|
GeorgeJohns.com |
||||
|
e-mail About George Johns
Present - Talent
Coach and Radio Consultant. |
August 24, 2010 Some of the e mails I send to people that don't get responded to always tell me a lot more than the ones that do.
John Lund claims that about 50% of your audience is interested in your station's contest and will probably mentally play along if it's interesting enough even if they don't physically participate.
In the radio biz the only time the spotlight is on you is when you are losing. When your winning you seem to be working in a vacuum and your wins become a very closely guarded secret.
So as I take my youngest daughter Cami to her High School orientation tonight I cant help but think back to my first year in High School and how it shaped my whole life. Things sure were sure simpler then and it seemed a whole lot easier to achieve your dreams. Life now looks a whole lot more complicated to me and I'm frightened for her.
I'm starting to figure out that the expression "It's All Good" isn't really a good thing. It usually means it's all pretty bad, but we're covering it all up as fast as we all can.
Now that we have instant communication all the time, are things better ?
So the word is according to the experts and PPM much more music is the way to go in the AM. Well the experts better just pray that the Howard doesn't come back because all the experts will need to re tool and Arbitron will just say, hey all we do is measure.
I love the line when Chelsea was asked by Hillary before the wedding if she and her fiance had sex yet. Chelsea supposedly answered with ... Not according to Dad.
Bob Christy told me when a sports franchise fails they fire the management and keep the players. At a failing radio station they do the opposite.
Have you ever noticed that even though the Government has the most employees, pays them decently, and gives them great perks, somehow every project that the government is involved in seems to be behind schedule and the employees look very unhappy.
Recently I was traveling east through the Rockies on Amtrak and was having dinner with a couple on their way to New York. They asked me if I had done the train from LA to Seattle. I responded I had a few years ago and found the service and the train staff's attitude to be superb. They said they found the service on the train we were presently traveling on was OK but no great shakes. I told them just wait until you switch trains in Chicago, you'll look back on this ride as a great one. How can that happen they asked, isn't Amtrak all owned by the same company. Well thats another story isn't it.
When I was growing up I was always told by the Chamber of Commerce to be good to the tourists we need them. I started to noticed though that I always seemed to have the same amount of money in my Jeans whether they were there or not.
In Florida where I make my home we swell by several million residents each year come Thanksgiving. But the spot rate on radio stations doesn't go up nor do we seem to have anymore running. Other than I cant get in my favorite restaurant while they are here, To this day I cant understand why the Chamber ever thought I needed these people.
I just got through reading a great article by my friend Tim Moore. Tim was writing about motivation and mentioning the kinds of things that motivated him for most of his life. I was kinda nodding along as I read but it got me thinking that maybe you have to be sensitive to motivation to be motivated. Or better put, you may have to want to be motivated to be motivated.
Everyone seems very upset about the music industry. The Artists, The Songwriters and The Record Companies all claim the Internet has ruined the music business. My daughter Cami who has about a thousand tunes in her I Pod seems happy enough with it though.
When I once asked Joe Amaturo who is heavily involved in Muvico Theatres, why some of his theatres seemed more splendid than others. Joe told me it was because he beleived the theatre in some way had to match the community it was located in. Wow I wonder if that would work in radio(-:
The more I learn about how PPM works the more all the mysteries of the old diary method tend to disappear.
Giving away a lot of money to charity doesn't make you a good person. Just how you got the money your giving away is what determines that.
I think a lot of people misunderstand Arbitron's intention. They are not in the business of searching for the truth about what radio stations people listen to. They are in the business of searching for money and most of their decisions are based solely on that, and that only.
Boy the Dr. Laura announcement that she is hangin' it up come the end of December has driven the sales dogs into an e mail frenzy, all of course claiming their talk client that they represent is the perfect replacement.
I have come to the realization that Art must be an unnatural phenomenon. I have never found it to happen naturally.
After sitting at a red light for what seemed like eternity again the other day and with absolutely no sign of any traffic, I couldn't help but wonder how much they paid the people who set up the systems for all the traffic lights. What ever it is they are definitely overpaid and owe us money.
The goal of every radio station should be to sound like they are not doing it for the money.
August 12, 2010 Where is or better yet, what is the symbol on your lap top to make a smirk instead of a smile.
Everything you have ever done in your life that was kinda bad and your embarrassed and ashamed about it now still make the best stories. But usually you have to be a little little loosened up by some fine wine so as to work up the courage to tell them.
The only people who can control Mr. business man is his competitors.
My Daughter Candis told me that she was driving along the other day with my 5 year old Grandson Nathaniel and kinda heard him singing and humming something from the back seat. When she listened a little closer it turned out to be a JURY tune he was singing from 40 years ago. Go ahead ask me how I feel about all that but only do it if you have an hour or two to waste listening to my answer.
Speaking of The Jury somebody is shooting a musical documentary and wants to use two of our records in it. They contacted me to find out who owns the rights to the songs now. I gave them the name of the publisher and suggested they might also contact my daughter Candis in California because she used to be in the music licensing business before she took on the even more formidable job of raising my grandson and could probably help out.
Turns out the publishing company doesn't exist anymore, so I suggested maybe the rights to the songs reverted back to the writers Bruce Walker, Terry Kenny and myself. Candis said Dad I've seen all those contracts nothing ever is in them that would return anything to the artist or writers. Back when I was singing and writing she said, I just couldn't bring myself to sign them like you guys probably did without hardly even reading them.
Of course now you have four records nicely framed hanging on your wall and people shooting documentaries about your music and I sure don't. So how smart was I after all.
I think Wars are between Governments not people, we just get dragged into it.
I only deceived my oldest Daughter once and that was when walking her down the aisle I did the symbolic gesture of handing her off to her Husband but I really didn't mean it. It was only symbolic to me and always will be. Oh the figuring out how to drive her and her date to and from the senior prom didn't count. I was just being very helpful as all fathers should be.
When Buzz Bennett and Jack McCoy were PD's they were a way ahead of their time. Some of the stuff they figured out even works better today.
It must be weird living in a world where you spend most of your life doing what ever it takes to become famous. Then suddenly you realize some other person can become famous in an instant just by killing you.
My best friend from High school Jim Quail e mailed me the other day to tell me how envious of me he was. He seems to be struggling with his early retirement. He spends most of his days golfing and worrying about whether the golfing everyday is going to tax his stamina because of course each night his fantastic wife will want him to make love to her like she does every night.
Then there is also the added pressure of trying to figure out where in the world they should consider living for 4 months of the winter. It has to be a fun place and there are so many too choose from that it's just exhausting.
He claims that he would give anything to be on the road with me struggling to get through security at the airport, sitting in center seats on jammed airplanes, listening to the endless on board announcements that are only done for our safety, waiting for the ramp to be pulled up to the plane, apparently even though the pilot to the second knows when we are going to arrive they never inform the ramp driver, waiting for the car rental shuttle bus as two or three from the other companies go by empty, lining up for the rental car because once again we are a surprise so there are only two at the desk and ten walking around with sheets of papers in their hand that are a lot more important than us, stuck in traffic on the 405, explaining to the front desk clerk at the hotel that the person who answers the phone knows who you are and they also have your reservation please check with them.
Jim says he still remembers and misses those great late night dinners where they keep working you and all the after hours club somebody always knows about which leads sometimes to you waking up with some woman who somehow in the morning just didn't manage to quite match the beauty she had the night before. You quietly try to chew your arm off rather than disturb her because you've got to get to that very exciting early morning meeting even though you have a big splitting headache.
But hey you live for those meetings man, they are your life. You can hardly wait for the part where some sales type says ... I don't know anything about programming but! His or her about what they don't know explanation takes about an hour. The only thing about their speech that was useful was they were absolutely right about their opening line and maybe in the future we wont have to suffer through another hour of their meanderings.
