Gifford claims "With 46.5% of total media revenues unmeasured (direct mail included) and new media undermeasured, radio's true market share is probably 5%, if that. Obviously, there is something very wrong with radio's 'sales format.'" Gifford is self-serving, he sells his sales expertise but he's probably closer to reality than the ad experts who claim that radio sales are back. Back to what? The truth is - back to where it's never been before...
You can blame the recession all you want but the truth is there are better, bigger and faster sources of media than radio and while you're at it, blame radio for doing a lousy job of selling its product too. If the recession is finally over, radio has no more excuses...
10 Timeline Memories:
1.1817] Stocking up: The New York Stock Exchange is founded…
2.1965] Semper Fi: The United States lands about 3,500 Marines in South Vietnam...
3.1971] A Sports trilogy begins: Muhammad Ali loses a decision to undefeated heavyweight champ Joe Frazier. This is the first of 3 fights between two of the best heavyweights ever. I saw this fight in a Boston movie theater with Sal Ingeme of Columbia Records, although it wouldn't help Sal get any airplay…
4.1979] A new kind of CD: Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time…
5.1980] Soviet Woodstock: The first festival of rock music kicks off in the Soviet Union. Unless you’ve heard of Aquarium or Vladimir Rubashevsky, you wouldn’t recognize any of the acts on the bill…
6.1983] The Evil Empire: It’s neither the Yankees or Red Sox, it’s the Soviet Union. President Ronald Reagan calls the USSR an “Evil Empire”…
7.1999] “Happy Trails“: Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio, the ‘Yankee Clipper’ dies at 84 after never fully recovering from lung cancer surgery in the fall of 1998…
8.1999] Supes uphold convictions: The U.S. Supreme Court upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing…
9.2004] Justice for all: Abu Abbas, the Palestinian guerrilla leader who planned the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, dies while in custody…
10.2008] W vetoes bill: George W. Bush vetoes a bill that would have banned the CIA from using waterboarding and other coercive interrogation methods to gain information from suspected terrorists…
Music Memories:
- 1965] DC 5 debut: The Dave Clark Five make their first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show". They returned for a November visit...
- 1968] Go East young man: Bill Graham opens the Fillmore East on Second avenue in the East Village. Here's a clip from December, 1968...
- 1970] O Solo Mio: Diana Ross appears solo for the first time in Framingham (MA). This is Miss Ross's 1st solo hit...
"WRKO...The Launch" (Part 6) (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 with a N/T format in New England)...
We called the WRKO-FM music list the "Certified 35." The C-35 was determined each week using as our disclaimer said, "An accurate compilation of actual local record sales, national record sales and telephone requests." It was about as accurate as you could get back in 1967. We printed up copies and stacked the retail outlets with them...
On the survey, we used a sell line of "WRKO-FM 98.5 Your Automated All Music Station 9AM - 12Midnight." Those were our original operating hours. On-air we had sonovox voicers which were used as the voice of "R-KO, Your Friendly Robot." "Ahko" became so popular, New Englanders would claim him, her or-it as their own. The voicers would proclaim "Only R-KO plays 4 in a row" and other sell lines. We had several voicers that we would pepper each hour with. My favorite was "Arkomatic", which meant nothing and was probably invented at one of the brainstorming sessions between Bob Henabery and I, which would often be enhanced with a brew or glass of wine at "Mother's", housed in the Kenmore Hotel, the original site of the station. At one point the hotel went through a management change to the St. George Hotel, before it changed back to its original name...George Capalbo, our Engineering chief, provided state-of-the-art automation for "R-KO" and we had a signal that reached parts of Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, including Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard and all of Rhode Island. Next, we'll take a look at the reach of WRKO-FM and the automation we used. Meanwhile, the countdown to the launch of WRKO-AM was 5 days away...
(Tomorrow: "WRKO...The Launch" (Part 7) (WRKO-FM Automation & Reach)...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Freddie Prinze Jr. (35), Camryn Manheim (50), Jim Rice (58), Peggy March (63), Carole Bayer Sager (64), Randy Meisner (65), Mickey Dolenz (66), Jim Bouton (72) & Pete Dawkins (73)...
Timeline Countdown: 5 days until Daylight time, 12 days until the first day of spring, 23 days until MLB Opening Day, 42 days until Passover & 47 days until Easter...
