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They Were Intriguing, But Where Are They Now? posted on April 17th, 2014

By Sean Ross @RossOnRadio

To make the “Intriguing Stations of the Year” column, a station doesn’t have to be a ratings success. “Intriguing” is a salute to those stations that were different enough to be notable, or at least indicative of a change in our industry’s programming mentality. But four months after ROR’s look at “Intriguing Stations of 2013,” some trends continue to gather momentum. At a reader’s urging, here’s a cross-sample of stations that made the “Intriguing” list for 2012 and 2013 and how they’re doing now.

KIFM (Easy 98.1) San Diego – When I wrote about them in January for “Intriguing 2013,” the ’70s/’80s-based super-soft AC where you could hear “Seasons In The Sun,” Christopher Cross, and a lot of Hall & Oates was building quickly, and a few similar stations had just been launched. Since then, the building boom has slowed. Some broadcasters just don’t want to be in the Air Supply business. But KIFM was the market leader in the just-released March PPMs. So look for that to change.

WNSH (Nash FM) New York – It was up 1.5 – 1.7 in March. Nash-FM still hasn’t pushed past the two-share that format detractors said country would draw in New York just for showing up. But that’s not the point. Nash’s appearance in “Intriguing 2013” was as the face of nationalized radio. That march has continued through New Orleans, Nashville, and Detroit (and elsewhere). And if the intent was to improve Music Row’s relationship with a more centralized Cumulus by giving them a New York country station, that seems to have happened.

WMIB (The Beat) Miami – Clear Channel’s relaunched urban was notable for its harsh attacks on rival WEDR and for going all hip-hop, a once-common strategy that we haven’t seen much of lately. Since November, the Beat is up 1.7-3.0. WEDR is off 6.1 – 5.1 and was fifth this month (although still ahead of the 5.0 it had two months ago). Notably, Clear Channel’s KQBT (The Beat) Houston has had more spoiler impact on rival KBXX (the Box), down 7.8-5.0, and done a little better (3.6) with a more mainstream approach.

WBQT (Hot 96.9) Boston, KHTP (Hot 103.7) Seattle – Seattle’s version of the ’90s/’00s-based “Rhythmic Hot AC” format visibly disrupted the market for a few months and leveled off. Boston has built more gradually. Both have settled into similar comfortable positions at this point, while similar stations have launched in San Diego, Albuquerque, and Portland, Ore. In Portland, the franchise was important enough that Clear Channel’s existing rhythmic top 40 reimaged to make sure that it claimed Notorious B.I.G. and TLC.

Sirius XM The Highway – Their willingness to start country hits is undiminished, and earned them a recent Wall Street Journal feature celebrating satellite’s role in breaking Florida Georgia Line and Cole Swindell. Sirius XM’s Alt.Nation (which appeared in “Intriguing 2012”) has long gotten that kind of attention in the alternative community as well. The recent game changer is that Sirius XM’s top 40 channel Hits 1, which has always cheerfully done its own thing, is getting more notice as well, with an early role in songs like MKTO’s “Classic” or AJR’s “I’m Ready” that might not have gone as far beyond its walls in the past. A few years ago, a Hits 1 story was often dismissed by broadcast PDs as irrelevant to stations with ratings competition. Now, at least, labels are noticing and taking the same sort of cues from Hits 1 as its counterparts.

KMVQ (Now 99.7) San Francisco – To some extent, Hits 1 has taken on greater importance because there aren’t as many broadcast FM top 40s breaking the hits. KMVQ continues to be aggressive on new music and remains successful. They’re also leading consistently in the market’s tough top 40 battle these days, although in March, their lead over KYLD (Wild 94.9) was closer, 4.1 to 3.9.

Quickhitz – They edit the hits to somewhere between 1:50 and 2:30. Broadcasters love or hate the concept and initial outlet WYDS Decatur, Ill., hasn’t done much to dissuade believers or skeptics yet, In its first book last fall (when it was not airing the format all day due to other syndication obligations) it was flat with a 2.8. But proponents say more stations are on the way. And I’m still happier to have certain songs finished with faster.

