RadioInsight

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D Magazine: Confessions of a Dallas Radio Promotions Assistant

Posted: 16 Feb 2017 11:25 AM PST
http://www.dmagazine.com/arts-entert...ons-assistant/





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The Verge: FCC chief wants smartphones hidden FM radios turned on, but wont
do anything about it

Posted: 16 Feb 2017 10:40 AM PST
http://www.theverge.com/2017/2/16/14...dio-activation





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Danni Starr Joins WKYS' Fam In The Morning

Posted: 16 Feb 2017 10:37 AM PST
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/1...n-the-morning/


Radio-One Urban 93.9 WKYS Washington DC has tabbed Danni Starr as the new
co-host of their Fam In The Morning.
Starr, who previously co-hosted the syndicated Kane Show at iHeartMedia CHR
Hot 99.5 WIHT Washington and mornings/middays at defunct CHR 96.3 Now KHTC
Minneapolis, replaces singer Lil Mo who was let go earlier this month. DJ
Quicksilver remains in place as lead host.


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The Best Positioning of Yesterday

Posted: 16 Feb 2017 07:45 AM PST
https://radioinsight.com/blogs/11655...-of-yesterday/


There have been two very different moves on station positioning in the U.K.
this month.
One was British group broadcaster Bauer going from the broad—“Your Music,
Your Life�—to the more mundane with “The Biggest Hits, All Day Long.�
But a week later, the U.K.’s Heart FM dropped its “More Music Variety�
slogan. While it’s still unclear the extent to which it’s being used on the
air, what replaced it is “Turn Up the Feel Good.�
Judging by comments from readers and Facebook friends since last week’s
question “Is Radio Famous for Boring Things?� there are a number of
programmers who would be comfortable if radio moved away from station
slogans altogether. Some felt that the right listener comments said more
than any slug line. “Perception of the brand is the positioning statement,�
writes veteran PD Buzz Brindle. “And that perception of the brand results
from the content . . . I hear or expect from that station.�
Under most circumstances, I still believe in the right strapline. The need
is often more external than on-air. Radio needs to ask for the order, and
it can no longer assume that what it does will be automatically cumed. It
was telling that the several friends I asked (and a number of commenters)
couldn’t tell you a slogan for the apps on their phone—unless they had
encountered them in marketing. That’s different from expecting “yesterday’s
favorites, today’s hits� to do it all for you, and all on the air.
I’m not against straightforward, either. “The Number One Hit Music Station�
has endured because it has both functionality and attitude. So does “[Your
City’s] Greatest Hits� for Classic Hits stations. As with everything we do
on air, a word or two keeps things from being pedestrian. “Today’s Best
Country and the All-Time Legends� is the same in functionality as the more
convoluted yesterday-and-today imaging that’s making me groan these days.
It’s just better.
The two stations that influenced me the most growing up, I now realize, had
essentially the same slogan. There was “The Big 8� CKLW Detroit and “The
Big O-L,� RB WOL Washington. I’m sure that for those dismayed by the rise
of all things Drake format related, hearing “The Big __� spread to other
formats and beyond the Drake empire was dismaying, and as played out
sounding as “Hitradio� sounded in 1985. But it clearly worked for me.
As I think about all-time favorite imaging, I default to a handful of
sluglines, but also (like my readers) attitude liners that were there to
reinforce, not define, a brand. Interestingly, there were a few stations
responsible for more than one of them. “The World Famous KROQ� Los Angeles
KROQ’s “Roq of the ‘80s�—straightforward, but with the clear implication of
irrelevance for other rock stations KROQ switching to “Roq of the ‘90s�
well before the ‘90s arrived WBLS New York: “In a Class by Itself.� (WBLS
made an appearance here last week for the ID that merely proclaimed it to
be “home.�) “W-B-L-Kickin’-S�—The “Kickass Rock and Roll� slogan that
circulated among AOR of the time had been devastatingly effective. Only
WCOZ Boston, to my knowledge, paired it with “…and no disco,� but the
slogan often was part-and-parcel of the “disco sucks� crowd, so it was nice
to see an Urban outlet turn the slogan sideways. Rock stations, for their
part, struggled to come up with something even more provocative. I remember
one liner, “While they’re talking, we’re rocking our nuts off.� And that
was good? WKBW Buffalo’s “A Friendly Place.� Around the time of the movie
