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Treasure Coast Is That All There Is?

Just for the record, my mentioning Mark Coppola was not about his style or even the lack thereof but rather the very weak sound of his voice. It's been that way for a while now even in casual listening. The station's music audio is fine. But when he speaks, something (levels maybe) is just off.
 
Back to "Is That All There Is" to promotions & contests...

Curious, I researched the most creative radio contests. Out of the dozens or so I saw, I don’t recall any of them except one that involved hearing your birthday and calling in to win. There’s another where listeners needed to find something in town. They’d get clues of the location so the more you listened the better your odds at winning.

Bizarre and unusual promotions also reminded me that some went too far. It’s been a while now but sometimes we’d hear of how a radio station endangered someone’s life, caused injuries or embarrassment. Some were downright cruel. It was the kind of stuff that would occasionally wind up on the news. It tarnished radio.

I recall the craziest promotions happened in mostly very small markets. Usually, it was two young guys doing the morning show. That chase for ratings, fame, and notoriety can make people do stupid things. I do remember frozen turkeys were thrown out of a helicopter/small plane around Thanksgiving. There was building damage and someone could killed. How station managers signed off on this, I’ll never know. Instead of fame and an opportunity to move to a bigger market, many were never heard from again. Happily, most promos were responsible, fun, and effective.

While I may not even remember the specific contest, I do remember the build up to the winning. A lot of this was in the early 70s FM. The “Drake” stations were a class of their own creating suspense even before the contest began, which was always on a Thursday, when a new ratings week started. I can still hear in my head that almost whispering tone of a voice that was letting us know the winning was about to begin.

Originally doesn’t always matter when it comes to promotions. A contest proves successful in one market, and it would probably pop up elsewhere. Seeing or hearing veteran broadcasters talk of their careers, they’d reminisce about the stations they worked at. “This station stole this” and “we stole that” was quite the norm. Musically it happens a lot as with our discussion about "Sweet Home Alabama." A major classic hits station (like WCBS-FM) adds it to the playlist, and soon most others follow. In WABC’s last moments as a music format, DJs Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy spilled the beans on promotions & music.

A long time ago, I talked about WABC’s “$25,000 button” promotion. IMO, one of the best contests ever. I thought this was all a result of the creative genius of Rick Sklar. But as David Eduardo pointed out, that contest was done prior to WABC doing it. It was disappointing to hear that but what was true is that promo, which was done twice, saw good upticks in ratings as FM began proliferating.

Whether it was listeners wearing buttons to be spotted to win a prize or slapping bumper stickers on their cars to also win something, it was amazing just how willing we were to promote the station. We were probably not thinking of it in that way. It was all about winning something. Sometimes you’d catch someone with an old bumper sticker for a format that would flip to something else. With S. Florida being a tourist destination, there were many stories of old Y-100 bumper stickers seen in places like Minnesota. I haven't seen radio station bumper stickers for a long time. It just makes you realize very little remains constant.

As I’ve been saying even with music, creativity can exist with tight budgets. While many formats would engage in all kinds of promotions, I especially liked contests on oldies formats. More on that next.
 
Well some of the stations you've been discussing are being sold....
Well, for quite some time now I thought about something like this happening. For the record, I know absolutely nothing about MARC Radio. But as I mentioned earlier, with new ownership you can always expect changes. Given the positioning of WOSN and its appeal to older listeners, I suspect that station would be most affected.
Now, things are starting to make sense. I mentioned earlier their weekend jazz brunch host and weekend personality haven't been on the air for a while at WOSN. While we can play Monday morning quarterback with our suggestions, there's quite a lot of songs WOSN features that you really don't hear much on the radio anymore. I guess that can be a double-edged sword.

It's like we've come full circle. In this string, we talked about radio consolidations of the past. They were spreading like wildfire. Today, it happens occasionally. Even outside of radio, we see so many small businesses not make it, only to be taken over by a big corporation. Along the way, we lose something unique to only be replaced with a lot of sameness. It is what it is.

BTW, the present owners of Treasure/Space Coast Radio devised the concept of the Sci-Fi (Syfy) channel several decades ago.
 
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It's back to radio promotions.

Just yesterday we had lunch at a restaurant that had iHeart's 80s online channel on in the background. It was mentioned that they would be doing a feature involving three songs that had something in common. Like I've been saying, great ideas keep resurfacing and are reinvented.

