Friday, October 15, 2010

Pandora Gets In The Holiday Spirit...

(Extended Weekend Edition)

Pandora must have seen the new National Retail Federation prediction that this year - holiday spending will be up 2.3% over 2009. The pureplay internet giant, having already made their list and after checking it twice, aren't waiting for Christmas to dispense their goodies. Pandora is already offering gift subscriptions to its ad-free Pandora One premium service for $36 a year. Pandora One has unlimited streaming and better-quality sound than the free, ad-supported version. The $36 present will give what Pandora hopes is the gift that keeps on giving after holiday recipients have sampled their product for a year...

Pandora founder Tim Westergren says "We've been excited about this for a long time. It's the perfect gift for any occasion. Now you can give someone a year's worth of great personalized music for a very low price. We anticipate the new Pandora gifting to be popular not only during the upcoming holiday season, but for all occasions where people are searching for that perfect, personalized gift to give." The gift-giving is done by email or scheduled up to a year in advance...

Greg Clausen, executive vice president of Doner would suggest that Westergren picked a good time to dispense his yearly subscription gifts. Clausen recently told Media Life "Based on fourth quarter media pricing we've seen, I think spending will be up more than 2.3%, just because media pricing is so strong right now. A lot of advertisers, I think, are holding back spending until political is done, making for a narrower window." He also said "I think spending in fourth quarter will be up a pretty solid clip." Good news indeed for Tim Westergren...

10 Timeline Memories:
1.1951] Premiered on this date: "I Love Lucy" starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. This all-time classic will run 10 original seasons and in re-run forever (10/15)...1959] "The Untouchables" starring Robert Stack (let's not forget the narration by Walter Winchell). The original series only runs for 4 seasons (10/15)...1973] "The Tomorrow Show" with Tom Snyder debuts (10/15)...
2.1954] Bad call-letter move: WNBC Radio changes calls to WRCA but not for long. The call-letters will soon revert back to good ole WNNNNNBC (10/18)...
3.1962] One picture is worth a thousand words: Reconnaissance photos reveal missile bases in Cuba (10/16)...
4.1962] Series Saver: Yankee second baseman Bobby Richardson grabs Willie McCovey's line drive for the final out as the Bronx Bombers win their 20th World Series over the SF Giants in 7 games (10/15)...
5.1965] That's fair: The 1964-1965 World's Fair closes after two years. More than 51 million people attended, including this WMID jock who did a remote back to Atlantic City for two days with music and commercials from the New York State Pavilion via phone line (10/17)...
6.1969] Truly Amazin': The New York Mets win their 1st World Series as a harmless fly ball hit by future Mets manager Davey Johnson drops into Cleon Jones' glove: Everyone in the programming dept. at WRKO watched the game in VP/GM Perry S. Ury's office (10/16)...
7.1977] Reggie-Reggie-Reggie: Reggie Jackson makes World Series history with back-to-back-to-back home runs, each on the first pitch. No one did it before or since (10/18)...
8.1987] Baby Jessica: Rescuers free 'Baby Jessica' (McClure) from the Midland (TX) well she fell in. Jessica, 18-months old, was trapped for 58 hours yet survived (10/16)...
9.2003] Ferry disaster: A Staten Island Ferry slams into a maintenance pier, killing 11 (10/15)...
10.2008] "Happy Trails": Levi Stubbs, lead singer of the Four Tops dies in his sleep at 72 (10/17)...

Music Memories:

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday": (10/15) Emeril Lagasse (51), Sarah Ferguson (51), Richard Carpenter (64), Penny Marshall (68), Linda Lavin (73), Barry McGuire (75) and Lee Iacocca (86)...(10/16) John Mayer (33), Tim Robbins (52), Suzanne Summers (64), Tim McCarver (69) & Angela Lansbury (85)...(10/17) Wyclef Jean (38), Eminem (38), Ziggy Marley (42), Mike ("Beavis and Butthead") Judge (48), Alan Jackson (52), George Wendt (62), Margot Kidder (62), Michael McKean (63), Gary Puckett (68), Jim Seals (69), Jimmy Breslin (80) and Julie Adams (84)...(10/18) Bristol Palin (20), Freida Pinto (26)Wynton Marsalis (49), Jean-Claude Van Damme (50), Chris "Mad Dog" Russo (51), Martina Navratilova (54), Pam Dawber (59), Mike Ditka (71), Keith Jackson (82) & Chuck Berry (84)...

Timeline Countdown: 13 days until the World Series opener, 17 nights until Halloween, 23 days until Standard Time and 41 days until Thanksgiving...









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