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."

7/20/08

LAST CHANCE FOR HD?
    
     I saw this story in Radio & Records on Friday:
"Advertising guru Barry Lowenthal, president of the Media Kitchen, told attendees of a Wachovia Media Team teleconference Friday morning that, 'radio has not been able to increase its CPM's in a meaningful way because its audience is not increasing. In fact, its audience is probably decreasing. The product is poor for the most part. You have your big celebrity DJ's, but for the most part, the quality of radio content is just not very good.'"
     AAA, be very grateful for who you are right now. The rest of radio, particularly other music formats, is hurting right now. Ain't nobody jazzed about the same songs over and over or the card-reading blandness that usually fills the space between songs. And you think people are listening to the commercials?
     Obviously, more and more advertisers don't.
     The Radio Advertising Bureau (RAB) released it's June billing numbers on Monday and they were down 10% locally and down 13% nationally in June.
     The radio industry continues to ridicule and complain about the Personal People Meters in the trade and business press.
     Arbitron didn't help their cause when they first announced last Monday that they've "gotten their best data ever!"
     Followed by the revelation Thursday that in-tab PPM in the 18-34 demo was down 10%
     Who wants to take this incoherent business seriously?
     At least AAA billing is doing just fine and the numbers are looking just fine.
     They've taken the risk of investing time, trust and capitol in people who can deliver valuable product to a loyal, well-off demographic.
     And they're playing so many of the thousands and thousands of songs that inexplicably are not on the corporate playlists.
     It's paying off.
     
    Next up: Internet radio and HD radio.
    Looks like HD radio will get its last chance to actually make it or break it in the American marketplace as FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein (D) says he is ready to join chairman Kevin Martin (R) and Robert McDowell (R) in voting to confirm the XM/Sirius merger under certain conditions. One Adelstein condition would include requiring new satellite tuners to be HD ready.
    Their is speculation that Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin may be ready to accept the deal if it will assure the merger approval.
    That decision, combined with the price of HD tuners finally falling below $100, would give the NAB what they say they need to get HD established.
    The increased availability of tuners would be accompanied by a comfortable price point finally.
    Now, you'd have to have a reason to tune in.
    AAA is now and would be one of the main attractions in the HD side channels.
    Bring 'em on!
  
    The debut of the new Apple iPhone, which is 3G and only $199, is blowing out doors. Pandora's success with the iPhone makes Internet radio look like it'll surely benefit.
Pandora found itself as the #3 most added application to the iPhone out of more than 600 apps available! Pandora says it has streamed over 3 million songs over 200,000 created stations in the first week, attracting one new iPhone listener every two seconds since the launch. Listeners are averaging close to an hour a day.
   AAA can't wait until WiMax hits the market.

MOVIES: Boy! Do they miss Heath Ledger! Warner Brothers and director Christopher Nolan's Batman saga, "The Darkest Knight," had the biggest film opening ever as it took in a record $155.34 million over the weekend, passing last year's $151.1 million opening of "Spiderman 3". Universal's  female targeted alternative, "Mamma Mia," debuted well in second place with $27.6 million. "Hancock" took in another $14 million in third followed by "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with $11.9 million and "Hellboy II" in fifth with $10 million. The weekend's other debut, Fox's "Space Chimps," disappointed with a less than expected $7.4 million in seventh place. Fox was still sweltering after Eddie Murphy's "Meet Dave" died in its inaugural last weekend and the under-performance of "Chimps" led Fox veepee's to blame others underneath them and even people walking by in the parking lot. Drinks were consumed and swear words filled the adjacent spectrum.
Too bad. Didn't help...Opening next weekend is "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" with David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson from creator/director Chris Carter and against that, "Step Brothers," with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. Coming the week after that (August 1) will be "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor with Brendan Fraser," "Swing Vote" with Kevin Costner, "Brideshead Revisited" with Emma Thompson, "The Rocker" with Rainn Wilson and finally, "Midnight Meat Train" with Vinnie Jones. And the award goes to...

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Recession-Plagued Nation Demands New Bubble To Invest In."

