Holland Cooke Newsletter

Holland Cooke Newsletter • December ‘08 © 2008 Holland Cooke. Unauthorized duplication is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved.

2008: WHAT HAPPENED? 2009: WHAT NEXT? I own 3 identical blue blazers, which rotate-through the dry cleaner during my travels, which is more-than-halfof-the-time. Because I avoid checking baggage, the versatile blue blazer is the consultant’s best friend. Pack three shirts, two pairs of slacks, and a couple ties, and two-stations-in-one-week will see one well-dressed guy. Then, the girl at the cleaner across from the airport chuckles as I fish-through all the pockets of whatever I’m leaving her. In November, I confront a pile of airline and restaurant napkins and other scraps of paper I’ve squirreled-away, and I try to distill what-it-all-means, in my annual Year-in-Review/Year-Ahead Forecast issue. Zany as 2008 seemed while it was unfolding, patterns emerged. Some were trends-already-in-motion. On-theirown, many of this past year’s headlines seemed like bad news. But take the wide-angle shot, and you will see that radio has some very special opportunities right now. In this month’s newsletter, your ONE WORD mantra for 2009, and how we got there.

“Imagine a day without your cell phone, PDA, computer or GPS.” Consumer Electronics Association President Gary Shapiro, opening the 2008 CES International convention Notice that he didn’t say “Imagine a day without radio,” even though radio was the original electronic gadget. What happened? Radio’s idea of compelling programming is now which-FM-station-goes-all-Christmas-first, and AM stations that downlink-and-automate various versions of “The Democrats Bad, Republicans Good Show.” In 2008, our trade press reported, as though this signaled a new trend, that a Sioux City FM was “the first ‘Bob’ to go ‘Jack.’” As listeners lined-up, again, for iPhones.

WHAT DOES 19 CENTS BUY? WABC, KGO, KABC, WLS, WJR, WBAP, WMAL… ...a total of 165 FM and 58 AM stations, AND the ABC Radio Network, INCLUDING Paul Harvey, Sean Hannity, etc., etc.

HOW hurtin’ are radio stocks lately? Westwood One hit 10 cents a share. Respected Entercom hit 52 cents. The list goes on. Some companies might have been de-listed, had the stock exchange not suspended delisting until January. THAT’S how hurtin.’ As Citadel stock hit 19 cents, its KGO/San Francisco scored its 120th consecutive #1 12+ book. What’s wrong with this picture?

“This is exactly where I want to be, doing what I was born to do.” Rush Limbaugh, who, in 2008, celebrated the 20th anniversary of his national show, and signed a new $400 million contract He was compared to Mark Twain by a New York Times reporter in-front-of-whom Rush thumbed-through a brochure for a $54 million Gulfstream jet. What are stations getting for their money? Nearly two years spent ridiculing Barack Obama climaxed with Limbaugh repeatedly airing the loudest of Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s well-worn sound bites on Election Day. Karl Rove said Rush “helped set the agenda.” Claiming 600 affiliates, El Rushbo is radio’s biggest act. That’s Good News AND Bad News: •

The Good News: Maha Rushie’s new deal sends the marketplace the message that radio is (still) big. Hopefully, this will inure to radio better than Howard Stern’s deal did to Sirius. Hey, timing is everything. Sean Hannity also negotiated a fat new deal in 2008…a deal so big that Citadel couldn’t swing it alone.

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The Bad News: Who’s going to pay for it: affiliates, via additional in-program inventory and morning drive and weekend programming cram-downs. When I’ve heard Rush weekend hours, I’ve heard dated material (i.e., references to what-washappening-at-the-time several days ago). Premiere couldn’t at least flag the-least-dated-segments from 15 weekday hours, and cobble-together three that don’t scream “RE-RUN?”

The angst I’m hearing from affiliate station managers and owners about fee hikes and cram-downs is loud-and-clear. They’re concerned that they have “lost control of the programming.”

Don’t get me wrong. I consult Talk stations, so Rush Limbaugh has helped me earn a living. Politically, I’m agnostic. I have two playbooks. Where my client station is the Limbaugh affiliate, he’s the biggest star on radio. Where we compete, he’s the biggest buffoon on radio. Ideally, the station would feature an engaging local voice. Realistically, we’re often better-off with, than without, Rush (who is utterly un-helpful to affiliates) and Sean (who has been exceedingly generous to my affiliated client stations). But the 2008 presidential and congressional elections rub-radio’s-nose-in-it: By preaching-only-to-the-converted, and talking-aboutthe-same-thing-every-day, our format’s top two talkers are at-a-disconnect from the consumers your advertisers want to meet…

YET-ANOTHER NEW MEDIA WAKE-UP CALL: WHILE REPUBLICAN TALK RADIO RANTED, THE DEMOCRAT WITH THE BEST FACEBOOK PAGE WON THE WHITE HOUSE.

Then, on November 5, Limbaugh himself explained that the Republican brand is broken. It was pretty-much the same show he did the-day-before. Then, Sean Hannity opened his November 5 show with loud tape of Reverend Wright, again; and Sean called his show “UNPREDICTABLE.” Meanwhile, Arbitron was asking diarykeepers to remember what-they-listened-to as-long-as a-week-ago. In 2008, while Talk radio allowed itself to be typecast accordingly, that diarykeeper, “Joe Sixpack,” increased his consumption of Internet-delivered information/entertainment content. And that’s not lost on Rush. Listen how he cleverly, systematically, invites affiliates’ listeners to listen-to/watch his web site instead. Although he’s doing so at stations’ expense, he’s doing what stations should be doing, aggressively: migrating listeners to the ‘Net. •

In 1995, when I was trying to get station managers excited about building a web site, and streaming, they often expressed concern that “we’ll end-up chasing listeners to the Internet,” which, at the time, Arbitron didn’t measure.

