98.1 The Legend Is Now Chattanooga’s Christmas Station

As predicted 98.1 The Legend is now Chattanooga's Christmas Station. They are still promoting their website as 981thelegend.com and they have kept the WLND call letters but we will have to wait till December 26th to see if The Legend can survive another Christmas. The Legend's last song before the switch to Christmas was "Patty Loveless - How Can I Help You Say Goodbye".UPDATE: They now have a

Chris Goforth Rehired At Fox Sports Radio

Chris Goforth has been rehired at Fox Sports Radio 1310/1370am. He was originally employed with Bahakel Communications back when ESPN Radio was on 1370am. Goforth, who will oversee both 1310 & 1370, starts on November 9th and has the hard task of making the stations profitable. No lineup changes are expected.

Daniel Wyatt Joins The US-101 Morning Team

The US101 morning team has added an extra person as Daniel Wyatt joins the long running morning duo Bearman & Ken. Daniel was previously promotions director at WDXB 102.5 The Bull in Birmingham, AL.Daniel's first day is today November 2nd.

Radio’s future – sure seems like the past to me…

Mark Ramsey has more good stuff on his blog in a week than most people do in their lifetime. Today is no exception. He posts about The Most Important Thing You’ll Read About Radio’s Future this Year. I read this once and said, “Yeah!” Then I read it again.

It suddenly hit me that this is where we were back in the 80s. Marketers were pushing us to become more invested with their marketing. We built teams at stations focused 100% on developing non-transactional business. We called it all sorts of things, from NTR to Vendor. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of bright marketing-oriented people joined these teams either from the ranks of radio sales or from the greater marketing community. We developed relationships with food brokers, wholesalers, marketers at CPG companies, and small marketing teams consulting CPG companies. We learned all about in-store display, push vs. pull marketing, consumer promotion, floor plans, vendor-funded marketing programs. Millions of dollars were invested by radio broadcasters to support these programs and they began to return their investment. We did not sell using Arbitron numbers. We sold using the results of the last program. And, those results were terrific! So, we were able to get more and more marketing dollars for the programs and give up less and less inventory on the station.

And then something happened.

The advertisers said, “You know, let’s go back to buying on Cost per Point. And, while we’re at it, you can throw in all that extra stuff as a freebie for just getting on the buy.” Radio managers caved. NTR/Vendor departments were decommissioned or turned into ghosts of themselves. Smart marketers left radio, were fired in consolidation moves, or they were sucked into the vortex of transactional radio business.

When I think about Mark’s article and the points he makes,

1. Act more like a marketing company than a media company.
2. Be organized around an audience and not a platform.
3. Work directly with marketers.
4. Not just create spaces for ads next to content, it’ll create whole media channels and platforms for brands
5. Employ technologists who can build device-agnostic platforms for marketers.
6. Know how to deliver instantaneous gratification when it comes to measurement, and it’ll be measuring outcomes not outputs. A rating…stat is not going to be enough in the future, and certainly not when it’s presented weeks after the fact.

I can’t help but remember what these same marketers have done time and time again – when it suits their need, they go back to twisting radio’s arm with commodity pricing. And radio lets them do it.

Don’t let them do it again.

Randy & Bert Show Canceled On ESPN Radio

As of Monday, November 2nd Randy Smith & Bert Caldwell have been let go from ESPN Radio 105.1FM. Nick Bonsanto takes over afternoons from 3-6pm starting today. Nick will also take on PD duties.

The New Radio Model: Fix It In The Mix

The maxim is that any time a rock band makes a recording and they aren’t sure it’s any good, the producer’s stock reply is: “Don’t worry: we’ll fix it in the mix.”  As if the magic voodoo that goes into the final stage of a recording – the mixdown – can cure any ills. To a certain [...]

Best of Public Radio 2009 in the Works

John Sutton & Associates and Jay Clayton Associates, in collaboration with NPR, APM, PRI, DEI, and Public Interactive, are once again creating an end-of-year fundraising campaign for public radio stations. Last year's integrated campaign was very successful with the majority of stations earning more revenue than over the same period the previous year.

The campaign will include direct mail, on-air spots, eblasts, and of course, the three-hour turnkey fundraising special. New this year, a national toll-free number and the option for stations to do more of the pitching.

More details are here.

Questions? Please contact me at john@radiosutton.com

At Work Listening

It's still a BIG key to building P1s, long TSL and big shares in valuable demos, but there are new rules. In the 90s At Work listening really took center stage, first with AC stations and then to Classic Rock for the most part. We ran special at work contests, dropped by with pizza for lunch, called the offices with 'secret contests' to build listening, tried building at work databases, and ran endless 'at work network' imaging to try and build this audience.

Channel 104.3 Baltimore Becomes CHR Z104.3

At 10:00am, Modern Rock “Channel 104.3″ WCHH Baltimore dropped the format and began stunting as Urban AC “Charm 104.3 – Baltimore’s Best R&B”. At 12pm, the station segued to CHR as “Z104.3“. Out with the flip is the “Elliot in the Morning” show, which can still be heard in parts of the market on flagship “DC101” Washington, D.C.

Instant Insight: This returns the CHR format to Baltimore for the first time since 2001, when CBS’ WXYV dropped out of the format. CBS’ “Mix 106.5” WWMX has straddled the line between Hot AC and CHR to fill both niches, but still left a hole for CHR in the market.

This also returns the format to the frequency of its greatest triumph. In the 80’s, “B104″ WBSB was the powerhouse that many markets had in the market, however the brand has since been diluted by “B102.7″ in the late 90’s and Classic Rock “B104.3″ earlier this decade.

I100 Debuts in Pensacola/Mobile

After a few days stunting with a wheel of formats as “Storm 100″ hinting at Classic Country and Urban AC, Cumulus Hot AC WJLQ “Q100″ relaunched as CHR “I100” at 12pm today. The station joins its Cumulus brethren in Nashville, Indianapolis, and Dallas as “I” branded CHR’s.

Next Page »