Several of us one step removed from the radio business types love to analyse pitches from the various clusters, look at the monthly trends, and find some entertainment in reaction on this board.
For those who can, look at the trends. Not the latest but over the past 8 months to a year. It appears to us that there are at least several new format options that, while they are not part of the landscape, make it possible for three stations to dominate. Jammin's move to sports, if and when it happens looks to fill a viable niche. Rose City's sales staff is probably - no it is - the best in town. But it's still a niche.
We see a similar situation to what Joe Fergison detailed about 1983 and 84. Big opportunity for someone.
There are three of us here in the office who share format, mostly music format, ideas. We're thinking of starting a radio blog for subscription which will probably earn us enough money for Sunday brunch at the Heathman once a year.

Gale...
While wishing you all the best of luck with your blog, I suspect a subscripton service from the officemates "one step removed from the radio biz" might be lucky to earn you a 99cent special at BK once a year.

You might ask here if anyone has ever paid to read a blog ....

I know I haven't and never would - at least until Warren Buffett starts blogging for dollars.

I myself have decided to begin charging a small fee to listen to people's really bright radio ideas. I can't tell you the number of pals and acquaintances I hear from who are once-removed from the business who are positively convinced that the secret to radio success is to play their favorites. There's an old guy down the street who practically leaped in front of my car to pitch a format that will guarantee his, and therefore everyone's, listenership: 50's oldies. A local TV anchor babe grabbed me to assert that the key to ratings success in December is to not play Christmas music. I think starting now I will smile politely and thank them for their insights. For a fee.

I'm tempted to send Eastwood money just because I'm laughing so hard over his post.

God bless snark.

Everybody wants to be a program director.

Yesterday on Sirius 6 I heard "Cousin Brucie" playing a 50s song even I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF.

Title : " I am not a Juvenille Delinquent "

by Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, 1956.

The most preposterous Lyrics of all time. I laughed for miles down the road mainly because Frankie Lyman WAS A JUVENILLE DELINQUENT in monsterous proportion.

Thanks for setting us straight. Except that Sirius has more listeners this year than last.
And they charge for it.

So?

I dont care how much money Sirius makes. I like their product for the most part. I got 6 months free with the new car and just signed up for another year. Just another satellite company. You either like it and can afford it or not, lot of choices out there.

And what does " one step away from the radio business " mean anyway? Used to be in radio? Or want to be in radio? Or both?

Can you tell me what I will get on your blog that I won't get among the tons of radio and TV related blogs out there?

(assuming you can)

What then would it be worth to me?

Just trying to make an ROI decision on the subscription fee.

Say it's $500 total, divided among 50 people, so $10 / year.

Typical Internet subscriptions run 8-24 dollars. Some run considerably more, all depends on the value of the offering.

For that amount / year, I can subscribe to sites like Ars Technica, Slashdot, Salon, etc... These are typicaly trade sites, with hits / month running 6 digits, feature commentary and links from a variety of well informed and relevant (well mostly relevant!) writers.

For each, the value proposition is somewhat different. I can read for free at each, and that's very important.

Each started out free. They all did so for a few reasons; namely,

to attract traffic and build their web model,

getting linked and linking to.

Who you are linked to and, more importantly, who links you is a pretty big deal. Not a show stopper by any means, but significant. Little islands, where the greater internet does not really know you, don't have a lot of value, but to the friends of the island.

So, maybe you can rope in 50 friends of the island and have a go of it.

Their subscription offerings today all leverage the free. It's how you get potential subscribers, which is exactly why I asked the question I did. You will have to answer that in a compelling way, if you expect any subscribers outside the friends of the island

,or

you are gonna have to introduce yourself to people and that typically means letting them read your stuff to see if it has merit, build a relationship, identify with the content, perspective, etc...

By way of example:

Ars Technica provides a forum where parts of it are open and parts are closed. The subscribers enjoy different conversation topics and some extra goodies. Everybody participates in the open sections, subscribers and nons alike.

Secondly, they provide an archive subscribers can pull from. It's very informative and inclusive. Easily worth the money. Nicely formatted in PDF too.

Slashdot provides early access to news stories and with that comes a greater chance to get your commentary out there first, along with some other nice goodies.

Salon allows people to read for free, but they watch an ad for a day pass. The draw is the quality and number of writers there. Some are pretty well known, others aren't, but just being there lends some credence their way.

Subscribers get to read sans the ads and some other goodies. Those people read an awful lot of Salon, and the site knows it, which is why they offer the free pass.


If you are not linked to, and not linking to others, then you've got to produce something pretty damn compelling, or you are really just an island.

Most Internet subscribers only buy into a few sites per year and the value proposition for them is quite high. Competition is quite stiff, unless the subscriber fee is very low. Even then, it's damn tough. Way easier to just Google the info and read other commentary and analysis paid for with ADS, or just put out there for personal reasons, or promotion of some other service / people / goods.

