Friday, March 25, 2011

Pandora Continues Its Online Dominance & "WRKO...The Launch"...

(Weekend Edition)

The new Ando Media Audio Top 20 Ranker for January has been released and Pandora continues its dominance. In the Domestic Ranker, based on Average Active Sessions (AAS), Pandora quadruples second place CBS Radio Inc. 522,330 to 103,228, 6am-12mid, Mon-Sun. AAS is defined as total listening hours divided by hours in the reported time period. In session starts, defined as number of different requests for streams with a duration of at least one minute, Pandora just annihilates CBS with over 344 million starts to over 66 million. Pandora and CBS Radio are the only online stations in six-figures in average active sessions. The number 3 station in rank is Clear Channel (82,992 AAS), followed by Citadel with 31,601 and Slacker rounds up the top 5 with 26,338. To see the complete Ando Ranker, click here...

The Ranker is a listing of the top-performing internet audio stations and networks measured by the Webcast Metrics audience measurement. The Ranker only measures listening online, it does not measure any radio listening like Arbitron does. How important has the monthly Ando Ranker become? According to Ando, their clients number about 7,000 internet radio stations but unless you're Pandora, you won't get many buys using their Ranker when pitching advertisers...

Radio should be aware of what they're facing in internet competition but local stations don't stand a chance of gaining any traction in the Ando, unless they're an affiliate of one of the giant radio groups...

10 Timeline Memories:
1.1794] In The Navy: President George Washington and Congress authorize creation of the U.S. Navy (3/27)…
2.1884] Red Sox Nation is born: The first long-distance call is made from Boston to New York in which two people argue the merits of their baseball teams before a shouting match ensues and the phrases “Red Sox Nation” and “Evil Empire” are heard often followed by the slamming of the phone (3/27)…
3.1911] Up in flames: 146 women are killed at the “Triangle Shirtwaist Company” in New York City. The owners of the company are charged with manslaughter when it’s discovered that the factory doors were locked. In 1914 they are forced to pay damages to all the victim’s families (3/25)…1990] Fire races through an illegal social club (”Happy Land“) in Manhattan, killing 87, mostly Honduran and Dominican immigrants (3/25)…
4.1939] March Madness: The first NCAA championship game is won by the Oregon Ducks, 46-33 over Ohio State (3/27). The NCAA will dominate the NIT starting in the mid-50s…
5.1953] Doctor Feelgood: Dr. Jonas Salk announces that he has successfully tested a vaccine against Polio (3/26)…
6.1977] Tenerife tragedy: A KLM Boeing 747 attempting to take off, crashes into a Pan Am 747 on the Canary Island of Tenerife killing 582 (3/27)…
7.1979] Bird vs. Magic: Michigan State contains Larry Bird of Indiana State with Magic Johnson outscoring him 24-19 and the Spartans win their first NCAA title 75-64 (3/26)…
8.1988] Guilty as charged: Robert E. Chambers Jr. pleads guilty to 1st-degree manslaughter in the death of 18-year old Jennifer Levin in Manhattan’s so-called ‘Preppy Murder Case’ (3/25). Chambers is now serving a 19-year sentence for selling drugs in 2008…
9.1996] Monopoly money: The redesigned $100 bill goes into circulation (3/25)…
10.1997] Where’s the spaceship?: The bodies of 39 members of the “Heaven’s Gate” cult who’d committed suicide are found in Rancho Santa Fe (CA) (3/26)…

Music Memories:
(WRKO...The Launch (Part 19) (March marks the 44th anniversary of WRKO Boston. All month long, I will be serializing the story behind the actual launch of what would become one of the country's legendary Top 40 radio stations and today continues to be a mainstay in New England with a N/T format)...

The strike not only made local news, it was also picked up by the national trade magazines. The April 25th edition of Variety noted that "an IBEW strike had started at WRKO with jocks, refusing to cross picket lines." Billboard and other publications also noted the strike. On May 6th, at the height of the strike, we hit Boston right between the eyes with a promotion that would make headlines. Although it could have stopped our two-month-old Top 40 era dead in its tracks, some tap dancing to RKO corporate by Perry Ury, eased the pain of the riot that broke out at the Sack Savoy Theater in downtown Boston. "Wear a trenchcoat and dark glasses at 4 am and see 'Casino Royale' for free." About 20,000 insomniacs did. The next morning we were on the front page of the Boston Globe and New York Times. Harvey Mednick's dream promotion became a nightmare, or so we thought. We weren't proud of what we created but all of New England felt the impact of WRKO's reach and we knew we had arrived as a major radio force. The 1967 Casino Royale premiere was chronicled on the SONY Collector Edition DVD released a couple of years ago...

The strike continued into May, 1967 and there is a John Rode aircheck recorded May 28th that indicated the strike had ended sometime that month. All the members of the original Now Crowd came back on the air with the exception of Arnie Ginsburg and Dick Burch. Chuck Knapp would have his shift extended to cover some of Arnie's hours and worked 7 days a week until we had a complete staff again. We segued music overnight until Jon Powers came aboard in June. Despite the strike, the impact we made in Boston and throughout New England was immediate and lasting. In an August edition of Billboard Magazine, Claude Hall reported that we had climbed to number one in the June-July Hooper Ratings...

In 1967, more than 400,000 students were attending colleges and universities in the Boston metro area and WRKO would become the breeding ground for many future radio careers. Most of those we hired to answer the request line and as board operators came from Northeastern University, Boston University and Emerson College. The students that cut their radio teeth at WRKO included a future radio station owner (Dick Booth), a future radio consultant, historian and author (Donna Halper) and several future disc jockeys (Bob Raines, Ron Brindle, Dave Thompson, Bob (Charley Roberts) Schuman, Ron Hurst & Don Azars). Rich Stadlen and Gil Shaw also made radio their careers. In all there must have been a dozen new hires in 1967 that would make their mark in radio...

(Next Week: "WRKO...The Launch" - part 20: We Hear From The WRKO Staff)...

"Happy Birthday...happy birthday": (3/25) Katharine McPhee (27), Danica Patrick (29), Sarah Jessica Parker (46), Marcia Cross (49), Lee Mazzilli (56), Elton John (64), Aretha Franklin (69), Anita Bryant (71), Gloria Steinem (77) & Gene Shalit (79)...(3/26) Jennifer Grey (51), Curtis Sliwa (57), Steven Tyler (63), Diana Ross (67), Bob Woodward (68), James Caan (71), Nancy Pelosi (71), Fred Parris of the Five Satins (75), Alan Arkin (77), Leonard Nimoy (80) & Bob (Bob & Ray) Elliott (88)...(3/27) Stacy Ferguson (Fergie) (36), Mariah Carey (41), Quentin Tarantino (48), Michael York (69) & Cale Yarborough (72) and Michael York (66)...

Timeline Countdown (3/35): 6 days until MLB Opening Day, 7 days until the Final Four, 9 days until the NCAA Championship game, 25 days until Passover & 31 days until Easter...

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