TV: The buzz for the second season of AMC's "Mad Men" increased exponentially this week as it collected a Woodie full of Emmy nominations. It will begin that season this Sunday at 10pm...See if you can follow these names in the correct direction: Rachel Maddow-Keith Olbermann-Katie Couric. Stop the music!...Musical and other guests this week. Shows always new unless indicated otherwise. On Letterman it's Augustana on Tuesday, Grizzly Bear on Wednesday and the Black Kids on Thursday...On Leno, he has Alanis Morissette on Monday, The Duke Spirit on Tuesday, The Time on Wednesday and Gnarls Barkley on Monday 7/28...This week on the now Sarah Silverman-less Jimmy Kimmel Show, it's Alanis Morissette on Tuesday, Los Lonely Boys on Wednesday and Does It Offend You Yeah? on Thursday...Craig Ferguson welcomes Jakob Dylan on Wednesday 7/30 and The Hold Steady on Friday 8/1...Conan has The Ting Tings this Monday...On The Daily Show With Jon Stewart this week it is author Richard Bittner on Monday, Will Ferrell on Tuesday, author T.J. English on Wednesday and George Michael on Thursday...Guests on The Colbert Report this week will be Senator Jim Webb on Monday, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Tuesday, a performance by Nas on Wednesday and astronaut Garrett Reisman on Thursday. The week after that it'll be a performance by Toby Keith on Monday 7/28, Kevin Costner on Tuesday 7/29, a performance by Crosby, Stills and Nash on Wednesday July 30 and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Thursday July 31.

SONG OF THE WEEK: "Taking the Farm" by The War On Drugs. What are they putting in the water up in Philadelphia? It's booming like '92 or '67 up there.

SCHMUTZ: Chicago Tribune editor Anne Marie Lipinski resigned last week as did the publisher of the Los Angeles Times and the Orlando Sentinel's Tallahassee bureau chief after 25 years. Newspaper bodies continued to hit the floor in Atlanta and Honolulu among many others. The people keep leaving while they can still keep their dignity...NPR's "Bryant Park Project," a hipper version of "Morning Edition" with host Alison Stewart (MTV, MSNBC) had the plug pulled after over 9 months (mostly online). Cost too much...Comic-Con comes to San Diego this week. Over 125,000 expected. Zack Snyder's (300) version of "Watchmen" will get a first look as will J.J. Abrams ("Lost") new "Star Trek" flick (with Winona Ryder as Spock's mom!). Folks will also get a look at "Buffy" creator Joss Whedon's new series "Dollhouse" coming to Fox in January.

FINALLY: Off to the beach. The next Forest will be on August 3.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk
                                                                    
Archive: 7/13/08
 
SUICIDE ISN'T PAINLESS: HOW AAA WILL CONTINUE TO BEAT THE STREET
 
     "The marketing community, already dealing with a slumping economy and an increasingly consumer-controlled media marketplace, must confront another reality: The face of the American consumer is changing rapidly."
     "It's not news that the nation is aging, but the fact that the average U.S. head of household is just six months shy of 50 is a startling statistic."
     So begins Peter Franchese's cover story headlined, "The Changing Face of the U.S. Consumer" from the July 7 edition of Advertising Age magazine.
      Ad Age decided to include me in a free three month subscription so, as I usually do with any publication (OCD or cute personal habit? You decide), I read these issues cover to cover.
      The article by Franchese reveals what we can learn from census data and what it means for both brands and the American economy as a whole.
      The main point made is that the baby-boomer generation will continue to make an enormous and important impact on our national economic well-being.
      "The average U.S. head of household is now nearly 50 years old (49.5, to be precise). But here's the bigger story: More than 80% of the growth in the number of households in the next five years will be among those headed by people 55 and older. That's pretty scary stuff for the youth-obsessed."
      What Advertising Age is telling the advertising industry on it's front page is that the industry standard of focusing exclusively on the young so that you can influence their consumer decisions and cement brand-loyalty into them for life is a mistake.
      Because the available money is still with the baby-boomer generation as it ages.
      Commercial music radio committed suicide after deregulation by slashing product development fees by eliminating on-air talent and programmers.
      The same 300 songs, six clocks and one slogans at every station across the country in every genre.
      Suicide. Time spent listening down, cume down, billing down. Value down.
      The record labels still make 80% of their money from $20 CD's, so even though the market has demonstrated a massive turn from album purchases to song purchases, labels still focus on CD sales after inexplicably refusing to market songs through the Internet. Oh, and just before the explosion of the Web, the labels officially abandoned marketing singles.
      Suicide. What was Warner's share on Friday? $7.22? Less than half of what it was a year ago.
      You don't even want to talk about radio's public stock average's last week. Start with Citadel at 83 cents.
       "Can these older consumers (55+) whom many in marketing have ignored for so long, pick up the spending slack? Well, they've been doing pretty well lately. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports in its annual consumer-spending surveys that households headed by people 55 to 64 increased their total spending at almost twice the rate of all households (60% vs. 32%) in the most recent five-year survey period. No other age group comes even close to that growth rate."
      Francheses's article points out that since generations X and Y are smaller than the boomer generation, they don't provide as much spending as the boomer generation. The boomers saved, gens X and Y have zero savings and a mountain of debt. Much larger than their boomer precedents ever had.
      Boomers have pensions and health insurance, especially if they're veterans or ex-government workers. They've had investments longer so the nut is bigger.
      And they are not retiring. They're continuing to work. And spend.
      It's just that I've seen for the last twenty years, first in classic rock and then in AAA, an aversion to buying older demos on the regional and national ad agency level.
      We've all been fighting that for our entire careers on the commercial AAA side of the aisle.
      It's just tremendously encouraging to see Advertising Age shining a long-delayed light on the simple fact that AAA programmers and managers have known from the start.
      GO WHERE THE MONEY IS!
      AAA's been waiting for you...