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Now, it’s all-we-can-do TO chase-listeners-to-the-Internet. They’re already moving there, using it more and “old media” less. Ask your pals at the newspaper. Now, PPM “hears” streaming; and diary measurement credits station streaming. On Election night, streaming was up 66% over-the-previous-Tuesday for the nine CBS-owned all-news stations. KNX/LA’s page views were up 266% Tuesday-to-Tuesday. Darn flattering that people-to-whom-AM-radio-might-not-have-been-available were sufficiently brand-loyal to acquire content from that brand another way. Darn smart of stations to put it there, and explain its availability.

ARE YOU PLAYING OFFENSE OR DEFENSE? BOTH? NEITHER?

Or are you too busy with the telemarketing blitz that was embarrassing enough when stations did it in January…and many stations are now doing BEFORE the holidays? I promised you that this month’s newsletter includes THE ONE WORD that will drive your success in 2009, and here it is:

“Engagement.” This was THE buzzword-of-the-year at the massive, mind-boggling 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. Most of the gadgets and gizmos that filled a 35-football-field-size exhibit hall were lots sexier than AM/FM radios…but they all envy AM/FM radio’s “engagement,” our pre-existing relationship with users and advertisers. We are witnessing no-less-than a societal migration from broadcast to broadband consumption of media content. And we better participate in that migration in a more profitable fashion than merely paying Rush Limbaugh to move listeners from our transmitter to his web site. ANYBODY can create Internet content. WE can tell listeners we do, and we should while we still have ‘em. In 2007, Internet advertising revenue overtook radio advertising revenue. In 2008, one of radio’s pillars toppled…

RADIO’S 2008 STORY-OF-THE-YEAR: INTEREP TANKS

HOW much revenue has leaked-away-from radio? One of two remaining major firms couldn’t stay in business. Times are tough all over. As major banks were failing recently, Jay Leno quipped that we’d be left with “THE Bank of America.” Consolidation update: Delta just bought Northwest Airlines. NBC sold its Miami TV station to the ABC affiliate there. Although Consumer Electronics remains a conspicuous growth industry, Circuit City is closing 1/5 of its stores and filed Chapter 11. Best Buy is also teetering. Two-less-agency-calls Interep would’ve had to make. Like radio, these retailers are crippled by debt. Still, I’m hearing encouraging things in my travels:

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Often, the managers who fear they’ve lost control of the programming to syndicators are the managers doing innovative things to take-back-control on the Sales side. Since national drooped, there’s a clearer focus on new local direct business.

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Often the new advertisers I’m hearing are retailers who are disenchanted with Yellow Pages’ results. Often these are service providers. Example: As home sales have slowed, two things are happening:

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Qualified first-time home buyers are in the driver’s seat. But, being first-timers, they need help, i.e., remodeling contractors, etc.

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And folks who might-otherwise have traded-up are re-committing to Home Sweet Home, i.e., remodeling contractors, etc.

I’m also hearing more advertisers whose proposition fits the-way-busy-people-use-radio. Think in-car. Example: convenience stores. Where-better-than-radio to sell 12 or 32 ounces of something refreshing? These advertisers want what the station has, habitual use. Too bad about Circuit City, but how often do Homer and Marge buy a HDTV? They need a coffee sametime-every-morning; and, as radio station promos say, “THROUGHOUT YOUR BUSY DAY.” Engagement.

MOST TELLTALE RADIO CONVENTION SESSION OF 2008: “COPPER THEFT AT BROADCAST SITES,” AT THE NAB RADIO SHOW IN AUSTIN. Like I said, times are tough all over. So, for starters, let’s make the most of what we already have. Example: Channel-surfing in my rental car in a major market, I saw these (separate) pages on an FM’s RDS dashboard read-out: WHEN WILL I SEE YOU AGAIN? THREE DEGREES

That tune, which sings its own title a couple dozen times, was a hit in 1974. If listeners don’t know the name of the song by now, why squander precious real estate to tell ‘em? It’s a message that doesn’t make money. That display is very close to the-point-ofpurchase at, for instance, those convenience stores. Radio should be selling our dashboard advertising display monopoly.

“The music formats that will be the slowest to bite the dust are formats that appeal to older listeners. The music stations that hang on longest will be stations with a lot of talk between the music.” Talkers magazine publisher Michael Harrison, speaking at the NAB Radio Show in Austin It’s a-world-turned-upside-down. For decades, FMs have touted “the most music” to young listeners. Then came iPod…

2009 FORMAT-OF-THE-YEAR: SUDDEN SIMULCASTS

More FMs will, sometimes abruptly, drop music to simulcast News/Talk AM sisters, a trend is already in motion that will accelerate: For the right reasons: •

The busy middle-age consumers advertisers want to meet are grazers who spend their day with a variety of media. Take your brand, content, and advertisers as many places as you can, or you’re not keeping-up-with the listeners who matter the most.

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Some people just don’t use AM. Confining News/Talk to AM condemns it to skewing old/male. The #1 format deserves better.

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The FM’s signal might cover the market better, day and night.

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Conventional wisdom is that “first-in-wins.” In 2009, many markets will gain multiple non-music FMs. Talk – heck, ANY – programming is more-viable on FM than AM. But live-and-local 24/7 is cost-prohibitive, so stations that move quickly will fare better competing for bartered syndicated longform programming. The recent announcement that Bill O’Reilly will discontinue his radio show reminds us that it is risky to rely on B-tier syndicated acts.

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Heavy music users build their own playlists on devices other than FM receivers, so the music radio business model is already broken. A single event will utterly shatter it…

For the wrong reasons: •

Music Performance Royalty Fees? Instant game-changer. Station owners tell me they will flip-the-simulcast-switch OVERNIGHT. It’ll be a tsunami. But even if fees don’t fly, it’s already too late for lots of music stations…

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Debt has crippled big publicly-traded group owners. As I write this, Citadel’s CEO is promising financial analysts yet-MORE expense cuts. Already, his flagship WABC, has no local news during The Rush Limbaugh Show, and no PD. Other groups are making draconian cuts too. But even when there still was Promotion money, the TV spots and direct mail pretty much only helped FMs maintain. Next time corporate tells clusters to cut more, more will take a music station’s expense to zero.

