Month: June 2013

7/26/1996

Several weeks ago, Network 40 sent out “Report Cards” asking our readers for input.  We asked how you liked current features, whether you wanted changes, additions, etc.  As we’ve said since our first edition, Network  40 is dedicated to serving our industry.  We want to reflect your needs, not dictate our own agenda.  Network 40 consists entirely of charts, articles, features and ideas created by your input.

So far, you’ve done a good job.

The response to our “Report Cards” was unbelievable.  Somewhat less than 10,000 of you responded with suggestions and ideas.

Now it’s our turn to make your input and ideas a reality.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see changes and additions to Network 40, based on what you’ve told us you wanted.  The first new feature appears this week.

Nearly everyone who responded asked for a feature on music and programming research.  Another big request was to include information about programming in specific markets.

The exclusive Network 40 Market Profile debuts this week on page 12, followed by another exclusive, the Network 40 Music Research, on page 16.

In the ever-changing world of programming in the ‘90s, it’s difficult to keep up with stations in different parts of the country.  Call letters and slogans changes with the seasons and even when call letters remain familiar, it’s often impossible to know what kind of a music mix is generating the latest trends.  If you don’t have friends in a particular market you’re interested in, it’s hard to know exactly what’s making a station tick.

The Network 40 Market Profile takes out as much of the guesswork as possible.  It’s the next best thing to being there.

Through a venture with Media Base Research, we’ve compiled a breakdown of selected stations in the Houston market.  In future weeks, other markets will be featured.

On the first page of the Network 40 Market Profile, you’ll find everything you need to know about the individual stations featured in the Houston market…address, personnel, consultants, voice-over, etc.

Media Base also provides additional information such as specific promos, stagers and commercial copy.  If there are other elements you would like to see, let us know.

The second page of the Network 40 Market Profile consists of comparative music hours from each station in selected dayparts: mornings, mid-days, afternoons and nights.  You can compare the music programmed on each station during each daypart.

Some stations are doing special programming during the music hours we use. When this happens, it is noted.  For example, KTBZ was doing a “Menage A Trois” lunch hour during our profile.  You’ll see three songs in a row from the same artist.  KBXX had an Old School lunch hour and a Five O’clock Traffic Jam.  We chose not to list those specific titles because they weren’t part of the normal programming.

Following the Market Profile is Network 40’s Music Research.  We have been working on a music research system for the past several years.  Programmers understand how difficult it is to establish an accurate national music research system.  Musical tastes vary from region to region…and even from market to market.  Even within the same market, music research is difficult.  Each radio station identifies its core audience and tests within the core.  How beneficial a national research system is depends upon your wants, needs and opinions.

With Media Base, However, we have developed a system that will show you the top-testing current releases with a national Mainstream audience.  We don’t profess that it will be absolutely accurate for every radio station, but it will give programmers a broad overview of the top-testing records across the country…for Mainstream Top 40.  It’s another bit of information that will help lead you to the right decisions.

Because each station is different…as is each core…each market…each region, Network 40 will not print specific research information about negative-testing records.  We will share only the top-testing records, in alphabetical order, so you can see the cream of the crop.

The Network 40 music research is unique in that Media Base uses the core audience samples from Mainstream Top 40 stations in the nation’s Top 20 markets.  You won’t have to “guess” as to where the testing is being done.  It reflects the tastes of those in the core audience Mainstream Top 40 stations in major markets.

More important than a national call-out test of new music are the Most-Played Recurrents.  This listing has nothing to do with call-out testing.  It is tabulated from different formats based on the number of plays each recurrent receives.  This way, you can compare your recurrent receives.  This way, you can compare your recurrents with those getting the most play in your format.  We’ve broken the formats into Top 40, A/C, Alternative and Crossover.

Because recurrents turn over slowly, there won’t be radical changes in the weekly recurrent listings.  However, you will be able to detect the changes as they occur.

Remember, as you check the Network 40 Music Research, the Top Testing Currents are listed in alphabetical order.  The Recurrents, by format, are listed in the order of the plays each receives.

We’re excited about the Network 40 Market Profiles and the Network 40 Music Research.  We’re excited because we’re able to provide some thing you’ve asked for.  We’re excited that we’ve been able to partner with Media Base to give you virtually as much information about specific programming in various markets as you want.

Each week, we’ll profile a different market.  Next week, it’s Philadelphia.  If you would like to see a specific market, just let us know.

This is the first of several changes you’ve requested.  In the coming weeks, you’ll see more.  You asked for it…you got it…

As for the highly educated, sophisticated segment of our audience who asked for more “nekkid” pictures on Page 6…

Send ‘em in…we’ll run ‘em.

11/17/1995

I just finished reading Howard Stern’s latest book.  If you haven’t read it, I’ll send you my copy.  Lee Leipsner gave me his.  So I’ll send you his copy.

It’s a great book to read in the bathroom.

Howard’s book has no real point.  He just lashes out at anything and everything that’s on his mind. Like this Editorial.  There’s no specific topic, just a bunch of things I’ve had time to think about while traveling the past month.