The best part of it all is you get to head back to the airport to do it all over again in another city only this time you are running a little late because the big guy had to take a bunch of phone calls during the meeting which he claimed would only take a moment. Those little special moments made the meeting run over but everyone said it was a great meeting, even though nothing was decided and no tasks were assigned. Meanwhile your wondering what your going to do if you don't make the plane, so your mentally making alternative plans. You cant even get on your cell phone because your in California.
Johns your a lucky man my buddy said, don't you worry about old Jimmy you just enjoy yourself out there, I'll be OK. I'm just not sure right now if I should take the boat out or do another round of golf. Trying to make all these decisions is about wearing me out. Aw the hell with either of those two things. I think I'll just have my self another afternoon delight.
I understand in the State of Nebraska alone they could grow enough food to feed the whole world. But I understand for economic reasons or something the Government pays them not to grow stuff. Are the people who decided this the same people who decided what ever got us into this current recession.
About 35% of your listeners are listening to you the rest are just hearing you and some reluctantly.
Have you ever noticed the amount of creativity that goes into telling you no. Yes is still just yes.
I wonder if the American women ever have forgiven Oprah for turning her back on a woman and endorsing Obama a while back. Lets check the ratings ... Nope, time to retire.
Tim Moore wrote that his Dad told him a long time ago that the cemeteries were filled with serious people and that maybe he should pick a different attitude.
August 4, 2010Nobody has ever thought they were overpaid. But I know of a few and after a couple of glasses of a nice red I start naming names.
If nobody in Germany was for Hitler ever who were all the people in those huge stadiums cheering loudly and wildly for him for all those years.
When I google myself I seem to be an entrepreneur, a lawyer, an author of fine books and a military man of some importance. Hmmmmm now how do I turn all those great credentials into something useful.
Robert Murphy recently reminded me about the time he was leaving WRMF in Florida and heading back to Chicago. He remembered me telling him that I really admired the great unapproachable attitude he seemed to have. I knew at the time that I wished I had that same look so the sales department would be too afraid to approach me also.
Robert asked me at dinner recently how come we didn't talk a little more to each other when he worked at the station. He thought it may have been a good idea and maybe little more fun for him and the station too. I told him I was too afraid to. He was The Murph, Man!
Sales departments are very similer to a few women I know. They dont take any responsibility nor do they want to be accountable for their effect on the ratings.
A lot of people ask me why I dislike sales people so much. The truth is I really love hanging out with them they are fun people. I just don't like working with them, they lie for a living!
As predictable as talent is off the air they need to be equally as unpredictable on the air.
I bet in Nashville even the Chinese waiters have Southern accents.
Jim & Pat Felton (Jim Brady) e mailed me while back with the following quote "Your an overrated jerk"
When KVIL in Dallas was in it's infancy stage BILL Gardner, our then midday jock submitted his tape to Billboard Magazine for the coveted personality of the year award.
Bill's tape it turned was the one that the judges liked the best but Claude Hall said we cant have a winner from some station nobody has heard of. So for that year there was a tie for first place. Bill's trophy which he still proudly keeps on his mantle even has the call letters wrong KXIL. But it wasn't too much longer until the whole country had heard of KVIL including Claude.
You could turn a lot of movie stars into great Jox but I don't think the reverse is true.
Have you noticed the latest scam at the pumps. Sometimes when you slide in your credit card it says see attendant. They move that around everyday because it's designed to get you to go inside and maybe buy something, that's where the real profit is just like at the movies.
If you really want to be happy I've been told you have to live a balanced life. You have to spend equal amounts of your time on your spiritual, physical, intellectual, and financial well being. No wonder the rich only smile in photos.
The PPM device is deaf for the first hour of morning radio which means the agencies get that first hour for free.
Speaking of morning radio it's still the only day part with any influence on the listeners because they are listening to it not just hearing it.
I was watching a TV show that had a bunch of comedians on it sitting in the round in the middle of the audience. They were all just kinda chatting but at the same time being very competitive with each other and trying to make each other laugh.
Jonathon Winters was just sitting there not saying anything until somebody said, Hey Jonathon you knew Richard Burton right? Jonathon nodded and the guy went on to ask him if he ever talked about Elizabeth Taylor. Jonathon waited until the room got real quiet and responded with ... Yes he said she was very furry ! The place fell down.
Jonathon also said he tried explaining to all the French people while in France, that unlike them, when an American person holds both of his arms upright over his head it just means, touchdown.
What I cant understand is why shortly after first meeting them women seem to want/need all my money for the rest of their life.
If you have ever wondered if your crazy or not, your not. Crazy people don't have crazy thoughts like that.
Once a player makes the NFL there are only two other things he covets. A Super Bowl ring and induction into the Hall Of Fame. I don't think T.O. will get either.
I told my Daughter Cami who is going into High School in a couple of weeks that for some reason my memory record button didn't kick until that time. I don't remember hardly anybody from the 8th grade or before. But I sure remember and am still in touch with a bunch I started with in the 9th at TCI. Oh yeah and I also remember what I was thinking about, so I will be staying close to my little girl. I bet she loves this part(-:
It used to be that marketing was 70% of the whole deal and product was 30%. Now consumers are demanding the reverse.
Women lose there power over us when we no longer want to sleep with them just like we lose our power with them when we run out of money.
Mornings are still the most listened to day part on radio no matter what PPM says.
There is nothing more powerful than a beautiful woman walking into the room.
Speaking of beautiful things, Lindy Rome who left radio a while back to start her own business proved you don't have to be or look like a man to make Man Sized Money.
My Dad always told me to stay away from the bad girls. I thought that was strange advice at the time because I really really liked all the bad girls. I now know what he was talkin' about.
I was proudly thinking about my niece Christina today. She graduated from High school in San Diego a couple of years ago with a 4.0, but for some unknown reason to me that wasn't good enough to qualify her for UCLA. I have a strong feeling though that some very spoiled athletes who are there just to train for the NFL, NBA and MLB and will probably leave early with out ever graduating got in very easily not to mention free. I don't think many of them attending UCLA at the moment equaled let alone surpassed her grades and yet we the public get to pay for all their training. There's just something wrong with all that.
How come Asian people don't whine about their circumstances in America. Shouldn't they be demanding some special privileges. What's wrong with them.
Don't you just hate that moment when you are in the middle of a very intense argument and you suddenly discover your wrong!
July 29, 2010
It is said that greed is the biggest motivator of all, It like sex makes you immune to fear.
Frank Osborn who came from the financial side of the biz told me he always went with the concept that GM's got two PD's and PD's got two books.
I had always heard that the the character Pig Vomit in the Howard Stern movie really was a combination of Kevin Metheny and John Hayes.
No wonder divorced women are pissed. When they were married they controlled the spending of 81% of the family's income, after the divorce they have to live on 50% which is impossible for them to do
Please tell me this 50 year or older sales trick isn't still being used. ... "If we don't do this immediately the client will cancel. Or the even lamer, we wont get the money if we dont do this.
I always figured that it really doesn't matter who owns Pizza Hut until your Boss says the new concept is, we are going to use a little less cheese in each Pizza now. In radio I think we are a way beyond that and have moved on to no cheese at all in the cheese Pizza. Now would be the perfect time to be running around screaming ... THE SKY IS FALLING THE SKY IS FALLING !
Speaking of Chicken Little, Jim Hilliard once said in a meeting I attended, " Had they just killed the damn chicken that would have ended all that nonsense." It would have made story a whole lot shorter that's for sure.
I always loved Ron Chapman's answer when pressured for an immediate answer to a sales promotion. If you need an answer right this moment the answer is NO he said, but if you give me a couple of days I might be able to turn that NO around. But that's not a for sure. I just need a couple of days to really ponder it. Do you think he got his extra time???
