Tag: Radio Industry

7/18/1997

The past few Editorials and last week’s Hotline have dealt with the importance of relationships in our business.  How are relationships formed?  Through life experiences.

While programming KFRC San Francisco, one of my jocks was on vacation, one was laid up drunk, another was in rehab and the one scheduled to work called in sick.  I was not happy to go on the air.  My top-of-the-hour ID went something like this:

“KFRC San Francisco, it’s eight o’clock, I’m Gerry Cagle and if there are any local promotion people listening, you should call me immediately.”

Burt Baumgartmer, then working as a local for Columbia Records, called from a hot tub.  He dried off, picked up a bottle of Tequila and came to the station to “help” me make it through the shift.  He didn’t have to call.  It would have been easier…and a lot more enjoyable for him and his girlfriend…to pretend he never heard me.  But to show my appreciation…and probably because the Tequila had begun to have its effect, I allowed him not only to play the current stiff he was working, but to introduce it on the air.  We taped the whole thing and sent it to his boss.  We’re still calling each other from the tubs.

While in San Diego, a baby deejay visited in hopes of getting a job.  I listened to his tape and said he wasn’t ready for a large market.  I advised him to try something smaller and let me know how he was progressing.  (He will tell you I told him the tape was terrible and to get out of the business.  How the story is remembered isn’t important…that the story is remembered is.)  He kept in touch.  Some will even say he got better.  Ric Lippincott wound up programming WLS Chicago and now heads up promotion at Curb.

When I was programming KHJ Los Angeles, a PD from a smaller market came by for a tour of the station.  Afterwards, we sat in my office and talked for a long time.  Scott Shannon and I still do.

While heading to a Bobby Poe convention some time ago, I missed a flight and got in too late for the golf tournament.  The local Columbia rep went out of her way to pick me up at the airport (we had never met) and get me to the hotel.  She even carried my golf bag! I still talk with Lisa Wolfe every week.

In Kansas City several years back, I found myself in a bar with Jefferson Starship and RCA’s new regional promotion person.  At two o’clock, we were singing Country songs.  At three, we were in a suite holding hands, trying to communicate through mental telepathy.  (It was a Grace Slick thing…you had to be there.)  Anyhow, Brenda Romano and I are still holding hands.

A promotion person was working me on the Go-Gos’ “Our Lips Are Sealed” at KFRC.  I wouldn’t add it.  He was relentless…he wouldn’t give up.  The record went #1 nationally and as it was coming down the charts, I added it and the new one, “We Got The Beat,” giving him the first (and possibly only) real double in history.  Michael Plen is still relentless in his pursuit of songs he believes are hits and he never fails to remind me of the one I missed.

When I was OM of WAPP New York, I inherited a music coordinator from the Midwest.  He was famous for pizzas with “evvvverything” on them.  He became PD after a few months (turnover being commonplace at my stations).  Steve Ellis and I kept in touch through his radio jobs and move into records.

When I became PD at WRKO Boston, Jim Elliot was a great deejay there.  We had only one problem: I wanted him to work Sundays and he wanted to watch football.  So we compromised.  I let him off Saturday and Sunday…and the rest of the week as well.  We parted company, but not ways. Our paths crossed often…and they still do.

I forced John Fagot to attend a Willie Nelson concert with me in New York.  John was not happy…neither, come to think of it, was Willie.  Too much booze was consumed and John couldn’t drive home.  I let him use my limo.  It was the start of a long, strange trip that continues today.

I used to visit Lake Tahoe almost weekly.  The head of promotions took care of me, always comping everything…including the best suites.  One day, Jim Parsons asked if I could help him get into the record business.  I set up an interview and he got a job, first for Zoo, and now at WORK.

I used to have Wednesday breakfasts with a manager/record executive on La Cienega Boulevard.  I still remember an insurance story he shared.  We haven’t had breakfast in while, but David Geffen has come to my rescue on more than one occasion since.