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Holland Cooke Monthly Newsletter

© 2008 Holland Cooke, PO Box 1323, Block Island RI 02807 USA www.HollandCooke.com • Voice: 401-330-6868 • Fax: 720-293-0802 • Email: [email protected]

“The model is broken.” 2008 BusinessWeek article, “Requiem for Old-Time Radio”

“Instead of one person telling them, they want 100 people telling them.” Kognitive Marketing VP Kobi Gulerson, speaking at Canadian Music Week Old school: Consumer Reports and movie critics. New preference: online chat rooms, easy to build-into your site. Use free apps.

“User-generated content is the hottest thing going on.” Radio Advertising Bureau President Jeff Haley, at R&R’s Talk Radio Seminar What do Google, Amazon.com, eBay, YouTube, MySpace, and other Internet giants have in common? SOMEONE ELSE – not they – create the content. TV’s top hit, “American Idol,” is karaoke + text poll (+ product placement + pay-for-play). If radio lingers in we-talk-you-listen-mode, and merely “sells spots,” we’re begging to fade-into-the-background. •

Among clever ideas we heard in 2008: CBS Radio’s Hot 95.7/Houston inviting listeners to vote for songs, then playing the winning title on-hour. Use the Internet to engage listeners. Make-THEM-the-show, any way you can. Big pieces online, excerpts on-air, sponsored. Crafting widgets like this is much of my work with client stations.

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And once you’ve shared-the-spotlight with your audience, put ‘em just-a-click-away from spreading-the-word. The simple “Email this to a friend” button will turn users into evangelists.

And do this stuff NOW. Powerful competitors are using these same tactics to kidnap Time Spent Listening…

BEST PROMO LINE I HEARD IN 2008: “THE DIGITAL HEARTH”

How’s this for engagement: Want a FREE big-screen HDTV? And a Hi-Def camcorder? Hit Panasonic.com and click “Living in High-Definition,” to enter the contest that’s awarding piles of product to 100 USA families. All Panasonic asks is that winners show them what they made with the equipment. At the Consumer Electronics Show, Panasonic president Toshihiro Sakamoto told us that winning families ended up spending more time together after they got the equipment. He told us these “connected families” are “living in High-Definition,” gathered around – ready? – “a new kind of ‘Digital Hearth.’” It’s A DIGITAL HEARTH! “We believe this can help to bring back family time,” he said. Now THAT’S how you get mom to greenlight Dad to buy a big-screen, big-ticket TV. It’s not a guy thing. It’s a Digital Hearth, which will keep kids home and safe. Next time you’re tempted to write typical promo copy that brags about your station, remember “the Digital Hearth;” and instead tell listeners how-they’ll-be-better-off listening to your station.

BEST INTERNET PROMO I HEARD ON RADIO IN 2008: WCBS-FM, NEW YORK “DID YOU KNOW THAT YOUR COMPUTER DOUBLES AS A RADIO?” Superb “listener language.”

WORST PROMO OF 2008: SAME AS 2007, 2006, 2005, ETC.: “IF YOU MISSED…” I wince whenever I hear this. “IF YOU MISSED…” is a donut, into-which the station inserts a sound bite from the-show-they’rereminding-me-I-missed. Two points: •

I listen to radio for a living; and even I have never felt remorse for-not-having-listened, based on the sound bite chosen. Typically, the bite sounds silly/self-amused (if it’s a zany morning show) or self-important (if it’s a local Rush wanna-be).

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“YOU MISSED…” is the most dangerous deposit a station could possibly make in the diarykeeper’s memory bank. You should be doing the opposite, fooling-the-diarykeeper-into-thinking-he/she-had-listened-MORE-than-he/she-really-did.

Telling me that I didn’t listen is disengagement.

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BEST PROMO OF 2009: WHATEVER YOU SAY THAT CONVEYS THE VALUE OF “BOOKMARKING” YOUR STATION AND WEB SITE FOR “HORIZONTAL RECYCLING.” No, weather isn’t all you do. But 2008’s long hurricane season and early snowstorms remind us that being-thought-of-as-theweather-station is huge…even between storms. What can you say about something you do that will suggest appliance-like sametime-each-day use? Weather is just an example…a BIG one, because: 1.

A pile of research demonstrates that radio is the traditional weather appliance of the demographic group which: a) b)

2.

uses radio most; and spends the most money.

This is changing. And it’s not just the-younger-listeners-radio-needs who are learning to get weather on non-radio devices.

Ditto if traffic is an issue in your market; and conventional wisdom about programming, marketing, and selling traffic and weather is often dead wrong. I say so after personally investing thousands of dollars in research. Click “On-Air” at www.HollandCooke.com Speaking of traffic…

BEST TEXTING IDEA I HEARD IN 2008…HECK, EVER! In Toronto, text the word “traffic” to 680680, and AM680 CFTR will send you their most recent traffic report.

“Barack has chosen Senator Joe Biden to be our VP nominee. Watch the first Obama-Biden rally live at 3PM ET on www.BarackObama.com.” August 23 text message to Obama’s opt-in list. What can you prompt listeners to hear on-air or see online?

TWO WAYS TO SAVE HD RADIO IN 2009:

Yep, save it, from becoming the next AM Stereo. And we need to in 2009. If you think I’m over-stating the situation, watch how many HD Radio’s DON’T show-up under-the-Christmas-tree again this year. Every year that Santa yawns at HD Radio, it’s closer to failure; and if that happens, we blow a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: actually adding on-air channels. Several of my clients are simulcasting AM station programming on FM sisters’ HD2 or HD3 channels; as CBS Radio’s WCBS, WFAN, and WINS do in New York; and WLS/Chicago and other stations are doing. As an Oldies buff, I LOVE hearing the on-hour ID jingle on K-Earth 101. They updated the familiar Drake-style sweeper to sing “KRTH, KRTH-HD, LOS ANGELES.” Very cool…and it would be even cooler if anybody owned a receiver. This on-air promotion is merely a gesture. The HD tree is falling in the forest. Applause for initiatives to require that new AM/FM and satellite radios include HD. But pushing the technology won’t drive adoption as quickly as content demand will pull it.