So find a topic you like and spend time with it.  Skip the rest.

1-800-MUSIC NOW will revolutionize the radio and record industries.  The most obvious revolution will occur in record sales.  Research shows an extraordinary number of people would purchase more music if they didn’t have to visit record stores.  Being able to order music via telephone will have a dramatic effect on sales.  Radio stations and record companies will have the ability to track immediate sales in specific areas.  This could help programmers determine a record’s strength much earlier in the game.  Just as important (more so for the participating radio stations), is the opportunity for radio to share in the profits of the product exposed.  Forever, radio has bitched because it exposed music that ultimately makes money for record companies.  This aspect of our business has always been a sore spot with radio.  No longer, through 1-800-MUSIC NOW, radio stations share in the record sales generated by their playlists.  It will be interesting to see how this changes our industry.  The bet here is that it will change the way our business is conducted in a huge, positive way.

Every time I go to New York, I get lost.  Each time I mention my plight to a New Yorker, I am ridiculed with the statement, “How can you get lost in New York? It’s the easiest city in the world to get around in.”  Right.  Don’t you hate it when people tell you to go west on 52nd Street? Can I ask a rather simplistic statement? If you are from out of town and the sun is down, how in the hell are you supposed to know which way west is?  You can’t see the North Star because of all of the buildings.  How do you know which way to go?  And please, I don’t want to hear from any New Yorker about how ignorant I am.  Let me take you to Jackson, Mississippi, drop you off at the reservoir and tell you find Capital Street by just heading South.

How smart you are depends on what part of the country you’re standing in when you make a statement.  I left Andrea Ganis’ office and walked to meet Joe Ricitelli.  She told me to go left on 52nd Street.  It was the wrong way.  I missed my appointment with Joey.  I accused Andrea of giving me the wrong directions on purpose.  They both called me a hillbilly.  Of course, when I shared this story with my lifelong friend and fellow redneck, Mississippi-born Harry Nelson, he said, “Whut the hell you doin’ in New York, anyhow?”

Good question.

Speaking of New York, the party that was held on the stage of Saturday Night Live to debut 1-800-MUSIC NOW could have been the show-stopper of the year.  Everybody was there.

It is gratifying to know that the three cities most important to the record business, New York, Los Angeles and Nashville, have some of the best radio stations in the country.

Sean Ross, he of The Monitor, mentioned my name last week.  I guess I shouldn’t bitch, since he spelled it right, but I will anyhow.  In trying to obliquely justify The Monitor’s plans for realigning stations according to The Monitor’s rules, Sean attempted to point out the differences between radio stations that years ago leaned Urban and the Crossover stations of today.  I wrote an Editorial a while back on the subject and pointed out how KFRC was more Crossover than Mainstream in the 1980s and Sean was out to prove me incorrect. Sean said, “Allegedly, KFRC…always leaned R&B to a degree that obscured the boundaries between the formats.  That’s how some folks remember it.  Let’s go to the tape.”  Sean wanted to prove that KFRC didn’t play a lot or R&B music in the 1982.  He cited some “tape” that “supposedly” duplicated an air shift of KFRC playing Kool & The Gang’s “Take My Heart,” Olivia Newton-John’s “Zanadu,” Devo’s “Beautiful World,” Allman Brothers’ “Ramblin’ Man,” Rod Stevwart’s “Passion,” Lindsey Buckingham’s “Trouble,” Carl Carlton’s “Bad Mama Jama” (what a great song), Diana Ross’ “Why Do Fools Fall In Love,” Quincy Jone’s “Just Once” and The Beach Boys’ “Come Go With Me.”

I don’t know where Sean got the tape…please send me a copy…but it must have been from Dr. Don Rose’s morning show after the Christmas party.  (Rose generally played what he wanted to play.)  If KFRC had played those records in that rotation, I would have (a) been taking all the payola some have accused me of and would be living in Maui and visiting Los Angeles today instead of the other around and (b) been proclaimed a programming genius to have the ratings we produced playing all of these stiffs.  (Of course, Keith Naftaly was the AMD at the time and I do believe he was high on the Lindsey Buckingham…or was that in the alley?)

Not that it matters today, but in the 1980s, KFRC was leaning heavily R&B…and I do mean heavy.  The station was programmed to Oakland.  We had to be heavily R&B to win.  Check out a playlist and then add another 25%.  We kept the “White” superstars on the list longer to appease some nervous sales geeks.  Sean also listed tapes from other Mainstream stations of their day to prove, I assume, that KMEL and WPGC aren’t Mainstream stations.  Let me put to you in a way you’ll understand:  Network 40 will continue to define radio stations based on the definitions supplied by the individual radio stations.  In other words, let’s go to the tape and take the title of another Irving Azoff triple-bonus record of the 1990s by Jack Mack and the Heart Attack:  “Call It What You Want…I Don’t Really Care.”  Find me the tape of that one!

No mater what manager Arthur Spivak says, I still want a date with Tori Amos.

The working color for this fall is salmon.

