Two interesting bits

I'm afraid I'm too busy to really comment on these two items, but you should check out two stories from Radio & Records online this morning.

The first is good news, and certainly counter to my non-scientific polls and observations I make in my classes each semester. Apparently there is research out this morning which finds that young adults like to listen to the radio for music in their cars. So, amidst all the concerns that ipods and burned CDs are finding their ways in to the cars and replacing radio...perhaps some cause for a sigh of relief. Still, the important thing is for radio to remain relevant to that age group with its content.

Story 1


The second item is more mystery likely surrounding HD radio.

Story 2

In honor of THE SEATTLE SEAHAWKS having the best record in the NFC, and beating the NY Giants in a great game this afternoon...here's a picture I took at the Hawks' training camp this summer--which just happens to be held at my alma mater--Eastern Washinton University Here's the man Green Bay fans know as "the traitor" but we just call him Coach Holmgren.

Thankful

I have a bad habit. Rather than using the holiday breaks as a way to do *no* work-I use it as a way stockpile stuff to work on. So, I spent the last four days or so working on things that I've put off. I never get it all done, of course. And at least I've become better about giving myself a break and being kind to myself when I don't get it all done.

But Thanksgiving was a nice time. It was just my wife and kids for dinner and, in fact, my wife had the great idea to spend the day going through the house and getting rid of stuff that we don't use. I'm proud to say that I was pretty ruthless--for 12 years I've held onto 2 different copies of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. Those are big ol' books. Why two? Well--the first one was the text I used in my Shakespeare class as an undergrad. It's got all my notes in the margins and such and was therefore valuable. The other one was given to me by Kirk Gasper--my best friend from high school and onto today--when I was his best man at his wedding. He was later my best man, too. Anyway, his was the one I kept and the other one went to Goodwill. That type of weekend--if I haven't used it in years then I packed it up and sent it out.

Now, beginning tomorrow we begin the upward slope toward the end of the semester. I didn't get nearly as much writing done. But, I must admit to being thankful for the career path I've chosen. There are very few jobs you can have where you can read and think and study just about whatever drives your fancy.

Something to be thankful for.

News and Talk Still on Top--Even in the Summer

The Arbitron trends are in from Summer 2005, and the News, Talk, Information format continues to gather close to 1 out of every 5 listeners in the US at any given time. With shares increasing from 17.0 to 17.5 from Spring to Summer, according to a posting today on Radio & Records online.

That doesn't surprise me, as we seem to be continuing to transform even more into a society that thrives on information and opinion. And, as we are given more and more opportunities to go elsewhere for our musical fixes.

As I've written in a chapter on talk radio for Susan Eastman and Doug Ferguson's book Media Programming, there are also technological and sociological reasons for the increase in popularity of the information programming:

One is the increased penetration of cell phones. When the only audience available to call in to talk radio were the unemployed, retired, or housebound, Program Directors and hosts were cursed by the same callers all the time offering the same (oftentimes downright weird) opinions. Now that EVERYONE has a cell, they can call in and offer their opinons whenever and wherever they want to. With the increased popularity of text messaging, don't be surprised to hear hosts encouraging listeners to text their opinions in as well--in the same way that they used to encourage faxed opinions and then email.

Another reason for the increased popularity, of course, is the increased acceptability of taboo subjects by the public. Howard Stern has led the way here...and there is no telling what will happen to the trend as the "King of All Media" heads to Sirius...but there does not seem to be much stopping our desire for titilation--even considering the increased cases of public filings with the FCC over indecency.

Nielsen accepts the inevitable, but are they truly on board?

Here's an article from Media Daily News.

It seems that after remaining very quiet about the Portable People Meter, a project they are supposedly working with Arbitron on developing, they have now very publicly put it on their R&D front burner. Why? Because after about three years (maybe longer) of saying that they were hoping to work cooperatively with Nielsen on the project--which, if you don't know, will use inaudible tones embedded in all sorts of media from radio to tv to cable to in-store music--have now started discussing a "Radio First" strategy. This is, supposedly, where Arbitron will utilize the PPM technology and get the radio industry measured using it first.

