Month: December 1996

12/13/1996

Was this planned?  At the beginning of 1996, did we plan to pull the covers over our heads and take a holiday nap at the beginning of December?  Or did we just eat way too much turkey and dressing for Thanksgiving, gain so much weight and lethargy that we couldn’t (or wouldn’t) put forth a big effort to close the year with a bang?  Are we too tired, too lazy, too content…or, in some cases, too ignorant of the facts to make the final push that separates the big winners from the also-rans?

Or was this just another one of those famous “mistakes” that so often happens in our industry…you know, those things that “just happen” and turn first into legend, then tradition.

Or is it all my imagination?

Hello?  Is anybody there?

I’m speaking of the decisions made by some record companies to curb their promotional efforts leading up to the Christmas holidays.  It is evident that record companies that don’t have releases shouldn’t waste their time and efforts pushing stiffs up to mid-chart.  However, record companies who make conscious decisions to decrease promotion and sales efforts in December because of a belief that airplay is tough to come by might be guilty of reasoning accurately to an inaccurate conclusion.

Often, particularly in the promotional ranks, decisions are made based on what promotion executives think radio believes.  Too often, these assumptions are wrong.  The symbiotic relationship that tenuously exists between radio stations and record companies is at it’s weakest during the Christmas holidays.

Record company promotional teams usually close their doors over the holiday period…some for as many as three weeks.  Radio programmers work through the holiday vacations…many pulling air-shifts on Christmas Day.  Certainly, no programmer or music director is allowed two to three weeks of vacation.

After Christmas means more advertising.  There are sales, special end-of-the-year offerings, sales, New Year’s parties, sales, New Year’s concerts and sales.  Did I mention sales?

The point is, radio has no choice except to work.  The jocks are on the air, commercial logs are in the control room and music logs must be run.

Ahh…Music logs

Have we struck a resonant chord?

No matter what a record company believes or promotes or does, programmers will change the music on their radio stations every week through the holiday period.  So you think that song you’re promoting has just about lost its vitality and you can put it to sleep three weeks earlier than you would under normal circumstances because it’s Christmas.

Wrong, no-bullet breath.

Programmers are looking for fresh, new product.  There is probably no other time of year better than right now when you can “sneak” a song on radio stations.  So many promotion people get insane because programmers don’t give their record enough time to begin to stimulate sales and requests.  Quit bitching.  Your time is now.

Unlike any other time of year, true promotion people can make a difference over the next couple of weeks.  If you’re good enough to convince a programmer to add your record on the basis of sound (hey, how many opportunities do you get to do that?), you have the chance to get your record burning into the audience for a good three weeks before accurate information can come back to the programmer for evaluation.  Few stations do audience testing during the holidays because listeners’ habits are different-but they still have the radio station tuned in.  And if your record is on, they’re hearing it.  Maybe they’re hearing it a lot and, if you’re lucky, liking it.  Then, when Pauley Programmer starts up those call-outs after the holidays, maybe your record has enough momentum to show up big.

And guess what?  All of those other promoters who didn’t bother with the station before the Christmas holidays will be a day late and a dollar short when they’re asking for adds during the first week of January.  You’ll already have a head start.

Just because record companies take a long holiday over Christmas doesn’t mean radio stations do the same.  The opposite is true.  Radio doesn’t take a holiday.  And music is critical to radio all the time…but especially during Christmas when new product can get increasingly stale.

Record companies should actively promote programmers through the 20^th of this year.  Don’t worry about them not being there.  Trust me.  They will be.  And promotion should begin again on January 2^nd.  Again, don’t worry about a programmer not being back from vacation.  The truth is, most won’t leave.

Radio people are accustomed to working over the holidays.  And because many record company promotion teams are “over and out” during the same period, a good promotion executive can find quality time with a programmer simply because there’s nobody else around.  I’m not suggesting you to call on Christmas Day, but the days leading up to Christmas can prove a lot more productive than all those other days when the call-waiting feature on the music line was overloaded.  It is a promotion person’s job to find better ways.  This is an easy one.

Record companies with hit records will promote during the Christmas holidays.  Those that don’t, probably won’t,  but is it happenstance that those who continue to work harder have hit records?

