies being sent out the door.
     As Michael Kinsley put it in Slate, "my first day on the job as copy-editor at the Royal Oak Daily Tribune, the chief copy-editor said something that has inspired me ever since. Remember," he said, "every word that you cut saves the publisher money."
     So, writing more means you're a better reporter for the Tribune Company in 2008?
     Zell and Michaels said that the new 50/50 plan would result in a minimum of 500 less pages of news a week combined in all Tribune newspapers.
     They said massive job cuts were imminent.
     And they said the Trib company's new design ideas would begin with the Orlando Sentinel, my own daily newspaper, starting June 22, next Sunday.
     Well, lets see, the Sentinel already lost its longtime publisher, Kathleen Waltz, who retired as soon as Sam Zell took control of the paper last year. Since her resignation, the Orlando Sentinel's publisher has been Howard Greenberg, the publisher of the Tribune co-owned Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel, who runs both papers now.
     When Zell arrived in town and met the Sentinel staff under a tent in the parking lot downtown, he got angry at a question from a staffer and declared that "the attitude of elite journalists wasn't going to work here anymore."
     He then surly barked, "Fuck you too!" as he gestured toward the woman and collapsed into his seat after the diatribe.
     OK then.
     Also, since the publisher wasn't necessary, I see from accumulating empirical evidence, that the proof-readers were also let go.
     I never thought I'd see misspelled and repeated words on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel but during the last few weeks they've become a regular occurrence.
    My point is that, as the newspaper business continues to undergo declining revenues and disappearing growth as the market changes drastically in the new digital age, it appears to be copying the suicidal motif of commercial broadcasting.
     Cutting, cutting, cutting. But adding nothing of value to bring new customers in or even keep the ones they've got.
     "Talent is the worst part of the radio business".
     "Bud" Paxson, who owned the last station I worked for, said that on the cover of Broadcasting Magazine just before deregulation kicked in.
     From a pure business standpoint, I understand the ethic. Immediate profits are attractive to me as anybody else.
     However, sacrificing the true value of your product by cutting costs and indulging in, essentially self-serving short cuts to make the quarterly statement look better for Wall Street just benefits the few at the top.
     And it doesn't last long, provides nothing for the future value of the company and abuses the lives of employees.
     That's the reason why current commercial radio will end up being auctioned off for other uses within a decade or two. The business model has collapsed. The audience is gone or going and there's too much competition. And radio to cell phones is as much of a joke as HD radio.
     Call me when you find someone on the street who uses it and is excited about it.
     Truth is, people will not sit though four five-minute commercial breaks every hour. Boomers will but Generations X, Y and Z, the millennials, now appear have no use for radio whatsoever.
     Because, other than AAA and the occasional heritage news or sports station, IT DOESN'T MATTER.
     The music's gone, the talent's gone, the interest's gone.
     And now we see the newspaper business getting ready to do the same thing as radio.
     Killing itself to save itself.
     It appears to me that today most radio GM's are only working towards the end of their career. Zero effort is put into the future. Their own immediate financial future is their guiding professional concern.
     Now, Zell is a private owner now but appears to be aiming to set up his newspaper chain as a static cash-flow business like radio and hope he stumbles onto something that will blow up on the Web. Great idea while you're killing your brands.
     As the newspaper industry prepares to follow that same business model,(notice that investment is never a part of these survival schemes?) it could seriously hurt the development of profession journalism in this country.
     The world is flattening, as the New York Times' Thomas Friedman put it in his best-selling book.
     I just hate seeing the people with true journalistic ability declining as the media business puts less and less demand on finding and developing talent.
    The loss of Tim Russert just leaves us one less iconic voice to cut through the self-serving treacle that is too much of today's media world.

TV: One trend that's developed in the summer season is the success of original cable television series featuring strong, attractive women. And that's part of AAA's target audience. Former Mrs. Howard Stern, (in "Private Parts"), Mary McCormack, is a Witness Protection Agent on "In Plain Sight" which has debuted to more-than-respectable ratings Sunday nights at 10pm on the USA Network. Not bad. On Monday night, Emmy-winner Mary-Louise Parker returns (with special guest Albert Brooks) for a new season of "Weeds" on Showtime, also at 10pm TNT's double shot of Kyra Sedgewick as "The Closer" and Holly Hunter in "Saving Grace" will debut new seasons coming up on July 14... It's new guests on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart this week starting with former U.S. district attorney David Iglesias on Monday followed by CBS Middle-East reporter Lara Logan on Tuesday, Steve Carell on Wednesday and Mike Myers on Thursday...On The Colbert Report this week it's new shows with authors Kenneth Miller on Monday and Jonathan Zittrain on Tuesday, CURE directors (Community Understanding for Racial & Ethnic Quality) Dr. Uma Mysorekar and Junot Diaz on Wednesday and author Bishop N.T. Wright on Thursday...All shows are new this week: On Letterman it's Adele on Monday, Dr. John & Stevie Wonder on Tuesday, Martha Wainwright on Wednesday and The Baseball Project on Friday...Leno has Amos Lee on Monday, Jewel on Tuesday, Against Me! on Wednesday and Duffy on Thursday...On Conan it's My Morning Jacket on Thursday and Alejandro Escovedo on Friday...Jewel on Jimmy Kimmel on Wednesday...John Hiatt on Craig Ferguson on Tuesday and finally, NBC/Universal could finalize a $4 billion+ purchase of the Weather Channel this week.

MOVIES: "The Incredible Hulk" continued Marvel Studios' incredible run this summer as the studio (which hired Universal for distribution) followed up its relatively surprising "Iron Man" success with a debut at #1 for the Ed Norton-starring remake. $54.5 million. Last week's #1 "King Fu Panda" fell to second with a still-healthy $34.3 million. M.Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" beat expectations by a long-shot, opening at #3 with $30.5 million. "Please Ignore The Zohan" fell to fourth with $16.4 million and "Indiana Jones 4" took in another $13.5 million in fifth. This solid June lineup has pushed Hollywood ahead of last year's record setting box-office numbers. Attendance is up 1.6% compared to last year so far in 2008...Opening next week is the return of Mike Myers in "The Love Guru" up against Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway in "Get Smart" which John Anderson of Variety says is "nothing you want to take off your shoe and call home about."

SCHMUTZ: Like it or not, radio is going to end up paying a performance royalty tax. While the NAB may say they have 201 U.S.House members against the idea, looks like the majority of the rest of Congress sympathizes with the artists' side. Expect some law to be passed eventually, but it will be less then what the labels want and may not not take place until next year, when a Democratic President and Congress are likely to be in power. But honestly, your typical congressman is clueless to the facts of the radio and records business. They're going to do something... Lee Trink's gone at Capitol and Jason Flom's leaving Virgin. Not a shock since EMI announced the merging of the two labels last year. I got an indication earlier this year about how bad the problems at EMI could be when The Economist reported on a meeting new CEO Guy Hands decided to have with kids pulled off the streets of London for an impromptu research panel. After grilling the two  dozen about buying habits and music preferences, the kids were told to "help yourself to the CD's over on the table on your way out." Nobody took any of them according to the Economist....Raise your hand if you think that BMG looks like it will accept whatever Sony offers to get out of their deal. The Germans appear to have the motor running in the parking lot, thay want out so fast...My friend Brock Whaley at KPOI Honolulu says he thinks "Cardiac Incident" was a cut on that third Santana album...Thanks to Steve Meyer at AllAccess for pointing out comedian/writer/director Christopher Guest is back as Spinal Tap's Nigel Tufnel with some wonderful, hilarious promos on the National Geographic Web site for the cable net's upcoming "Stonehenge" special. Go to channel.nationalgeographic.com, click the NGC Videos, click History & Events and click Nigel's Theories. The potato experiments did it for me! 

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 6/8/08

NON-COMM WRAPUP
 
      Last week, I began my coverage of the Eighth Annual NON-COMMvention in Philadelphia by pointing out how well AAA and non-commercial radio continue to perform in the current world of radio. While commercial radio as a whole, continues to lose both local and national advertising business at an increasingly alarming level, AAA keeps chugging along raising more money in shorter time spans as their audiences keep growing.
      Jackie Nixon of NPR Research pointed out how the AAA audience, both commercial and non-commercial, continues to be wealthier, more loyal (longer TSL), more tech savvy and therefore attractive.
      My impression from the first two convention panels led me to believe that, while the format has been doing better than competing formats by a mile, there is still opportunity to increase audience and income by simply presenting ourselves with more confidence and pride to our non-comm boards, audiences, underwriters and advertisers.
      Simply. AAA can still sell itself better.
 