Good Morning Falcons, Here's Your Morning Announcements

That's how it all started for me. . .alright, that's a little dramatic. Still, my first "big break" into the world of radio came when I volunteered to read the morning announcements over the intercom system at Hanford High School (home of the Falcons!) in Richland, WA.

That led to letters and resumes sent to all the General Managers of radio stations in the area the summer of my junior year, and eventually got my foot in the door at a local country station.

So, with that in my past, I was saddened to read this story about a high school radio station in Maynard Mass. Click Here.

Apparently WAVM has been broadcasting at 10 watts for more than 2 decades and recently decided to make a request to the FCC to boost power to 250 watts. According to the FCC, whenever a station petitions for 'major changes,' a competing interest can also petition to have the station awarded to them. That's exactly what happened to this high school station (with more than 180 students involved). But, here's the kicker. . . the group the FCC awarded the license to doesn't even reside in Maynard, MA. They are a religious group (Living Proof) that "plans" to open up a branch in a nearby town.

Sad.

Mt. Vernon Illinois

I'm in the lobby of a Drury Inn in Mt. Vernon, Illinois. Why Mt. Vernon? It's half-way between my home in Bloomington and my friend Paul's home in Columbia, Missouri. For four years now we've been contemplating writing a book together. We've even been talking to a publishing representative, Linda Bathgate from Erlbaum for at least that long, who is interested in seeing a proposal. She has been tremendously patient with us as we so far have been VERY SLOW. Of course, we both have changed jobs, moved, and I've had two kids in that time.

So, after four years of trying to create a proposal and work over it via email--which was a dismal failure--my wife came up with this brillian "meet in the middle" idea. And it has been very successful. . .we now have a propsal about a little more than half completed. And, it's now a project I'm excited about again. I'm taking a little break from working on it right now and thought I'd let everyone out there know what I've been up to.

Still running and denial

I'm in the radio programming unit of my Programming Strategies class. Just today I presented a sample music test--a mixture of an AMT (since we're in the classroom) and a call-out (because I use current hooks). Now I have one of my graduate students crunching the numbers and we'll do a rotation/music research exercise in class on Wednesday.
Click here to see the exercise from last year.

It's always a fun part of the semester for me, as I remember my last job as APD/MD at KZZU in Spokane (a station that officially no longer exists as a CHR/Pop any longer--as of a new PD and format switch about a month ago.

However, as I usually do this time of the semester, too, I asked my students something like "How many of you enjoy listening to new, current music. . .of whatever format. . .but never listen to the radio?"

I can't believe how many hands shoot up semester after semester. There are those who use peer-to-peer, of course. Those who stream over the Web or with Rhapsody or whatever. But, they don't listen. Or at least don't listen regularly.

And still. . .here's the industry's response in a recent Ad Age article.

And, in today's R&R.

Of course, the quotes in both articles are important. It is important to move Arbitron beyond the antiquated diary system it uses to collect listener data. And radio PDs should, perhaps, be more concerned with ipods (and now video-ipods) than with XM or Sirius. But they better keep their eyes on these two in the rear-view mirror as well!!

ICA finished, and my family visits

Well, all the ICA rush is over. At 10:57---with trembling fingers!!!---I posted the final paper to their online submission site on November 1. As time goes on and I decompress a little bit I'll update the blog on some of the results that we found and such. But, now I need to turn my attention to all the things that I put off in order to focus on ICA! Always happens. And, in fact I can garauntee that about 6 weeks prior to the ICA deadline we'll bring up in lab meeting how good it would be to begin working on/writing/ the papers NOW rather than waiting until the last minute. Sounds good...never happens.

One nice way to enjoy the post-ICA time was having my dad and stepmom come visit the family. The weather remained gorgeous and they got a chance to see some of the beautiful fall color that I gave you all a taste of a few days agod. Plus, dad, Sally (my stepmom) and my daughter went to the IU-Minnesota game today. Pictures for that are below.

Tomorrow, gotta focus on getting my teaching lined up for the week. And it's time to begin thinking about writing for publication again--rather than just for conference papers.

Here's a shot of the Hoosiers scoring!! 

Here I am with my daughter at today's IU football game. We had a good time--at least for the first half, when the Hoosiers looked really pretty good