BIZ: Here's another item that shows you how much and how fast the world is changing. From Variety last week. "Broadband Internet TV has overtaken cable TV in France according to audience measurement company Mediametrie." In its latest Pay-TV report, which includes IPTV data for the first time, Mediametrie estimates French ADSL TV viewers at 8.5 million as of June 15 versus 6.0 million for cable. Results underscore France's status as Europe's most vibrant Internet TV market, energized by deep-pocketed aggressive IPTV operators such as France Telecom-Orange, Free and SFR-Neuf Cegetec. "ADSL TV is free for all broadband subscribers in France and it will continue to grow. Cable will most probably stagnate," said Francois Godard, an analyst London-based Enders Analysis. I knew the world was flattening but some parts of the world are flatter than others already. I had no idea broadband Internet TV viewing had passed cable viewing anywhere yet. But in Europe the relationship of regulators and ISP companies is way ahead of anything in the U.S. market...Don't know if this will turn around EMI's fortune's but their new CEO of the recorded music division is Elio Leoni-Sceti, the former senior manager of household cleaning products at Procter & Gamble. That should do it.

TV: A new season of "The Closer" with Kyra Sedgwick starts Monday at 9pm on TNT followed by the season debut of "Saving Grace" with Holly Hunter at 10pm, also on TNT....On Tuesday, Major League Baseball holds its last All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium (it's being replaced by a new one immediately next door after this season). It's on Fox. Look for shots of...MAH-donna..."Project Runway" returns for it's last season on Bravo this Wednesday at 9pm. Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia, Michael Kors and Tim Gunn are back. Show owner, The Weinstein Company, is in legal wars with NBCU but plans to move the show to Lifetime and Los Angeles for a new season with new producers this Fall...VH-1 Rock Honors: The Who will be this Thursday from 9-11pm. and then at least once a day on VH-1 through Labor Day...Get ready for Boo Weekley Fever! Tiger's here and not there but ABC and The Golf Channel will cover the British Open from Royal Birkdale starting Thursday morning...Every show's new this week. Letterman has Jason Mraz on Monday, The Hold Steady on Wednesday, John Mellencamp on Thursday and David Sedaris on Friday...Leno has James Hunter on Monday, Jakob Dylan on Tuesday, Gavin Rossdale on Wednesday and Coldplay on Thursday...Conan has K.T. Tunstall on Tuesday, Dr. Dog on Thursday and the Steeldrivers on Friday...Jimmy Kimmel has the Cool Kids on Thursday and Minus the Bear on Friday...Comedy Central has new Daily Shows With Jon Stewart and Colbert Reports this week but guest lists weren't available at press time.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "GIANT UNDERSEA CEPHALOPODS TARGETED BY PEPSI." And maybe EMI now.