      The third NON-COMM panel I attended was "Triple A in a PPM World," in which Dave Sullivan of the Radio Research Consortium broke down the initial findings of how Arbitron's switch from diaries to the new personal people meter (PPM) for radio audience measurement would affect AAA.
      Right now, only two markets, Philadelphia and Houston, are using PPM's. Arbitron wants to employ them in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, San Jose, Nassau/Long Island and Riverside/San Bernadino in September.
      But there are still issues to be resolved, including both accreditation by media buyers and the continuing complaints of some of Arbitron's radio customers. That CEO Bob Neil at Cox Broadcasting signed a contract with Arbitron but is still criticizing them at the same time is one indication of how dysfunctional the current radio industry is.
      After Arbitron settles these issue, it plans to have PPM's in the top 50 markets by 2010.
      First thing about PPM - the machines are much more accurate than the diary method, Actual frequencies are always picked up on the machine. They don't have to be remembered like a person keeping a diary, in which well-known brand names would often be written down while actual second and third listening choices would be either forgotten or left off the diary.
      As first seen when Nielsen switched to Local People Meters (LPM)'s a few years ago. Average quarter hours go down and cumes go up. Especially for the stations often lost in the mix. Like a non-comm AAA, commercial AAA's and typical AOR or alternative stations.
      What pisses off the big ownership groups (like Cox) is that longtime market leaders with big brand call letters often see their shares drop drastically. Because the audience measurement is now more accurate. All those frequencies set on buttons in the car (what? 18 of them, if you're punching through searching for a song that's decent) will now show up. If only fleeting. Cume goes up for stations that didn't get their fair remembrances in the past. Longtime market leaders suffer as the reality of their audiences falls to a more reasonable (accurate) level.
      Consequently, as time spent listening is more accurate, it often leads to declining average quarter hour measurements. Those old 7:59am to 8:16am time check tricks in morning drive don't work like they once did. The station gets one quarter-hour instead of three, if the listener had fallen for that trick and written down a 17-minute listening span that was actually only 12 minutes from 8:02am to 8:14am. That's just an example but you get my point.
      Since human recollection is no longer as important, the incessant repetition of call letters and frequencies is no longer as important with Arbitrons PPM's as it once was. But branding is still important, you still want word of mouth and the listeners still have to know who you are. Just doesn't have to be as annoying as the CBS alternative here in Orlando that used to say its frequencies six to eight times each break.
      With PPM's, Arbitron is using a smaller sample. In Philadelphia 1,500 PPM's replace approximately 4,000 diaries. Also, time-spent-listening (TSL) is now referred to as actual-time-exposed (ATE).
       Bottom line, PPM's are so much better at finding actual AAA listeners. Audience sharing figures are much more specific and better.
       P-1's make up 26% of WXPN's cume in Philadelphia now versus 70% when the city used diaries.
       Phantom cume is no longer phantom. It's real.
       By the way, WXPN's Internet stream is encoded for the PPM. Online numbers can start showing up on Arbitron reports. Both over-the-air and online reports will be available from Arbitron and they can obviously be combined. Stations should encode their webstreams.
      Interesting thing I noticed when WXPN broke down their PPM statistics was when Bruce Warren showed the lowest ratings dip on the screen and pointed out that it was during their fund drive. Now, it's understandable why folks may leave during a drive but what I noticed was how the XPN numbers immediately returned to their average daily numbers on the day the drive ended. The audience was loyal, engaged and, hell, smart enough to return exactly when the station returned to its normal programming routine. Can other music formats claim that kind of response from their audience? Incredible.
     One last thing on the PPM's. Arbitron is finally using cell phones to establish their samples for the PPM and will continue as they roll out through the rest of the top 50 markets. It's about time.
      
     On Friday morning the founder of the Radio and Internet Newsletter (R.A.I.N.), Kurt Hanson, gave his presentation that opened with him stressing how streaming offers the most growth opportunities in the new digital age.
     Internet radio is becoming ubiquitous said Hanson. The Internet is everywhere as the explosion of new mobile devices continues. Just wait until Wimax and LTE get here.
     Hanson pointed out how that anyone with a GPS connection essentially will be able to get Internet radio in their car. He also embraced Chris Anderson's "Long Tail" theory pointing out that there is only so much room on the over-the-air spectrum and that as the generic quality of current commercial music radio continues, it will just keep driving listeners away to finding a channel that suits their needs. Either over-the-air or over the Internet.
     "Radio is live and local. Internet is data-base driven and global," said Hanson, adding that evolving value choices in the new digital age will include more loyalty to the GUI. Or the graphical-user-interface brand. In other words, people love their iPods or their iPhones or their Blackberries or their Centros or whatever piece of hardware they choose.
      Two main items from Hanson: quality of your streaming will become more important. The value of podcasting will continue to grow too. Posting a jock's 1 to 2pm hour may be the future. With a song list and features, of course. She heard it on a tuner but may want to download it at home.
      As far as royalties, Hanson had an opinion that many of the programmers and even the independent promoters on hand agreed on. The labels and the RIAA have waited too long in their attempt at getting a performance royalty rate passed before further negotiations on a definitive Internet radio royalty act.
      But as the labels continue to wait and wait after getting off to such a late start, the chances of the RIAA and the labels getting the royalty rates they desire from both radio and the Internet decreases. Especially in regards to Internet radio, the horse will have already left the barn way before they get their act, and therefore their political support, together.
     
      The last panel  was "The Differences Between Us" moderated by WXPN's Dan Reed on Saturday morning which was the annual dialog about the relationship between radio and the record labels. Russ Boris from WFUV in New York City and Mike Vasilikos from WTMD Baltimore were joined by Jesse Barnett of Right Arm Resource and Red's Chrissy Zagami.
     As is usually the case, label reps want more communication and listening while radio begs for understanding as the amount of music to be listened to grows.
      Borris pointed out he now gets 150 digital tracks every Monday while Vasilikos gets at least 100 to go along with mailed discs. Jesse Barnett pointed out that SBR, at the Boulder Summit two years ago, said that stations received 30,000 annual releases in 2004 that grew to 60,000 annual releases in 2006. Radio all pointed out that there were still only 24 hours in a day.
      Borris complained specifically about too many IM's in the new age. Barnett asked that PD/MD's at least respond to e-mail inquiries especially when  they are out during their call times. Jeff Appleton, from the floor, asked for a little more attention to details, as he said that less then 10 programmers had even responded to a free Big Head Todd CD giveaway offer.
      WXPN's Bruce Warren pointed out the best idea to me when he said that radio should always be serviced  on new songs before, or at least at the same time the songs are posted on MySpace, iTunes etc. Labels today keep sending out mixed signals. So communication on both sides still needs to get better.
      Overall, the Eighth Annual NON-COMMvention produced great music and civil, honest communication about our changing business.
      I was impressed with the attention to detail and the amount of energy I saw from the AAA community in Philadelphia. I realize that next year will be even more important as new hardware hits our listeners and new royalty issues hit the market.

MOVIES: "Kung Fu Panda" took in $15 million more than Paramount/Dreamworks' tracking expected over the weekend, ending up with $60 million for first place at the weekend box-office. SONY's investment in Adam Sandler continued to pay off as "You Don't Mess With The Zohan" opened in second with $40 million, meeting expectations. Paramount's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" took in another $22.8 million in third place. Warner Brothers' "Sex and the City" fell 63% from last weekend's monster debut but still had $21.3 million to take fourth place. Universal's "The Strangers" continued its surprising performance with another $9.3 million in fifth. Paramount/Marvel's "Iron Man" was sixth with $7.5 million. Both "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones 4" should pass $300 million domestically next weekend. Overall the weekend box-office was up 29% from the same weekend a year ago. Opening next weekend is "The Incredible Hulk" starring Ed Norton, Liv Tyler and The Rock. Also opening will be director M.Night Shyamalan's latest attempt to recreate his "Sixth Sense" mojo, "The Happening", a horror epic with Mark Wahlberg and "The Promotion", a comedy starring John C. Reilly. By the way, the "Onion Movie" went directly to DVD last Tuesday after sitting on the shelf since 2003. It's intermittently funny but really not a complete success. More like a new millennium version of the 70's "Kentucky Fried Movie". Zillions of bits strung together with no theme and not all of the bits work. Sounded great at that dinner meeting though. The ideas work better in quicker, smaller items in the current "Onion" Web site/syndication fashion.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Things Amy Winehouse Mumbled Before She Stole Our Coffee Maker."

TV: It's summer. So it's sports until the cool, cable series start in a few weeks. The U.S. Open from Torrey Pines in San Diego will have a hook with the return of Tiger Woods starting Thursday. ESPN and NBC will split coverage the first two days from noon to 10pm on Thursday and Friday then NBC goes from 4 to 10pm. on Saturday and then 3 to 9pm on Sunday. I understand from overhearing comments from the galleries at televised golf events that Mr. Woods is "the man". Immediately after the utterance of that phrase, "you're the man!", the person saying it during Tiger's backswing is known as "the receiver of a fist-to-the-face by Wood's caddie Steve Williams." A self-description that eventually rolls out of his broken jaw like an Amy Winehouse mumble...Guests on new shows this week include Gnarls Barkley on Letterman Monday followed by Alanis Morissette on Tuesday, Jakob Dylan on Wednesday and Emmylou Harris on Thursday...Leno has Aimee Mann on Monday and Sheryl Crow on Tuesday...NON-COMM highlight Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings will be on Conan this Wednesday...On Craig Ferguson he welcomes MGMT on Monday and Augustana on Tuesday...Moby on Carson Daly on Monday...Guests on The Daily Show this week will include Virginia Senator Jim Webb on Monday, veteran GOP operative Ralph Reed on Wednesday and NBC's Iraq correspondent Richard Engel on Thursday...On The Colbert Report this week it's The New Yorker's Phil Weiss on Monday, author Alan Rabinowitz on Tuesday, author David Hadju on Wednesday and environmentalist Dixon Despommier from Columbia University on Thursday.