I immediately thought of Jacksonville's former oldies format, WKQL, Cool 96.9. One of the promos they had was the feature, "My 3 Songs." It was a play on the 60s/70s TV show "My 3 Sons" complete with the theme music. What was very special about that station was not only a great variety of music but their promos/contests were just a lot of fun. I heard this type of thing on another station or two in my business travels. Either others came up with the same concept or it was available to purchase.

Listeners would need to hear the second song before they could call in and guess the connection. It was a lot of fun. The connection could have been about mostly anything. Sometimes, it was tough like artists who were also song writers.

Cool 96.9 also did a "Name That Tune" feature in morning drive. Two contestants were pitted against each other. The one who could correctly identity a song in the fewest number of notes would win. If there were 5 wins, there was a $100 prize. So, a great promotion that didn't cost a lot of money. And yes, I won that contest quite easily. The station would call you up each morning in the 7AM hour. Luckily for me, I was available at that time. Also, this was done live and you'd get prompts saying how much time remained before going on the air. It built a level of suspense for the participants for sure. When I got to work, I was amazed just how many people figured I was on the air. I have what you'd call a distinctive voice. It's not for radio but easily ID'd.

Over the years, I kept a journal about effective promotions. There was one WKQL used during the holiday season called "The 12 days of Christmas." It was a game of chance and I'd hear a lot of water-cooler conversations about how lucky or dumb the caller was. It featured the P.D. in a slowed voice saying, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!" He was Santa and there were around 7 opportunities to pick a prize. Some were clunkers (inexpensive part) and some prizes were quite good. The caller would need to say "Stop" and they'd get the next prize Santa would announce. I can't really do justice in words as to how exciting and how much fun that promo was.

The format conveyed that "good times" vibe that went beyond the music but the promos themselves. The PD who I mentioned earlier created one helluva station IMO. But, like we see here on The Treasure Coast, new owners come along who have different ideas. After the PD was let go and the station was in different hands, it lost its charm. The new PD had an impressive resume but at first I figured he knew very little about the Jacksonville market. As I had time to think about it all, he probably knew the oldies format was on borrowed time and the last thing that would have been done is improve the format to maintain its viability.

There were those who stayed with the format, evolving the music, and eventually rebranding to classic hits - usually the variety-based one utilizing those 3 major genre buckets I talked about earlier. Much has to do with the company and their philosophies and strategies. I often think if CBS Radio invested in the cluster that wound up being owned by CMG, perhaps WKQL would still be around today as a classic hits format. The truth is, we'll never really know.

There are stations that are well-represented on YouTube. I only found one aircheck of Cool 96.9. It's from 2000 and in short order so much would change...
Lots of those music buckets I mentioned earlier in play. The Motown/Soul bucket was well represented. For a diverse market that was Jacksonville, it helped the station compete well for that station most ciuld agree on at work That Motown/Soul bucket would be emptied with the format that followed..

 
There were a few other things I wanted to bring up in this string, such as stunting. But, I sense this subject has pretty much run its course. As someone who loves history, I can look at radio and say if only they did this or didn't do that.

What's true about radio decisions, especially regarding formats, is that decision has very long lasting effects. I don't have much history with The Treasure Coast except for casual listening to and from various driving destinations. But for a Top 100 market, I found most of what I've heard is what you'd expect. Even in markets that have big budgets, that doesn't always result in an outstanding radio product.

I can't help but mix in tales from the Jacksonville market because I saw radio change from something I thought was quite good to something that was quite mediocre. I also saw the same in my line of work. Decisions are made from those in senior management. They have solid reputations perhaps, sometimes they just sell themselves well, but we also forget that they are human and they make mistakes.

There's politics in corporations and the same exists in radio. It's hard bucking that. I can think of all my posts trying to make sense of it or offering alternatives was really a waste of time. I've always been in a difficult situation, for example, in my criticism of the "Eagle" brand of classic hits. The format has been a money-maker and it's a ratings juggernaut. Still, I believe a lot of it came at a very hefty price.

I've never been a big heavy rock fan. Yet, I was quite saddened to see what happened to WFYV (Rock 105) in Jacksonville. Here's a station that was highly popular and it made money for its owner(s). Rock 105's ratings began dropping as Classic Hits Eagle got even more rock-oriented. CMG started a war with iHeart's Alternative Rock ( I think that's what they did) and they added X102.9 to their cluster. Imagine, three rock-oriented stations in one cluster. It didn't make sense.