And maybe the best story is about someone you’ve never heard of.  I worked as a baby deejay with a guy named Michael Jay in Daytona Beach.  I left to program many stations in major markets. Michael never got out of Daytona Beach.  But at every stop, I got a letter or a phone call from him.  More than anything, Michael wanted a shot in a major market, but he wasn’t good enough…and he never asked. When I went to New York…I hired him.  He still wasn’t good enough, but since Ellis was the PD, how good could the station be? Michael’s selling phone books now, but because he kept up a relationship, his dream came true.

What’s the moral of all these stories?  The relationships you make…the relationships you maintain…will live with you and help shape your life and your livelihood.  Everyone one is important.

Work on them.

10/18/1996

After months of preparation, Network 40 is proud to debut the nation’s first official radio-based Dance chart in this issue.  When Debby Peterson and I began this project, we were faced with a lot of questions.  Before we could put together a section of Network 40 devoted to Dance music, we had to answer those questions to our satisfaction.  In our discussions, many of the people in the industry had questions as well.  Listed below are the questions and answers that we contemplated while putting together America’s first and only definitive radio-based Dance chart.  Call us if you need any additional information or if you have any input in the ongoing design of our “Essential Dance” section.

Q:  Why a Dance Chart?

With the recent recognition of Dance music, we believe that a radio-based Dance chart will be an essential tool in helping programmers find Mainstream Dance hits.  With the success of Dance stations, particularly WKTU New York, it is evident that this format is viable and will be attracting new converts in the coming months.  It’s no longer a question of whether more stations will join the format, but when and how many.  Dance music has mutated into many different styles over the past 10 years. (House, Garage, Techno, Trip-Hop, Euro, Drum & Bass, Jungle, Ambient, Acid Jazz, Hip-Hop, Trance, etc.).  The Essential Dance chart will encompass the Mainstream Dance hits of this format.  With cumulative spins reported by our Dance stations, programmers will be able to find the most commercially viable Dance music.  For example, if a new Dance artist is generating top-40 spins on the Network 40 Essential Dance Chart, it’s an indicator that the artist/songs has potential to cross over to Top 40 Radio.

Q:  Is Dance music making a comeback or is this just another fad?

We believe this question is irrelevant!  The bottom line is Dance music is here now.  Whether it’s here for the long-term or the short-term, we are committed to providing you with the most up-to-date radio and retail information on Dance music.  The long-term success or WKTU New York isn’t relevant to advertisers or listeners.  They aren’t waiting to see if the station is still doing well next year.  They want their products sold today!

Q:  Which stations are reporters for the Essential Dance Chart?

WKTU New York
KACD (Groove Radio) Los Angeles
WBBM Chicago
KHTS San Diego
KNHC Seattle
WMYK Norfolk
WQZQ Nashville
CKEY Buffalo
KDNR Albuquerque
KQMQ Honolulu
CIDC Toronto
CING Toronto

These are the charter members of the Network 40 Essential Dance Chart.  All PDs and MDs may receive solid gold Chrome Lizard pins…then again, they may not.  Stations will be added to the Dance panel as formats are adjusted and the Dance format expands.

Q:  Will mix shows be included in the Dance chart?

Initially, we will only include commercial Dance stations as reporters to that chart.  However, it is our objective to also have a mix show Dance chart.  We realize the importance of mix shows and how they reflect the core Dance audience, as well as paving the way for future mainstream Dance hits.  We will include a mix show Dance chart in the future.

Q:  Who will be writing the Essential Dance column?

Sat Bisla.

Q:  Who the hell is Sat Bisla?

He’s some foreigner from England who loves Dance music!  Sat has been involved in the Dance club and radio scene for over 12 years.  His love of Dance music began in the late ‘70s with Earth Wind & Fire, Kraftwerk, Chic, Gary Numan, Blondie, etc.

After moving to the U.S. in the early ‘80s, Sat began DJing in the clubs and on radio.  His music tastes were broad, ranging from Yazoo, Sister Sledge, Cabaret Voltaire, Run DMC, Tom Tom Club to The Cure.