WEDX (Evolution 101.7) Boston – WEDX made “Intriguing 2012” both for bringing electronic dance music to a major-group owned station in a major-market and for having been incubated on Clear Channel’s iHeart Radio. This month, it goes 0.9-1.1 on a limited signal. Since its launch, nothing has happened to shatter detractors’ claims that EDM doesn’t work as a self-contained format (although the decision to launch it in Gainesville, Fla., must count for something). But the EDM community’s Avicii, Martin Garrix, Cash Cash, Zedd, Tiesto, Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris, and DJ Snake all have current songs in play at top 40. Whether that means that a standalone format is overdue, or not needed, is entirely dependent on one’s own reading of the inkblot.

WWPW (Power 96.1) Atlanta – They made “Intriguing 2012” by filling one of the last major-market holes for a second top 40, and for their fast ascent. Then they tapered off and Cumulus rival WWWQ (Q100) rebounded. If this story had been written four months ago, the morale would have been that Elvis Duran and Clear Channel’s ability to stage station concerts weren’t enough to automatically demolish a competitor and an entrenched morning show. Q100 still hasn’t been demolished, but since removing Duran, WWPW has edged ahead again 4.3 to 4.2.

Radionomy – Radionomy continues to be the engine for many of the hobbyist stations that I discover, as well as worthy professional broadcaster projects like Journal Milwaukee’s Radio League. Rival Live 365 has also shown a burst of new activity since the arrival of Dennis Constantine. In fact, at the RAIN Summit West earlier this month, one of the interesting recurring themes was the rise of hobbyist radio. For Cox’s Tim Clarke and LDR’s Daniel Anstandig, two of the few people who can be called “young guns” at the moment, having one’s own Internet station was an entry to radio. And MusicMaster has just rolled out its Personal Edition music scheduling software scaled and priced for hobbyists. For a moment, it looked as if the increased attention of the majors in pureplay channels might overshadow the hobbyists, but I’m finding the latter to be more, not less intriguing these days than some of what the insiders create.

Radio Hamburg – I gave German CHR a collective mention in “Intriguing 2012,” for its early warning system on alternative and triple-A songs that often become pop hits in Europe and Australia while they’re still on a six-month crossover journey here. With more time to think about it, AC stations like this one deserved more than a passing mention. Germany’s early pop appetite for Passenger, Of Monsters and Men, and Family of the Year isn’t really a difference in taste as much as the presence of strong mainstream AC stations that still break and play currents.

Filling in the Holes with Optimum Radial Spread posted on April 14th, 2014

By Paul Ziino

Take a look at this History Graph.

fillinginholes1The rotations look pretty bad.  Now compare that with this History Graph.

fillinginholes2What a huge improvement!  So now the question is, “what changed?”

(more…)

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Our Growing Family of Products posted on April 9th, 2014

You’ve come to trust and depend on the MusicMaster name for your scheduling needs. We know that there are many different programming needs out there and we are pleased to introduce a suite of products designed to meet those different needs:

mm_proMusicMaster Professional Edition is the new name for our flagship product, MusicMaster for Windows. This is the product broadcasters around the world have relied on to schedule their music. We’ve only changed the name and added the Pro designation to our logo. Everything else about the product is the same. If you program multiple radio stations, MusicMaster Pro will continue to give you the full complement of programming tools you need to make your radio stations sound great.

mm_ltMusicMaster Limited Edition is our new product designed for non-commercial or small commercial broadcasters who want the main programming tools of MusicMaster Pro but who don’t need all the fancy scheduling tools and exports. You can use MusicMaster LT to manage one station’s library, clocks and scheduling needs. You’ll also be able to export to your automation system. For the budget-minded broadcaster, this version can be purchased for a one-time price.

mm_peMusicMaster Personal Edition is our other new product designed for the individual or hobbyist. If you know someone who tinkers at home with an Internet stream (perhaps even you?), recommend MusicMaster PE to them. We’ve even included a player with this package so someone can input their songs and be listening to it quickly. Of course the individual doesn’t need most of the scheduling tools broadcasters rely on, so by limiting those items, we’re able to offer MusicMaster PE at a very reasonable purchase price.