Eagle was the brainchild of one CMG's highly respected programmers. Here in Florida, that concept began in Tampa and it was met with great success. It was inevitable that would be a reality in Jax. The new PD over at Cool 96.9 may have been in on the eventual flip and maybe that's why Cool lost the magic it once had.

Anyway, in my way of doing things, Cool 96.9 would have evolved into a variety-based classic hits format with an AC lean. There was only one AC in the market at that time. It would have negated the need to bring "Easy" to market. They don't hold a candle to Miami's Easy. I never would have bothered with guerilla warfare to gain an alternative rock format that is no longer on a full market signal there. I think it's on translator now.

NewsTalk WOKV could have gone on 102.9 and Classic Rock I am convinced would have continued thriving on 104.5. Earlier, I talked of logic and what I think should have happened is a lot more logical than what did. The odds of all that happening were low. CMG had 7 or so oldies formats across the country. Virtually all of them flipped to rock oriented classic hits, one flipped to country, and one lucky market got the variety classic hits version. Again, I saw a lot of similar things in my own job where decisions were not always logical but rather political.

Thanks for your awesome participation in this string. I appreciated it greatly.

I'm talked out so all that's left to say is "Is That All There Is" to the business of radio.

 
Back to "Is That All There Is" to promotions & contests...

Curious, I researched the most creative radio contests. Out of the dozens or so I saw, I don’t recall any of them except one that involved hearing your birthday and calling in to win. There’s another where listeners needed to find something in town. They’d get clues of the location so the more you listened the better your odds at winning.

Bizarre and unusual promotions also reminded me that some went too far. It’s been a while now but sometimes we’d hear of how a radio station endangered someone’s life, caused injuries or embarrassment. Some were downright cruel. It was the kind of stuff that would occasionally wind up on the news. It tarnished radio.

I recall the craziest promotions happened in mostly very small markets. Usually, it was two young guys doing the morning show. That chase for ratings, fame, and notoriety can make people do stupid things. I do remember frozen turkeys were thrown out of a helicopter/small plane around Thanksgiving. There was building damage and someone could killed. How station managers signed off on this, I’ll never know. Instead of fame and an opportunity to move to a bigger market, many were never heard from again. Happily, most promos were responsible, fun, and effective.

While I may not even remember the specific contest, I do remember the build up to the winning. A lot of this was in the early 70s FM. The “Drake” stations were a class of their own creating suspense even before the contest began, which was always on a Thursday, when a new ratings week started. I can still hear in my head that almost whispering tone of a voice that was letting us know the winning was about to begin.

Originally doesn’t always matter when it comes to promotions. A contest proves successful in one market, and it would probably pop up elsewhere. Seeing or hearing veteran broadcasters talk of their careers, they’d reminisce about the stations they worked at. “This station stole this” and “we stole that” was quite the norm. Musically it happens a lot as with our discussion about "Sweet Home Alabama." A major classic hits station (like WCBS-FM) adds it to the playlist, and soon most others follow. In WABC’s last moments as a music format, DJs Dan Ingram and Ron Lundy spilled the beans on promotions & music.

A long time ago, I talked about WABC’s “$25,000 button” promotion. IMO, one of the best contests ever. I thought this was all a result of the creative genius of Rick Sklar. But as David Eduardo pointed out, that contest was done prior to WABC doing it. It was disappointing to hear that but what was true is that promo, which was done twice, saw good upticks in ratings as FM began proliferating.

Whether it was listeners wearing buttons to be spotted to win a prize or slapping bumper stickers on their cars to also win something, it was amazing just how willing we were to promote the station. We were probably not thinking of it in that way. It was all about winning something. Sometimes you’d catch someone with an old bumper sticker for a format that would flip to something else. With S. Florida being a tourist destination, there were many stories of old Y-100 bumper stickers seen in places like Minnesota. I haven't seen radio station bumper stickers for a long time. It just makes you realize very little remains constant.

As I’ve been saying even with music, creativity can exist with tight budgets. While many formats would engage in all kinds of promotions, I especially liked contests on oldies formats. More on that next.

The two most destructive contests I know of happened in two medium-sized markets and a large market. In early 1974, top-40 KIKX (580 AM) in Tucson said on its morning show that its newsreader had been kidnapped. It turned out to be a hoax and a contest (the listeners were supposed to guess where he was being held if I remember correctly) and the station was forced to surrender its license in 1977 because of this incident, even though by that time, a completely different company owned the station. (and, if I remember correctly, WMYQ-FM in Miami, FL, lost its license for the same or similar stunt).