“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,� and before “Show us your X,� KB asked
listeners to make their own signs to show that they were friends of “KB.�
That made an impression on me listening at the other end of the Northeast.
And it also gave me a very different sense of Buffalo than the hardscrabble
recession market I encountered for the first time in 1981. “The Music FM� –
For a few years in the pre-Hot-Hits era, it was the rallying cry for those
stations on the (typical of the time) bubble between Top 40 and Hot AC,
essentially a way of one-upping the “Musicradio� slogan that had come to be
associated with AM Top 40. I’m not sure why, now, but whenever I heard it,
I expected that station to be interesting in some way. Because they were
all about the music, right? Even if nobody was yet articulating it that
way. “Hot Hits�—I feel like this one should be there, but what was most
effective about it was everything else that went with Mike Joseph’s early
‘80s genre-saving Top 40 stations. And when I heard it on a non-Joseph
station, it seemed wrong (although when WWWQ [Q100] Atlanta revived it 20
years later at their launch, it felt like a secret handshake).“Continuous
Music� – It’s background noise now, but it was effective in the ‘80s and
early ‘90s particularly at a time when not every radio station was clocked
for continuous music. It became a staple of Jerry Clifton’s CHR and Urban
stations and part of its effectiveness was the quirky delivery associated
with the line. “Kix 101…and a devastating half.� WKXW (New Jersey 101.5)
Trenton, N.J., is now famous for being “not New York, not Philadelphia,�
but I still remember the early ‘80s period when Hy and Sam Lit made it one
of the great quirky stations of all time. The daytime mix was gold-based
Hot AC that went back to the ‘50s. The night format was Rock 40 with a lot
of new wave. And it was all punctuated with offbeat, adamantly delivered
claims like “Destined to be . . . Forever!� Kix 101-1/2 was not destined to
be forever, and I cite them cautiously, knowing that somebody in the
pedantic positioning camp could seize on it. But they made me look up from
the radio more than anybody. And they were also heard by and an influence
on Philly area production guru Bill Schultz.
It’s clear that what readers remember is often a station’s attitude liners
as well, e.g., the phrase that pays that ends with “…now give me my money.�
Jay Philpott remembers the Twin Cities’ Rock 100 responding to the three
frequencies of its rival with a liner about “the station you don’t need a
compass to find.� Anne Gress remembers WFLZ Tampa in the Power Pig era
where an entire break was the word “oink.� Walt Sabo sites WTAM Cleveland’s
stager on behalf of Mike Trivisonno: “He was born in Cleveland, lives in
Cleveland, he’ll die in Cleveland.�
Among other positioners cited by listeners: “Radio for the rest of us�
(used by everybody from Alternative to the gold-based Clear Channel Hot ACs
that were predecessors to Adult Hits); “Party Radio B96� (remembered there
for its use at WBBM-FM Chicago, but a rallying cry in some form for much of
Rhythmic Top 40). You can add B96’s “Killer B� nickname to that. B96 was
also one of the stations that used “all kinds of music for all kinds of
people.� Interestingly, that slogan sometimes ended up on the airwaves of
stations that played no such thing (such as Modern ACs); “The People’s
Station�;KDKA’s much copied “Pittsburgh is Something Special� (along with
WKBW’s “friendly place,� there was also the “I Love You
Philadelphia/Atlanta/etc.� campaign of the early ‘80s, and the “I’d rather
be in _____� package). With more radio being big-group owned and using
syndicated work parts, it’s not surprising that there’s less local pride in
positioning. And yet, many of these were syndicated campaigns. “WGN is
Chicago�; “WHUR sounds like Washington�; (Alpha is now using “sounds like�
on several of their CHRs); “Nova Sounds Different,� by the groundbreaking
Australian CHR that, under traditional radio law, could have just focused
on its then-unusual shorter stopsets policy; CFNY Toronto’s “The Spirit of
Radio,� thanks to Rush, one of two Toronto positioners that became rock
songs; (the other was CJEZ’s “Your Music At Work,� more ironically adapted
by the Tragically Hip as “My Music At Work�) “Turn your knob to Bob� – Jaye
Albright remembers being there at its inception for WBOB Minneapolis. It
would have a second life thanks to Howard Kroeger at CFWM Winnipeg, the
original Adult Hits “Bob FM.�
Next: The “….and now� part of our look at positioning of today and
yesterday.


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Where To Hear The 60s Online

Posted: 16 Feb 2017 06:09 AM PST
https://radioinsight.com/blogs/11655...he-60s-online/