FINALLY: "Radio, shedding talent as fast as it loses audience, is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the younger generation. Yet most Americans still isten to something for much of their day. Radio could be the way into those ears, but only if it invests in creating compelling reasons to be there, only if it grabs hold of us the way the voices of past decades connected to the loves, pains and dreams of young listeners. As always, the future lies in the past."
     Those were the last words in the last column by The Washington Post's Marc Fisher last week. He'd been writing about radio in the Post for the last 15 years. Now, the Post will no longer have a reporter cover the radio industry because it is "becoming irrelevant". The New York Daily News is also cutting its radio coverage. Do any of you believe the Chicago Tribune will cover radio anymore when it starts slashing staff at all its papers June 22?
      This is what deregulation and the dependence on syndication and the 300-song researched music list has wrought. Business down, no growth, now less and less coverage as a business.
      AAA is still the one music format on the air that still replicates the simple values of communicating and bringing interesting, cool music to its audience. Something all of radio did at its beginning 75 years ago.
      Remember what Alan Freed said. "They know when you're listening."
      AAA is the only format left still using its head.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 6/3/08

WE AREN'T THE PIPELINE. WE'RE THE OIL.
- KTBG (The Bridge) Kansas City PD Jon Hart

     The Eighth Annual AAA NON-COMMvention in Philadelphia was a terrific one this year. Great weather. The Phillies are winning. Chris Matthews is set to go after Arlen Specter's Senate seat in 2010 and host station WXPN sounded like the format leader they are as their entire staff, led by General Manager Roger LaMay, VP/PD Bruce Warren and OM/MD/NON-COMM creator Dan Reed pooled their estimable talents to again produce a gathering for the non-commercial AAA stations in the country that was both beneficial and buzz-worthy cool!
     Big picture: Attendance was about 400. A total similar to last year's. More folks came in from the northeast because of Philly's proximity but some of our friends out West didn't make it due to, I'm thinking, a combination of the higher cost of flying and the decline of the record labels promotional budgets that once helped some smaller market programmers make the trip.
     There was a nice turnout of commercial AAA's once again too. The always lovely Barbara Dacey from WMVY/MVY Radio in Martha's Vineyard, the Reverend Coes from Nashville's WRLT, Fish from KMTN (The Mountain) in Jackson Hole, Zeb Norris from WNCS (The Point) in Vermont and quite a few others enjoyed the meetings held at the World Cafe Live and WXPN studios and at the Inn at Penn over on the University of Pennsylvania campus.
     Triplearadio.com Founder and Editor Dave Chaney didn't make it to this one as his 80-year old mum had a, let's say, "coronary incident" the day before the convention so Dave stayed back in California as a little love, a little scary news, and a lot of tests were undertaken as he went through one of those "WTF?" situations that boomers like us are becoming all too familiar with these days as our parents age. As of this writing she was ok by the way, so I tried to cover as much as I could for the site as a single source. My impressions follow:

BEST PERFORMANCE BUZZ: Interscope's CARNEY. Young Cal kids who sounded like, "A mix of Jeff Buckley and Led Zeppelin" according to Dan Reed.
The "who the heck is this?" moment of the convention. Always a good sign.

BEST RECORD BUZZ: "Thank You Too" from My Morning Jacket. Tossed in as a 'guess who this is' afterthought by Sean Coakley at the end of the Music Meeting. Best received song of that afternoon along with the Music Meeting winner, "Two Silver Trees" by Calexico which really impressed the WXPN listeners in attendance.

MY PERSONAL FAVORITE SURPRISE: Even in a recession, non-comms seemed to have no trouble raising money from their fund drives. I got excited a few years back when New York's WFUV pulled in $800,000 in a spring session. WFPK in Louisville matched that total this past spring. WNTI in Hackettstown, New Jersey doubled what they got last spring. Across the board, the majority of stations exceeded their goals and most did it in a shorter campaign. This just proves how loyal the AAA non-comm audience is and shows how valuable AAA non-comm listeners consider their local stations. Also shows how much money the AAA demo has. Which leads us to the first session at the convention.
 
PANEL - WHAT IS AAA AND WHO LISTENS? Jackie Nixon of NPR Research gave us a fascinating breakdown on the entire AAA format both commercial and non-commercial. The audience for AAA is one of the most highly educated of any format. And also wealthy. Something highly attractive to underwriters. Not anything unknown to us but she reinforced these attributes as she also noted that the AAA format is not as well defined in the world today as it needs to be. 230 stations in the NPR fold are now playing at least some AAA. It is a key growing format in public radio. With AAA listeners there is a large crossover to news/talk. Commercial AAA's play tons more 80's music than non-comm AAA's. During the radio industry's recent difficulties, AAA has been very steady in audience trends on public radio. Not going through the ratings bumps like commercial radio. Nixon said AAA's AQH (average quarter hour) share is likely to be increasing going forward. The non-comm AAA audience is extremely tech savvy, owns MP3's, reads blogs but the non-comm AAA's are better at holding their audience in our time-shifting digital age than commercial stations. Nixon pointed out that this is a very impressive attribute in the marketplace right now. They love the product of their station. Nixon reminded us that as the age of podcasting and streaming it is more important than ever to make sure that a station is programmed and executed well. In this day of increasing choices and competition, you have to program good all the time! You just can't let jocks wing it. They have to focus.
 
PANEL - MAKING THE CASE FOR AAA XPN GM Roger LaMay, PD's Jon Hart of KTBG (The Bridge) in Kansas City, Chris Wienk of WEXT (The Exit) in Albany and Stacy Owen of WFPK in Louisville were on the panel. One item that came up again was the fact that sometimes even board members of existing AAA non-comms have difficulty sometimes grasping exactly what AAA is. It's a semantic problem but also a problem of understanding. Breaking it down to "adult rock" or describing the station as the "only station in town that plays Dylan, Radiohead and Neil Young" is one way I suggested. Otherwise the news was rather good. WFPK raised more than their NPR sister station even though that station had a larger audience! I remembered that. Another indication of AAA's appeal. Stacy also pointed out how AAA has grown 85% on public radio from 1997 to 2007.  Both Jon and Stacy emphasized that their station's connection to community is a key to their success and formatic presentation. Chris pointed out  that he presented AAA in a tone similar to classical and his board approved of the format "in 5 minutes". There's a reason these people are PD's. Jon Hart had the best line of the convention too, when he pointed out, "We Aren't The Pipeline. We're The Oil!". This was just after he mentioned that KTBG had raised 60% more than the previous fund-drive this spring.
 
Those were just the first two panels. In next weekend's The Forest, I'll wrap up my coverage of the NON-COMM in Philly by covering the PPM session which was extremely revealing, I'll also give you my note's on Kurt Hanson's speech and coverage of the Radio vs. Records final panel hosted by Dan Reed on Saturday. Pardon me now but I've got to get two teeth pulled. My head swelled to twice its size as soon as I returned from Philly. I apologize. But getting teeth pulled - it's like getting the rest of commercial music radio to sound as good and get as enthusiastic an audience response as AAA demonstrated at the Eighth Annual NON-COMM.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk
                                                                     
Archive: 5/26/08

AAA 2008 - STATE OF THE FORMAT.
    
      It's no secret to regular readers of The Forest that I've spent the last eight or nine years simply chronicling and encouraging the growth of the AAA format. Of course this format is my bliss, as Joseph Campbell would put it. The artists, the songs, the presentation and values are almost identical to the ethos I had as a teenager who had the wonderful fortune to be a successful album-rock-station music director when I was but 19. The instincts that I shared with the staff of WORJ-FM in Orlando led to a 7+ share 12+ back in the early 70's. That was rare at the time. Today, those same instincts are sadly absent from the, now unregulated, business of radio, except at the AAA format.
     As the 8th Annual Non-Commvention approaches next weekend in Philadelphia, I'm pleased to once again point out how well this format of great music, sincere, bullshit-free presentation and easy-to-understand value has done in the year since our last NON-COMM.
     This year, the hole's filled in.
     Last year (2006-2007) I told you about a record-setting annual amount of 16 new AAA stations that had signed on to the format. Incidentally, the numbers I used include the two stations the format had lost to other formats (crab-ass tight AC). I prefer to get my math correct. New AAA's came to Washington D.C., Cleveland, Milwaukee and Rochester, among others.
     This year, the amount of new AAA's was smaller, eight new stations. But the markets that got them were huge.
     First, there was Emmis' WRXP in New York City. A commercial station to go with the increasingly successful non-comm at Fordham University, WFUV.  Also in New York City, WNYE (Radio Liberation) signed on in March as a new public station featuring selected programming from KEXP in Seattle along with WXPN's "World Cafe" and their own on-air talent. This year, in the country's largest market, AAA is drinking radio's milkshake.
     In the nation's second largest market, Los Angeles, KCRW's legendary sound will now be complimented by Bonneville's new KSWD, which has sounded remarkable deep and well-programmed from the start. The addition of new air talent to both WRXP and KSWD has just begun so the jury is still out on the issue of on-air presentation, but the recent addition of MTV vet Matt Pinfield to the morning show at New York's WRXP shows great potential.
     In market #17, San Diego, the CBS Hot/AC KSCF moved towards a AAA position, especially in their re-currents and back catalog. In Denver, KTNI joined market and format pioneer KBCO and non-comm KCUV.
     In a surprise move, Entercom, while going through drastic cutbacks that indicated how difficult this year has been for commercial radio other than AAA, blew up KYYS in Kansas City and launched AAA KBLV, the Boulevard. Out in California, KPIG's network expanded to KZAP in Chico. Also joining the AAA fold were non-comm WEXT in Albany, New York and commercial stations WXRY in Columbia, South Carolina and WCTG in Salisbury/Ocean City, Maryland.
     The AAA format lost two stations last year. KSQY in Rapid City, South Dakota and WDOD in Chattanooga.
     Again, it has long been my position that the AAA format is the sole format in the current range of terrestrial music radio stations that can break through the public's obvious disconnect with radio in 2008, due to the lack of being special, topical or even relating to an audience. The vast majority of 2008 music radio formats has been ground down to a safe, mass-appeal background music service with an aim for a mass audience. In a day when shooting for the masses is no longer possible. AAA has aimed for a more achievable goal from the beginning. A niche of boomers with an appeal to Gen's X,Y and the millennials featuring cool songwriting craft and performance combined with an intelligent presentation of value. Topical, informative, cool. The kind of radio that actually communicates with its audience and talks to you like your friends naturally do. Something the rest of radio no longer provides. Because it costs too much. Provides too much  risk. Takes too much effort.
     The radio industry continues to decline on the whole. Business is down both locally and nationally according the RAB. Time spent listening to radio has been declining since 1989 according to Arbitron.
     The result has been that the AAA format is the only format in radio showing growth. Attracting and holding it's target audience. Billing better. Raising money better. All because they're working harder and have embraced the challenge of risk involved with creating a new and better product every day over the air.
      This is why people respond. They relate. They're loyal to their AAA station. And they're grateful when they're asked to support their non-comm in a fund drive or simply remember an advertiser on a commercial station.
       Interestingly, while the country has fallen into a recession, most non-comm AAA's have still met or exceeded their fundraising goals in the past year. This is because they have developed and continued a healthy relationship with their niche audience. Who are loyal.
       Now, in 2008's  tough economic times, that successful relationship with their niche has kept the AAA non-comms in better stead financially than their commercial brothers and sisters across the street.
     Who still don't even back announce what they've just played.
     Because they're sick of what they just played.
     You can hear it in their tone of voice. Tired, bored, uninspired. Totally no fun.
     AAA, as a format, has worked to stay away from that cheap, lazy posture from its beginning.
     While commercial music radio wallows in their hole. Digging deeper and deeper. AAA is standing on the ground listening to the wonderful new sounds.
     It's never that hard.
     See you Thursday night at the World Cafe Live with our Triplearadio.com/Spectre Music Opening Night Party with performances from Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings and Jim White starting at 11pm.