Ideas are free --and not something a great many people would subscribe for.

Analysis can be easily worth it, but it's got to have some credence, and accuracy and relevancy for somebody to plunk down the dollars, if they are outside the friends of the island circle.

Good quality analysis can command a 4 digit subscription and sometimes that for a single report, but it's backed by names and usually a paid staff of contributors that know their stuff cold and are empowered to go after it and provide leading edge insight.

Good luck!

You might consider the tip-jar approach. Early on, some supporters will provide some income, maybe enough to pay the domain and hosting fees.

There are lots of great services out there you can use for next to nothing. No worries there.

Should you get some traffic and get known to any degree, perhaps then charge for this and that, depending on how it all goes.

Edit: Nice Name, BTW. That's catchy. Never hurts to have catchy.

Not only do I know the Frankie Lymon song in question but actually own the movie it's from! My wife had never heard the song before seeing the movie but I had, probably from a retrospective of the artist.

>>There's an old guy down the street who practically leaped in front of my car to pitch a format that will guarantee his, and therefore everyone's, listenership: 50's oldies.<<

So you got to meet "62kgw" in person?

Everybody wants to be a program director.

Yesterday on Sirius 6 I heard "Cousin Brucie" playing a 50s song even I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF.

Title : " I am not a Juvenille Delinquent "

by Frankie Lyman and the Teenagers, 1956.

The most preposterous Lyrics of all time. I laughed for miles down the road mainly because Frankie Lyman WAS A JUVENILLE DELINQUENT in monsterous proportion.

Holy Smokes, you can't be an oldies fan and not know that song!
That is probably my absolute favorite Frankie Lymon song..... "I'm not a juvenile delinquent, doop doop doop doo doo dah...."
In the mid 80's I did an all request oldies show on the old KWIP in Salem and that was one of our most requested songs, along with the also fairly rare "Death of an Angel" by the Kingsmen.
We like weird songs in Salem!

as if we have not heard Louie Louie and Unchained Melody enough.

as if we have not heard Louie Louie and Unchained Melody enough.

Actually I vaguely remember seeing that title in a 'Top 40 " book back about 1988 or so when working at Oldies AM960 KALE. We were adding a lot of music to the tape reels on the old Cetec Automation and I was compiling lists and recording sources with the PD. The only tile we played of F.L. and the teenagers was 'Why do fools fall in love" and as I remember he wanted to keep it that way !

Last wednesday was the first time I ever actually heard " I am not a Juvenille delinquent". 1956 was a little before my time, but I do remember watching Ozzie and Harriet on TV and waiting for Ricky Nelson to sing at the end of the program

And what was the Movie this song was featured in , just out of curiosity?

I believe the movie was the song title if I remember right.
Yes it is sad that most oldies stations only play that one FL&T song over and over.
Speaking of the Kingsmen, I loved playing "Jolly Green Giant" as well. They did a lot of good music that didn't chart but makes an oldies station sound good.

"Delinquent" didn't make the Top 40. The movie in question is in a box of 50 movies for 20 or 30 dollars. I'll try to find it but it isn't the same name as the song.

This blog that Gale and her co-workers want to launch sounds like a type of radio consultancy business. Here is a question for Gale: If you were to launch this, how would you convince prospective subscribers that the advice that you would provide has some validity? Are there things in your resume that would give you some credence with radio station program directors? As a side question for anybody, how did Lee Abrams get started? I know that in his early days, he started publishing a programming hints newsletter, but I don't know how he managed build up that initial credibility to get people to subscribe to his newsletter.

Can't hear the tune in my head...Might have been one of those oldies that was huge in the East...I think that was Frankie Lymon's base, wasn't it?

A shame, in a way, that today's research techniques basically did away with many of the regional differences and flavors in popular music...at least on the air.

Good luck on the search for the movie title... This is more fun stuff!

Ya, some of the reference books we used back then were TOP 100 actually and that is probably where I saw the Title. We had a lot of vinyl in those days still in the studio. Also an old dude with a 'record store' around the corner with good and bad vinyl in his collections and that is how we cobbled together and freshened up the format with a few CD sources in the mix.

What went on the Shaeffer /CETEC was always a hit. And the other stuff got played on live shifts of which there were still a bunch. I got to do weekends and some fill in on weekdays if it was after 3:30 in the afternoon, because I had a "day job". It all lasted till 1995 on that AM station.

MUSIC RESEARCH IS CRAP! ALL OF IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats why stations in portland come and go quicker than than the hookers leaving Alan Spitzers lap.!
Maybe if stations researched less and played more on intuition, THERE might actually be some decent radio in portland.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, PLAY SOME DEEPER TRACKS!!!!!!!

Maybe if corprations didnt own radio, radio wouldnt be crap...

Whatever happened to Gale (the person who started this thread)?

Snarky people made fun of her. I'd like to hear her ideas.

What makes you think Gale is a woman?

I dunno. Ask her. Gale?