They were the webcasters most vulnerable to changing performance royalty
rates—the boutique stations specializing in ‘60s and ‘70s gold that you
didn’t regularly hear on large-market broadcast radio. A year ago, there
was legitimate cause for concern about the future of the individual
Webcaster. So as we wrap up our look at where to hear the ‘60s on the
radio, it’s gratifying that, whatever their travails over the last year,
there’s still an incredibly wide array of choices.
Pop Gold Radio Veteran New Jersey radio personality Don Tandler’s labor of
love got the most mentions here, including from Joseph McCombs, Tim Marini,
and Rich Appel. Pop Gold’s centerpiece is its Saturday afternoon Time
Machine countdown—not just the chart from this day in history but from a
different legendary ‘60s or ‘70s station. And on April 1 and 15, Tandler
will be doing companion shows to Appel’s “I.R.S. (It Really Shoulda Been A
Bigger Hit)â€� countdown (for which you can vote here.).Â* Meanwhile, PGR just
went from Tommy Roe, “Jam Up And Jelly Tight� to Sir Douglas Quartet, “The
Rains Came.�
RichBroRadio It’s a less remembered facet of the legendary top 40 PD and
jock’s career, but Rich “Brother� Robbin was one of the first programmers
to bring ‘70s gold to FM in any significant way, during a short-lived but
awesome incarnation of KCBQ-FM San Diego in the early ‘90s. His online
station, though, is about the ‘50s and ‘60s. (It just went from James
Brown, “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag� to Hank Ballard Midnighters, “Finger
Poppin’ Time.�) “I’m proud to say my constituency is 95% folks over
seventy, all the way up to their mid-80s. Thank God I don’t have to sell it
on the street to keep going!� Currently playing Spanky Our Gang, “Sunday
Morning.�
WIXY1260Online A tribute to Cleveland’s legendary top 40 AM of the ‘60s
and ‘70s, recommended by Brad Lovett. Currently going from Paul Simon,
“Mother And Child Reunion� to Stevie Wonder, “Superstition,� but I’ve also
heard a lot deeper stretches with more of the late ‘60s/early ‘70s genres
that I like. More importantly, I’ve encountered them hosted twice,
including at night.
BossBossRadio.com -– Another Rich Appel recommendation. “Not KHJ, but
theÂ*‘Boss 30’ does count down on Wednesday nights as it did in the day. The
lineup includes former KHJ Boss Jock Bill Wade along with other West Coast
vets such as Raechel Donahue, Insane Darrell Wayne, and Tammy
Trujillo.Â*Features both the pop and progressive ‘60s.â€�
Classic Oldies Jukebox Recommended by Douglas C. Brown. If I could program
a “Real Oldies�-type AM from my own frame of musical reference, it would
center on 1965-74 with a lot of the genres (garage, bubblegum, the punchy
RB of the late ‘60s) that didn’t just disappear from Classic Hits FMs, but
weren’t necessarily well-represented there in the first place. So I was
cheered by hearing the Esquires, “Get On Up� next to Jay the Techniques,
“Keep the Ball Rolling.� Or Buckinghams, “Susan� into Shorty Long,
“Function at the Junction� a few songs later.
Carolina Classic Hits -– “It’s very good. Nicely formatted and there’s some
clever secret sauce behind it all,� says worldwide radio observer James
Cridland who, in an eerie coincidence, posted on my Facebook page on their
behalf within seconds of proprietor Rick Freeman. During regular
programming, the era isn’t that different from broadcast radio, with ‘70s,
‘80s, and two ‘60s an hour. But there’s “’60s at 6� in the morning and
evening. And Carolina Classic Hits was hosted as well when I heard it.
AccuRadio They continue to find an interesting combination of broadcasting
and playlisting. Choosing the ‘60s gets you a suite of 25 channels,
including ‘50s/’60s Comedy, ‘60s Broadway, ‘60s Jazz, and even “French Pop,
‘60s and Beyond,� but also Oldies channels focusing on 1964, 1965-67, and
1965-72.
RadioGeorge -– George Woods’ reaction to the Internet royalty issue was to
offer playlists, Spotify style, rather than stations per se. And there are
a lot of playlists—including one dedicated to songs that were “Bubbling
Under the Top 100� and ten playlists devoted to one-hit wonders.
Pandora Theirs is often the oldies mix that I hear at retail (and the
signature song is, oddly enough, the Otis Redding version of “My Girl�).
Reader Jason Steiner mentions the various ‘60s stations he’s created on
Pandora—soft ‘60s and sunshine pop among them. “I have discovered such
obscure but wonderful ‘60s music on there such as Yellow Balloon, ‘How Can
I Be Down,’ a band called the Millennium, and a singer from that band who
went solo called Michele.�
Top Shelf Oldies -– Most of the stations we’ve spotlighted traffic in hits,
just the ones you don’t hear on big-market FM Classic Hits anymore, which
gives them a wide swath. Top Shelf Oldies’ slogan is “creating new oldies�
and when I tuned in, they did indeed play a great 1970 song I’ve never
heard, Eagle, “Kickin’ It Back To You,� from which they went in to ‘90s
Country hit, “Past the Point of Rescue� by Hal Ketchum. Recommended by
David Thomas and George Green, who is also involved with one of their many
specialty shows. Green, a longtime radio and aircheck lover of note, always
used to characterize overplayed songs as “burnouts.� More than any other
station in the last three weeks, this is a burnout-free zone.
Got Radio Mark Keene recommends their ‘60s and RB Classics channel, but
they have an entire suite of decades and gold-based genre channels. The
‘60s station is playing “Love Child� as I write, but RB Classics, when I
tuned in, was also playing a song new to me, Carla Thomas, “I Play For
Keeps.�
Oldies Radio 1620 -– Dave Schmidt writes, “We started Oldies Radio 1620
York, Pa., about six years ago featuring music from the ‘50s through the
‘90.Â* Our music mainly consists of music that charted low or even not at
all.Â* Were adding music all the time to our playlist of about 5,000 songs
now.Â* We also feature syndicated shows through the week and on the
weekends.Â* We try to play the music that the other stations arent playing
(except maybe WLNG).�
Planet Oldies Radio By contrast, one of the most hit-driven of the
stations featured here. “Please give them a listen,� writes Big Tom Lawler.
“Mike Erickson has done a great job with the music mix, as well as the
processing and jingles.� And when I heard them, Crystals, “Then He Kissed
Me� went into a classic KFWB Los Angeles jingle, followed by Jerry Lee
Lewis, “Great Balls Of Fire.� You can also check out Lawler’s “Oldies 100.�
Solid Gold Gem AM One of two UK online gold stations recommended by
Wheeler Conover. “They have a ‘60s Cafe daily at 7 am Eastern time,
including, ‘Ones That Got Away from the UK charts and ‘Down the Decades’
doing ‘70s, then ‘60s, then ‘50s on Friday nights.Â* There are plenty of
jingles.Â* They broadcast only 6 am to midnight UK time.Â* It has a sister
station, Serenade Radio, that does EZ listening.Â* Len Groat is the big ‘60s
master on this station.Â* Superb stuff, probably one of the best.
Big L Conover’s other recommendation. “They have countdown shows featuring
charts from some of the British and Dutch pirates and ‘Rock n Roll
Saturday,’ featuring a Scottish lawyer named Mike Marwick.Â* Hes really,
really good and does mostly 60s stuff.Â* He will even let stations in the US
broadcast his show for free.� Currently playing “What In The World’s Come
Over You� by the Rockin Berries.
Jofox Radio I haven’t followed them as closely since the Radionomy
stations stopped streaming through TuneIn, but I’m glad whenever I search
them out. Dutch oldies from the ‘60s and ‘70s with a lot of local hits
that, for all I know, might be as easy to hear over there as “Don’t You
(Forget About Me),� but I’m guessing they aren’t.
Feel free to add your favorites. See Part I of our look at “Where to Hear
the ‘60s� here. And Part II, featuring your suggestions, here.