BIZ: I know not every non-comm uses NPR services but the fact is that our NON-COMMvention host this week, WXPN, has become the source for a huge number of NPR's online music channels and I find it a good source of big-picture accuracy to follow NPR's national numbers because it gives us such a good picture of the national trends on radio listenership. Last October 10, Sarah McBride pointed out in The Wall Street Journal that "NPR had 25.5 million listeners last year versus 13 million in 1997. They had 800 member stations up from 635 in 1997. NPR's 'Morning Edition' has risen across the country and is consistently the most popular morning show in Seattle."
        Speaking of Seattle, from Tom Taylor's "Taylor On Radio-Info" (www.radio-info.com/newsletter) on Friday May 16, 2008: " 'WHO'S REALLY #1 IN SEATTLE?' That would be public radio KUOW. This is a fascinating exercise for almost any Arbitron-rated market - unearthing the 12+ share for the popular non-comm stations and plugging them into the Arbitron-released rankings alongside the commercial stations. In the case of Seattle, the Post-Intelligencer's Bill Virgin did that and discovered that the University of Washington-owned KUOW (94.9) would handily beat out CHR KUBE (93.3) as the #1 station in the new Winter book. The shares? A 6.1 for the public station, and a 5.2 for Clear Channel's KUBE. You get similar results in other markets that have a high percentage of college graduates (and often, colleges). In Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, WUNC (91.5) regularly appears at or near the top of the heap in the Research Triangle. Ditto for KQED in San Francisco. And don't even ask about Ann Arbor. Arbitron's now salting in the non-comm stations as it rolls out the People Meter electronics ratings. That's going to be interesting at the buyer/agency level, at least in terms of the psychology." 
      No shit. Taylor, friend Jerry Del Colliano and other leading voices covering our radio industry today have all noticed that PPM not only picks up rock format listeners better than the diary method, it also now shows a tendency to better detect non-commercial radio listeners. Arbitron is only using the PPM in Houston and Philadelphia right now. It is still fighting to resolves problems with accreditation by agencies and sales to the big commercial ownership groups. But it's better than the diary's because it's more accurate and it picks up more of what listeners are actually listening to with the hardware tagging and remembering actual frequencies used. Now, if only Arbitron can start using cell phones to help establish samples. Come on. Gallup and the USA Today finally started using cells in their political polls this year. It is beyond imperative that Arbitron include cell phones in their ratings if they honestly expect to keep charging the  prices they do. It's 2008 and they've been talking about doing something with cells since 1998. Their excuses are now into the 3650-day column.
     For more on this topic at this week's NON-COMMvention in Phillie, there's a session scheduled at World Cafe/WXPN on Thursday afternoon between 2:30pm and 3:30pm called "Triple A in a PPM World" with Dave Sullivan of the Radio Research Consortium.

TV: Sweeps are over and the only highlights left this week are the season finale of "Lost" on ABC this Thursday from 9-11pm. The Oceanic 6 get rescued to set up next season. Maybe the island will be moved. I uh...we...uh...just keep watching. On DVR this week. Coldplay are set to perform Sunday on MTV's Movie Awards between 8 and 10pm. Mike Myers hosts...The talk shows are all repeats this week except for The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. No Stewart guests confirmed as of Monday night but Colbert will have authors Brian Greene and Tony Perkins on Tuesday, Senator Claire McCaskill on Wednesday and author David Sirotta on Thursday. My sister Debra will be singing with Donna Summer on the Letterman show next Monday by the way. She's the brunette.

MOVIES: "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" had the second-largest Memorial Day weekend opening ever. Taking in $151 million domestically from Thursday through tonight (Monday). Only last year's "Pirates od the Caribbean: At World's End" did better, with $153 million. Overall the long-awaited fourth installment took in $311 million worldwide. Go ahead. Just shoot the competition. "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" came in second with $28.6 million over the weekend followed by "Iron Man" with another healthy $25.7 million in third. "What Happens in Vegas" took $11.2 million for fourth and "Speed Racer" took in $5.2 million in fifth over the long five-day weekend. Weekend box-office was 16% below the same weekend last year with year-to-year revenue now off $3.4 billion and attendance off 7%. Next weekend it's "Sex and the City" in which Mr. Big makes the island move. I think. Also opening next weekend are director Tarsem Singh's "The Fall" and "The Strangers" starring Liv Tyler.

SCHMUTZ: This afternoon (Monday 5/26) AFTRA and the AMPTP (the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers) reached a tentative deal on the union's primetime contract. Meetings with the much larger talent agency, the SAG (Screen Actor's Guild) will start again on Wednesday. The AFTRA and SAG deals expire June 30. If no agreements are finalized, no TV or film production will take place after that because the actors will all be on strike...Veteran AAA programming whiz Mike Marrone, who is the current PD and air talent at XM Satellite's AAA channel, The Loft, now has a cool regular column in BusinessWeek and can be found online at BusinessWeek.com... An old Superstars PD told me this week that Lee Abrams first advice to the Chicago Tribune newspapers to increase their circulation was to tighten up and drop the C-2's and publish two sports sections on Tuesdays.

FINALLY: Sorry to say that we lost another radio icon this week in Orlando. Bill Vermillion, the legendary music director of Top 40 WLOF in the 60's and 70's passed away on Saturday. Bill had tremendous ears and was AOR sympatico WAY ahead of his time on LOF, which was a hip, funny and dominant AM station that inspired me, Lee Arnold and the others who went on to create free-form WORJ-FM in this town back in the 70's. To me, Bill Vermillion was an idol and an inspiration. He was the first jock I ever talked to over the phone while he was on-the-air. As a junior in high school I called him one day and we talked for 10 minutes about Spirit and their drummer Ed Cassidy's work with Roland Kirk. What? I was stunned. Later, as I worked at LOF doing interviews and then moved across town to join the ORJ cast, Bill remained a friend and ended up working with me across town by mixing and engineering all our shows on the Southern Progressive Radio Network  which included WORJ, WQSR in Tampa, WZTA in Miami, WPDQ in Jacksonville and a station in Sydney, Australia. It was an honor to watch him nail the specific sounds to make performers like Randy Newman and Emmylou Harris comfortable and happy in our little setup at BeeJay studios back in the mid-70's after leaving WLOF. The late Paul Yeskel was the one who booked all our shows. Sorry to lose both of them in the same year. But while they may not be here right now, they're not gone. I'll never forget Bill or Paul's joy and talent and my blessed good fortune to end up working with them.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 5/18/08

AAA Wins Season Finale of "So You Think You Can Program?"
    