What is the prediction on Idol's ratings show business is based on the Star System (unlike radio) and like Elvis, the star is leaving the building. OK maybe just one of The Beatles like Paul or John. I predict a little curiosity interest at the beginning then the ratings will begin to plummet.
I understand that Obama wants to extend the unemployment benefits. I'm all for it but he needs to add one little thing. They all have to look for work or they get cut off immediately.
When I was on the train recently coming through the Rockies and was getting ready to get off the train the Steward said, Mr. Johns we didn't see much of you this trip in fact you were the quietest person on the train. I told him a lotta people will find that hard to believe so he might as well keep it to himself and not bother to alert the Media.
I never realized until recently when I was meeting with Brent Farris and his morning partner Debbie Abrams, that women actually believe they need all those shoes.
I learned a long time ago how to keep a woman from getting too close to me, but I have no idea how to get them too close.
I for the life of me can't figure out why God made Kari, Cami's mother and me her Father.
It is hard for me to believe that some men are as successful as they are when every 7 seconds they are thinking about the beauty and charms of certain women and not about the task at hand.
It is said that if you want to find an assertive engineer just look for the one who is looking down at someone Else's shoes.
When I was the the National PD of Fairbanks Broadcasting I was always trying to recruit some great air talent for all our stations. One I really liked and pursued for years was a great jock at WAKY in Kentucky by the name of Lee Masters. Lee got so tired of me hounding him that he left town and changed his name. Recently I discovered he is now calling himself Jarl Mohn and is hiding out I understand at some NPR station in Pasadena. If he hasn't lost his chops I'm coming for him again, he can run but he cant hide in a building named after him.
Have you ever noticed that all the airline staff seem totally shocked when the flight is full. You would think someone from ticketing would let them know so they could begin boarding a little earlier rather than giving us all these silly instructions on how we can speed up the boarding process so they can leave on time.
I had to stay at the downtown Oakland Marriott recently so I could board Amtrak early the next morning for my trek through the Rockies. At the bar on the Mezzanine floor I told the bar tender that I was very impressed by the hotel. He asked if it was my first trip to downtown Oakland, when I told him it was he said ... Were you a little bit frightened ?
I stayed in Redwood City a week or so ago and saw literally groups of police cars giving out tickets. I couldn't help but wonder who the hell was fighting crime.
In Florida as I'm sure in other spots around the nation the Police and Firemen have great benefit packages.In Florida there are no fires so I'm not sure what the firemen do other than start their own businesses on the side.
July 20, 2010
I was thinking about the Clear Channel new plan of cutting the wages of Morning show folks who cost more than 30% of the income of their shows. Now of course if the show doesn't cost 30% they will all be getting raises right? Yeah ... Right!
While vacationing in Vancouver I had the privilege of lunching one day with two radio hall of fame rs at the same time Red Robinson and Gary Russell. Luckily they didn't let me say much because what would I say to them anyway. I think maybe my role was supposed be the paying of the check. But I long ago forgot how that tune goes.
Brent Farris said, when the bean counters are the ones planting the seeds, it's time to sell the farm.
The word I think best describes a great morning show is "Unpredictable"
I heard a teacher on the radio up here in Victoria, Canada say that the schools should worry a lot less about a students self esteem and more about their learning ability so they can begin to cope in the real world. Hmmmm I wonder if that would work in America.
With the passing of The Magic Christian I couldn't help but notice that all the stories that have been pouring in about him are exactly the same even though most of these people never worked together but they all worked with Magic. But then who didn't.
My very socialist friends in Canada were asking me while I was on my recent bucket list tour ... What's up with Obama, he seems to be a little over the top.
Jerry Del Colliano wrote a great column the other day explaining how PPM really worked. I was a little upset about the fact that I thought he was giving away all the secrets until I suddenly realized there are very few people left in radio today who would even understand what he was writing about.
PPM has changed a lot of things but it didn't change the fact that most of your 1/4 hours come from your fans. Turns out they just weren't as loyal as they thought they were in the diary method.
Things continue to be what they are, and not what we wish them to be.
Holding on to what you have keeps you from having what you want. Case in point, almost 100% of Americans have some kind of insurance but less than 20% invest in anything. Have you ever noticed that guys never seem to buy their favorite cars until they get 50 or 60 years of age. Why does Government think we have the extra money they need to balance their budget. Before PPM broadcasters spent a lot of time pounding call letters so the "Phantom" cume would mark them down. They never did and all we managed to do was irritate all the people who did know who we were. Speaking of Phantom cume, according to PPM it did exist and wasn't just some phantom myth. What the hell is a SIG Alert? I think the Government spends too much time helping the rich and the poor, neither does much for the country but whine. I'm on what I call my bucket list trip, you know visiting people and places I haven't seen in a long long time. It started Fathers day weekend in San Diego at my brothers house with my two daughters Candis and Cami. When Cami and I headed to LAX to fly her back to Florida I thought I had plenty of pre paid gas to get us back to Enterprise Rent -a- Car but with a couple of miles to go the gauge moved into below empty and I was real nervous. Finally I saw the facility and breathed a sigh of relief and told Cami that when they said bring the car back empty Daddy finally did it because we were on fumes. When we pulled up the rent a car guy jumped in as we were dragging our stuff out of the trunk and yelled ... HEY GOOD JOB ON THE FUEL, THAT'S THE WAY YOU DO IT. I think Orville and Wilbur Wright were the last airline guys to make any money. I have been drifting around Canada and America now for over a month and have come to the conclusion that you cant drift. Friends and relatives need pretty exact times about your comings and goings if you expect to stay with them. Kinda like if you want your listeners to listen to your station you better make an appointment with them otherwise they will be the ones doing the drifting.
July 13, 2010 Have you ever noticed that all estimates are always a lot lower than the actual final bill. So the actual ratings must be much bigger than the estimates ARB gives us also. So I'm thinking the rating party should also be bigger too right???
Whisky lies to you (you really can't fly) as it seduces you into telling the truth when you definitely shouldn't.
If the truth is not politically correct do you still have to tell it in a court of law.
Vic Gold told me that all fiction novels were at least 50% true and you could actually half educate yourself by simply reading more of them.
Another one of the great things about vacationing in Vancouver this time of year is, not only is it much cooler up here than in Florida, but I have already seen two football games and it's only early July. Oh did I mention that my home town Winnipeg Blue Bombers beat up the Hamilton Tiger Cats pretty badly.
I have known and worked on and off with the Magic Christian for most of my broadcast career. During that whole time Magic always claimed he was dying thus needing a lot of time off and a lot of drugs to ease the pain. Last night his early prediction sadly came true but needless to say he has left most of us with a ton of stories that we will never tire of telling.
Men and Women sure live in two different worlds. When a Woman gets engaged it shuts down the whole office for the day as she shows off her engagement ring. When a Man gets engaged the first time you hear about it is when he's already married.
Jim Hilliard and I have worked together so long that now if he just thinks something he expects me to somehow hear it and do it.
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing but it only works out on the street, it sure doesn't work at the office.
I quit smoking back in the 70's and just happen to notice a bright sign advertising the low price a carton of cigarettes were on sale for today. Wow how can anybody afford to smoke anymore.
I just noticed that Arbitron is bringing out a new and improved PPM device that they claim will measure listening more accurately. But I still don't think it hears the clock radio when it goes off so what good is it.
Radio like the car business used to be all about image. With cars it's still all image until you finally choose your brand then it becomes all price. With radio it's all image until you get in someone else's car.
I have only been in Canada my friend Gary Russell for the last 5 days and have managed to have seen 4 Football games already and I'm not talkin' World Cup. Now that's the way I think one really kicks off an excellent summer vacation.
