Monday, April 15, 2013
Monday, April 15, 2013
If You Haven't Already Visited Talkers.com Today, Here's Some of What You're Missing...
Weekend Talk Host Pete Sheppard Quits During WEEI, Boston Saturday Program.
Telling listeners that he's no longer happy working for the company, WEEI, Boston weekend talk host Pete Sheppard abruptly quit on-air  during his Saturday evening show. Sheppard, who was a long-time fixture on the former Glenn Ordway-hosted PM drive "Big Show" and was fired from that post due to budget cuts in 2010, was hired back for part-time duties about a year ago. Sheppard even went so far as to tease his on-air exit by Tweeting that he had something special coming up. He also specified that his problem was with Entercom management and not program director Jason Wolfe.
Legal Analysis and Brief Historical Background of "Stern Versus Sirius" Suit.
 Sometimes it is, as Mel Brooks commented in his movie "The History of the World, Part One," good to be the king. But other times it is not. Howard Stern, the self-proclaimed "King of All Media" took a hit last week when the dismissal of his lawsuit against Sirius XM Radio, Inc. in which he sought more than $300 million in stock awards was upheld by the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court. In order to understand Stern's lawsuit, which he filed in 2011, it is important to review the history of Stern's relationship with Sirius. In an illuminating article posted today (4/15) TALKERS legal editor Steve Weisman explains both the background and legal tenets of this important, high-profile (and big bucks) radio industry case. To read it, click here.
Bonneville's KIRO-AM, Seattle Names Danny O'Neil Late Morning Co-Host.
Bonneville's "710 ESPN Seattle" names market sports journalist Danny O'Neil co-host of the 9:00 am to 12:00 noon program alongside Brock Huard. O'Neil replaces Mike Salk who moved to  WEEI, Boston earlier this month. The "Brock & Danny Show" debuts today. The station states that in addition to his on-air duties, O'Neil will write a daily Seattle-focused sports column/blog on 710Sports.com. During the NFL season, O'Neil will cover the Seattle Seahawks to provide fans with an inside perspective on the team. O'Neil did three stints with the Seattle Times (1996-97; 1999-2002; 2006-2013) and also wrote for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer from 2002-2006. KIRO-AM vice president and general manager Dave Pridemore states, "We are extremely excited about teaming up Danny O'Neil with Brock Huard on 710 ESPN Seattle. I'm sure our listeners will appreciate the combination of an athlete's insight and analysis with a journalist's curiosity and straight forward perspective." Program director Brian Long says, "Brock and Danny have a natural chemistry and genuine likability that will make for a smart entertaining listen for the Seattle sports fan."
Encouragement and Advice for Lonely Digital "True Believers" at Radio Stations.
Noted digital radio consultant and TALKERS columnist Chris Miller says, "True Believers are the radio folks I talk to who just know deep  in their heart of hearts that the brilliant use of our digital tools could help radio be the best it could possibly be. When I talk with them, they often just see so clearly how to fit all our different platforms together and how to use them. Most of them seem to feel a level of frustration, too. I suspect that's because they are often the one person at work who is both knowledgeable and passionate about the potential of these tools." If you think that describes you, in an article posted to today in TALKERS, Miller serves up several good ideas on how to lessen your frustration level as well as help position you as the radio/digital expert in your workplace and help accomplish your goals. He suggests starting small, pressing for constant improvement and creating an industry-wide community of like-minded broadcasters. To read Chris Miller's entire piece, click here.
Salem Communications Re-Brands WHK, Cleveland "The Answer."
 Following the trend in branding taken by its news/talk stations in New York, Los Angeles, Riverside, Dallas, Houston, Columbus, and Chicago, Salem Communications announced WHK, Cleveland becomes "AM 1420 The Answer." Salem VP director of spoken word format Phil Boyce says, "As our listeners are preparing to write Uncle Sam that fat check, I can't think of a better day to give Cleveland 'The Answer' to why their taxes are so high. We have the answer for little things like 'why am I stuck in traffic' to bigger things like what can conservatives do to win back the White House." The on-air lineup, consisting of Salem Radio Network programs, remains the same. The station adds morning news anchor Jim McIntyre, "one of the most trusted news voices in Greater Cleveland," as part of its local news, traffic and weather team. The station is adding a new late night program dubbed, "The 11th Hour," hosted by McIntyre and Cleveland talk host Tom Kelly that will air at 11:00 pm. The station says the show "will focus on both local and statewide stories that affect the WHK audience, with news updates and interviews of the day's newsmakers and journalists." Station general manager Mark Jaycox states, "These are very exciting times at Salem Communications of Northeast Ohio. To be able to take a station like WHK – one rich in Cleveland heritage and Ohio tradition and celebrating its 91st birthday this year – and make it even more relevant and current, while maintaining that strong identity, we are confident our WHK listeners will be pleased with this change."