     I broke my pelvis in a car wreck about a month ago and have been recuperating at home for the last month. Sunlight, calcium, ice, heat and my dear love Susan have finally healed me up to where I can return to work next week.
     However, being immobile since mid-April can drive one nuts. I've read Eric Clapton's and Patti Boyd's biographies (Patti's was sweet but didn't reveal that much about her lives with George Harrison and Clapton. Eric's book was a fascinating chronicle of addiction and recovery with tons of historic rock anecdotes).
     But since this was the last week of laying about, I spent most of it listening online to various AAA stations.
     The new major market format additions, WRXP in New York City and KRBV in Los Angeles both sounded great. RXP rocks more than the average AAA but their emphasis on new AAA acts was cool and deep. Some catalog tracks were too crunchy for me but I've been listening to radio way more than the average bear so I have to be forgiven if the only Supertramp songs I ever want to hear are "Gone Hollywood" and "Child of Vision" which, inexplicably, I haven't heard on the air since Reagan's first term. They were the first and last tracks on that zillion-selling Breakfast in America album and were played as much as the hits for about five years on AOR. But a music test in Michigan back in '84  KO'd that idea I presume.
     Overall, the playlist and on-air delivery is still evolving at WRXP so it's too early too judge. I'm just glad we have a station that qualifies as a fresh, worthy music outlet compared to the other commercial outlets in the largest market in America.
      KRBV in Los Angeles just hired a morning show (see Format News) as they work on getting their on-air staff together too. But they are plenty deep and the rotations sound fine to these ears for a station just out of the box. Tempo and flow also seem to be specifically in sync with a Los Angeles. In New York WRXP has a vibe that fits their market. People are on trains, grabbing cabs, moving. In L.A. KRBV appears to aim for a rolling, cosmopolitan vibe. Love hearing loads of deep Steely Dan tracks.
     The other commercial AAA I spent time with this week was WNCS up in Burlington/Montpelier. Zeb Norris is a program director who I've admired since he was in Albany back in the mid-90's. The music is in the pocket and the depth is fine. The thing that I was impressed with most at WNCS was the local connections. Yes, the NAB and the entire radio community has been talking long and hard about how radio's value in the increasingly competitive American pop culture market can be helped by a return to "localism". But, come on, the NAB and the big owners only talk about it, they don't do it. I must have heard three dozen specifically relatable public service, news and music comments covering Vermont during just one midday show last week. AAA knows how to do this. Sincerely and effectively relate to your audience.
      In the non-comm field, first I have to admit that the  lack of commercial breaks is so stunningly obvious and such a third millennial benefit that I wonder if, eventually, commercial radio will be able to evolve its presentation into a form that'll make the standard 30 and 60 second spots something of the past. This may be wishful thinking from a former program director but I think the market may force this evolution into a higher gear somewhere down the road.
     WAPS in Akron is still a wonderful station. Program Director Bill Gruber has built a playlist over the years that is both deep and familiar. More alternative than some AAA's but terrific energy and sharp song selection make APS one of my favorite stations. That's also what ex-MMS PD John Gorman told Gruber when he spoke in Akron a few months ago.
      Finally this week, I checked in on WXPN in Philadelphia, our host for the NON-COMMvention in a couple of weeks. PD Bruce Warren has always had great ears and amazingly, keeps track of just about every music genre out there. Yes, almost every respectable AAA PD and MD does too. But for the decade and a half that I've known him, Bruce has developed the ability to pick the right songs within the enormous world of AAA music. On a regular basis! The presentation is what knocked me out on WXPN. With a staff including Non-Comm founder Dan Reed and David Dye on the syndicated gem, The World Cafe, you consistently hear the knowledge, the accuracy, the topicality, the excitement that XPN jocks exhibit through every day I listened. Though they could adjust the clocks. I know the classic slots are 8:05, 8:30 and 8:50 every morning:)
     In the end, I loved spending so much time listening this week. Again, I heard what is missing so much from the rest of the current commercial music stations in the country. A vibrant product that engages people, relates to people  and actually creates positive word-of-mouth. Which means higher cume and more time-spent-listening.
     Since 1925 in this country, hasn't that always been the point of radio?
     Now in 2008, you only find the AAA format still doing that and flourishing in a time when radio is in deep trouble from the rise of the Internet, the explosion of new technology and the listening public's obvious distaste for soul-less, rote, corporate product.

BIZ: While I told you last week about how the new $14.5 billion deal between Sprint-Nextel, Clearwire, Intel, Google, Comcast, Time/Warner and Brighthouse would finally bring the availabilityof WiMax across the country by 2010, the other 4G technology coming is LTE. That's what will be deployed on the new frequencies recently sold at auction to A,T & T and Verizon. Sprint has been alone so far in fighting to build a national WiMax network. Now the rest of the big-boy carriers are coming to the game. LTE has been touted as a better technology on better frequency. Don't know about that but there's no denying that A,T & T and Verizon's spectrum will allow them better coverage with fewer attennas than Sprint which indicates lower deployment costs for their intial launch. Of course, as demand increases for service over these networks, the solution will always be more sticks. But the Sprint/Clearwire merger gives them a two-year head start on making  the Internet reachable wirelessly across the USA...One of the speakers at next week's NON-COMMvention in Philadelphia will be Radio and Internet Newsletter (R.A.I.N.) founder Kurt Hanson who, in his blog this week, talked about how he canceled his subscription to the Chicago Tribune after they shrunk their Sunday comics down to a virtually-unreadable size and then stuck them in a new tabloid-shaped section that combines the unreadable comics with TV listings and Internet recommendations, thus, in order to save money, removing one of the Tribune's most obvious historical values: the ability to read the Sunday comics in the family living room. Just as radio and records have cut their budgets in a misguided attempt to increase profits as their business models faced new competition, they senselessly have continued to reduce their value. The reason customers came to use these products originally. I couldn't agree more with Kurt.

TV: The Spring sweeps end on Wednesday but due to the writers strike and other factors, ABC will still have season finales of "Ugly Betty" and "Grey's Anatomy" on Thursday. "Grey's" two-hour wrapup means "Lost" won't end this season until its two-hour finale on Thursday, May 29. Set your DVR's if you're heading to Philadelphia...While most series are having finales this week, Comedy Central's "Reno 911" returns with a new season Thursday at 10:30PM...Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are both in repeats this week. Guests on new Letterman's this week will include Sara Bareilles on Monday, Leona Lewis on Tuesday, Jimmy Buffett on Wednesday and Republic Tigers on Thursday...On new Leno's this week he has Jason Mraz on Tuesday, Al Green on Wednesday, Tristan Prettyman! on Thursday and Colbie Caillat on Friday...This week on Conan it's Devotchka on Monday, Mates Of State on Tuesday and NPR's Ira Glass on Friday...Craig Ferguson has Estelle on Monday KD Lang on Wednesday and Duffy on Friday...On Jimmy Kimmel it will be the Kooks on Wednesday and Death Cab for Cutie on Thursday... Finally, ABC has the Indy 500 next Sunday starting at noon.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Beyonce' To Add Three More Accent Marks To Her Name."

MOVIES: "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" took in $56.6 million to top the weekend box-office though Disney expected $80 million and the first episode took in $65.6 m in its debut weekend. Disney hopes it'll have better legs into June. "Iron Man" fell to second with another great weekend, bringing in $31.2 million and passing $200 m. "Fox's "Whatever Happens in Vegas" stayed solid with another $13.9 million in third place followed by "Speed Racer" in fourth with only $7.6 million and "Baby Mama" in fifth with $4.6 million. The only thing opening next weekend is "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" from Steven Speilberg. It opened Cannes Thursday with an incredible first 20 minutes followed by a middling center and a terrific finish with the reunited Harrison Ford and Karen Allen. Cate Blanchett also gets great notices as the villain.

FINALLY: Reports tonight say Microsoft is preparing another offer for Yahoo this week while CBS bought CNET this week for $1.8 billion. Do they really think it's more valuable than YouTube? ($1.65B to Google).

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 5/11/08

WIMAX IN LOBBY AND WON'T LEAVE.
 
     It was all the way back in 2002, I think, that I first mentioned in this column about the great and inevitable impact of a new service that I had been turned onto by Larry Greenwood, a new friend I had made at the second NON-COMMvention in Louisville. Larry had been at MCI and told me about WiMax and its then untapped potential to revolutionize wi-fi and eventually, the whole new developing digital world.
     The facts were simple.
     WiMax could send data wirelessly for 30 miles instead of 300 feet and had a capacity like broadband.
     WiMax was 5 times faster than wi-fi with 500 times the reach.
     The idea that excited me was that WiMax would enable Internet radio channels to reach audiences large enough to monetize. Not just existing commercial stations streaming on the Web but opening them up for competition from other companies or individuals who would have the creativity, talent, energy and effort to provide a product still vital to American pop culture. In other words, stations that were actually worth listening to.
     I've kept you up to date on the progress in my Forest columns through the last six years and this week, WiMax finally took its first step into becoming the major force it has always promised to be.
     Wall Street had been wondering what new Sprint/Nextel CEO Dan Hesse would do to turn the tables in his losing battle against AT&T and Verizon.
     On Tuesday it was announced that a new $14.5 billion venture had been formed called Clearwire. It involved the merger of wireless pioneer Craig McCaw's company Clearwire with Sprint/Nextel to start. Clearwire's existing pre-WiMax broadband network will combine with Xohm, Sprint/Nextel's existing 4G WiMax network.
     Sprint, who has already spent $7.4 billion on its WiMax development, will own 51% of the new firm with Clearwire shareholders owning 27%.
     A consortium of Comcast, Time-Warner, Brighthouse, Intel and Google will invest $3.2 billion and own the rest.
     The cable companies want to add wireless service in the bundle of video, Internet and home phone services they package for their customers now.
     Google is betting this deal will help sell ads on cell phones and give traction to their android operating system for mobile phones. It will also be the search service for the new company.
     Intel already announced plans to embed WiMax chips into its new Centrino 2 processors for laptops and other mobile services. They will also heavily invest in promotion for the new company.
     The company will use the name Clearwire and McCaw will be the CEO and be on a board of 13.
     Clearwire aims to offer WiMax in a service area covering as many as 140 million people by the end of 2010 with rapid expansion to 200 million after that.
     One of my oldest friends, Brock Whaley, who runs a station group in Honolulu owned by Vision Related Entertainment (including rocker KPOI), told me today that since Clearwire is a major wi-fi provider on Oahu, he ran his own test for a drive around the island. He rigged a system together in his car and was stunned at how solid the stereo signal was as he listened to KNX Los Angeles, WDRV in Chicago and the BBC as he rolled around the island through the mountains without barely a signal dropout at all. And this is with Clearwire now!
     (When Mike Robertson first demonstrated his new invention, the MP3, at the Gavin convention in New Orleans in 1998, there were only three people who showed up for that event, Brock, Lenny Bronstein and myself. It was one of the signs that told me broadcasters could be in trouble. Thanks for letting us have all that time with Mike!)
     Brock's one of my most tech intelligent pals of all time and his testimony stunned both of us. As soon as Clearwire gets to market, it will be incredible and provide a major change to the choices that will be available to the average American.
     Not just on desktops, but Internet radio will soon be easily available in cars and on cell phones.
     Adding to the evidence of the market becoming ever more open to the services of WiMax is the fact that Chrysler, one of the nation's Big 3 auto makers, has announced that they will begin enabling all of its 2009 models with Internet capabilities this year. That USB-port wave is about to get bigger.
      And  there is absolutely no doubt that Steve Jobs at Apple is evolving the iPOD to function as a computer now.
      The fact is that WiMax will offer so much more competition to standard broadcast radio.
      And almost every broadcasting concern has yet to acknowledge it, much less plan for it.
      It has long been my conviction that AAA is in position to make the most of this new technology. By being the only major format still focusing on new music with an honest, interesting delivery, it will have the door opened first for this forthcoming explosion in potential new listeners.
      The non-commercial AAA stations soon to convene in Philadelphia for the upcoming eighth NON-COMM are even better suited for this new opportunity.
They won't be anchored to the possible death knell for Internet radio broadcasting.
      The dreaded 22 minutes per hour spots that commercial stations have to run to stay alive.
      Commercial AAA, and all the other commercial over-the-air music stations will eventually have to evolve away from this stop/start presentation. Either by evolving to a combination of vastly better production, shorter spots, higher rates, whatever.
       I see the inevitability of commercial music radio at least attempting to absorb the non-commercial techniques of non-coms. Hour or show sponsorship. Evolving to a new presentation of copy points.
       Or at least having a better product.
       Because WiMax will bring more competition than the current music broadcasting companies will ever be able to stop.

