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A memo to Peter Ferrara, the new industry face of HD Radio: First of all, congratulations on your new gig.  It’s not going to be easy heading up this initiative, but if you play it right, you’ll be a part of radio’s history – and hopefully, its future. So, in between talking to hardware manufacturers, […]

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Thanks to Ken Anthony, and the R&R folks for doing a great job covering the 20th anniversary of Classic Rock. We have both articles posted on our web page that pays tribute to the format’s milestone. But the most interesting reading is the "Stories" supplied by broadcasters who were around in the early years. We […]

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Paul Jacobs joins in today with some thoughts on growing revenue with your Web site: As I’m watching CNBC one morning last week trying to figure out if I should buy or sell, a news item scrawled across the screen that caught my attention: "Anheuser-Busch announces a reduction in advertising expenditures in network television and […]

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In a recent New York Times piece, writer David Carr lists 9 strategies U2 has employed over the years to ensure its place in Rock history.  These guys have been around for 25 years, and yet, they are more relevant, influential, and popular today than at any other point in the band’s history.  And unlike […]

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Dave Beasing weighs in today with some thoughts on "being Alternative:" On Thursday, December 8, online visitors to San Diego’s FM 94/9 first were exposed to a flash animation video.  The Alternative station briefly and eloquently surprised listeners by remembering John Lennon that day, on the 25th anniversary of his murder. You might be asking, […]

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Dave Beasing weighs in today with some thoughts on "being Alternative:" On Thursday, December 8, online visitors to San Diego’s FM 94/9 first were exposed to a flash animation video.  The Alternative station briefly and eloquently surprised listeners by remembering John Lennon that day, on the 25th anniversary of his murder. You might be asking, […]

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Several of you emailed me a WSJ article (subscription required) about new car features consumers are willing to pay for.  The article focuses on safety features, until you read into it further and find that the #3 feature (behind stability control and high-end audio) is… HD RADIO!  Here’s a snippet from the article: "The No. […]

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Paul and I rented a Lincoln Navigator (relax, we were upgraded) with Sirius.  This was our first time renting a car with Sirius, so we were looking forward to listening to the new Howard channel, and other offerings. Try as we could, the sound fidelity was consistently muddy on both the music and talk channels.  […]

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More and more, ratings companies and media mavens are coming to the same conclusions about measuring usage in an increasingly complicated and crowded marketplace: if you want to truly understand what consumers are exposed to, you’d better develop passive measurement systems. Why has this become so important?  Because people have become so inundated with advertising, […]

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How do you celebrate any milestone?  Whether it’s a radio station’s 30th anniversary, or in our case, the celebration of two decades of Classic Rock, it’s important to do it in a big, memorable way. That’s why Rolling Stone’s 1,000th issue (in May ’06) is already garnering attention.  RS will produce a first – a […]

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It’s heartening to see the nation’s broadcasters working together to help radio participate in the digital revolution by forming the HD Digital Radio Alliance.  Obviously, we’ll know more about the plan’s specifics over time, but this is clearly a good start. 

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Looking for another way to let your friends and advertisers know about your morning show over the next critical days and weeks?  Head to PhotoStamps.com and create your own, legit, 37-cent stamps for station holiday cards that feature your morning show (or other personalities).  It’s just another easy way to have presence in a non-traditional […]

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As we await the big HD Radio announcement on Tuesday, I’m sitting here in suburban Detroit trying to visualize the future of our business.  It’s been a tough year for radio – not just in revenue, but in the industry’s overall PR efforts.  We’ve used this space several times to point out the obvious – […]

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In last weekend’s New York Times Book Review, a featured book is "The Beatles: The Biography" by Bob Spitz.  At nearly 1,000 pages and the umpteenth biography of the Fab Four, you have to wonder what could Spitz possibly tell us about the Beatles that we don’t already know. But as reviewers Jane and Michael […]

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One of the positive aspects of 2005 is how much progress has been made on the HD front.  Broadcasters are engaged, stations are thinking and planning, and there’s finally a positive buzz about terrestrial radio again.  The naysayers are many, and perhaps they have some good points.  Do consumers really need double the number of […]

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It’s been a tough year for the radio business.  New media is getting all the headlines, revenue is off,  payola hearings have made the headlines, Howard Stern (and others) are leaving terrestrial radio for apparently greener ($$$) pastures, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to find good salespeople. So as the year winds down, it’s […]

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The announcement last evening that the Stones would be providing the halftime entertainment for Super Bowl XL here in the Motor City brought a smile to lots of faces in Motown.  As we know, Super Bowl "entertainment" has been all over the road, so the news that the halftime show will reflect the Rock N’ […]

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How often has a program director said this (or thought it)?  When you’ve become accustomed to winning, but all of a sudden start earning mediocre rating books, the drum beats can become loud and ominous.  That might indeed happen to some PDs who are losing Howard Stern over the next few months.  And are the […]

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How often has a program director said this (or thought it)?  When you’ve become accustomed to winning, but all of a sudden start earning mediocre rating books, the drum beats can become loud and ominous.  That might indeed happen to some PDs who are losing Howard Stern over the next few months.  And are the […]

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…or thereabouts, that Classic Rock made its debut on the FM band.  First time owner, Bob Ottaway took the leap on a Class A in Charlotte (Lansing, Michigan), and the rest, as they say, is history. Since those humble beginnings, Classic Rock has emerged as the most successful format over the past two decades, with […]

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