Mid-West Family Broadcasting Acquires Wisconsin and Illinois Stations from Maverick for $15.5 Million.
 Just days after Connecticut-based Maverick Media announced the sale of its Santa Rosa, California stations to Lawrence Amaturo-led Sonoma Media Group, we learn that Mid-West Family Broadcasting is buying Maverick's Eau Claire, Wisconsin and Rockford Illinois clusters. The stations in the Rockford market are: adult hits WRTB "Bob FM 95.3," AC WGFB "B103 FM," rock WXRX, and comedy WNTA-AM/FM "Funny 1330." In Eau Claire, the stations are: news/talk WAYY, sports talk WEAU "ESPN 1150," classic rock WECL "92.9 The Big Cheese," AC WIAL, "I-94," adult hits WDRK "Bob FM 99.9," and country WAXX. In a statement, Mid-West Family Broadcasting president Tom Walker says, "We have wanted to grow our company for some time and want to bring the ideals of locally owned radio back to these two cities. The stations in both Eau Claire and Rockford will continue serving their local markets with the quality programming Mid-West Family brings to all its stations."
Milt McConnell Joins Alpha Broadcasting's Portland Cluster as SVP and GM.
Former Cumulus Albuquerque market manager Milt McConnell is named the senior vice president and general manager at Alpha  Broadcasting's Portland, Oregon cluster. McConnell was part of a recent exodus of staffers from the Albuquerque operations that included longtime KKOB talk host Jim Villanucci. On his new post in Portland overseeing properties including hot AC KBFF "Live 95.5," triple A KINK, country KUPL "98.7 The Bull," sports KXTG-AM "750 The Game," news/talk KXL "FM News 101," and talk KUFO "Freedom 970," McConnell says, "I am just thrilled to get back to live and locally owned radio. What Larry Wilson and Bob Proffitt have crafted with these premier brands at Alpha/Portland is incredible and I am excited about growing our influence in this dynamic city. The Alpha culture is very reminiscent of the boom years when we were growing Citadel. The cherry on top is that I get to work with formats that I have experience with and am extremely passionate about."
Odds & Sods.
CBS Radio's WPHT, Philadelphia debuts its new PM drive program hosted by Dick Morris. The show is airing from 2:00 pm to 6:00  pm…..Meanwhile, longtime WPHT personality Michael Smerconish makes his move to SiriusXM Satellite Radio today. The program airs on the POTUS channel from 9:00 am to 12:00 noon ET….Speaking of SiriusXM, the satcaster began a six-week run of a special program hosted by Breitbart News Network chairman Stephen K. Bannon called "Breitbart News Sunday with Stephen K. Bannon" last night at 7:00 pm ET on its conservative talk SiriusXM Patriot channel. The three-hour call-in show is said to feature commentary and analysis on the stories and narratives that will drive the upcoming week's news cycle from the editors and contributors of the Breitbart News Network.
Bernie Miklasz to Appear on WXOS, St. Louis Daily.
When WXOS, St. Louis "101 ESPN" midday talk host Bernie Miklasz announced he'd be leaving his daily program on the Hubbard  Broadcasting sports talker to focus on his work with the St. Louis Dispatch, the station said it hoped to still have him contributing on a regular basis. Now, it's announced that Miklasz will be a regular guest and will be featured at the following times: Monday afternoons at 4:30 on "The Fast Lane," Tuesday mornings at 9:30 with "Zach and Rammer," Wednesday evenings at 5:30 on "The Fast Lane," Thursday mornings 10:30 with "Zach and Rammer," and Friday afternoons at 12:30 on the new midday program. Program director Chris "Hoss" Neupert states, "We are thrilled that Bernie Miklasz will still be a part of the '101ESPN' team. His experienced analysis regarding the local St. Louis and national sports scene is immeasurable, and our listeners really value his comments and opinions."
Longtime Denver Talk Host Rick Barber Facing ALS Battle.
Rick Barber was a talk show host on KOA, Denver for more than 30 years. He exited the station in January of 2012 and was diagnosed  with Lou Gehrig's disease -- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – several months ago. Now, former fellow Denver talk host Peter Boyles is helping alert the industry to Barber's situation and providing information where people can make donations. Find that on Boyles' KHOW, Denver page here.
Greater Media's Peter Smyth Honored by Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus.