TV: It's season finale's all week already on the broadcast nets. "House" wraps up with a two-parter this Monday and next Monday at 9pm. "My Name Is Earl," "The Office" and "ER" all end this Thursday as does "Without a Trace". Next Sunday, "The Simpsons" and "Desperate Housewives" both end it for this strike-damaged season. New shows for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart this week will include Bill Moyers on Tuesday, Wall Street Journal/NBC political reporter John Harwood on Wednesday and Denis Leary on Thursday...Guests on The Colbert Report this week will include Dr. Mehmet C. Oz on Monday, author Jennifer Hooper McCarty on Tuesday, Laura Dern and anti-tax icon Grover Norquist on Wednesday and author Andrei Cherny on Thursday...Good week on Letterman with N.E.R.D. on Monday, Death Cab For Cutie on Tuesday and Kid Rock on Wednesday. Leno has Switchfoot on Tuesday, Kate Nash on Wednesday, Dwight Yoakum on Thursday and NON-COMM performer Kathleen Edwards on Friday...Conan has Duffy on Tuesday, The Black Keys on Wednesday, MGMT on Thursday and Everest on Friday...Craig Ferguson has JayMay on Monday...Jimmy Kimmel has Joe Jackson on Wednesday and Kate Nash on Friday. The season finale of SNL is this Saturday with host Steve Carell and musical guest Usher. My Morning Jacket kicked ass this past Saturday by the way.

BAND NAME OF THE WEEK: "Electrically Non-Conductive Ferromagnetic Ceramic Compounds."

MOVIES: "Iron Man" stayed at #1 over the weekend, falling only 51% from last week (OK for blockbusters) and taking in another $50.5 million. Warner Brothers and the Wachowski brothers underperformed drastically as their "Speed Racer," which cost $120 million to make, only took in $20.2 million for second place. In fact, when the final box-office numbers come out Monday it may not even beat the debut of "What Happens in Vegas" with Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, which took in $20 million in third place. Sony's "Made Of Honor" was fourth with $7.6 million and Tina Fey's "Baby Mama" continued to do well, grabbing another $5.8 million in fifth place. Overall, the weekend was a 16% improvement from the same weekend last year. "Speed Racer" will be praying for monster DVD sales because next week, Disney's "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," with terrific reviews, will open, likely leaving "SR" in the dust.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Number Of Acceptable Things Candidates Can Say Now Down To Four," in which it is revealed that only, "Thank You All For Coming," "God Bless America," "These Pancakes are Great," and "Death To The Infidels" are left for presidential candidates to utter in public without generating controversy.

SCHMUTZ: Program Directors Todd Kennedy of WFIT over in Melbourne and Zeb Norris at WNCS in Montpelier/Burlington, Vermont both assured me this week that they had Coldplay's "Violet Hill" on the air within twenty minutes of its appearance on the Web last week. Didn't mean to paint everybody with such a broad brush, but, other than AAA, none of the other existing music formats appear to give a flip about getting new music to their listeners. Simply asleep at the wheel...Also, I've done an interview with NON-COMM creator/director Dan Reed from WXPN. It's newly posted under Programming on our Triplearadio Web site.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk
                                             
Archive: 5/4/08

RADIO & ARBITRON - NOBODY'S HOME
 
     Despite the opinion of Paul Rudd's character in "40 Year Old Virgin" that, "if you like Coldplay. You're gay," I'm a fan. A hetero fan. A fan who didn't hear Coldplay's new single "Violet Hill" anywhere on Orlando radio this week.
     When the song became available from Coldplay.com last Tuesday, I downloaded it and listened to it repeatedly, letting the big, Brit, echoey, wall-of-sound build its hooks into me.
     "Violet Hill". Not anything earth-shaking. But a cool, Chris Martin tale with a sound I've become fond of through the last few years. Yeah, it's U2-lite, but it'll do until we get a new U2 record.
     As I sat listening on Tuesday afternoon, I remembered the excitement of getting hands on any superstar release during my 25 years working in radio. I would have aired it immediately and let the cease and desist fall where it may.
     I still haven't heard it on the air.
     Not hard enough for Clear Channel's WJRR's active-rock format. Now that they're the only rock station in town, why should they risk it?
     Not on CBS' Hot/AC, WOMX. New tracks aren't any priority there.
     How about Cox's classic rock WHTQ. Nope. They've drawn the line at Def Leppard and G&R as far as "new" artists.
     How about Cox's once AAA WMMO? Nope. New music left their playlist a few years back. It's just Boston and Matchbox over and over and...
     Even the non-comms here in Orlando are classical and jazz. Maybe the college station? Nope.
     I don't know. If you're a music station and new music isn't anywhere on your list of "important ingredients," is it any wonder?
     That Arbitron SVP/chief research officer Bob Patchen had to apologize after telling a monthly PPM conference call that the reason samples were down is because, "people don't like radio anymore".
     All of the big market, big company programming reps threw their arms up and cried how outrageous this statement was.
     Of course, they all know it's true or they wouldn't have reacted so angrily.
     They're deeply in denial and hoping their "act" will continue working on national radio ad agency reps for as long as possible.
     Nonetheless, Patchen apologized a few days later and Arbitron promised that they would be working harder on scraping up enough respondents for the 18-24 and 25-34 demographics. Especially males.
     Truth is, Arbitron has been talking about reaching the younger demos better for as long as I can remember.
     It is even worse in 2008 because the company, a monopoly in the radio ratings field, still doesn't use cell phones in getting the ratings for which it charges so much.
     This is not just a problem in getting accurate radio ratings. It's become a problem for all research in the U.S.
     For the first time ever, I heard MSNBC's Chris Mathews finally talk about the lack of cell phone usage in polling for the ongoing Democratic presidential race last week. Yeah, maybe that HAS led to so many polls being so far off the results this primary season. It's about time somebody brought the topic up.
      For the first time, the USA Today/Gallop Poll began using a representative sample of Americans who rely on cellphones rather than land lines for personal use starting with the New Hampshire primary this year. Gallup is now including about 130 cellphone-only respondents in each sample of 1,000 people on account of the growing number who use cellphones exclusively. When Gallup calls, the second question posed to those on cells, after confirmation, is: "For your safety, are you currently driving?" If respondents say yes, the poll taker sets a time to call back.
      So Gallup is at least shooting for 13% to start. Though I think, in reality, that the amount of folks using cellphones exclusively may be larger than 13%.
      Other polls have been slow to pick up on this and, in politics, the reigning pollsters still act out of touch and slow to evolve.
      In Arbitron's case, they've been saying, "we're studying the possibility," for the last few years. But they still have not incorporated cell phone users in the establishment of their samples.
      Initially, cell phone users were often using calling plans that charged them for the incoming calls. This was why pollsters and ratings services didn't call cells. Nowadays, such plans have evolved away.
      But the ratings and polling industries still act the same old way. Basing their stats and samples from people available only on land lines.
      Who believes these statistics?
      Society is evolving rapidly in this new hardware and digital age. It's time for the customers of this flawed methodology to evolve too.
      Yeah, people don't like radio anymore. Especially when they compare it to what it meant to them a decade or more back. Before deregulation led to the risk-free, bland product that radio has become today. When stations won't play a new Coldplay song until a VP of programming OK's it down the line maybe a month from now.
      The only stations that still provide a music service that's still compelling, are stations like AAA. And the non-commercial AAA stations that will convene in Philadelphia later this month are way ahead of the curve, because they have a format constructed without the old five-minute ad clusters that are the true death of music radio today. It's hard for boomers like me to stay tuned to a station through another spot cluster. I'm rarely convinced that there is something worthwhile on the other side of it.
      Generations X and Y don't even consider it. They're gone.
      When Arbitron starts using cells to complete its samples. The truth may really kill those still in denial.

TV: The spastic network schedule resulting from the writers' strike gives us the season finale of "30 Rock" this Thursday at 9:30pm Matthew Broderick and Edie Falco guest star as Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) faces a positive pregnancy test while Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin) leaves GE to become Bush's new Homeland Security director for Crisis and Weather Management...Only two guests confirmed for The Daily Show With Jon Stewart as of this writing. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will be there Monday and Newsweek Middle East bureau chief Fareed Zakaria will stop by on Tuesday. Guests on The Colbert Report this week will include author Carl Hiaasen on Monday, singer Nathan Gunn on Tuesday, authors Hasan Elahi and George Johnson on Wednesday and Arianna Huffington on Thursday...New on Letterman this week will be Jimmy Eat World on Monday, Steve Winwood on Tuesday and Panic At The Disco on Thursday...On Leno this week, it's KT Tunstall on Tuesday and Carly  Simon on Friday...Mike Doughty is on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on Wednesday...This week on Conan, it's Thrice on Monday, Galactic on Tuesday, The Duke Spirit on Wednesday and Tokio Hotel on Friday...Finally, there's a new SNL this weekend with Shia Lebeouf and My Morning Jacket.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: " Hillary Receives 3 A.M. Phone Call From Drunken Bill Clinton".