“You can almost smell the incense…and see the tie-dye…” Nick Michaels, hosting “The Deep End” HD Radio’s two pieces of unfinished programming business: 1.

A less-conventional application. It’s problematic to add channels when it’s-all-we-can-do to avoid dead air on the main channel. Much of what’s on side channels now is even less engaging than the automated/syndicated/voicetracked/otherwisecompromised main channel fare. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Instead of simply using this new distribution system for more “broadcasting,” we should also offer HD-2 and HD-3 as…a distribution system. It’s the new SCA. Brokered programmers who rented FMs’ subcarriers had to distribute special receivers to those who wanted to hear the Korean-language or other special interest programming. Now, Radio Shack is handling receiver distribution; and, after long lead time, HD radio will be in new car dashboards. What “closed circuit” content and communities could HD enable?

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Genuinely compelling content, not just segue serenade of a-different-flavor-of-Country tacked-onto the Country-formatted main channel. Greater Media is doing an Irish music channel in Boston. It’s a cute, certainly-worth-doing, high-affinity idea that fits the market, and certainly has advertiser appeal. No, it’s not as “big” as, for instance, Howard Stern, in his prime. Had Howard defected to HD Radio instead of satellite radio, HD would have more traction now. The closest thing to Stern’s ability to keep-you-in-the-car-with-the-key-on-Accessories that I have heard is “The Deep End with Nick Michaels” (http://www.nickmichaels.com/programming.html), a syndicated weekend music show “that remembers what radio used to be like” in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. I’m not the only Baby Boomer who finds Michaels’ storytelling hypnotic. Wherever this show is cleared, reaction is instant and impressive. This is not my client, but if I owned a music station, I’d use the weekend show on the main channel to plug a “Deep End” branded 24/7 side channel (Nick has enough hours in the can). And I’m recommending that News/Talk stations use Nick’s shortform vignette the same way. Listen…and just TRY to stop.

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Holland Cooke Monthly Newsletter

© 2008 Holland Cooke, PO Box 1323, Block Island RI 02807 USA www.HollandCooke.com • Voice: 401-330-6868 • Fax: 720-293-0802 • Email: [email protected]

SUCCESS FORMULA FOR A 2009 RADIO CONVENTION: MAKE IT ABOUT THE INTERNET Just when radio MOST needs dialogue, collegial interaction, idea-sharing, networking…we’re in budget lockdown. Don’t even ask for money to register-for, travel-to, or stay-at, a trade show, right? TRUE STORY, no names. •

The person in-charge-of what-turned-out-to-be a very worthwhile but thinly-attended conference told me about refunding someone’s registration fee.

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It was charged to a personal credit card, and the would-be attendee had no intention of submitting it for reimbursement; nor for asking the company for airline or hotel money. This would even have been personal vacation time. But that still wouldn’t fly.

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Forbidden to attend, by his Clear Channel-owned station, this registrant was prepared to eat his fee, which the conference graciously refunded, policy notwithstanding.

Has it come to this? Companies are either THAT wary of ideas-not-invented-here and/or that their-few-remaining-employees will find another job? That’s the-opposite-of engagement. Stick-a-fork-in whatever industry does THAT.

“The only people who have to worry are people who own AM and FM licenses.” Talkers Magazine publisher Michael Harrison, opening his well-attended 2008 New Media Seminar (not the-above-referenced convention) At another worthwhile conference too few attended, the recent NAB Radio Show in Austin, Harrison really preached-it-out in a session you can see-and-hear, free and in its entirety, at www.Podjockey.com (click “The Rise of The Media Station and the Future of Talk Radio,” which I quoted on page 3). To paraphrase Harrison: the only AM/FM licensees who have to worry are those who are only programming transmitters. •

And most-of-what’s-missing-from lame radio station web sites could be cured by the tools and techniques described in two sessions at Harrison’s event which I summarize on pages 4 and 5 of my July newsletter. If you missed that issue, I’ll send you a copy when your subscribe (see back page), or for free if you Email me at the address atop this page. Put “July newsletter” in the Subject line.

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I’m still hearing from folks who attended my session on selling podcast sponsorships at the 2008 Radio Advertising Bureau convention in Atlanta, part of RAB’s first-ever Certified Digital Marketing Consultant certification course. And, as you’ll see at rab.com, their 2009 show in Orlando in March is very much about how to monetize the new platform radio can use to engage listeners and introduce ‘em to advertisers.

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I’m showing-up at all these conferences for three reasons: 1.

To drum-up business? As Sarah Palin would say, “You betcha!”

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To learn. Even when I’m speaking at a convention, I am firmly in two-ears-one-mouth mode. Knowing that budgets are tight, convention planners, in EVERY industry, are trying-like-crazy to ensure that you leave with lots of “take-home pay.” I sure do, and I always plan my presentations, and convention itinerary, accordingly. But the formal agenda is only half the opportunity. Simply CONVENING can be worth the trip. Right now, we should be swapping notes more.

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And because you can’t go to all the conventions, I do; so I can summarize what-I-think-you-need-to-know, here each month, at www.HollandCooke.com, and in Talkers magazine, which I cover several conventions for.

It still puzzles me why I’m the only “programmer” I seem to see at the RAB convention. But if you’re there, look for me. I’ve also been brought-into the planning loop for R&R’s Talk Radio Seminar in California in March, and the ideas we’re working on should more-than R.O.I. whoever’s dime you’re there on. Ditto for Talkers’ conference each spring, which BEGAN as “The New Media Seminar” in 1998…and at-which the-very-first-session ended with this story, which I still can’t believe C-SPAN let me tell on television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23Bobc0_8ok

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2009 NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION FOR TALK HOSTS: SCRIPT MORE, AT LEAST OPENS.