It's competition that keeps down prices not the goodwill of the owner who yearns for a monopoly.
What ever happened to the coffee break.
Speaking of breaks, don't those people who are milling about outside some building having a smoke look a little sad and lonely to you too.
While I was doing some radio work in Detroit a while back I remember heard a bunch of car spots saying you could buy a Ford today for the lowest price ever. I couldn't help but think wow how could they afford to sell them for a lower price than Henry sold them for. They weren't lying were they.
Chuck Knapp said ... "Finally Magic will have nothing to complain about".
Jay Williams claimed that Magic told him once that the reason he wore such cheap after shave was so his scent remained at the station long after he went home.
Bob Christy said he fondly remembers hearing a girls voice on Magic's show saying, "This is Patty Hearst, and when ever I am hiding out in Boston I always listen to The Magic Christian on WVBF. The FBI called in shortly thereafter.
Christopher Coleridge founder of V Water according to John Picano said ... Mornings were the best times to get some body's attention because they were filled with optimism unlike evenings when they were slightly annoyed and frustrated.
June 29, 2010 Have you ever noticed that most of the things you don't want to do but you are ordered to do so are all supposedly done in the name of safety.
I read somewhere that depression was merely anger without much enthusiasm.
Has a secret relationship ever had a good ending.
My least favorite word is no, and my absolute least favorite line is, "I don't know anything about programming but"............................!
When Jim Hilliard was running Fairbanks Broadcasting he announced that there was only one person who was allowed to see the new ratings before he did.
That person is George Johns. Jim said because George just loves ratings parties and I as some of you may know, believe the sole purpose of my office is to bring good news to the sales department. I am very confident that George will always find me some so he gets the first peek at the rating book.
Is it safe to say that the new boss of Clear Channel wont be a radio guy.
George Burns once said the secret of a great sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending. But to make it very special all you have to do is put the beginning and end as close together as you can. That sage advice sure sounds like it would work real good on radio as well.
I don't believe that all women are as awful as their so called girlfriends claim they are.
How the hell is Mark Mays going to live on a million a year, there has got to be some skimming going on somewhere.
My brother Reg said to me ... How many people do you think reads your stuff. Just the ones I want to was my reply.
Joe Amaturo finally met my Daughter Cami and I think she softened him up a bit which isn't that easy to do. Mr. A went into a very long philosophical dissertation about "Act In Haste Repent At Leisure" which was very interesting to me because it more resembled how I try to get points across than the specific filled way he does it. Later on I asked Cami what she thought of him. She said he was nice and she really liked his story about not getting pregnant.
Cris Conner was telling me that he was thinking about his Dad on Fathers Day and remembers years ago him asking Chris what his plans were for after High School. Chris said he mumbled, "I don't know maybe go to College or sumpin' " His Dad said if you choose something instead of College you will get to put "Dumb Ass" on your resume.
For some reason loud records tend to soften with age.
It seems to me almost all new records are perceived as too loud.
There is no music as fast as a radio station Jingle.
My experience is ... You must grow a morning show to make it better, you cant just order it up.
Radio programming is now in the hands of the mechanics and they continually adjust the Art to fit their mechanics, which of course is the exact opposite of how it works.
Less time should be spent on the decision making process and a lot more time spent on the implementation of the decision.
I think compromise is something you may have to do in your business life but I definitely don't think you should do it in your personal life.
I went away for a week and when I came back I discovered gas is up 10 cents a gallon again. Which one of you scared those oil wimps.
I hear Delilah is getting ready to take on John Tesh in LA.
I think most cars are bought by women but they send a guy (Husbands) to pick them up for them. If it was really up to the guy he would probably be at the Harley store.
Have you ever noticed that the sales folks seem to be what I call "Fair Weather Listeners". They always seem to forget how much they were against things in the early stages of a new format but once the ratings show up they claim they were for it and knew it was a big hit all along. But then again I guess they really don't have to remember because I do.
Back when I was an aspiring young musician I was also a sheet metal apprentice only because my father said ... In this family we work for a living we don't "play" in a band.
When your a programming guy it doesn't matter if you like the music your playing or not. In fact it may even help if you don't. But if your an air talent you'd better like it because the fans of that music can generally tell in a minute or two that you don't unless of course your a great actor. But then again if you're that good then you need to be in Hollywood because as you already know Radio only pays chump change compared to them.
I don't ever think I've heard a woman say she got "lucky" last night.
June 22, 2010
Beefs&Bouquets. ( I'm sure this title brings a small tear to Warren Cosford's eye.)
There's an old saying that pertains I would think mostly to men. If your not good lookin' "You Better Learn To Dance".
Bill McMartin E mailed me my first hug after reading that my Daughter Cami claimed not many people liked me because I was too mean. Bill disagreed saying that he remembers meeting me for the first time when I came to Syracuse to meet with him. He said the first words out of my mouth were ..." Where The Hell Am I And Can You Show It To Me On A Map" Bill said how can you not like a guy who makes you laugh right from his opening remarks.
Jim Hilliard's reaction to Cami's statement was ... I just love that kid!
When we finally go all green I wonder how much will electricity cost. Scary thought huh.
I think both my daughters understand how committed to them I am, but I get the feeling they both wish I would ease up a tad.
While at the Transcona Homecoming I went out with Ermanno Barone and Willie Parasiuk to look at a movie lot Ermanno had just built. After that we had lunch with Willie's old boss the former Governor General Of Canada and Premier of Manitoba,
Ed Schreyer. While at lunch Ed's wife asked me what happened to the Winnipeg music scene that used to be so huge when I was playing with The Jury.
I explained to her that because they built so many Hockey Rinks in the Winnipeg area they also had to build community clubs so the kids could change into their skates. With those Community Clubs came places to play, so bands started forming to match how many community clubs there were.
Then one day they lowered the drinking age to 18 so a lot of 16 year olds got fake ID's and went to the bars to watch the bands while enjoying adult beverages. That of course immediately killed most of attendance at the community club dances. Mrs. Schreyer then turned to her husband and said ... Ed you single hand idly wiped out our great Winnipeg music scene.
I was saddened to hear of the passing of the great John Wooden. Years ago when my daughter Candis was going to UCLA and we were training to run the LA Marathon together. One day we decided to do our training run around the Campus so she could show it to me.
All of a sudden I just stopped running and just stared. Candis said what's wrong Dad, I said nothings wrong this is real right. Honey they named an arena after a legend while he is still alive. The John Wooden Arena and it's not a memorial arena. Wow how neat. Never heard of him said Candis as she ran off.
Your own sales department can destroy your radio station a lot faster than any of you competitors could ever even dream of.
If the first word used to describe something is "illegal". Don't you think it should be the last word as well.
Now that the Airlines no longer trust the flight attendants with cash do they have any other duties we should be concerned about.
Banker Bill Lewis who wrote the song Cherish for his girlfriend while going to College told me a while back that he thought The Association ruined it.
When I was going to High School in Transcona there were several guys like Marshall Quelch and Bill Taylor whom I was real afraid of. I noticed while attending the Homecoming and seeing them again nothing had changed. I was still afraid of them.
Speaking of the Transcona Homecoming it was real neat to watch and hear Bruce Walker sing The Jury's first hit "Until You Do" I asked Rolly Blaquiere if we should join him on stage for a couple more of our hits. He replied ... F**K 'em! Hell It's only been 40 years why would things have cooled off that quickly, what was I thinking.
Seeing all my old High School buds was neat but several of them accused me of now having an American accent. I responded with ... If that is true why do all my American friends break out laughing every time I say the word "about"
Helen Torchia wanted to know when I was going to grow up. I told her not anytime soon, I don't see that many happy grownups.
