Welcome Dave Barber to your TV screen every week starting tonight

[Holland Cooke]

Don't get me started!

most AM stations are not doing well

Welcome to my life.

With 4, 5, 6 or MORE stations under-one-roof, it is PAINFULLY typical to hear the GM refer to the once-great WPRO-type station in the cluster as "the AM."

Management doesn't understand the potential these heritage stations could still have, if only THEY TRIED.

HERE, for instance, is the-kind-of-thing that a radio station could do, to re-capture that buzz...if only THEY TRIED:
http://www.improveverywhere.com/2008/01/31/frozen-grand-central/

Or, rather than bothering, they could just plug-into a bunch of syndicated about "Conservatives = good, Liberals = bad;" and settle for "The Local I, I, I, Me, Me, Me Show" and settle for a 3 on "the AM."

 

[alfieradioguy]

Holland, You're smart, but are you kidding? I watched that MORONIC clip of those idiots Freezing in the terminal and I'd like to punch you for wasting my time.
It's RISD Micheal Moore stupidity. What next? People walking in public areas with fake Pee stains on their pants? Oh Goodness I just gave you another stupid thing to do! My bad!

 

[Seekonk Sally]

Citadel stock a year ago was at 11, today it is at $1.49. They are asking for $25 for a 30 second ad in Buddy's show while paying him $300,000. If Yorke is making $175,000, Johnny D. must be close, and what about St. Pierre and a full news staff? Question Clear Channel's stopsets and programming being syndicated, but who's watching the Citadel bottom line? Their GSM has already been demoted. Do you think this is the end of the bleeding?

 

[Holland Cooke]

RE "Holland, You're smart..."

Be careful...
NEVER SAY THAT HERE.
Your anonymous co-conspirators here will shun you for NOT-dissing consultants.

...are you kidding? I watched that MORONIC clip of those idiots Freezing in the terminal and I'd like to punch you for wasting my time.

Okay, THAT'S more like it!

Please know that I DO understand how saying "I remember" as-often-as-I-do here risks caricature.
But YOUR comment tells us something about YOUR age.
You seem young-enough not-to-remember-a-time when RADIO was what-they-now-call Napster/iPod/TiVo/etc: "disruptive technology."

Two confessions: I thought it was goofy when:

1. PD Jay Clark told us that we'd introduce new WPRO afternoon guy Gary DeGraide by pretending he'd stopped-in to visit, and accidentally locked-himself-in-the-studio.

2. I was the new PD at WSNE, and the GM told me that our billboards over I-95 and I-195 would be upside-down.

In both cases, we got ProJo and TELEVISION coverage.

Yep, I was once too-young-to-understand-the-power-of (ready?) radio fun.

Citadel stock a year ago was at 11, today it is at $1.49. They are asking for $25 for a 30 second ad in Buddy's show while paying him $300,000. If Yorke is making $175,000, Johnny D. must be close, and what about St. Pierre and a full news staff? Question Clear Channel's stopsets and programming being syndicated, but who's watching the Citadel bottom line? Their GSM has already been demoted. Do you think this is the end of the bleeding?

Emerging-from-yesterday's-conference-call prepping a session I'll moderate at Al Peterson's Talk Media Seminar in Scottsdale week-after-next (http://www.talkmediaconference.com/): radio hasn't bottomed-out yet.

Between us -- and this does NOT leave the room -- I'm making money on CDL.
I'm in-and-out.
With online trades under $10, it's opportune.

Regarding radio-hasn't-bottomed-out-yet:
And this does NOT leave the room:
Chaos is good for the consulting business.

And radio did it to itself, as you will read in CHILLING predictions at http://members.aol.com/cookeh/GleiserFritts.pdf

Back to Scottsdale: Our session is "The Internet: NOT Radio's Future," meaning get-there-NOW, and do it aggressively.

Stations that go beyond the typical, lame "CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE" approach to the Internet, and exploit disruptive technology are FOLLOWING, not leading, listener migration.

If you can't make it to Scottsdale, join us next week in Atlanta, where the Radio Advertising Bureau is offering its new Certified Digital Marketing Consultant designation. Sales reps can start-and-finish the entire CDMC course at the RAB convention (http://www.rab.com/radioChannel.cfm). My portion of the curriculum is SELLING PODCAST SPONSORSHIPS.

Buzzword-you'll-be-hearing LOTS in 2008: "engagement," with audience, radio's depreciating asset.
Radio has it...for now. Disruptive technologies want it, and are moving aggressively.

Or, just do an hour of Beavis-and-Butthead-sounding snickering about a cable access show listeners-in-Arbitron's-most-important-county couldn't see...