This will be familiar HC lore to client station talent I coach. You can make your phones ring quicker, extend your Time Spent Listening, improve diarykeeper recall, and generally sound more engaging if you write-out at-least the-very-first-thing-you-say. Distill what-this-hour-is-about, the call-in proposition, or how what-this-hour’s-guest-will-say matters to the listener. ‘Seems obvious, too few bother. Do they feel “above” scripting? Rambling hosts postpone conveying the-value-of-staying-tuned. •

The hour begins with hello, and/or smalltalk, and/or crosstalk with the newscaster (if there still is one).

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Or the host THINKS he/she is setting-the-table by reading something, possibly from the morning paper (which sends a dangerous message). The newscast just got done reading things! Start A CONVERSATION now. Quickly.

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Or the host muses, thinking-aloud until eventually-getting-around-to, or stumbling-upon, what essentially the-show-is-about.

Here’ s the problem: Listeners believe the promos. Smart stations relentlessly remind the busy in-car listeners who are such highTSL radio users that “WE’VE GOTCHA COVERED, THROUGHOUT YOUR BUSY DAY,” with on-hour news-and-weather. Because this is survival information which most music stations discontinue after morning drive, this is a franchise. As is the interactivity, the engagement which follows. If this hour’s call-in topic or guest relates to an item in the newscast, the crowd is already warmed-up. Don’t let ‘em cool down. In-less-than-the-time-it-takes to-reach-from-the-steering-wheel-to-the-FM-button at-the-end-of-the-newscast, engage listeners. “EVERTHING YOU HEAR ABOUT THE ECONOMY SEEMS TO BE POINTING TO A BLUE CHRISTMAS. BUT THERE’S NO NEED TO FEEL LIKE THE GRINCH. THIS HOUR, [name of guest] HAS GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT IDEAS, FOR UNDER $25.” •

If you’re in Sales, you might be thinking, “Hmmm. Why couldn’t that guest be the spokesperson from the mall?” Why not? That standing qualifies the guest to the listener, and makes the show sound local.

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If you’re a Rush-wanna-be, hell-bent on belaboring The Democrats Bad Republicans Good Show which voters just rejected, and you’re rolling your eyes after reading the example above, at least be curious about what incoming White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel told The Wall Street Journal when asked why he thinks Obama won:

“I don’t think the country is yearning for an ideological answer. If anything, it’s the opposite. They want real solutions to real problems.” [During the campaign], “McCain tried to make this about small things like Bill Ayers. Barack made it about health care.” But I digress into topic. Back to my point about technique: Indulge me and try scripting more. You will LOVE the results.

Even this newsletter is digital. Choose electronic delivery, and you’ll get your copy a week earlier, the same day I send it to the printer. To go green, simply E-mail me at [email protected]. Now, the words-you-never-thought-you’d-hear from a long-suffering radio manager: “I’ll miss the radio’s newspaper columnist.” And I will! For years, Marc Fisher was “The Listener” each week in The Washington Post. Typically, people-in-radio love to hate the radio columnist. As often as not, when your call letters show up, it's an all-day migraine for you, and a hot potato for Sales. The writer might be a TV columnist who looks down his nose at radio, a cub reporter who handles Radio in addition to obits and police blotter items, or a stringer who's not even a full-time reporter (maybe for a reason). And no matter who writes it, Radio is not easy to get right. We've got a unique culture, an odd lingo, and our staffs turn over a lot. But Fisher got it right, at least when he covered me. In June, Marc gave up the Post radio column:

“Just when radio cries out for creative revival, it is instead slipping into a disgruntled decline.” “Radio, shedding talent as fast as it loses audience, is rapidly becoming irrelevant to the younger generation,” he wrote. Recalling unforgettable voices he heard on-air growing up, he still thinks “Radio could be the way into those ears, but only if it invests in creating compelling reasons to be there, only if it grabs hold of us the way the voices of past decades connected to the loves, pains and dreams of young listeners. As always, the future lies in the past.” Marc is still with us, still writing for The Post. But in 2008, radio lost some folks we will miss…

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Holland Cooke Monthly Newsletter

© 2008 Holland Cooke, PO Box 1323, Block Island RI 02807 USA www.HollandCooke.com • Voice: 401-330-6868 • Fax: 720-293-0802 • Email: [email protected]

VOICES WE’LL MISS IN 2009 Tim Russert made “Meet The Press” appointment television, and radio, via the syndicated audio feed many Talk stations cleared. Radio people, take a lesson. Nobody prepped more; and he'd post-mortem work after-the-fact (aircheck review, what a concept). And the-work-you-saw was only one of his jobs. Russert was a player-coach, NBC/Washington's Bureau Chief. He collapsed and died of a heart attack, while cutting voiceovers. He was 58. Viewers and listeners felt like they knew Russert. To me, his passing was personally sobering. He was my age, his dad is my dad’s age, and he-and-I arrived in Washington the same year. He was as-affable off-air as on. When I’d bump-into him at an event, he’d graciously pretend he remembered me, and he’d remark about something he’d heard on WTOP, which I managed in the 80s. His death was a big story, since he was the host of TV’s longest-running show; and because he died on his first day back after a family vacation to celebrate his son’s college graduation, on Father’s Day weekend…a poignant topic that weekend on Talk radio. Tony Snow lost his long battle with colon cancer at 53. After serving as President Bush Sr.’s speechwriter, the former editorial page editor for The Detroit News and Washington Times found success hosting on cable and radio. Sitting-in for Rush Limbaugh has to be intimidating, but Snow sounded more comfortable and engaging than most others who have filled-in. Though Snow had called him “something of an embarrassment,” and called his domestic policy “lackluster,” Bush Jr. appointed Snow his Press Secretary. His health deteriorating, Snow returned to the media, citing the need to earn more money.