MOVIES: Guillermo Del Toro's "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" debuted at #1 over the weekend with $35.9 million. Last week's topper, "Hancock," fell to second with another healthy $33 million. "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" debuted in third with $20.6 million. More than $11 million of that came from 3-D screens. "Wall-E" was in fourth place with $18.5 million followed by new mother Angelina Jolie's "Wanted" in fifth with $11.6 million. The big bust news of the weekend was the meager gross of Eddie Murphy's "Meet Dave," which disappointed with only $5.3 million in seventh place. Shades of "Pluto Nash"! Overall the weekend box-office was down 16% from the same weekend last year but next weekend should be huge with the much anticipated arrival of Christopher Nolan's second Batman flick, "The Dark Knight," featuring Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Maggie Gyllenhaal instead of Katie Holmes and the late Heath Ledger as The Joker. Reviews have been terrific. Also opening is "Mamma Mia!" with Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth and "Space Chimps" with the voice of Patrick Warburton (The Tick, Puddy on 'Seinfeld').

NEXT WEEK: Live coverage of Bob Allen's Household Cleaners Confab from Sun Valley.
                                                                                                                                      
—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk

Archive: 7/6/08

SCHMUTZ. NOTHING BUT SCHMUTZ.

     Hope you all had an enjoyable Fourth. Time for me to clean out the notebook:

1.  The bodies continued to fall at the Tribune Company and across the entire newspaper business in the last two weeks.
     After slashing staffs at The Hartford Courant, The Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune, among other papers they own, the Tribune Company announced a cut of 250 positions this week at the Los Angeles Times, including 150 editorial positions. That's more than 15% of the paper's staff.
     Variety repeated what I revealed in my last Forest column, that the Tribune Company could be in danger of defaulting on its debt and interest payments next year and that if income doesn't improve at the papers, Trib CEO Sam Zell would put the Los Angeles Times up for sale.
     He already got $650 million from Cablevision for Newsday and is actively seeking a buyer for the Chicago Cubs and Wrigley Field.
     Will he find customers?
     Meanwhile, in June, McClatchy, owners of the Miami Herald and Sacramento Bee, among others, announced they were cutting 10% of their staff across the board while cuts of a similar amount were announced at the Detroit News and Free Press, The Palm Beach Post, The Tampa Tribune and the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel too.
     Here in Orlando, where the Tribune Company has pioneered its "new" look, Pulitzer-Prize-winning Editorial VP Jane Healy has followed publisher Kathleen Waltz out the door.
     Again, it's sad to see the newspaper business following the same business model that radio used during its ungraceful and ultimately self-destructive move after deregulation. Eventually cutting out talent and programmers to increase profit margins rather than investing in making a better product to attract new customers.
     Business 101.
 
2.  I hear that the AAA panel at the recent Conclave in Minneapolis went extremely well. The panel head, Brad Savage, the Program Director of Saga's WCNR in Charlottesville, Virginia had a healthy early morning crowd that resulted in some big-picture takes on the format. Wisconsin radio legend/veteran Jonathan Little, now with Troy Research, told Brad that it was the best format session he saw the entire weekend. It was also encouraging for me to find out that one of Savage's mentors, Midwest Communications' Jack Lawson, has now flipped the company's KDAL-FM in Duluth, Minnesota to AAA as 95.7 The Bridge. Lawson is a terrific fellow who I met years back when he was programming AOR in Michigan. He was OM/PD at KBXR in Columbia, Missouri for several years and I wish him well up on Lake Superior and welcome yet another AAA signal to the family.
 
3. Also at the Conclave was a buzzed-about presentation from Inside Radio founder Jerry Del Colliano, whose session on The Next Generation Of Radio emphasized the new approaches radio has to embrace to attract younger listeners. Del Colliano has spent the last four years teaching at Southern Cal after his distinguished radio career and specifically advised "that podcasting will be the future". And I agree with him wholeheartedly on that. Later that day, N.A.B. President David Rehr and The Sound Exchange's general counsel, Michael Huppe, went at each other vociferously over the labels' proposed Radio Performance Royalty Rates, which, since the Conclave, have suddenly appeared DOA in Congress. Cross your fingers.
 
4. Here's my point on the labels attempt to get radio to pay a new royalty on records played. The Radio Advertising Board (RAB), in their recommendation that the radio business now embrace "posting," in effect, guaranteeing reach and frequency per advertising contracts, just like television, the Internet and newspapers already do, pointed out that on-air radio revenue dropped 7% in the first quarter of 2008, continuing a seven-year run of slow to no growth. The record industry, in an attempt to reverse their sales slide, has now planned to go after a massive new annual payment from radio to prop up their profit margins. An industry showing no growth (other than AAA and Spanish in music formats) is going to be your new source for income? After playing and breaking artists for you for decades? One can see how hard it is to get congressional support for this proposal.
 