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WMAL Joins Washington Redskins Radio Network

Posted: 15 Feb 2017 03:21 PM PST
https://radioinsight.com/headlines/1...radio-network/


The Washington Redskins are adding Cumulus News/Talk 630 WMAL Washington
DC/105.9 WMAL-FM Woodbridge VA to its network.
The additions of WMAL and WMAL-FM will fill coverage holes on the team
owned ESPN 980 980 WTEM Washington/92.7 WWXT Prince Frederick MD/94.3 WWXX
Buckland VA. WMAL will carry all game broadcasts plus one hour of pre and
post-game coverage starting with the 2017 season.
630 WMAL was the teams longtime flagship carrying games as early as 1942
and then for 44 years straight until the team moved to 106.7 WJFK for the
1992 season.
The Washington Redskins announced today that WMAL will carry Redskins Radio
Network broadcasts in the Washington, D.C. metro area on game days,
beginning with the 2017 NFL season.
The distribution on WMAL’s 105.9 FM and 630 AM will supplement the team’s
flagship home on ESPN980 AM (WTEM), 92.7 FM (WWXT) and 94.3 FM (WWXX) in
the market, as well the broadcast’s availability on the official Redskins
mobile app.
The broadcasts represent a homecoming of sorts, as the Redskins will return
to the same WMAL airwaves on which the team’s broadcasts aired as early as
1942. In addition to carrying game broadcasts, WMAL will carry an hour of
the Redskins Radio Network pregame show as well as an hour of Redskins
Radio Network postgame programming.
“We are very excited to be partnering with WMAL to provide Redskins fans
enhanced coverage of our games,� said Terry Bateman, Redskins Executive
Vice President/Chief Marketing Officer. “WMAL and the Redskins organization
have a long history together spanning six decades of the station carrying
Redskins games. We have maintained a strong relationship over the years and
now look forward to working together again to provide comprehensive
coverage of Redskins football for the Washington market.�
“We are excited and honored to be working with the Redskins again,� said
Jake McCann, WMAL Vice President/Market Manager. “The Redskins and WMAL
were partners during the team’s three glorious Super Bowl winning seasons.
We look forward to bringing the combined assets of WMAL to this exciting,
renewed partnership�.