“So my name is a footnote in American legal history, which I'm perversely kind of proud of.” Grammy Award winner, actor, author, comedian George Carlin

His “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television” didn’t fly on radio either. After WBAI/New York played the ribald George Carlin album cut on-air in 1978, the station was fined by the FCC, whose ruling was eventually upheld by the United States Supreme Court, and set the precedent for banning “offensive material” which airs “during hours when children are in the audience.” Carlin’s pukey DJ voice caricature was an artifact from his radio days in Shreveport, Fort Worth, Boston, and Los Angeles, where he teamed with newscaster-turned-comedian Jack Burns, who became his stage partner in comedy clubs in the late 50s. Carlin appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show; he did The Tonight Show – from Jack Paar to Johnny Carson – 130 times; he hosted NBC’s very first Saturday Night Live; and recently did HBO specials. Carlin played Las Vegas the week before he died, and died before he could be presented the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor at the Kennedy Center. After years of battling addictions to cocaine, Vicodin, and alcohol; and a heart attack and two open-heart surgeries; George Carlin succumbed to heart failure at 71. “Ike Pappas, CBS News” was among his radio and TV networks’ most familiar and trusted reporters, until the Tisch-ownership-era bloodbath depicted in the movie “Broadcast News.” In November, 1963, in the bowels of Dallas Police HQ, Jack Ruby nudged him aside to shoot Lee Harvey Oswald, which Ike reported live. Pappas was 75. Also there, covering the Kennedy assassination and Jack Ruby trial, was Murphy Martin. Before joining ABC News, he anchored Dallas TV news; and later did two decades as the Dallas Cowboys PA announcer, “and it got me a Super Bowl ring I never could get another way.” Martin covered the 1964 conventions and Gemini space flights. In 2003, he authored “Front Row Seat: A Veteran Reporter Relives the Four Decades That Reshaped America.” Martin succumbed to heart disease the day before his 83rd birthday. Even if you didn’t know the name, or couldn’t place the face, you sure recognized the voice of Don LaFontaine, when The King of Voiceovers played himself in a Geico TV commercial. He made millions a year tracking TV promos for ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC; and in spots for Budweiser, Coca-Cola, Ford, McDonalds, and others. And he was the classy off-camera announcer on the Oscars and other award shows. But LaFontaine, who was 68, is best-known for literally thousands of movie trailers he voiced, some-of-which included that familiar, ominous signature line he crafted…

“In a world where…” 8

Les Crane pioneered Talk radio in the early 60s on KGO, where he broadcast live from the famous “hungry i” nightclub, took listener calls (hot stuff then), and hosted celebrity guests like Lenny Bruce and Barbra Streisand. Later hosting late night TV, he scored the first USA television interview with The Rolling Stones, and also welcomed Richard Burton and Bob Dylan, among others. Chicago mourned the loss of two legends in 2008. After a long battle, Alzheimer’s got longtime WGN host Wally Phillips at 82. He did mornings there from 1965 to 1986, then moved to afternoons, before retiring a couple years later. GM Tom Langmyer called him “a master communicator.” Phillips offered $1 million to the first listener who could guess what was inside “Wally’s Black Box,” and took the mystery to his grave. After years of clues, nobody ever claimed the million. It was front page news, and NPR played a recording of Studs Terkel reading Carl Sandburg’s famous “City of The Big Shoulders” poem, when Terkel died, at 96. The author and masterful interviewer and storyteller seemed everywhere, on WFMT for 45 years, on WGN before that, more recently on the Internet and satellite radio and podcasting…and network TV, before ‘50s blacklisting. Boston radio lost a couple good guys. Witty Jess Cain began as an actor, and trod the boards again after 34 years doing mornings on WHDH (now WEEI). He became the market’s highest-paid radio personality, and earned it, scripting hilarious song parodies and character-voice bits; and emceeing countless events. During WWII, he fought in The Battle of the Bulge, under Audie Murphy. Cain lost a long battle with cancer at 81. Roger Allan spent 29 of his 79 years as WRKO News and Public Affairs Director. His picture should be in the dictionary, under “mentor,” or “mensch.” Dozens of New England radio chums my age tell stories of his kindness and encouragement, “the kind of support that no classroom could ever provide,” recalls Jordan Rich, now a WBZ host. Philadelphia listeners lost legacy voices Big Ron O’Brien and Hy Lit from WOGL and WIP’s John Marzano. If DJs got paid-by-the-word, Jack Armstrong would’ve been richer than Bill Gates. “YOUR LEEEEEEEEEEDER” was named Fastest Announcer on Radio by the Guinness Book of World Records. Best known for earlier stints in Cleveland and on WKBW/Buffalo’s massive nighttime signal, his 1960s/1970s resume also included Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Toronto. Armstrong was found dead at home, at 62. XM Sixties-on-Six DJ Terry Motormouth Young shamelessly apes his act. Two voices football fans will miss: Dick Lynch was cornerback for the New York Giants during their late 50s/early 60s heyday, and played in 4 NFL Championship games, before he joined their radio team. Leukemia claimed him at 72. 2005 National Radio Hall of Fame inductee Myron Cope was the Pittsburgh Steelers’ radio color analyst 1970-2004, the longest single-team tenure in NFL history. But announcing was his second career, after a writing career that included covering the likes of Muhammad Ali and Roberto Clemente for Sports Illustrated and The Saturday Evening Post. Cope invented The Terrible Towel, that yellow cloth Steelers fans twirl. He had suffered from respiratory and heart problems, and died at 79. Atlanta Braves Tom Glavine pitcher said, “Turn on TBS, and there was Skip. Good times, bad times, that was the constant.” Skip Caray was also heard on radio, and clearly inherited his famous dad Harry’s gift and passed it along to his son Chip. Skip’s various maladies had deteriorated to the point that he was only in the booth for Braves home games this season, his 33rd, before he died in his sleep just short of his 69th birthday. In addition to dramatic winning calls which included “YES! YES! YES!” when the Braves won it all in 1995, Caray will be remembered for quips during less-illustrious seasons, including 1979, when he told fans, mid-game, “You have our permission to turn off the TV and go to bed now…as long as you promise to patronize our sponsors.” Two other popular baseball voices were silenced. We lost Bobby Murcer, “a born Yankee” according to George Steinbrenner. Before he segued to the broadcast booth, he was the only Yank ever to play with both Mickey Mantle and Don Mattingly. His 17 Major League seasons also included time with the Giants and the Cubs. He won a Gold Glove; and his 5 All-Star games included appearances on both teams. Just 62, Murcer had a malignant brain tumor. Cleveland mourns Voice of the Indians Herb Score, who called Tribe games from 1963-1997, after his playing days. Herb was an intimidating lefty pitcher. He was 75. I enjoyed meeting curmudgeonly Herb Shaindlin several years ago, when I was doing some work for mighty KFQD/Anchorage. NOT-just-another-voice-on-the-radio, Herb also delivered commentaries on local TV (the same station where young Sarah Heath was a sportscaster before she married Todd Palin). Herb had cancer. He was 78. It was also my all-too-brief pleasure to work with Jack Boston at client WPTF/Raleigh. We moved Jack from our Oldies FM to hosting North Carolina’s Morning News on AM680. His very first morning, he knocked-it-out-of-the-park, though he wasn’t feeling well that day. Leukemia, he learned. But he soldiered on for another two years, through bone marrow transplant. Jack was 50. Too suddenly, Memphis said goodbye to WREC morning host Craig Robbins, just this past month, just 58, apparent heart attack. The 20 year market veteran previously worked at crosstown WMC, and delivered TV commentaries on two local stations. Scranton – or should I say “WARM-land” – lost one of the Sensational Seven, popular 60s/70s DJ/sportscaster Ron Allen. He’d had a stroke 8 years ago, and was 71. WDAN’s Jeanne Eisenhauer worked radio in Danville IL for 50 years, graduating from clerical work to hosting “Listen Ladies” and later the multi-guest show “Party Line,” which often included her son, the mayor. Jeanne was 73.