 
Greater Media chairman and CEO Peter Smyth is pictured here at the 12th Annual Good Guys Awards on Thursday, April 11 at the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston. The awards event was produced by the Massachusetts Women's Political Caucus which honored Smyth for his continued support of women and families in Massachusetts. Smyth is an active philanthropist working with many organizations that advocate for women and families including the United Way of Massachusetts, the New England Baptist Hospital and Emerson College. In addition, he is a supporter of GRLZ Radio, a radio station giving young women a voice in their community. MWPC executive director Priti Rao states, "We were very excited to honor Peter Smyth as one of our Good Guys. His dedicated advocacy to advance women serves as a role model to our community. His support of programs and initiatives that improve the welfare and safety of women and families has been indispensable." Pictured here are (from l-r): Greater Media VP of corporate communication Heidi Raphael, "HOT 96.9" morning show co-host Pebbles, Greater Media Boston market manager Rob Williams, Smyth, "Hot 96.9" APD and digital media brand manager Jill Strada, WROR general sales manager Matt DiRoberto and Greater Media VP of program development Buzz Knight.
The 2013 Heavy Hundred
 The editors of TALKERS magazine, with input from industry leaders, present the 100 Most Important Radio Talk Show Hosts in America –– a popular annual feature that has come to be known as the "Heavy Hundred." This is one of the most challenging tasks that TALKERS undertakes each year considering that there are thousands of talk show hosts across the country, ranging from national icons to those laboring in relative obscurity. Aside from the hosts whose sheer numbers and fame demand their inclusion on this list, the selection process is subjective with the goal being to create a list reflective of the industry's diversity and total flavor as well as giving credit where credit is due. The TALKERS magazine editors who painstakingly compile this super-list draw upon a combination of hard and soft factors when evaluating candidates. These include (in alphabetical order): courage, effort, impact, longevity, potential, ratings, recognition, revenue, service, talent and uniqueness. We acknowledge that it is as much art as science and that the results are arguable. There is one concrete qualification for inclusion. Hosts must be working at the time TALKERS magazine initially posts the list in order to be considered. They must have a regularly scheduled professional show on the air at a minimum of one terrestrial or satellite radio station at "press time." The list remains intact from that point forward until the next year's edition. In past years, TALKERS magazine has included sports talk hosts in the Heavy Hundred. Last year, due to the massive growth in the sports talk genre, sports talk radio has earned a Heavy Hundred of its own, the 2013 installment of which will be published by TALKERS in the coming months. TALKERS magazine salutes the fine broadcasters who made this year's list. To view it click here.
The FCC's Curious Approach to Indecency
By Steven J.J. Weisman
TALKERS
Legal Editor
 BOSTON — Somehow it seems particularly fitting that the FCC chose April Fools' Day to issue a press release in which it indicated that as a result of its review of its broadcast indecency rules following the Supreme Court's decision in the case of FCC v. Fox Television Stations, Inc., it had managed to reduce its backlog of pending indecency complaints by more than one million — which represented 70% of the outstanding pending complaints. How, you might ask, was the FCC able to carefully evaluate more than a million complaints in only six months? It was easy. These cases were summarily dismissed for various reasons, such as being beyond the FCC's five-year statute of limitations, involved cases outside of the FCC's jurisdiction, contained insufficient information or were not actionable due to previous established precedents. Cases were also dismissed for being, in the FCC's words "too stale to pursue," although there is no FCC definition of staleness. It is also interesting to note that the FCC has not brought an action against a broadcaster for indecency since 2008 and that order of the FCC against Fox involving the 2003 broadcast of the show "Married by America" — which originally carried a $1.18 million fine, later reduced by the FCC to $91,000 — was ultimately voluntarily dismissed by the FCC in September of 2012." Read this entire story here.
Prune Now to Grow Later
By Chris Miller
Miller Digital
 SHAKER HEIGHTS, Oh. — "Here's a way to clean up your website to get more repeat visits from your heaviest listeners.
Where to Start
Someone knows how to run your web analytics so you can see which pages get the most hits. Do that. Generally speaking, a small number of pages will, when combined, deliver more than half of your web hits. These are the important ones. Sometimes, you'll see a clear difference between the pages that are performing and those that aren't.
Those pages that people visit are the ones that are working for you. That long tail of pages that only get two or three visits a month? They're probably getting in the way of your fans finding the places they do want to visit.
Please consider consistently promoting those pages that get the most hits. That means on the air, in social media, and in your database emails. You've been shown they're worthwhile; they'll get even more hits that way. Read the complete story here.
Radio Should Learn About Hyperlocal Marketing
By Walter Sabo
Sabo Media
 NEW YORK — "A vital revenue and programming trend to understand is "hyperlocal" marketing. It is easy to assume that live, local radio is hyperlocal but in marketing terms it is not. Hyperlocal to a brand marketer is content, technology and commerce that is one step in front of the target customer. Hyperlocal marketing influences the buying decision at the moment of decision and purchase.
For example, if your station offers an app with hyper-local commerce capabilities, a listener carrying that app could pass by a Dunkin' Donuts, and through GPS, the app could signal the listener that they can walk into DD and receive a free donut. That's hyper-local marketing at its simplest.