5. Speaking of sales in 2008. Nielsen Soundscan last week said that CD sales are down 16% in the past 12 months, while downloads have gone up 34% in the same time frame. What was really interesting is that vinyl sales have almost doubled this year so far, from 454,000 in 2007 to 803,000 so far in 2008. Hmmm.
    Another note from the sales numbers so far in 2008 - 3 out of the top 6 selling CD's in the country are AAA this year. Here are the numbers:
Lil Wayne's Tha Carter III 1.5 million UMG Jack Johnson's Sleep Through The Static 1.2 million UMG Mariah Carey's E=MC2 1.1 million UMG Coldplay Viva La Vida 971,000 EMI Leona Lewis Spirit 830,000 SONY/BMG Juno Soundtrack 828,000 WB
 
Jack Johnson, Coldplay and The Kinks, Cat Power, Belle & Sebastian and Kimya Dawson from the Juno soundtrack make up half of the biggest sellers of the year so far. All AAA artists. 
 
TV: NBC Universal announced this afternoon that, along with the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital (who just purchased Clear Channel with Thomas H.Lee), they had bought the Weather Channel for $ 3.5 billion. Hey, here in Florida, the fourth largest state, we'll all be tracking Bertha on it allllllll week.It's worth it...New shows start coming to summer cable this week. "Burn Notice" returns on the USA channel this Thursday, July 10 at 10pm..."Project Runway" begins its last season on Bravo a week from Wednesday on July 16. Heidi and Nina will return for another season when the show moves to Lifetime for another run this Fall. "The Closer" and "Saving Grace" return to TNT next Monday, July 14... Enjoy the "Rescue Me" mini-sodes on FX through the next month. There are ten of them but Denis Leary's Emmy-nominated show won't return with full new episodes until next Spring...Guests on talk shows this week include a repeat of Dr. John on Letterman this Friday, Leno is new with Los Lonely Boys on Tuesday, Sara Barielles on Wednesday and Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis on Thursday...Conan's new with Steel Train on Monday and Joe Cocker Wednesday...Tristan Prettyman on a repeat with Carson Daly on Monday...Miss Coldplay on Jon Stewart? It's a repeat on Monday night, as is Ted Koppel on Tuesday, James McAvoy on Wednesday and author James Harding on Thursday...Colbert is repeats too with Will Smith on Monday, next PBS star Neil Degrasse Tyson on Tuesday, Rep. Robert Wexler on Wednesday and author Barbara Ehrenreich on Thursday.

ONION HEADLINE OF THE WEEK: "Bush Tours America to Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency."

MOVIES: Despite ho-hum reviews,Will Smith enjoyed his fifth number one opening on a July 4th weekend, as "Hancock" opened with $66 million over the weekend, and a hefty $107.3 million since it started previews last Tuesday. "Wall-E" fell to second with another solid $33.4 million followed by "Wanted" with $20.6 million in third place, "Get Smart" took in another $11.1 million in fourth and "Kung Fu Panda" rounded out the top five with $7.5 million. Box-office was down overall for the first time in a month, 4% less than last year's July 4th, still, Hollywood is up 2% year-to-date... Opening next weekend is "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" with Ron Perlman, Selma Blair and "Hobbit" director Guillermo Del Toro. Also opening is "Journey To The Center Of The Earth" with Brendan Fraser and....lots of CGI for the kids. Plus, Eddie Murphy is also back next weekend with "Meet Dave".

FINALLY: One of my old favorites, Buddy Miller, made the cover of No Depression's last issue in June. The magazine will continue online and has plans to expand their Web site, especially expanding their amount of reviews. Subscriptions had stayed at solid levels in recent years, but a drastic decline in record company advertising put No Depression in the red. Not only will their online site continue, the staff will now produce a semi-annual "Bookazine" in cooperation with the University of Texas Press. The hybrid of book and magzine will debut with its first edition in the Fall.

—Mike Lyons

Discuss! Visit the AAA live forum: TalkTalk
                           
Archive: 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

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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 f