MOVIES: "Iron Man" opened almost $20 million better than expected by having the largest opening of the year so far, at $100.7 million, to kick-off the summer movie season. "Iron Man" was the second best premiere ever for a non-sequel (Spiderman One took in #114m). Debuting in second place was "Made Of Honor" with Patrick Dempsey taking in $15.5 million. Third place was "Baby Mama" with $10.3 million followed by "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" in fourth with $6.1 million and in fifth, "Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay," took in another $6 million. In limited release, David Mamet's martial-arts drama "Redbelt" opened solidly with $68,646 in six theaters. "Son of Rambow," a comedy about two British boys making their own "Rambo" movie, also opened well with $52,549 in five theaters. Both go wider this weekend. Despite the pop for Marvel Studios' "Iron Man," box-office was down compared to the same weekend last year when "Spiderman 3" opened. Movie  attendance remains down 6% for the year so far. Now that the summer season is on, that means a major studio release every weekend now. Up next is "Speed Racer" from Warner Brothers and the Wachowski brothers ("The Matrix") starring Emile Hirsch and Christina Ricci. Reviews point out dazzling FX, a zillion 3-second shot cuts and a target of kids. Also opening will be "What Happens in Vegas" starring Aston Kutcher and Cameron Diaz in a standard rom-com workout. OK reviews.

SCHMUTZ: Great Winter book for WXRT Chicago. 2.3 from 1.8!...One of the few women not romantically linked to Roger Clemens this week released a terrific new CD. Hello...x from Tristan Prettyman has been on my list this week along with Coldplay...I love it when newscasters announce "this exclusive first look" to a story that is nothing more than a free ad...Glad to see Rich McLaughlin segue from Sirius Alt.Nation 21 and Left of Center 26 over to content director at WFUV. Coupling of the month...Finally, there are now 201 House members who have signed on to support House Concurrent Resolution 244 which is "Congress should not impose any new performance fee, tax, royalty or other charge relating to the public performance of sound recordings over-the-air, or, on any other business for such public performance of sound." This is even before Congress actually focuses on the proposed radio giveaway to the labels the RIAA so desperately wants. Never had a  prayer.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 4/27/08

SERVER NOT AVAILABLE?
    
     I saw an interesting news item on C/Net earlier this month. The headline read, "AT&T Says Internet Will Reach Capacity By 2010."  In the article, AT&T VP of legislative affairs Jim Cicconi told the Westminster eForum in London that, without investment, the Internet's current network architecture will reach the limits of its capacity by 2010, primarily due to increasing amounts of video and user-generated content being uploaded.
     "The surge in online content is at the center of the most dramatic changes affecting the Internet today", Cicconi said. "In three years' time, 20 typical households will generate more traffic than the entire Internet today. Today, eight hours of video is loaded onto YouTube every minute. Everything will become HD next year, and HD is seven to ten times more bandwidth hungry than typical video today. Video will be 80% of all Web traffic by 2010, up from 30% today."
     According to Cicconi, $55 billion will be needed in U.S. infrastructure alone. $130 billion worldwide. He pointed out that the "unprecedented new wave of broadband traffic would increase 50-fold by 2015", and that AT&T is investing $19 billion to maintain its network and to upgrade its backbone network.
     What does this mean? Why the chicken little "the sky is falling" routine? In truth, one has to remember that Cicconi is the legislative main-guy at AT&T and prefers to remind people how much time and money is being spent on research and development by the company to save the Internet. And AT&T doesn't want the government to enforce something like the Net Neutrality Act, which would mean regulation the phone companies and ISP's don't want. So that's his angle.
      The fact is, private industry runs much of the Internet. AT&T's saying to government, "you wanna spend this kinda money?"
      It's just another indication of how young we are in this new digital world. There are few economical standards to replicate. There is almost no precedent law. No traditions. And we may be heading towards a wall soon.
      Just a reminder that, as radio, television, newspapers, record companies, telephone companies and Internet pioneers face this new "flat age," as New York Times columnist Tom Friedman put it, we still got a long way home.
      Get ready for massive changes in "conventional thinking" as to how to do business in the new digital media world.

BIZ: Last week we had Procter & Gamble announce their new record label,"Tag," so as to enchant hip-hop fans to use their "Tag" deodorant products. This week, Starbucks handed off their Hear Music label to Concord because they weren't having successes like Ray Charles' "Genius Loves Company" every quarter. Remember, just because anybody can be a label nowadays, that doesn't always mean it's a good idea or that they'll know what they're doing.

TV: The sweeps started this past Thursday so everything is new through June for the broadcast nets. On cable, Ira Glass returns to Showtime for another season starting next Sunday, May 4 at 10pm...SNL is a repeat this weekend with Jonah Hill and Mariah Carey. Shia Lebeouf/My Morning Jacket on the next new show May 10...NBC this week announced that Jimmy Fallon will replace Conan O'Brien when Conan replaces Jay Leno on The Tonight Show next year...This week's musical guests on Leno include Brit sensation Duffy on Monday, Natasha Bedingfield on Tuesday, Augustana on Wednesday, Avril Lavigne on Thursday and Sleepercar on Friday...Letterman has the Roots on Monday and Nick Lowe on Friday...Conan has Santogold on Monday, The Kills on Tuesday, Feist on Wednesday and Was (Not Was) on Friday...Craig Ferguson has Morrissey on both Monday and Tuesday this week along with The Grand Archives on Wednesday and She & Him on Thursday...Jimmy Kimmel has Def Leppard  on Wednesday, the reunited Stone Temple Pilots on Thursday and Estelle on Friday...Both Jon and Stephen are new this week. Guests on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart will be former President Jimmy Carter on Monday, former Speaker Newt Gingrich on Tuesday, historian Robert Schlesinger on Wednesday and current Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean on Thursday. On The Colbert Report this week, it's Feist on Monday, author Anne Lamott on Tuesday, author Noah Feldman on Wednesday and author James Kunstler on Thursday.

MOVIES: Tina Fey's "Baby Mama" opened better than expected this weekend and took the #1 slot with a box-office take of $18.3 million. Opening in second place was "Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay" with $14.6 million. Some thought Universal might be killing itself by opening so many comedies in a row but "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" held steady at #4 with another $11 million followed by "Nim's Island" with $4.5 million in the fifth position. Overall it was the second "up" weekend in a row at the box-office compared to last year. 17%. Next weekend, summer officially begins for the studios as Marvel's "Iron Man" opens. Starring Robert Downey Jr. in the title role and Gwyneth Paltrow as the squeeze, very favorable reviews have already popped up. Looks like a hit. We'll see how much of a hit. Also opening Friday is "Made of Honor" starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan in a reversal of the "My Best Friend's Wedding" plot and "The Life  Before Her Eyes" starring Uma Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood. The charming Young@ Heart continues to go wider on more screens too. One more business note: "Pan's Labyrinth" director Guillermo del Toro was chosen this week to do "The Hobbit" for producer Peter Jackson. It will come out in two features. The first in 2011.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Southwest Airlines Now Taking Passengers To Destinations By Shuttle Bus."

SCHMUTZ: You can see the entire article under our Triplearadio.com Format News, but I am so happy to see KRCL in Salt Lake City and KDHX in St.Louis each restructure their format to better attract listeners. Both stations are longtime "community" stations and have had to deal with angry board meetings and sometimes bitter feedback from some listeners after breaking up their block-gramming for a more consistent sound. Both stations are doing this for one reason. NO ONE'S LISTENING. And both station's were in danger of losing their CPB funding. Reminds me of the "too hip" days back in the 70's when certain AOR jocks had to learn that their audience wasn't primarily Rolling Stone and Creem record reviewers. Today, one has to program to that "sweet spot" in the middle so you've got a target audience to actually save and keep. Remember that working at the absolutes at either side of the spectrum doesn't work anymore. Too-safe and too-hip are death to broadcast music radio...Here's the sweet spot. At Coachella Saturday night, Prince ended his headline set with covers of Radiohead's "Creep" and "Come Together" from the Beatles. Here in Orlando at the Amway Arena Wednesday night, Bruce Springsteen, returning to the road after Danny Federici's funeral, took a written request from a member of the crowd and then did it.
"Jungleland". Spine tingling.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 4/13/08

YOU DON'T NEED A WEATHERMAN.