The MusicMaster Experience posted on March 31st, 2014

By Marianne Burkett

I get this question a lot from normal folk. “Exactly, what is it that you do?”  By normal folk, I’m referring to people who reside out of the sphere of Broadcasting.

My answer varies depending on the individual asking the question, but I often say: “I help radio sound better”.  MusicMaster is indeed software that enables its users to get the best music or video logs possible. What we do is difficult to explain…even to musicians. (more…)

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Broadcast Asia posted on March 27th, 2014

bcaCome and visit us at Broadcast Asia in Singapore on June 17-21 at Stand 5K2-02 where Joe and Rainer will be there to have a chat with you and show you the latest version of MusicMaster!

K-104 Dallas Genius Day Workshop posted on March 24th, 2014

Service Broadcasting Corporation in Dallas, TX hosted Joe Knapp and Jesus Rodriguez on Wednesday, March 19th for a MusicMaster Genius Day workshop.

We don’t know who was more excited between Jesus and the client. We all have that one heritage station that we grew up listening to in our hometowns. The station that influenced our passion for great radio that got us to consider broadcasting as a career. Jesus is a Dallas native and K104 was one of those stations. That being said, for Jesus, the opportunity to consult this client at the legendary studios surpassed any childhood dream of working in those studios as a DJ. It’s not everyday you can say that you are a scheduling consultant for the radio station that raised you.

We discussed every aspect of the software. Joe Knapp blew everyone’s mind with some auto burning tricks to keep a steady history graph for stations with a lot of mix shows. Joe and Jesus said the travel accommodations from gate to gate were amazing, which is easy to say when you live down the street from the client and get to drive your own car!

We would like to thank KKDA-FM/K104 PD George Cook, Operations Manager Michael Erickson, KRNB-FM 105.7 PD Kevin Gardner, and their team for coordinating the day with us.

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MusicMaster President and CEO Joe Knapp, KKDA-FM/K104 PD George Cook, and MusicMaster Representative Jesus Rodriguez

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MusicMaster Representative Jesus Rodriguez, KRNB-FM 105.7 PD Kevin Gardner, and MusicMaster President and CEO Joe Knapp

Cabsat 2014 posted on March 20th, 2014

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We had a great few days at the Cabsat show in Dubai last month. Besides some great looking but dangerous fog and a sand storm, everything went very smooth. Thanks to all the visitors, friends and clients who stopped by at the booth. We will see you all there again in 2015. Here a few impressions of the show:

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We shared a very pretty booth with our partner company AVC

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Rainer from ON AIR and Abdul of Suno Radio, one of our clients in Dubai

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Elliot from AVC Dehli, our partner company in India, showing the latest version of MusicMaster

Rainer speaking with Enco owner Gene Novacek

Rainer from ON AIR speaking with Enco owner Gene Novacek

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And of course a nice crew dinner with our long time client and friend Mehirr of Audio Republic Dubai…

Radiodays Europe 2014 in Dublin posted on March 20th, 2014

Justus Fischer from ON AIR is going to attend Europe’s biggest radio industry event on March 23-25. We are sure it’s going to be an exciting show again. This year’s list of speakers and panelists reads like the “who’s who” of the international radio business. Check out more details and the program at the event’s website, and feel free to contact Justus during a coffee break for a brief update on MusicMaster’s upcoming line of new versions!

Do Shazam And SoundHound Recognize What Radio Didn’t? posted on March 19th, 2014

By Sean Ross

It’s been a big year for Shazam.

The music recognition app is now a regular part of record label trade advertising.