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Holland Cooke Monthly Newsletter

© 2008 Holland Cooke, PO Box 1323, Block Island RI 02807 USA www.HollandCooke.com • Voice: 401-330-6868 • Fax: 720-293-0802 • Email: [email protected]

“You are our black Frank Sinatra.” Temptations singer Otis Williams, to Four Tops lead singer Levi Stubbs, whom we lost this year. His name wasn’t as-familiar-as Motown labelmates Smokey Robinson of the Miracles or Supreme Diana Ross or Temptation David Ruffin. Motown founder Berry Gordy called Levi Stubbs “the greatest interpreter of songs I ever heard;” and Gordy figures he “could easily have made it as a solo star, but his love and loyalty” kept The Four Tops “together longer than any group I know.” For 44 years, Stubbs stood shoulder-to-shoulder with gifted Lawrence Payton, Renaldo “Obie” Benson and Abdul “Duke” Fakir. Their 12 number one hits adorned then-Top 40 AMs which are now Talk stations; and included Holland-Dozier-Holland classics such as “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” “Bernadette,” “Standing In The Shadows Of Love,” and “Reach Out (I’ll Be There).” Stubbs’ single noteworthy solo was as the voice of the man-eating plant in the movie “Little Shop of Horrors.” I got chills when I heard The Four Tops sing the national anthem before a NBA game when the Detroit Pistons played in Washington in the 80s. Smokey Robinson called him “one of the great voices of all times.” Levi Stubbs was 72 when he lost a long battle with cancer, which had already claimed fellow ‘Tops Payton and Benson. He is survived by his wife of 48 years, Clineice, five children, and 11 grandchildren. Next time you’re in Detroit, pay the $8. Tour The Motown Museum, hallowed ground at 2648 West Grand Boulevard. You can stand in the very room where immense talents crafted the soundtrack of Baby Boomers’ teen years (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c_KsSbOGkg). Another Motown icon who passed in ’08 was multi-Grammy-winning songwriter Norman Whitfield, whose masterpieces included “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” and “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” for Marvin Gaye; and “Papa Was A Rolling Stone,” for the Temptations. When Viet Nam-era protest and psychedelic songs were en vogue, Motown didn’t miss a beat, as Whitfield and partner Barrett Strong penned “War” for Edwin Starr and “Ball of Confusion” for the Tempts.’ Whitfield was 67. We could tell Isaac Hayes had lost a step when he appeared with longtime writing partner David Porter at The Conclave this year. He’d suffered a stroke a while back. Hayes DJ’d on WRKS/NY 1996-2001, did radio in Memphis, and was the “Chef” on TV’s “South Park.” But he’ll always be best-remembered for his #1 hit “Theme from Shaft;” and for producing his-and-Porter’s Sam & Dave classics “Soul Man” and “Hold On! I’m Coming;” and working with other Staxx artists like Johnnie Taylor, and Booker T. & the MGs.

“I opened the door for a lot of people, and they just ran through and left me holding the knob.” Bo Diddley, interviewed by The New York Times in 2003

The Beatles ADORED him. You hear his influence in Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” Johnny Otis’s “Willie and the Hand Jive,” Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride,” The Who’s “Magic Bus,” Bruce Springsteen’s “She’s the One,” and U2’s “Desire.” Elvis and Jimi Hendrix imitated his on-stage moves. But Bo Diddley never got rich from “Rock and Roll,” even though pioneering DJ Alan Freed coined the term ABOUT him. On a 1955 Ed Sullivan Show, Bo was supposed to do Tennessee Ernie Ford’s tamer “Sixteen Tons.” Instead, he surprised Sullivan by doing his theme “Bo Diddley;” after which, off-camera, Sullivan told him that he would never work in TV again. And Diddley didn’t play a network show for the next 10 years. But he seemed to play everywhere else. I introduced him at legendary Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence in the 70s; he toured with The Clash in ’79; and he played at the Bush Sr. and Clinton inaugurals.

In next month’s newsletter: What’s New, and What’s Next at Arbitron, my notes from their annual Consultant Fly-in conference this month. In February, I’ll at least TRY to summarize next month’s 2009 Consumer Electronics Show.