     It's 2008 and both Wall Street and the listening public regard radio, in the words of recent Project Runway winner Christain Siriano, as a "hot, tranny mess." No, actually, if it was that, people might be talking about it.
     Listenership and billing declines since deregulation have resulted in zero growth. All caused by the industry's evolution to a cheap, generic product. Three or four consultant lists dominate the sameness heard on thousands of music stations across the country in every format, while the talk formats are 99% syndication. Talent has been eliminated because it costs too much. Localism is dead.
     It has crushed the appeal of the medium drastically. Nowadays, people still turn on their tuners, but radio, to these eyes and ears, is now used primarily as a utility. The songs are the same every day, and they're obviously familiar enough. But music presented this way often appears far in the background in the businesses and homes I've visited in the last several years. God, it's even missing from the lobbies of radio stations I've visited (there is no AAA here in Orlando). Folks are using their cells in the car so the radio volume is lower there too. If it's on at all.
     How one gets copy points for an advertiser through this treacle to a customer is beyond me. No wonder revenue is down.
     I've long advocated the AAA, or the adult-rock format, as one savior for the industry. Thousands of arbitrarily unplayed but obviously worthy songs and artists are available for play. Plus, the appeal of AAA to both boomers and the college demo provides an awfully attractive audience. During the last decade and a half, it's been consistently shown that most commercial AAA stations bill higher amounts than their rated audience share would normally indicate. That the AAA "power-rating" (percentage of a market's radio advertising billed by a station versus the percentage of listeners that station gets in a market) has always been among the highest in the business, often between 1 and 2 times. This means AAA stations can charge more per spot because their listeners are extremely desirable and listen longer. At the same time, non-commercial AAA radio fund drives are setting records and getting shorter as their audience has exploded. The ability to  deliver these kinds of customers is why Google is over $450 a share. The ability to deliver specific customers to its accounts.
     AAA does it in radio today and has been doing so since its beginning.
     Plus, AAA is a terrific product. Who else plays Radiohead, Coldplay, Sheryl Crow, Neil Young, Dave Mathews, Jack Johnson, REM, Amy Winehouse, U2 and Bob Dylan? And those are just the obvious box-office appeals. Who else plays the Long-Tail artists that just popped into your head? AAA!
     Our format also communicates with it's listeners. Information on the music and the lifestyle and the sensibilities that go with it. When you add news and localism and sincere personalities, it's easy to see how a loyal P-1 audience is gathered in radio's tough times here in the new flattened digital age.
     Last month, Emmis Broadcasting brought commercial AAA radio back to New York City, the largest market in the country, when they flipped their lackluster smooth jazz station WQCD to WRXP, "The New York Rock Experience," a AAA with an up-tempo edge. An interview with Emmis Vice-President of Programming Jimmy Steal, an old friend, is currently posted on Triplearadio.com under our Programming section. By the way, they have a new, complete streaming Web site up this week too. It's at 1019RXP.com. They're sometimes harder than a typical AAA but they're covering the obvious songs and artists long missing from the New York airwaves and they cover the AAA Long Tail just fine.
     Then last week, after buying Radio One's Urban AC KRBV-FM in Los Angeles, Bonneville flipped it to AAA, "100.3 The Sound. World Class Rock For Southern California," bringing commercial AAA back to the second-largest market in the country.
      Reportedly, Bonneville President Bruce Reese's favorite station is KFOG in San Francisco so he's a man with good taste and some business acumen.
      Two new AAA's in the top two American cities from two different companies.
      Somethings happening here.
      Can you ask for a better way out of a "hot, tranny mess"?

BIZ: Speaking of Bob Dylan, he received the first Pulitzer Prize ever awarded to a rock musician this week. While Pulitzers are primarily a journalism award, jazz and classical music have dominated their music awards throughout the twentieth century up until now. Dylan was given the honorary Pulitzer for his "profound impact on popular music and American culture marked by compositions of extraordinary power." That's why you can only hear him on AAA radio...Rumors were everywhere this week. Will Bonneville buy Emmis? Will Time/Warner sell AOL to Yahoo? Will Microsoft get Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to join them in buying Yahoo so they package MySpace, MSN and Yahoo together in a new form of online critical mass?  (No.No.Maybe)...Oh, and this just in from Artie Lange - "Howard Needs a Headline!".

TV: The Wall Street Journal reported this week that it was a possibility that Katie Couric would leave "The CBS Evening News" as soon as this January, although her contract still runs for another three years. Katie never brought the expected audience that CBS thought she would as the show sounds terrible, weighed down by 70's era semantics and puff pieces. I'm particularly fed up with all those contrived "Thank you Bob," "Thank you Lara," rejoins to obviously canned reports. It's just a ton of jargon clogging up the newscast. Fact is, it's simply a different day and age since this idea first popped up back in the late 90's and Couric just doesn't sound effective grinding this show out...Speaking of "Project Runway," the producers of the show, The Weinstein brothers, signed a new five-year deal to move the show from Bravo over to Lifetime starting in November. NBC/Universal, which owns Bravo, is suing the Weinsteins on accusations that they didn't get an  opportunity to bid on the show. Won't work. "Project Runway" still has to deliver one more show-cycle to Bravo, which will run in June/July followed by the Lifetime debut in the Fall. That will mean "Runway," which has become the highest-rated reality series on cable, will have three "seasons" in 2008. Is that gonna be fierce or a fast burnout on the concept? We'll see...On new TV listings this week, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart will have new shows but the list of guests wasn't available on Sunday night. The Colbert Report will be live from Philadelphia this week leading up to the Pennsylvania Democratic Primary a week from Tuesday. Guests with Stephen will include John Legend, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and MSNBC's Chris Mathews on Monday, The Roots on Tuesday, The Philadelphia Eagles cheerleaders and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell on Wednesday and Representative Patrick Murphy on Thursday...Letterman is new this week with Rogue Wave on Tuesday, The Gossip on Wednesday and The Black Keys on Thursday...On new Lenos it's Ingrid Michaelson on Tuesday, The Young @ Heart Chorus on Wednesday and Flogging Molly on Friday...Craig Ferguson has Daniel Lanois on Monday, BellX1 on Wednesday and Morrissey on Friday...Judd Apatow and Lyrics Born on Jimmy Kimmel this Friday...Conan's in repeats this week with Spoon on Monday and The Kooks on Friday...I got SNL wrong last Saturday so I'll switch from checking the NBC website and go back to checking Lorne's live tape if I miss the show. Amy Adams and Vampire Weekend are in a repeat this weekend. The next new SNL will feature Shia Labeouf and My Morning Jacket on May 10.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Charlton Heston's Gun Taken From His Cold, Dead Hands."

MOVIES: "Prom Night," Sony's remake of the 1980 slasher flick, opened at #1 with $22.7 million over the weekend. Fox's "Street Kings" starring the incredibly stiff Keanu Reeves, debuted in second with only $12 million barely beating out Sony's "21" which had $11 million in third place. The weekend's only other top ten debut was Miramax' "Smart People" with Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker which debuted with $4.2 million in seventh place. Fox's Young@ Heart which features elderly singers averaging 80 years old singing songs from the Clash, Coldplay and the Talking Heads opened solidly at four locations in New York and L.A. with $63,606. It goes to 28 cities next weekend. Overall the weekend box-office was down 16% from the same weekend last year, continuing the studio's 2008 slump. Opening this weekend is "88 Minutes" with Al Pacino, "Forbidden Kingdom" with Jet Li and Jackie Chan, "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" starring Jason Segel, Kristen Bell and  Mila Kunis from the Judd Apatow comedy machine, "Pathology" starring Milo Ventimiglia, "Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden" from director Morgan Spurlock and "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed" starring Ben Stein. Jason Reitman's "Juno" comes out on DVD this Tuesday.

THIS JUST IN: It now appears that Katie Couric will become the ninth new program director for Sam Zell's Tribune company at WGN in Chicago. Be back April 27.

—Mike Lyons

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Archive: 4/6/08

SCHMUTZ. NOTHING BUT SCHMUTZ...

Just emptying the notebook this week:
 
Now that Sam Zell's Tribune Company has hired Clear Channel Programming VP Marc Chase and two other CC execs to join Randy Michaels and Lee Abrams, among others, at the Tribune Company, you wonder how many more programmers will be needed to take care of Tribune Broadcasting's sole radio property, WGN, Chicago. Who's kidding who? You don't suddenly accumulate this wealth of radio programming talent unless you were about to expand. After the Wall Street Journal declared the Clear Channel deal to go private "dead" last week, the only possibility left for the Mays family is to start spinning off stations to get some kind of health on their bottom line. Could start any day. Especially with the smaller markets.
 
What a week for Jay-Z! He marries both Beyonce and Live Nation, who also picked up 270 degrees of U2. Stunning to first see Madonna leave Warners for Live Nation and now Jay-Z leave Universal for Live Nation. U2 re-upped with Universal last year so that's not part of their deal but, Jesus, the labels are losing huge, money-making brands in their hour of need. At least they inspired a great hit by Sara Bareilles. That's the big guys best move since 1998.
 
IS: Reuters reported on Thursday that the NPD Group has now certified that Apple's iTunes Music Store has passed Wal-Mart to become the number one music seller in the country. Last month, Wal-Mart reportedly insisted to the major label groups that they drastically cut their wholesale price to between $5 to $9 per unit or that Wal-Mart, which now has 127 million customers nationwide every week, might stop racking CD's in it's stores. What's next for the big labels? Well this week Sony/BMG, WMG and UMG cut a deal with Rupert Murdoch to create MySpaceMusic by the end of the year. Songs, albums, merchandise, ringtones, the whole shmear. Then on Friday we hear about 50 Cent creating his own social network on the Web. Will the labels ever be able to be fast enough to get ahead of the curve?
 
THIS THING: Speaking at the Kagan Summit last week, noted broadcast attorney David Oxenford warned radio that the labels are aiming for as much as one-fourth to one-third of radio's gross revenues in their attempt to get a new Performance Royalty Tax applied in this country. Too little too late? Too much too late. Does anybody really believe that the broadcasting industry would accept this? It's both greedy and logic free. Talk about blowing up a village to save it. Uh uh. Not gonna happen. Not in this economy.
 
ON?: Then there was news last week that the major labels are about to get serious in pursuing Universal CEO Doug Morris' Total Music concept in talks with Apple. The Total Music concept involves providing free access to music tied to a specific device in return for a cut of the device price, essentially bundling the cost of a year's worth of music into the cost of the device. Another version of the labels "su