Egos are great for giving you the courage to climb up on the stage, stand in front of the cameras, or talk on the radio. Other than that they are fairly destructive.
My son Curtis academically I think takes after me more than both my daughters Candis and Cami do which is not a very good thing for Curtis.
I still vividly remember going to the parent teachers night when we lived in Coronado and how I would try to trick their Mother Lana into splitting up the visiting duties with her. I thought she should visit Curtis' teachers where they would immediately put up the sign of the cross when we walked in and introduced ourselves, unlike Candis' teachers who started up the band with our arrival, and quickly crowned us parents of the year. So much for household environment.
You would think psychics would have a real good shot at the lottery but you never hear of them winning. What's up with that???
Wow what a Fathers Day! For the first time in 14 years I was with both my daughters. Talk about a breathless moment.
Speaking of Fathers Day, I was a better father than my Father was. Then I got another chance to become a better Father than I was and took advantage of it. But now I think it's time to leave it there and hang 'em up. But.........
A lot of people don't think I take life seriously enough. but the way I figure it why should you. No matter how you live, none of us are getting out of here alive anyway.
Now that we are all armed with Cameras in our cell phones, isn't it strange that we no longer seem to hear about UFOs
June 15, 2010
One of the things I am very grateful for is my "No Regrets" list is at least 10 times longer than my "Regrets" list.
According to Brian Tracy as time moves forward and you start to look back on your life, the only things that will count will be the quality of your relationships.
People who only have the power to say no always tend to way over use their power.
If you asked the Government to point out to you their greatest accomplishment what do you suppose that would be.
I just finished a home coming reunion in Transcona and I have to say that my boyhood friend who was the one responsible for me getting into music Peter Proskurnik still has great sax chops. I'm almost over him leaving The Phantoms those many years ago because he fell love, or was that lust. Hard to tell the difference back then.
At the same reunion, Jack Wright who played with my Brother Reg in a band together back when they were kids said of Reg's drumming when he sat in with the makeshift band at the affair was that it was memorable, and he was totally stunned by it.
For some reason I seem mostly attracted to broken women, so if for some reason I hit on you, my advice would be that you should make an appointment with a shrink asap.
A lot of people ask me when I took up writing ... The moment I discovered spell check! Now, where is that punctuation button
Jim Hilliard says he cant spell because as a jock you had to write everything out phonetically so you could say it correctly. Even though I wasn't on the air much I'm gonna go with that too.
Everything I read says you should only get into the kind of work you are passionate about, mainly because your probably not very good at anything else.
Women generally like male singers the most because it's the only time they ever get to see or hear any emotion from men.
My Grandfather claimed life was all about Faster Horses, (cars) Older Whiskey, Younger Women and Mo' Money. If I pass all that down to my Grandson Nathaniel I think my Daughter will kill me. I think I'll just go with the Mo' Money part, if he gets that the rest goes with it.
The great thing about living in Florida and California is you don't grow old as quickly as my old friends in Transcona did ... Well that's my story and I'm stickin' to it.
While at the Transcona Homecoming dinner they were rolling tons of pictures of all of us in High School and on sports teams and stuff. They even ran a bunch of great pictures of The Jury. The thing I miss most about the band, is my hair.
What just hit me is ... What the hell is BP doing drilling off of our shores for anyway???
Speaking of BP Have you noticed that even though they are spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of oil into the Gulf, the price at their pumps is going down. Got to be just huge margins in that stuff.
Your children spell Love T-I-M-E
Speaking of time, Ken Schlafmann (LeMann) says "Father Time is a Mother"
A couple of weeks ago as I was having dinner with my super tax accountant Cindy Adair she mentioned that she really liked listening to someone called Delilah on the radio at night. So I asked her if she would like to meet her. I had heard a few days before that she was in West Palm Beach headlining some sort of women's Expo. Cindy was rather surprised that I claimed to know her and just thought I was teasing her as I tend to do. I told her it didn't matter if I knew her it only mattered if she knew me. She asked if I thought we could even get in. I said if Delilah knows me we sure can, do you want to test it. She said I buy a lot of things you say, but I'm calling you on this, lets go.
When we got to the expo there was a huge line waiting to talk to her get pictures signed by Delilah. We kinda worked our way around the side of the line where we could see her and I was hoping she could see us but she was focused on the people in line.
The whole time Cindy is saying how could you know her, your just spoofing me right. I said lets find out right now and I loudly called out Delilah's name. She looked up a bit startled and shouted GEORGE with a big grin on her face as she came around the table with her arms out stretched and gave me a big hug. What a perfect moment that was soon ruined by the crowd yelling ... "Hey back of the line buddy" and some other not so nice things. Our sweet reunion soon came to an abrupt halt and Cindy and I ran for it. It was time to go check her Puppies anyway.
People who are crazy never wonder if they are.
Hey what if its not just paranoia, and they really are watching you.
I've been told my whole life that supply and demand sets prices. If that's really true shouldn't Wine cost about a dollar a bottle.
The Ump who blew the perfect game call is the only sports figure I can recall that admitted he was wrong and offered up an apology. But then again he's not a player is he.
My Daughter Cami recently told me that a lot of people don't like you because I'm too mean. I said that's not true honey a lot of people like me. She responded with ... Most of them are only pretending to like you Daddy because they are afraid of you. I think I need a hug!
In the world of being somebody is Steve Jobs leaving Bill Gates in the dust or what.
They say any plane landing you can walk away from is a good one. But traffic reporter extraordinaire Paul Cavenaugh limped away from his last landing, that's the bad news, the good news is he will soon be recuperating on that yacht the settlement is buying him.
I told everyone at the reunion that would listen that I would have been a Rhodes Scholar had Pete not gotten me in to music. They had to give it to Willy Parasiuk instead but I no longer hold any grudges about it(-:
June 8, 2010 REGRETS? I HAVE A FEW.
Wanting to be somebody a way too much.
Not running track in High School, "I coulda been a contendah".
Not paying enough attention in Mr. Deering's English class.
Not paying enough attention in anybody's class.
Leaving baseball.
Not being in the classroom the day my life long friend Jim Quail punched out our smart assed science teacher.
Never having a great relationship with my Father and unfortunately carrying that tradition on with my own son.
Not being a very good husband.
Never winning one discussion/argument with my mother even though logic seemed to be on my side
Leaving The Jury.
Leaving Transcona.
Not leaving Saskatoon sooner.
Leaving Sudbury too soon.
Being just a radio guy with a radio brain and not fully realizing how neat Ottawa really was.
Leaving Canada.
Not teaming The Magic Christian up with some other jock for mornings somewhere.
Leaving Indy.
Not going to Hawaii enough.
Going to Venice too often.
Not accepting the Shadek's ownership offer in San Diego and beyond.
Buying a radio station in Indy and pissing off all my old friends
Selling KKCW in Portland.
Buying Star in Milwaukee.
Not killing the money guys who didn't show at our closing of WMET in Chicago
Not being a very good older brother.
Leaving Fairwest
Leaving San Diego
Missing some of the neat smaller events my kids were involved in.
Being so intense on all the family vacations.
Walking away from it all and now not even remembering why.
Leaving Boston.
Telling too many people over the years to F**K OFF but still managing to miss a few that so deserved to hear it. Damn!
Not winning some kind of reward so I could thank all the people publicly who made me who I am today.
Not laughing as much as I really feel like doing mainly because people say this life stuff is all very serious and it would be very inappropriate to laugh about it.
Turning down the charms of a few beautiful women while trying to take a rain check. There is no such thing of course.
Not resisting the charms of some I should have.
Never buying a Ferrari.
Not being able to totally calm my rage.
Not completing my mission of getting to everyone on my revenge list, but at the same time feeling kinda bad about even having one.