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Holland Cooke Monthly Newsletter

© 2008 Holland Cooke, PO Box 1323, Block Island RI 02807 USA www.HollandCooke.com • Voice: 401-330-6868 • Fax: 720-293-0802 • Email: [email protected]

“My approach? Just swing.” Seattle Mariner Felix Hernandez, first American League pitcher to hit a grand slam in 37 years. He did it in his first at-bat of the season, one of the few he’s had, since America League pitchers only go to the plate in interleague games played at National League parks. And get this: He hit it off two-time Cy Young winner Johan Santana. Again this year, stories like that, and The Game’s timeless charm, brought nighttime and weekend radio more Average Quarter Hours of listening than anyone or anything else could. What a Cinderella season for the worst-to-first Tampa Bay Rays. And how about those Phillies? Yes, baseball fans everywhere thought this might, finally, be the year we saw a Cubs/Red Sox World Series. And we here in Red Sox Nation were as disappointed as Californians (and Fox) were that we came THIS close to a Sox/Dodgers ‘Series. Imagine the Steinbrenners seeing Joe Torre there a year after they dissed him? Imagine hearing the crowd roar when Manny Ramirez stepped to the Fenway plate in Dodger blue? And Bostonians welcoming back ex-Sox faves Derek Lowe and Nomar Garciaparra? DANG. Now come off-season headlines; and it won’t be long before smart stations are sending sportscasters, advertisers, and the-repwho-sold-the-most-baseball to Spring Training.

“Barack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States on Tuesday, sweeping away the last racial barrier in American politics with ease as the country chose its first black chief executive.” The first sentence in The New York Times, November 5 Think back to the sad day we call “9/11,” that terrible Tuesday in 2001. We were stunned as the unthinkable unfolded before our eyes. You will always remember where you were when you heard, or when you saw that second plane hit. Soon, each of us had another moment, when the weight of all we had witnessed gave way to emotion. For me, it was when television showed crowds in London, Paris, and other foreign cities, singing OUR national anthem, as they held little American flags. It seemed like the whole world was on-our-side…until Iraq. “Bring it on,” our president said, careless enough to call the invasion a “crusade.” We mocked the French, who had prayed for us after 9/11. Eventually, the British Prime Minister would lose his job for following us into war. For longer than World War II lasted, we have occupied a country that never attacked us, at the expense of thousands of American lives, an immense dollar cost that is flowing to war profiteers and has wrecked our economy, and our standing in the world community. In 2008, Conservative radio and cable hosts snickered as they pronounced Barack Obama’s middle name, to evoke evil Saddam. “Hussein” is Arabic for “handsome.” And how soon we forget the best friend we had in that troubled part of the world, brave King Hussein of Jordan. Even as he battled the cancer that would soon fell him, he pitched-in on The Peace Process. And, strapped-into the left seat, he hand-landed his personal 747, with his graceful American-born queen aboard, at Minneapolis airport, for treatment at Mayo Clinic. Remember THAT if, as I hope he will, our new president uses his entire name when he takes The Oath of Office. Writing from Gaza as election returns were announced, a New York Times reporter offered: “From far away, this is how it looks: There is a country out there where tens of millions of white Christians, voting freely, select as their leader a black man of modest origin, the son of a Muslim. There is a place on Earth – call it America – where such a thing happens.” Here at home, black Americans can feel closer to the “more perfect Union” our founders envisioned. And that happy night in Grant Park helped heal the hurt Chicago felt at the Democratic National Convention there 40 years earlier. Whichever holiday you celebrate this time of year, Peace. And here’s to good health and new opportunity in the New Year.

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Last month: • THE NEW FRUGALITY: HOW LISTENERS ARE COPING; HOW YOU CAN CONDUCT THAT CONVERSATION • HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT: INTERNET NTR OPPORTUNITY • FOR ON-AIR TALENT: 4 TIPS In the October newsletter: WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED THE NAB RADIO SHOW IN AUSTIN In the September issue: • GREAT GIMMICK YOU CAN PITCH TO REAL ESTATE AGENTS • READY-TO-READ HELP WANTED COPY FOR YOUR SALES DEPARTMENT • MY NOTES FROM THE NEW MEDIA EXPO PODCASTING CONVENTION In August: QUICK, EASY, NO-GEEKS-NECESSARY INTERNET NTR IDEA YOUR REPS CAN SELL TODAY In July: WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED TALKERS MAGAZINE’S NEW MEDIA SEMINAR (IMPORTANT STUFF FOR YOUR CAREER) In the June newsletter: WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED STREAMING MEDIA EAST (IMPORTANT STUFF FOR YOUR WEB SITE) In a meaty May issue: WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED NAB2008 IN FABULOUS, FABULOUS LAS VEGAS In-an-especially-hyphen-laden April newsletter: • AN APRIL FOOL’S HEADLINE THAT HAD READERS HOWLING (AND CITADEL EMPLOYEES QUIETLY SNICKERING) • MY NOTES FROM THREE CONVENTIONS: AL PETERSON’S N.T.S., R&R’S T.R.S., AND CANADIAN MUSIC WEEK In March: • WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED THE RADIO ADVERTISING BUREAU CONVENTION IN ATLANTA (PLENTY!) • WANT TO SYNDICATE? WHAT TO DO FIRST. In February: WHAT YOU MISSED IF YOU MISSED THE 2008 CONSUMER ELECTRONICS SHOW In the January newsletter, my notes from Arbitron’s Consultant Fly-In: • SEAN HANNITY SHARES SUCCESS SECRET (A TECHNIQUE YOU CAN EMULATE) • WHY YOUR TV SPOTS AREN’T WORKING, HOW YOU CAN AMP-UP DIRECT MAIL RESULTS In the December-to-remember issue: 2007 YEAR-IN-REVIEW, 2008 FORECAST (SEE HOW MY 2008 PREDICTIONS PLAYED-OUT)

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