The other incident happened much more recently in Sacramento, California, at then Entercom-owned KWOD-FM (106.5 mHz) in Sacramento, CA. The stunt, done during morning drive, was to find out how many glasses of water a person could drink at one time. One person died from drinking too much water. The result? The morning hosts were fired and Entercom was forced to surrender one of its FM licenses. Though the stunt took place on the 106.5 frequency, the company decided to surrender the license to its station at 107.9 mHz though that outlet had absolutely nothing to do with the stunt whatsoever. (Hopefully, I've remembered all of this correctly; if not, I'm sure I will be corrected.) In any case, the point I'm making is that the most destructive contests and promotions didn't necessarily happen in the smallest markets.
 
The two most destructive contests I know of happened in two medium-sized markets and a large market. In early 1974, top-40 KIKX (580 AM) in Tucson said on its morning show that its newsreader had been kidnapped. It turned out to be a hoax and a contest (the listeners were supposed to guess where he was being held if I remember correctly) and the station was forced to surrender its license in 1977 because of this incident, even though by that time, a completely different company owned the station. (and, if I remember correctly, WMYQ-FM in Miami, FL, lost its license for the same or similar stunt).

Jack Kent Cooke famously lost the license for KRLA/1110 in Los Angeles (Pasadena) in 1962 for a similar hoax.

Mike Hagerty summarized it in this thread.

The other incident happened much more recently in Sacramento, California, at then Entercom-owned KWOD-FM (106.5 mHz) in Sacramento, CA. The stunt, done during morning drive, was to find out how many glasses of water a person could drink at one time. One person died from drinking too much water. The result? The morning hosts were fired and Entercom was forced to surrender one of its FM licenses. Though the stunt took place on the 106.5 frequency, the company decided to surrender the license to its station at 107.9 mHz though that outlet had absolutely nothing to do with the stunt whatsoever. (Hopefully, I've remembered all of this correctly; if not, I'm sure I will be corrected.)

Close enough. The small detail you left out was that the winner was whoever drank the most water without urinating, and the contestant died of water intoxication as a result. The contest was cleverly titled "Hold Your Wee for a Wii" although as you state, Entercom ended up regretting it, big time.

IIRC, former KWOD owner Edward Stolz tried to use the incident to nullify the sale and put the station ownership back into his name.
 
The two most destructive contests I know of happened in two medium-sized markets and a large market. In early 1974, top-40 KIKX (580 AM) in Tucson said on its morning show that its newsreader had been kidnapped. It turned out to be a hoax and a contest (the listeners were supposed to guess where he was being held if I remember correctly) and the station was forced to surrender its license in 1977 because of this incident, even though by that time, a completely different company owned the station. (and, if I remember correctly, WMYQ-FM in Miami, FL, lost its license for the same or similar stunt).

The other incident happened much more recently in Sacramento, California, at then Entercom-owned KWOD-FM (106.5 mHz) in Sacramento, CA. The stunt, done during morning drive, was to find out how many glasses of water a person could drink at one time. One person died from drinking too much water. The result? The morning hosts were fired and Entercom was forced to surrender one of its FM licenses. Though the stunt took place on the 106.5 frequency, the company decided to surrender the license to its station at 107.9 mHz though that outlet had absolutely nothing to do with the stunt whatsoever. (Hopefully, I've remembered all of this correctly; if not, I'm sure I will be corrected.) In any case, the point I'm making is that the most destructive contests and promotions didn't necessarily happen in the smallest markets.
The incident happened on Entercom owned KDND 107.9, not KWOD. When the license for KDND was revoked by thei FCC, the CHR programming of The End (KDND) was moved over to KWOD 106.5 , which by then was under Entercom ownership.

Jennifer Strange's Family Awarded $16.5 Million in "Wee for Wii" Contest Death
 
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The incident happened on Entercom owned KDND 107.9, not KWOD. When the license for KDND was revoked by thei FCC, the CHR programming of The End (KDND) was moved over to KWOD 106.5 , which by then was under Entercom ownership.

Jennifer Strange's Family Awarded $16.5 Million in "Wee for Wii" Contest Death

It was the move of the intellectual property in the course of the resolution that slipped my mind.