Not keeping in touch enough with all the great talent I had the pleasure and privilege of working with over the years.
Not starting each and every conversation I ever had with a sales person with those special words ... Don't lie to me now!
May 31, 2010
How come nobody asks the President of Mexico who is currently complaining about our border policies, what his are?
I don't know why everyone at a radio station feels the need to communicate that they once again have spotted something wrong. The kind of people who do this usually dump that stuff in your lap and go home. I for one only love the people that say ... Hey we have a problem but here's how I think we can solve it. My all time favorite people of course are the ones who say .... We had a problem but I fixed it. Those are the types that I'm always begging the big guys to please give them some more money.
Bill Gardner and I were laughing on the phone the other day about Paul Drew. Joe Amaturo who craves specifics and attention to detail would have loved this guy. Bill was working for him at WIBG in Philly at the time and on this particular day was filling in on the morning show. At the top of the hour he did the time and the special ID which ended with his name. But on this occasion Bill also threw in the words good morning as he punched in the first hot hit of the hour.
The hot line went off immediately and it was Paul shouting at him, BILL LEAVE OUT THE SUPERFLUOUS BULLSHIT! Bill asked him what he was talking about. Good morning you said good morning, thats superfluous bullshit and we don't need it. STICK TO THE SCRIPT, and with that bit of wisdom communicated he slammed down the phone leaving Bill speechless.
Carl Reiner said sometimes you have to leave out the best stuff just to make the whole show work.
Jim Hilliard and CBS have been doing battle in the courts for almost 11 years over an on air News person. It was finally over a couple of days ago in his favor. Wow, World Wars don't last that long never mind the battles.
When rejecting The Beatles in 1962 Decca Records said ... "We don't like their sound and guitar music is on the way out" They were all later fired of course and when last heard of were running something called radio.
The biggest perks in the world belong to some Corporate executives and all Government employees. I really think they should try some other incentives like maybe fear, because the perks don't seem to be working. Have you ever seen any more miserable people in your life.
If you couldn't run any commercials on a radio station would you really want one.
Listeners work hard at not listening to or even noticing commercials our job is to make all that impossible.
A good bit always starts with the end already done, then you add a strong beginning, put a little mystery in the middle and you are close to being syndicated baby!
All women want to lose 10 lbs
Are the police really fighting crime like they say they are or are they just mainly handing out speeding tickets for a living that pays great money, with great overtime, great perks and a great pension. They better smile while they're handing out those tickets.
15% of the folks claim they have sex while driving.
So how pissed are the oil companies at BP after they coerced Obama into talking about off shore drilling maybe being a good thing for America again. All of a sudden the oil spill hits the gulf. Hey Mr. president we're ready to vote on it now.
Have you noticed that everything is shrinking. A Lb. of coffee is no longer a pound and those giant bags of everything you used to buy have a little less in them but the price is the same. Mr. business man for some reason thinks he has been given the God giving right to cheat us. Maybe it's called Divine cheating.
How did that Divine right thing work out for those crusades type Kings. I think it's even going to work out worse for Mr. business man.
Tim Reever is a radio sales type I actually like but probably mainly because he's a runner. When I lived in Boston we would go racing every two weeks but Tim who was good enough to go to college on a running scholarship, always finished a way ahead of me. When I called him recently to wish him well on his B day. He responded with ... Now that I'm the same age as you when we first met back I just wish I could run the times you ran back then.
Anybody who just checks off a punch list everyday thinking that's a career, deserves exactly what happens to them.
I think the people of America are the most charitable people on earth and I'm not talking about our Government who just love to give away our money. I'm talking about all the regular folks who send their own money to devastated folks all over the world even with out receiving much love in return.
My brother Reg and I have always had great conversations about everything under the sun but I've noticed lately that he finishes a lot of our chats with ... Hey don't write about this OK.(-:
Just because it's politically incorrect to mention that some people are incompetent doesn't make them any more competent.
I don't think it's right to give special privileges to people who aren't special.
Sometimes being ignorant of the so called rules is good like Jimmy Bowen who was recording Frank Sinatra for the first time. Frank walked into the studio took off his nifty fedora and did his usual "one take" put his hat back on and headed for the door. Jimmy interrupted his hasty departure with ... Mr. Sinatra could we get another take. While the whole orchestra gasped for air, Frank said sure, turned around took off his hat and laid down another excellent take like only he could do.
With the Stanley Cup finals on now it reminded me about when Jack Kent Cook brought The Kings to LA. After their first season Jack said it was a no brainer bringing Hockey to Los Angeles mainly because he knew there were over 2 million Canadians living in the area. But what he missed he said was the fact that these Canadians must hate Hockey and they had moved to LA to escape it.
Speaking of Hockey you didn't choose to play goalie you were chosen, probably because you were the slowest skater.
I recently read a headline that said ... IS BP LYING ABOUT THE OIL SPILL. Hey they're an oil company if their lips are moving we all know the answer to that question dont we..
May 24, 2010
Brent Farris said he was recently standing backstage chatting with his long time friend Tommy Smothers who was patiently waiting to go on stage for the last time ever with his brother Dick as the Smothers Brothers. Brent asked him if there was a secret you had to know in order to have a long and successful career. Tommy replied ... Having talent is good, luck is good, knowing people in the biz is good, but there is nothing as important and powerful as being different. Being different is the only secret you will ever need to succeed.
Last week my daughter Cami and I were walking through the men's shoe department at Dillard's on our way to to ladies shoes to find something to go with the beautiful dress she was going to wear to the 8th grade dance. As we strolled together along the aisle I happened to notice these real good looking Ralph Lauren deck shoes that were in black, red, and navy blue. They also had that special Polo logo on them and I was kinda wondering how much they were as Cami said ... "Dad if you ever wear anything like those I would immediately have to De-Father you."
I have been involved in A/C music most of my life and it's been very very good to me. The funny thing though is I don't even like it which allows me to very cruel and harsh about what I do and don't play on the radio.
After seeing the movie Robin Hood It became very clear to me why the Muslims hate us so much.
I have never heard the words slutty and beautiful used together to accurately describe a particular person of interest.
Income is not based on need it's based only on ability, perceived or otherwise.
I used to hear a lot about South Africa when the world was angry about how it was being run. Has anybody checked lately to see how things are going now. Are they happy?
I saw some research a long time ago that said the 3 main things that caused tune out were. 1- Bad Music 2- Bad Jox 3- Bad Commercials. OK, I'm working on the Music and the Jox, whose got the Spots??? HELLO! HELLO ... CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME? IS THIS WORKING (thump thump) IS THIS ON? HELLO!
Woody Cooper (Gary Housley) said he likes my longer "life" stories a lot more than my liners. Speaking of a liner King, what say you Bill Gardner?
I just got off the phone with David Martin who reminded me about the time we were working on a project together in Chicago back when we were mere pups. But of course we thought of ourselves only as young Turks.
We were winding down a busy day that was filled with meetings about why we couldn't do all the things we needed to do to so as to have have some impact in a town that was already filled with morning legends. We discussed our dilemma high above the city in some roof top bar sipping on a large glasses of wine as we gazed out at the magnificent skyline of downtown Chicago. David claims he can still see the moment clearly in his minds eye when he turned to me and said ... George, what question are you asked the most as you travel around the country visiting your client stations. Like what would you say would be the all time # 1 question, the one you get tired of having to answer all the time. He said that he remembered that I paused for a moment or two before taking another sip of wine then finally turned away from the beautiful view of the city and tiredly said ..."When are you coming back" Yep, that's the question they most want to know, thats definitely the # 1 question by far. When are you coming back.
David said he laughed out loud and said to me, that's real funny because that was my next question.
When your a runner you run slow mostly so you can race fast.