The levels of usage are profound. Advertisers can now separate customer leads from page views of ads on your website. According to Tech Crunch, Yelp is announcing a new feature intended to highlight and quantify the value that the listing and review site provides for small businesses. The feature separates customer leads from page views — those leads can include things like bookmarking a Yelp business listing, mapping directions to the business, placing a phone call from the Yelp app, or purchasing a Yelp deal. Read the complete story here.
Stranger Than Fiction
By Thomas R. Ray, III CPBE, AMD, DRB
Tom Ray Consulting
 NEW YORK — "March was a bizarre month. I don't know if it was the full moon last week, the expectation of a spring that wasn't quite here yet or what. Here are two examples: I would have asked that this be published on April 1, but too many people would think this was an April Fools gag. I swear, I couldn't make this one up!
Where's the Proof?
I have a client station that I'm working for on a submission to the FCC. It involves a directional AM antenna, and we need to submit the results of a Partial Proof of Performance on the antenna system – one done before a modification, one done after. Only problem is, the station cannot locate the full Proof of Performance of record on the antenna system. Read the complete story here.
Interview Your Dentist
By Hollland Cooke
Radio Consultant
 BLOCK ISLAND, R.I.— "Assume that, in meetings you're not invited to, tough decisions are on the table. And as cutbacks continue, it's real smart for on-air personalities to seem real valuable to the sales department. If your endorsement spots move product, bean counters view you as "revenue," not just expense.
Savvy hosts are pro-active, not just reactive. They THINK sales, spotting prospects everywhere, and tipping-off the sales department.
Next time you slide-into the dental chair, you might chat-up your doc…at least until he or she numbs you.
Though laser eye surgeons are still using radio, the category has cooled, as the market saturated, and with demand being met. Prediction: Dentists will be worth even more to radio than laser eye surgeons have been, for five reasons:
1. They need new patients. In the two generations since Baby Boomers squirmed into the chair, dentistry has evolved. Amalgam fillings were profitable work in the 1960s. As fluoride and better care have reduced cavities, dentists' new opportunities are… Read the complete story here..
Keeping it Local is KSCO's Key to Success
By Jeff McKay
TALKERS
 SANTA CRUZ, CA— "The news/talk radio station in question is not owned by a hedge fund or multi-billion dollar conglomerate. Their ownership group doesn't occupy the top floors of a big-city skyscraper. You will not see the morning or afternoon show brandishing seven-figure contracts, nor the corporate PD flying into town on the company Lear jet, or the "brand manager" moving from market to market implementing new strategies to grow the market cluster.
The fact of the matter is none of the above elements – which have become somewhat commonplace in today's radio industry – at this station exist.
10k KSCO (1080 AM) is located in Santa Cruz, California, in a neat stand-alone building (that also houses its smaller sister station KOMY 1340 AM – a facility that owner Michael Zwerling uses as a developmental farm club) on a piece of land that overlooks the Pacific Ocean that would be the envy of any real estate developer in this town known for its college, beach and boardwalk, liberalism, and state park land and forests. It is an 80-minute drive from San Francisco. Read the complete story here.
Endorsements Should Be Interesting
By Michael Berry
Talk Radio Host
 HOUSTON— "All I ever hear radio industry execs talk about is ratings and revenues, as if the two go hand in hand. With music stations, that may be true. But talk radio's future will be determined by our ability to get results for our advertisers. That includes, but is not limited to, ratings, and it probably has more to do with ratings in categories currently seen as less, or altogether un-, important; namely, 55 and up, or 35-64.
Ratings are not an end in themselves, but rather a pricing mechanism by which advertisers determine the rates they will pay. In an industry which measures itself primarily, indeed almost exclusively, on the 25-54 demo, it's good to remember how many people are active consumers who don't fit into those niches. Twenty-five-year-olds don't buy houses, or improve them. Their bodies aren't breaking down, so they don't need all the medical advancements of companies willing to advertise those services. They are not investing, banking, exercising, losing weight, restoring vision, or maintaining a house that needs everything from new pipes to electrical to roofing to driveway pavers to a pool. In short, radio can still be very profitable as our society ages by appealing to direct-buy advertisers. But only if radio can yield results for the client. Think about it: listeners tune to music radio to zone out to music, and when someone talks it's a distraction. Listeners tune to talk radio to be engaged, and the talk by the host is what they sought. If the host's endorsement of a product could be as compelling as his discussion of Obama's hypocrisy, imagine the boon to advertisers. Winning the ratings war for most listeners under 54 does not necessarily yield financial returns to the people who pay for advertising. It is not the size of the audience, but rather the size of the response for the advertiser, that will build loyalty in clients. So how do we get results for clients, especially live, direct clients? Read the complete story here..
| | | |
|