At Country Radio Seminar in February, it was key in several attempts to apply “Moneyball”-type analytics to potential hit records. One of them was a formula by Stone Door Media Lab’s Jeff Green that eight or more tags-per-spin in a song’s second chart week could predict a top 10 hit.

One sees Shazam (or SoundHound or MusicID) being used in public on a regular basis now, to the point where it’s becoming a shared experience. Over the holidays, it was an app that helped me figure out that ELO’s “Long Black Road” was playing in a key scene in “American Hustle.” As we filed out, I spotted somebody tagging the same ELO song during the final credits.

I occasionally run into songs that stump all three of my music recognition apps. For the most part, however, they’ve sharply reduced the trouble that I used to go through to find out what song I was hearing. Some of those song quests ventured to the outer limits of music geekery. The most extreme involved buttonholing a Swedish consultant in the halls of the NAB radio show and humming a song I’d heard a decade earlier. (It worked.)

But mostly I did what regular listeners would have, if they’d been particularly taken with a song. I spent a lot of time waiting for somebody to pick up a radio station request line, back when there was still a person to answer them. Or I would negotiate with put-upon sounding station receptionists, who could never be bothered to hunt down the info themselves, and some who wouldn’t even transfer the call to the music director.

I always wondered if program and music directors knew just how careless their staffs were about flagging curiosity calls. To a PD, curiosity calls were always the first sign of passion on a new song. Even a few could be enough to save a song that was otherwise on the cusp of playability. Yet stations did so little to capture that information.

The willingness to make a phone call counted for a lot. Many listeners cheerfully go through their busy lives with only a vague idea of what artist actually sings that song they sort of like. Even among those who wouldn’t, however, complaints about stations that didn’t identify songs were a listener research staple for years. And the contradiction with also wanting less talk didn’t make them listeners any less sincere in their frustration.

Some broadcasters have become more cognizant of identifying songs in the last decade, especially the handful now using pre-recorded “song tags” for every song. But the irony is that radio has, for the most part, handed over both a research and a listener bonding opportunity. The apps have a broader reach than radio — listeners who would never call a radio station are Shazaming obscure recent ELO songs that they hear somewhere else anyway. But the information that we could have gotten from listeners by answering the phone is now being jobbed out, at a cost, to a third party as well.

Record labels have been consistently unsparing over the years toward radio’s lack of front- and back-sells. I have understood, in ways that labels did not always, why identifying every song wasn’t always good programming. But now Shazam, which was also on the dais at CRS, will “write new business” for doing the thing that labels wanted from radio.

This discussion led my Edison Research colleague Larry Rosin to suggest that radio station apps should include music recognition software as well. Beyond that, radio still has a lot of opportunities on a daily basis to tell listeners what they’re hearing, and to make them excited about it. Not relinquishing that franchise all together is part and parcel of protecting bigger franchises — music discovery and music creation.

If radio does not want to entirely abdicate the job of telling listeners what they’re hearing, they can do the following:

Make sure the “now playing” information on the Website and the station player actually works. And that the player and website refresh when there are new songs. And that weekend feature and other special programming songs are loaded in the system so that they display as well.

When we remind listeners that all of our song history is available on the station website, do it in conjunction with a real backsell, so that it doesn’t seem like just another cynical bid for web traffic.

Tell the morning show to actually acknowledge and interact the music, instead of having no seeming relationship to it.

Make station metadata robust and accurate. Our streaming players and websites often make the same gaffes as rookie DJs (attributing a major hit from a famous album to a greatest hits compilation, for instance). Song ID apps aren’t perfect; a friend recently found a Dean Martin song wrongly credited to “the Cat Pack.” But advocates of the FM-on-mobile NextRadio app are correct when they say that listeners expect more and better metadata than they’re getting from radio.

Radio hasn’t just provided music to listeners over the years. It has provided music expertise. Listeners now have more ability to find new music and find out more about that music. In that regard, fewer opportunities to be their hero exist. Those that still come radio’s way should not be lost.

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