In the movie The Dark Knight, The Joker says ... "If your real good at something never do it for free"
I love women meeting women who refuse to be intimidated by a man mainly because I've tried to teach both my daughters how to become just like them.
Being an experienced broadcaster is like being an experienced football player. Where does that all end up. Not in a good place I wouldn't think.
What happened to all those women going crazy at all those hard rock concerts you see on You Tube. They sure don't listen to the stations that are still playing all the groups they were all throwing themselves at just a few years ago.
I was kind of an irresponsible guy until I held my first child in my arms. I have to admit when she got married years later and I had to hand her off to the man she chose as her husband, that I was just faking it. That hand off to me was just symbolic, I'm still here, I'm still on guard and I'm still watching.
David Mamet claims the audience is not tuning in for information they are tuning in for Drama.
The big thing with a lot of pro Athletes is getting the respect they feel they deserve. I think we all respect their athletic ability but getting us to respect them as decent human beings is another thing. That's conditional, they really have to deserve that kind of special respect.
To be or not to be is not the question ... The question is, how do you make the same old s**t sound different?
As Jeff & Jer prepare to go back on the air again in San Diego there will be a major difference. For the 1st time they will be on the air 7 days a week. Wow isn't that kinda like the big guys learning Karate. What do all the little guys do now.
Alcohol and fame are a lot alike, eventually they both turn into truth serums.
When it's real quiet that usually means something real loud is about to happen.
The boys in pin stripe blues always want the on air talent to be very clear and precise about what they are talking about. But the audience begs to differ they want drama.
The audience wants to wonder about what the talent is really saying, like where this is all going, and what's this all really about. When I listen to the radio now It sounds to me like the boys in blue are winning!
May 17, 2010
It is said that we should all live in New York once but get the hell out before we get too hard. It is also said that we should also live in Northern California once but get out of there before we get too soft.
I've noticed that all the New Yorkers who visit Florida didn't get out in time. Damn!
For some reason I feel more Canadian now than I ever did as a Canadian.
Jeff Blazy says the evil Tylenol person was a woman who poisoned her husband and tainted a bunch of of the pills in stores so it looked like the Tylenol did it. Tom Mullane sends a story out of Chicago that new evidence now links a man to the murders who was charged with extortion years ago in the same case.
You would think that being sold out at a radio station would be the best day anyone could ever hope for at a station with a new format. But with the huge amount of anger I have witnessed when it happens, it has to be the worse day.
John Lund says you have just 3 seconds to get your listeners attention.
Turns out that new research says that folks listen to the radio twice as much as they do any other audio device and three times more while in a car.
During an interview The Beatles were asked about why they didn't speak up about the war in Vietnam, John answered with "because somebody would probably shoot us" ... Turns out somebody did anyway.
One day back at Corporate Headquarters in Indianapolis Dick Yancey walked into Mr. Fairbanks office and told him he had figured out how to double the billing. Why would we want to do that asked Richard M. Dick responded with ... I don't have that answer sir I thought you did.
In the olden days of radio before TV the producers would have the voice actors audition scripts fro a studio where they couldn't see them. The producers would mark down black hat or white hat beside each actors name. The listeners still do it to this day.
Nobody really prepares for success they only prepare for failure.
Holding on to what you have keeps you from having what you want. About 5% of the American public invest in the stock market in hopes making a better life for themselves. A 100% though invest in some kind of insurance, trying to hold on to what they all ready have.
It's a different radio world in all of Southern California. Hell, show producers out there than make a lot more money than the air talent does back here in Miami/Fort Lauderdale.
Of the many things that can ruin your life, one that is most surprising to me is ... Becoming successful at what you were always trying to be successful at.
A couple of weeks ago I was driving with Brent Farris from LA to Palm Springs for meetings we both were involved in. As we creeped along I decided to tune in The Frog which used to be one of my favorite radio stations when Joe Amaturo owned it and Tom Hoyt was the GM.
What a shock! Instead of sounding very fun and friendly like they used to now they just sound loud and angry. The music, the promos, the spots, the jingles the liners, the Id's and even the jox sound extremely loud and angry. KIIS-FM sounded softer smoother and more fun than they did. Maybe they're bummed about the ratings???
Years ago when I was at CFTR in Toronto I had most of the national voices in Canada as my air talent.
I proudly sent an air check tape of my line up to my mentor Jim Hilliard who was running Fairbanks Broadcasting in Indianapolis. I called him in a few days to queried him about what he thought of my great air talent. He claimed they all sounded cold and stiff to him but what really interested him was my music. What was I doing that made it sound so good he asked. I know every tune but for some reason it sounds very different and magical. Hey I think I need you to get your ass down here to the States and put that music on a new station I've just bought in Dallas called KVIL.
A very similar magical musical sound that is different is starting to show up on the air at JILL FM in Orange County.
Had drinks the other evening with "The Socialites" along with "Supertech" Matt Greeney. Their Cocktail Confessions were both stimulating and exciting. The Caveman sounds like quite a character and I can hardly wait to get it all on the air as America goes wild over Sex In The City 2
While watching the Celtics beat the Cavaliers the other night at a sports bar I overheard an older guy say to his buddies ... "The longer you stay around the less you get" They all knowingly shook their heads and laughed a very weary laugh.
When I was with The Jury we had the number one Canadian record in Canada and I never received one penny from the record company. We made all our money playing. Now I hear the record companies want a piece of that. I wish I was still back playing so that the mob that run record companies had to come out and talk to the guys who really run Transcona about who owes whom. The out of towners would have never gotten out of there alive back then.
If your not a household name you better be talking about the neighborhood where their household is located if you expect to get any ratings.
Ron Chapman said my line about the homeless having all the great locations made him think ... Why don't the Jehovah Witnesses also deliver the mail, they're going to visit every damn home in North America.
My Father always said "if you need a task done quickly give it to a lazy person".
Neil Simon's play "It Happened On The 13th Floor" is about the death of manufactured bits.
In a couple of weeks my brother Reg and I go back to our hometown of Transcona for a town reunion. It will be fun to see all the guys I went to high school, played Football, Hockey and started Bands with. Guys like Easter, Termite, Baronie, Fade, Hughie, LoLo, Willy, Shpog, Bruce, Shift and Pete to just name a few of them.
It's time to tally up how it all turned out for us. Some wont be there because they are gone a way too soon, Bomba, Gibby and Ringach will be missed a whole lot at this fun affair. I also can hardly wait to see how all the pretty girls I remember so well, held up.
Rhys Hollyman says he knows he should be more patriotic and stick up for the Habs against the Flyers. But he cant help feeling that would be anti the Toronto Maple Leafs and maybe even more importantly it's anti English speaking Canada. So the final result is, he is very glad they got blown out.
OK one more time here's the formula that superstar air talent use to make over a mil per year. T+S=A+(p+i)+(Ee)xP+I=$uccess
May 11, 2010 The most important word an air talent can use on air is "YOU" Most air talent and me over use the word "I", but then again I'm not on the air.
Have you ever noticed that the only part of show business that sales moves in front of the art is radio. I wonder how thats working out for us compared to Movies, Broadway, Cable, TV,Concerts, etc.
It has been rumored to me that Roy Laughlin when he was the GM of KIIS-FM in LA was once approached by the sales department who wanted to know why he treated them like s**t compared to how he treated Seacrest, Ellen K, and the rest of the KIIS on air staff. Roy responded with ... Because you are s**t -- you're sales people.
How does the hostile work environment law work for the workers male and female in Iraq?
You can order an on air talent to be excited on the air about your new promotion but that never gets it done and ultimately they are in charge of weather or not your new promotion is successful.
Does anyone have the name of the guy who screwed with the Tylenol containers years ago and poisoned a bunch of people. I'm sure by now some liberal judge has let him out of prison and I don't really want to hurt the guy (well maybe a little) I just want to go over to his place and beg him to help me get this shrink wrap off this container I'm trying to f***ing open.