Today, Sat’s favorites in Dance music range from The Chemical Brothers, Planet Soul, Orbital, Real McCoy and Underworld to Armand Van Helden.  Sat has consistently maintained his passion for both Dance and Alternative music.  He is in close contact with the Dance community in the U.S. and keeps up on what’s happening with Dance music on an international level.  Sat currently doubles as an Editor at VIRTUALLYATERNATIVE, Network 40’s bastard child, so check him out yourself in his first column in this issue.

Q:  What else will be included in the Essential Dance page?

Besides the Top-20 most-played Dance songs and Sat’s column, each week Network 40’s retail department will report the top-selling Dance singles, as well as the Top-5 up-and-coming new tunes.  Network 40 will provide the country’s first retail Dance chart. The chart will feature exclusive Dance sales charts from retail outlets that report to Network 40.  Our retail department will feature exclusive sales information from markets that have Dance stations that report to the Network 40 Essential Dance Chart.

Q:  Are there any other reasons for the Dance chart?

Yes.  At Network 40, we believe in all music.  We also believe that any music format able to drive a station to the #1 slot in New York City is a viable format and we will support it.

Besides, Hix hates Dance music. If for no other reason, we like it.

Q:  Who’s your favorite Bee Gee?

We hate the Bee Gees!

8/2/1996

Welcome to record promotion in the ‘90s.  You heard about the guy who went around the village riding a horse and singing Christmas carols?  The police found a horse running free and gave him a call.  The guy looks outside and sees his horse still in the corral.  He tells the police, “You’ve made a mistake.  That’s a horse of a different caroler.”

Okay, it’s a long way to go to let you know things have changed…but things have changed.

It wasn’t long ago that record companies laid out a lot of cash to get a lot of ads (real and paper) and son-of-a-gun, their records were Breakers in R&R.  The next week they played on that Breaker status to get more adds (real and paper) and their records began moving up the charts.  Another couple of weeks, more money, more adds (real and paper) and they were in the top 20.  The end result:  A label suddenly has the #15 record in the country, nobody’s heard it (oops…more paper than real) and, surprise, a record that shipped Gold returns Platinum.

Few worked harder for less than promotion people in these “good old days.”  It wasn’t easy to get an add…paper or real.  Come on, Bud, it was tough.  A radio station could only list so many paper adds.  Programmers had to play some records.  Their audience expected it.

Promotion people did anything they could to get their record noticed.  They dressed up in chicken suits, hired Little Egypt and the Dancing Pyramids, rented all sorts of farm animals, brought sleeping bags in the lobbies of stations, made complete fools of themselves and in the process, got their names…and the titles of the records…remembered by programmers.

With actual spins and actual sales now a reality few can ignore, they way record companies do business has changed.  And record promotion has changed with it.  Unfortunately, not all the changes are positive.

For the past few years, record companies have trumpeted the fact that most records break out of major markets.  Less time has been devoted to smaller markets because (a) smaller markets are often slower than the majors to make playlist additions and (b) even if a smaller market adds a record, it doesn’t affect the important SoundScan charts, so many believe it doesn’t matter.

Until they have a “work” record.  Then those Field & Stream reporters start getting a lot of calls and promotions.

The importance of smaller markets is something I’ve written about before and will be the subject of another Editorial.  This week’s ranting is about promotion in general.

In the eyes and minds of many company presidents, promotion in the ‘90s must be done differently than promotion during the “Dark Ages” of the ‘80s.  Part of this is due to the changes in the way we do business.  Reality is the key.  Today, we know how many times a radio station is playing a record.  We also know how many records are selling, as opposed to how many are shipping.

Another reason is because many companies have leaned more toward A&R than promotion.  With the rise of Alternative music and programming in the past few years, we’ve all bought into they hype that “…it’s all about the music.”