But the rest of it is correct, including Stolz' abortive attempt to regain the license for 106.5 (link to our beloved owner's preferred news site 😉):
 
With regard to "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (in Perfect Harmony),", Coke used versions by both the New Seekers and Hillside Singers in its advertising messages. Also, both artists had top 40 hits in late 1971 and early 1972 with a non-brand version of the song. (In fact, both unbranded versions wound up in Billboard's top 100 songs for the year 1972.)
It just so happens WABC's tribute website WABC Musicradio 77 has brought up the Coca Cola advertising campaign that was discussed in this string. While I do recall, Coke was a major sponsor on "Cousin Brucie's" show, I also had no idea (probably forgot) that the station also had a promotion distributing the actual ad song, when requested, along with a note from Bruce Morrow.

Being the subject/picture of the week is changed each Tuesday to correspond to when the new music survey was introduced, I'm quoting what is said as I believe older content may not be easy to find, if even possible from next Tuesday forward. Here is what is said:

"In the world of advertising, it doesn't get better than having a commercial rise to the level of becoming a sensation. That's what happened to Coca Cola in 1971.
Coke was a major advertiser on WABC so the station was more than happy to be part of the overall promotion. It benefited both Coke and WABC."


This probably explains why both versions of the song played on WABC, and for some weeks at the same time as I mentioned in this string.

"Listeners could write to WABC to get a copy and this note from Bruce."

The note stated:
"Over the years, the people at Coke have produced some of the greatest commercials ever. But they have really topped themselves with this year's
"Buy the world a Coke" theme.
I'm very pleased to send you your personal copy."
And it was signed by Bruce Morrow.

In keeping with the "Is That All There Is" subject, there were so many aspects to radio that were done on such a grand scale. It's something I wish was more prevalent even by today's standards. Yes, the biggest radio station in the country in the biggest market in the country was able to do some amazing things. But there were even small market radio stations were stand outs in their own right so many years ago. Rarely, did we say "Is That All There is" to radio.



 
John, my "Is That All There Is" experience with WABC, growing up on Long Island in the late 1960's, is our participation in the station's Principal of the Year contest -- and won! Cousin Brucie came to our school to give the award to our principal -- and that was a BIG THING, let me tell you! That's an example of the most listened-to station in the #1 market going above and beyond -- a promotion that is (probably) unheard of in radio today.
 
John, my "Is That All There Is" experience with WABC, growing up on Long Island in the late 1960's, is our participation in the station's Principal of the Year contest -- and won! Cousin Brucie came to our school to give the award to our principal -- and that was a BIG THING, let me tell you! That's an example of the most listened-to station in the #1 market going above and beyond -- a promotion that is (probably) unheard of in radio today.
Alex, it’s good to “see” you again on the radio board. I read about the "Principal of the Year" promotion in Rick Sklar's book. It was one of his earlier efforts but it proved quite successful.

I had the opportunity to see Cousin Brucie several times when he’d emcee music shows at Palisades Amusement Park in New Jersey. The truth is I didn’t know him at all then. His airshift in the early 60s was late at night and that was way past my bedtime! Still, after all these years, it’s disappointing I never got the opportunity to see him again in my radio devotee days. I would have loved talking about radio with him. I sense, he would have obliged.

Palisades Amusement Park overlooked the Bronx and Manhattan just minutes away from The George Washington Bridge. And so, it attracted many from NYC & beyond in the summer months. Hopefully you got the opportunity to experience it.

I’ve long been a supporter of radio stations getting out into the community whether for charitable events, festivals, and virtually most venues that see large gatherings of people. These social encounters must give a warm & fuzzy to the listeners to make it worth it.

It was a long time ago that I discussed on these boards the introverted nature of many jocks. Cousin Brucie was certainly not like that. In fact, PD Rick Sklar admitted he used Bruce more than anyone else in “meet and greet” situations.

In keeping with the “Is That All There Is?” theme and T.C. locale, there are those occasional encounters where a radio station is at an event. There are hapless employees there who are tasked with setting up a tent and handing out trinkets. Often, they’re on the table while the employees talk among themselves. A waste of time if you ask me.

What’s true is if exceptional results are the goal; extraordinary efforts must be put forth. How fortunate are we who got to experience all that & more!
 
Old enough to remember back in the early/mid 70s when various stations in the Akron/Cleveland area sponsored bands and had "listener appreciation days" at Chippewa Lake Amusement Park [long gone now] with ALL of the station DJs there AND broadcasting live from the park. They literally would get close to 100,000 people showing up. The last station I had to deal with about 5 years ago came in, stuck a station banner on the wall, parked a van wrapped in the station logo in front of the place and that was it. NO DJs showed and only ONE mention on the air. Then they got mad because we wouldn't advertise on their station.
 


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