I think not.

12/6/1996

Here are some random thoughts I garnered over the Thanksgiving holidays:

It wasn’t long enough.  More people are talking about being burned out in our business than ever before.  I witnessed one record executive, his feet propped up on a couch on Thanksgiving  Day, talking about how he couldn’t wait until the Christmas vacation.

• · · ·

 

Was I the only one who thought stuffing the turkey and promoting records were one and the same thing?

• · · ·

 

I was playing golf with my good friend Charlie Bennett, who is 78 and retired.  (Ask Bill Richards how good a golfer Charlie is!)  The course was crowded.  I was bitching.  (I know it sounds hard for those of you who are familiar with my calm demeanor to believe, but I was actually getting aggravated.)

Charlie said, “One good recession would cure these crowds out.”

I relate the above to the record business.  The last few months haven’t exactly been the healthiest in our blood sport.  However, it’s nothing one big hit wouldn’t cure.

• · · ·

 

Is it just me or is it really getting ugly out there?  I’ve never heard more people bitching about other people, their jobs and their lives in general.  It seems like we have to complain even when we’re satisfied.  I actually heard the following exchange:

“John just got a job at Dweebe Records.”

“Doing what?”

“That slug?  He couldn’t close a door, much less a record.  I’m better than him.  I wonder why they didn’t talk to me?”

“I thought you guys were friends?”

“John and I?  The best.”

“Oh.”

“How much is he making?”

“About one hundred thousand.”

“Jesus Christ!  That’s such bullshit! I work my ass off twice as hard as he will and I don’t make half that.  This is absolutely unfair.”

“Why don’t you quit?”

“Why would I quit?  I love my job.”

• · · ·

 

Am I the only one who is over this cigar thing?  Suddenly, everyone is smoking them and everyone is an expert.  With the possible exception of Todd Cavanah, five years ago most programmers thoughts a Macanudo was a strip club in Las Vegas.

• · · ·

 

If more programmers chewed tobacco and were careless where they spit, would music meetings with record promoters last nearly as long?

• · · ·

 

I have the best job in the business.  I’m also the very best at what I do.  Of course, being the only person who does what I do makes doing it a lot more comfortable than other situations.  But don’t be fooled.  It isn’t easy being me.  (Who am I trying to kid?  I’m just looking for sympathy.  It’s a piece of cake!)

• · · ·

 

I’ve never heard more people with more opinions about what KIIS FM Los Angeles should do.  Everybody’s a programming genius.

• · · ·

 

Why is the stock market setting new records and all of my radio stock is going down?

• · · ·

 

Will everyone who ate too much please raise their hands?

• · · ·

 

Will everyone who bitched too much please raise their hands?

• · · ·

 

Will everyone who loved too much please raise their hands?

• · · ·

 

If you counted all the minutes that you bitched about your job and your life this past weekend, then compared it to the amount of time you spent giving thanks for what you have, which would win?

• · · ·

 

I am the best cook I know.  For that fact, each Thanksgiving, I give thanks to Lela Maye.

• · · ·

 

How many people wished they were somewhere else this Thanksgiving?  How many people wished they were with some-one else?  How many people were with other people who were wishing they were with someone else?

• · · ·

 

How many people reading this think their opinion is the only one that matters?

• · · ·

 

I heard something every interesting over the Thanksgiving holidays.  A friend of mine had a pad full of New Year’s resolutions.  He compiles them each Thanksgiving.  He chooses several, then gives them a “test run” through the Christmas holidays to see which ones (a) make a difference in his life, and (b) he has a snowballs’ chance in hell of not breaking.  Just before the New Year, he finds a couple and sticks with them.  It’s an interesting policy…one I’m giving a “test run” this year.  This way I won’t be so impulsive.

• · · ·

 

Why is our business so ugly?  Why can’t we be happy for every record that shows life?  For every promotion person who gets a better position?  For every radio station that trends up?  For every programmer who gets a better gig?  Why must we constantly criticize everyone and everything that happens in our business…as long as it isn’t happening to us?  Is it possible that others aren’t as bad as we think and we aren’t as good as we are?

Naah!