Of course, it’s all about the music.  It’s always been about the music.  But you can have the greatest record ever produced and if it isn’t heard by the right programmers, it doesn’t matter.  Here’s another news flash for you:  there’s a lot of great music out there.  You have to distinguish your great record from the other company’s great record.  How do you do that?

Promotion.

As hard as it is for some A&R people to believe, promotion is still the engine that pulls the train.  A lot of great records have died in the studios…or on the desks of programmers who never heard them.

More now than ever before, programmers need to be promoted.  With the advent of more record companies come more releases.  It’s all well and good for the head of A&R to say, “The record speaks for itself,” but in today’s market place, a record can’t just speak…it has to scream.

We hear so much today about “Old School” and “New School.”  Many promotion people today are afraid of embarrassing themselves by being abrasive or too outrageous.  Many feel that it isn’t “in” to be too pushy about their records.  The only thing that makes you “in” is whether or not your record is “on!”

It’s sometimes tougher for promotion people to be outrageous in today’s corporate atmosphere.  Many of those who got where they are today by being outrageous at chosen times are too quick to make “cookie-cutters” out of those who now work for them.  We need to remember that, especially in radio, it’s still fun.  I’m not suggesting that promotion people show up in WPLJ’s lobby next week naked with dancing girls, but waddling around in a chicken outfit or something else outrageous from time to time never hurt anybody…or any record.  You may not get your record added, but if you draw attention to yourself and your product, you’ll certainly get it heard.  Then, and only then, if the A&R genius is correct, the record will speak for itself.

When I was programming KWOD in Sacramento, Michael Silva put on spandex glitter pants and wore a long blonde wig into the station to promote a record by the Nelsons.  We had just turned KWOD Alternative at the time and even for me, adding the Nelsons was a stretch.  I refused to see him. He refused to leave.  I finally went into the lobby and threw him out.  He was embarrassed.  I was embarrassed.  Yet from that time on, every time he entered the station, I saw him and listened to his music.  I figured anyone who was crazy enough to make a fool of himself to get my attention, deserved it.

It’s a lesson a lot of promotion people need to learn.  PDs and MDs have a lot more on their agendas than taking the time to listen carefully to each record they receive. It is up to you, as a promotion person, to do anything and everything to make yourself stick out from the herd.

Whether you’re “New School” or “Old School” isn’t what’s important.  It’s what you learned while attending.

In record promotion (as in golf), it’s not how, but how many that puts you on the leader board!

8/25/1995

The hustlers and hookers they filled the room…down at the place they call the Spanish Moon…

Big John waved a hand in front of his face.  “I can’t breathe from all of the smoke in here.”

I got up to open the doors leading into the backyard.  The room had started getting cloudy after the first hour of the weekly poker game.

“Fight fire with fire,” Barney growled, tossing a cigar in his direction.

Big John turned up his nose.  “I don’t like smoke.”

“Neither do I,” Barney snarled as he inhaled another Marlboro.  “Shut up and deal.”

Smiley grinned and stared at the lights.

There was whiskey…and bad cocaine…the poison will get you just the same…

“What in the hell is that music?” Big John blared.

“Man, you bitch too much,” Burt grumbled.  He nudged Barney.  “I told you we shouldn’t have invited him.”

“Nobody invited me,” Big John said.  “I just showed up on my own.”

“How’d you know how to get here?”

Big John matched Smiley’s grin.  “I just drove around until I saw all the buzzards circling around this house.  I knew I’d find a bunch of dead losers in here.”

“Man, that’s cold,” Little Stevie One said.

“Shut up, boy,” Big John coughed as he lit the cigar.  “Nobody invited you, either.  You wouldn’t be at this game ’cept you’re visiting from New York.  We’ll take East Coast money anytime.”

“Don’t break hard on my buddy,” Little Stevie Two jumped in.  “I invited him.”

“You shut up, too,” Big John spat.  He cast a derisive glance at the two Stevies.  “I don’t know why we let radio people in this game anyhow.”