Cigar smoking, almost dead in the 1970s and 1890s, has made a miraculous comeback.  Today, it’s more important to know your cigars than your wine list.

I’ll have a Tampa Jewel.

11/28/1997

It has become a tradition…a Thanksgiving Commentary on the state of the business…and the people who are in it.  It’s that time of year again, brothers and sisters. The leaves are changing colors (unless you’re in L.A. where we have no leaves), the weather is turning cold (it got down to 68 here last night…brrrr) and Christmas sales are beginning (unless you shop on Rodeo Drive, where the prices actually go up for Christmas).

However, we do have a lot to give thanks for this year, don’t we?

First, we must give thanks to the resurgence of Top 40.  Right on schedule, it came back with a vengeance.  What’s funny is that our industry finds it hard to believe.  What wise man first said that to predict the future, one only had to study the past?  It’s true in this particular case.  Top 40 has been counted out more times than Rocky Balboa, and has made as many “comebacks. “  Rock killed Top 40…then Disco…then Dance…then Crossover…then Alternative.  Hey, sports fans, Top 40 came back to conquer each one.  To exist, everything must have a center and Top 40 is the musical center.  Let’s all give thanks to its “comeback” and not be so quick to dismiss it when the next new fad hits.

And while we’re on that note, let’s all give thanks for three Top 40 programmers in particular.  Although there are many who deserve accolades, Tom Poleman of Z100 New York, Dan Kieley of KIIS Los Angeles and Todd Cavanah of B96 Chicago deserve particular recognition for bringing Top 40 to the head of the parade in the nation’s three biggest markets.  Tom and Dan breathed new life into monsters that were on life-support while Todd has continued to build B96 into Chicago’s preeminent powerhouse.

Can we also give thanks to Hanson and the Spice Girls?  These two pure Pop groups defied the odds and made Top 40 cool again.

And let me not forget the Rolling Stones.  With all the talk about “old school” being out and “new school” being in, leave it to the Stones to put everything in perspective.  Touring behind their most successful album in some time on the 30th (that’s right, 30th) anniversary of their first hit, the Stones still prove they can’t get no satisfaction.  With all the bullshit aside, the Stones are still the goods. While we’re giving thanks, perhaps we should give some to Mick.  All these years we thought Keith was looking a little tired.  Now that Mick’s catching up, he should be thankful for Keith.  Standing next to Keith takes 20 years off Mick’s appearance.

Can we all give thanks to Andrea Ganis, Danny Buch and the incredible team at Atlantic Records?  Presidents change, A&R changes, but the one thing that doesn’t change is Atlantic’s position: the #1 label three years in a row?  Unprecedented and well-deserved.

Let’s all praise Clive Davis.  Through all the format changes, the attacks on Top 40, the “new” flavors of the month, Clive has consistently found the sound that makes hits.  How many can say they signed Janis Joplin and Puff Daddy and all the other acts in between?  Only one.  Clive Davis is the man.

A special turkey leg goes to Jerry Clifton.  He’s one of the few programmers who have gotten into ownership…well, a few of us have, but not to the extent and certainly not with the success of Jerry.  I remember when he and I were the only RKO programmers who wouldn’t wear a tie.  We both knew we were right, Clifton!

What a year it has been for Network 40.  We have to give thanks for the most innovative and successful convention in record and radio history.  The Summer Games in Lake Tahoe was the first of an annual event that is being locked on everyone’s calendar for next year.  The camaraderie and competition opened doors between record executives and programmers that have long been closed.  It’s an event all of us can take pride in.

And on that note, we must also give thanks to the AIR team for setting the tone of the competition and giving all of us something to hate…if only until the Holyfield-tyson fight!  Hopefully, Kevin Weatherly and Greg Marella can share a turkey in the near future.

What would a Thanksgiving Editorial be without a big “thank you” to R&R for being so lame and making Network 40’s job much easier?  It’s tough to not get it, but R&R proves, year after year, that it’s possible.

On a personal note, I would like to give thanks to Rick Gillette, whose biting commentary has actually made me look like the “nice guy” at Network 40.  Who woulda thunk it?

Let’s all give thanks that there hasn’t been an O.J. trail in months.

I would also like to give thanks to all of the programmers and record people who helped Network 40 design a new chart system that will debut in a couple of weeks.

Thanks to the Lakers who have won 11 in a row and finally shut down those posers from the Midwest.  All of us in the entertainment business must give thanks to Marv Albert.  Marv gave us a lot to talk about plus he’s done more for women’s lingerie than Victoria’s Secret.

And can we thank Ellen for coming out of the closet?

What about Howard Stern?  He’s the only radio personality to star in his own movie, proving that he is indeed, the King of All Media.

Those who have been purchased by Hicks Muse can be thankful, so can the few who haven’t.

Thank God for Saddam Hussein. He gives us all one person to hate.

Thanks for Elton John, whose personal tribute made Princess Di’s legacy live long after her tragic death.

And on a real personal note, I must give thanks to the staff of Network 40 who make me look good week after week.  It’s an impossible job, but they do it.

Gobble gobble