Four or five years ago you were considering whether or not to give away Mp3s or iPods, today it's Blu-ray and HDTV. You would go around the room for pros and cons. Are you promoting the use of iPods or Mp3s and do you risk losing listeners by giving them away? Sure and sure, but there's a 'but'. They're using them anyway so why not have lots of listeners come to you to get the hottest product on the market? At least you'll get more listeners for the promotion and maybe get some new ones who occasionally listen to you. Better than not at all, right? And if one of them wins an iPod or Mp3, think of the word-of-mouth about your station spread by that winner...
Whether it's concert tickets, LPs (remember those days), iPods, Blu-ray or HDTV giveaways, they're all forms of entertainment used while not listening to a radio. The only difference is the quality of the entertainment, today at a peak never attained before. Blu-ray DVD has the best quality picture I've ever seen. It is quickly becoming the standard. Warner Brothers has joined Disney, 20th Century Fox, MGM and Lionsgate using Blu-ray exclusively, leaving Universal Paramount and DreamWorks as the sole HD DVD supporters. HDTV, now the landslide winner in it's competition with plasma for flat screen supremacy is the perfect companion for Blu-ray DVDs and is recommended...
Granted you can't afford to do too many HDTV or Blu-ray player giveaways unless you give away the shop to an appliance store in a trade-out but you can offer the DVDs as qualifying prizes and a 40 inch top of the line HDTV as a grand prize with a runner-up prize of a Blu-ray player. Hey, even I would enter that contest...
10 Timeline Memories:
- 1776] Uncommonly Common: Brit Thomas Paine publishes his pamphlet, "Common Sense" which is jussst a bit 'out there' as explained in this video clip: http://youtube.com/watch?v=rtpzVu13F28&feature=related ...
- 1863] Opening the Tube: Britain's Prime Minister Gladstone opens the first section of the London Underground Railway. Take a ride with us on the Bakerloo line at Waterloo Station, guv: http://youtube.com/watch?v=goE1TEQj0xc&feature=related ...
- 1870] Black gold, Texas tea: John D. Rockefeller incorporates Standard Oil...
- 1949] Premiered on this date: "The Goldbergs" on radio since 1929, moves to TV on CBS-TV, then NBC and Dumont, running until 1956...1964] The U.S. version of "That Was The Week That Was" premieres with David Frost and Nancy Ames as part of the 'Newsmakers' cast...1971] "Masterpiece Theatre" premieres on PBS, hosted by Alistair Cooke. The first drama: "The First Churchill's"...
- 1969] Curtains: The final 'Saturday Evening Post' hits the newsstands after 147 years of publication...2003] Thomas D. Mottola is out at Sony after 14 years at the helm. One voluptuous singer with a five-octave range throws a party...2005] CBS issues a damning independent review of mistakes related to a "60 Minutes Wednesday" report of President Bush's National Guard Service. Three news executives and a producer are fired for their "myopic zeal" in rushing it to air. One myopic network news anchor starts backing up the truck to his office...
- 1982] 'The Catch': Joe Montana hits Dwight Clark in the end zone for 'The Catch' giving the San Francisco 49ers a 28-27 comeback win over Dallas and putting them in the Super Bowl against Cincinnati the following week and here's a video clip of it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_TEDnG4FCHk ...
- 1990] Wedding Bells: Time Inc. and Warner Communications Inc. complete a $14 billion merger making Time Warner the world's largest entertainment company...2000] Same date, different year, Time Warner agrees to buy AOL in the largest ever corporate merger priced at $162 billion. The FTC approves the deal on December 14, 2000. Hey, how'd that work out???
- 2000] Who's your daddy?: Melissa Etheridge ends her silence, naming David Crosby as the father of her child raised by she and partner Julie Cypher...
- 2001] Geronimohhhhh: American Airlines agrees to acquire most of TWA's assets (and debts) for about $500 million, ending TWA's financially troubled plight...
- 2004] 'Happy Trails': Actor-writer Spalding Gray, 62, vanishes from his Manhattan apartment. Two months later his body is found floating in the East River, an apparent suicide...2007] Italian producer Carlo Ponti dies of natural causes at 94...
Music Memories:
- 1949] It's final, it's vinyl: Vinyl records are introduced by Columbia and RCA Records and in case you're thinking about pressing your own vinyl, watch this: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xUGRRUecBik ...
- 1956] Elvis is in the studio: Elvis Presley does his first Nashville recording session for RCA. "Heartbreak Hotel", the first song published by Tree Publishing is one of the songs recorded. It was released on January 27th backed by "I Was The One" and will top the Pop and R&B charts and reach top 5 on the Country chart: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_1Qo1eaWF8c ...
Commentary:
'Happy Trails' to baseball trainer turned part owner of the Boston Red Sox, Edward "Buddy" LeRoux who passed away Monday in a New Hampshire hospital at the age of 77. Buddy was trainer of the Sox from '66 to '74 and later owned a piece of the team. He also owned Suffolk Downs race track from '86 to '89. No cause of death is given...and 'Happy Trails' to the white haired man who accompanied every celebrity (over 500) immortalized in the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Also known as the 'unofficial' mayor of Hollywood, Johnny Grant died from natural causes on Wednesday at 84...
"Happy Birthday...happy birthday":
Pat Benatar (55) "Love Is A Battlefield": http://youtube.com/watch?v=zpddJDdJmkM&feature=related , George Foreman (59), Donald Fagen (60), Rod Stewart (63), Frank Sinatra Jr. (64), Scott McKenzie (69) who will celebrate by going to San Francisco and wearing flowers in his hair: http://youtube.com/watch?v=TlQCuq-eezg&feature=related , Willie McCovey (70), Ronnie Hawkins (73) and legendary Atlantic Records producer Jerry Wexler (91)...
Timeline Countdown: 2 days until the NFL Divisional playoffs, 10 days until the Conference championships, 16 down and 3 to go for the Patriots, 24 days until the Super Bowl (Glendale, Arizona) and 35 days until pitchers and catchers voluntarily report to spring training...