“So we can take your money legally,” Little Stevie One said as he threw five white chips into the middle of the table. “Ante up.”

“All you guys can it!” I put in my money.  “That’s getting awfully close to business talk.  One more slip and it’ll cost you fifty dollars.”

“The hell you say.” Big John made the pot right.  “Besides, you’ve got this music playing.  I’m sure that’s a subliminal message your subtle, skinny ass is trying to get across.”

“It’s Little Feat, you idiot,” Burt laughed.  “It’s so old, you worked it at Columbia.”

Big John slapped his hand down.  “That is business talk, boy, put fifty in the middle.”

Burt flipped him off.

“Play cards,” Johnny C said from the corner.

“Play cards?” Barney lit another cigarette.

“You’ve been in the deep freeze ever since you won the first two pots.  Why don’t you try staying in a hand for a change?  You’ll never make it to the car with all that money anyhow.”

I checked my hole cards and made a Plen bet.

“What’s the game?” Big John asked.

“Seven card Macintosh, high-low, two spit cards and you can buy a card for twenty.”

Big John made a face.  “How do you play?”

“Just call the two dollars and we’ll teach you as you go along,” I told him.

“I’ll be damned if I’ll do that,” Big John cried.  “All you guys want is my money.”

“You sound surprised.”

Big John shook his head.  “Nope, just hurt.”

“You keep playing all those hands and you’re really going to get hurt,” Kevin snickered.

Big John gave him a look.  “When I want your opinion, hot shot, I’ll beat it out of you.”

“Come on,” Barney snapped, “bet or fold.”

Big John’s eyebrows twitched and he shot a quick glance in Kevin’s direction.  He threw two chips in the pot and said, “I’ll bet a Seaweed.”

“Foul, damn it!” Johnny C yelled.  “He’s talking business.”

“Fifty bucks, Big John,” I said.  “You know the rules.”

Big John shrugged his shoulders and put in fifty.  “It was worth it.”

“Call the Seaweed,” Smiley said, “And raise you a Lenny Kravitz.”

Before Johnny C could object, Plen tossed in another fifty.

“This is getting bad,” Little Stevie Two said.

Barney studied his cards, pursed his lips and reached for another cigarette.

“You gonna bet or look at those cards all night?” Burt asked.

Barney reached for his chips.  “Call the Seaweed and Lenny Kravitz,” he paused dramatically, “and raise a Prince and a Tom Petty.”

Kevin threw his cards down.  “This is really getting out of control.”

“Hey, I’m paying the tab,” Barney said as he threw in one hundred dollars.

Burt folded.

“What’s up with you?” Big John asked.

“They’re already playing all of my records.”

Cards turned and the chips piled up in the middle.  The table got tense.  Smiley wasn’t smiling.  Johnny C was in the freezer.  Big John held his cards closer than a newborn child.

“Showtime,” Smiley said.   “Let’em flop.”

Little Stevie One already had the lock low.  It was a matter of who would split the pot with him…Big John or Little Stevie Two.

“Read’em and weep,” Big John cried.  “Full house…Aces over Queens.”  He reached for his share of the money.

“Not so fast,” Little Stevie Two said.

The table quieted down once more.  All eyes were on the second Stevie. He played the moment like a maestro.

“Turn’em over,” Barney ordered.

Little Stevie Two did.  “A blaze,” he said proudly.

Big John stared at the cards.  “A blaze?” he yelled.  “What the hell is a blaze?”

“Three diamonds, two hearts,” Little Stevie Two answered.

Big John’s face turned beet red.  He leaned back in his chair and bit his lip.  While the two Stevies split the pot, Big John opened his mouth a time or two to say something, but never did.

Finally, he leaned over and whispered in my ear.  “Does a blaze beat a full house?”

I nodded.  “It does in this game…as long as a radio guy is holding it.”

He shook his head.  “That don’t hardly seem right.”

I shrugged.  “So, what are you going to do?”

He was quite for a moment, then began shuffling the cards.  “Shut up and deal.”