The scan button don't stop on unfamiliar.
Have you ever noticed the person who is lying to you (Airlines and Stuff) always claim that they're not in charge and cant do anything to rectify the situation. The people in charge of course always seem to be too busy elsewhere to deal with us.
The worst person in the world to lie to ... Is yourself!
Why don't they hire the homeless to wave all those big signs at you ..."We Buy Gold", "We Do Taxes" Etc. They have the absolute best locations.
Have you ever noticed that errors on the log always occur with more spots running than should be, never less. How do it know.
In this world of no radio jobs you get people cheaper but they are all so happy to have a job that they move immediately into the "CYA" mentality and have no creativity to offer up.
How do all the food companies know how many calories are in their products. They wouldn't cheat would they.
If you didn't get any of the blame you cant get any of the credit.
Sales folks can sell anything they are excited about. You only need good ratings if they are not excited.
There is a lot of money being made off of shipping and handling. That's the business to be in I figure.
I think the people who complain the most about problems, are the problem.
While watching The Jersey Boys in Vegas I started to realize that The Four Seasons were never as good as these guys.
William Shedd wrote ... Ships in the harbor are safe but that's not what ships were built for.
How come charity executive positions seem to pay more and have a lot better perks than regular executive positions.
It is fairly simple for a singer to become a musician, but it is very difficult for a musician to become a singer.
Speaking of musicians I saw Van Morrison in concert the other night. Wow he was so good it made me want to play again.
Is there such a thing as an underpaid under perked Government employee.
How many people who work in service related areas today could get a job at Starbucks do you think.
May 3, 2010
April 26, 2010
Have you ever noticed they don't ever use the word genius when describing any Government employee including the President.
Dana Horner said you've got to include Chris Mays in your "Last Programming Conference" she did some great work when we all put KLSY in Seattle together. I agree. Chris c'mon down!
In 1927 H.M. Warner of Warner Brothers said "Who the hell wants to hear the actors talk" I think radio today has come around to his way of thinking.
I ran into one of my all time favorite FCC attorneys John King at Ron Chapman's induction into the Radio Hall Of Fame.
John reminded me about the time I came up with a promotion called the "Magic Ticket". The promotion had produced incredible numbers both in ratings and billing at both KVIL Dallas and WIBC Indianapolis.
In Indy though our competitor turned us into the FCC and bragged to their staff that we would never be able to run that promotion again.
John handled that whole mess with the FCC wonderfully, in fact he came out of there with which we laughingly referred to as the only FCC approved contest in America. Dick Yancey of course immediately put it into syndication, and the "Magic Ticket" ended up buying me my first Mercedes. Thank you Mr. King.
Just in case you were thinking that finding more off shore oil might lead to lower prices at the pump check out the $4.35 per gallon price in Canada where they could never run out of oil. But then again that could be all taxes as the oil companies claim. Gotta pay for that free health care somehow.
Lets see if I've got this straight. The way radio fixes itself is to get the multiples back. The multiples come back when the stock rises. The stocks rise when there is financial growth. There is financial growth when listener ship increases.
So when does the meeting about how to increase listener ship begin. When do we get back to the basics. Not going to happen anytime soon it appears, they are all a way too busy doing another series of endless sales meetings. I must be missing something.
I don't think very many radio people are working on the radio station owners mission. I think they are mostly are working on their own.
If you want to know how the Government run health care system will work go to the post office like I recently did. They invented the word no and love saying it.
Just talked to Pam Cesak about some of the plans they have for the Jeff & Jer weekend syndicated show. Very very exciting.
People understand real well and vocalize loudly how they need specific tools in order to complete their assigned tasks. But somehow they just fail to understand why you do.
Shortly after being inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame, Ron Chapman kindly said from the stage. "When I first met George Johns he taught me never to get into anything I didn't know how to get out of. Turns out George was talking about more than a radio bit ... He was talking about life."
If your not getting any complaints about your radio station you don't have a very good one.
Wow! Jerry Jones did a quick fly in and was a surprise special guest at Ron's induction into the Hall.
It's always what you do say and how you say it that counts, never how much you say or didn't say.
The word sexist doesn't just pertain only to men as racist doesn't pertain only to white men.
How come all women except my Daughters and my Niece of course know what a Lap Dance is.
I think the best radio ever done is on some tapes somewhere in someone's garage disintegrating. They can never be played again so they remain the best radio of all time forever.
There was a time when I couldn't believe I got paid to listen to the radio. Now I almost don't listen unless I do get paid.
Speaking of listening to the radio, I was out in LA checking out JILL FM and I do have to admit that Rick Shaw and Bill Gardner have the music sounding so good I couldn't turn it off.
So with the recent make nice agreement between the PPM Coalition and ARB will the ratings be moving closer to the truth or what a few want the truth to be.
Who ties all the knots in your charger cords.
If they are not racial profiling on I 5 North at San Clemente in California what are they doing?
Any other words other than yes still mean no.
Why does it always take so long to explain why I cant have what I want?
Radio Stations don't realize the image of the client washes over them when the clients name and the station call letters are side by side as in ... Presented by!
The difference between National spots and Local spots is ... The Nationals talk to you and tell little stories. The Locals yell at you. Someone has got it very very wrong.
April 20, 2010 A short time ago my good friend Gary Russell visited me in my Florida home so he could take a little break from the Winter's gloom in Vancouver.
Vancouver of course was just coming down off it's Olympic high what with Canada winning the most gold ever and maybe even more importantly, the winning of Hockey gold in overtime against the USA.
Gary was the first air talent I ever hired as a PD and even though I didn't know it at the time, it must have been a great hire on my part because much later Gary went on to being inducted into the Canadian Radio Hall Of Fame. I am very proud of him, what a great career he had. Gary when I hired him was a self professed hippy and proudly claims he still is.
We sat around my Florida condo for a few days drinking a little wine and checking out my view as we reminisced about those early days in Saskatoon.
That time was very special to us because we were learning first hand what we would and wouldn't do in our broadcasting future.
I'm also pretty sure the amounts of red wine we were consuming made us feel like we had a whole lot more fun back then, than we actually had.
My daughter Candis who is really into nutrition told me that drinking red wine is good for you but I can never remember if she said a glass or a bottle.
As I sat there chatting with Gary my mind started wandering back to the day I was loading my wife Lana and our six month old baby girl Candis into the car on a frigid life changing afternoon. I still remember how unsure I was about the whole idea of leaving our home, family, and all our good friends behind and plunge into the unkown.
But I had made the decision to leave and I had made it for the right reasons. There was no turning back now so it was time to head to Saskatoon and the beginning of my brand new radio career as a Program Director.
As we drove away that cold winters day waving goodbye to the rest of our family, we had no idea that we would never live in Transcona again.
My plan was to just get my programming chops in Saskatoon as quickly as I could and become competent enough to get a PD's job back home in neighbouring Winnipeg so we could live happily ever after.
Even though we were barely on the road but for a few minutes we could hardly wait to come home again and reunite with all the Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles, Brothers and friends we were leaving behind. What a great party that was sure to be.
As we headed west to Regina on the Trans Canada we were listening to CKY where I was recently the Production and Music Director for a short after leaving my band The Jury.
A bunch of the great folks I worked with at the station, Porky, Jim Coghill and John Wells were saying goodbye to us on the radio and even though they were all wishing us well, it had a kinda ominous sound to it that made me feel sad and scared at the same time. But I knew I couldn't show any of this to my family.
Once we reached Regina we headed north out across barren prairie on highway 11 to Saskatoon. It was cold enough doing the trip that way there was no way I was taking the shorter 'Yellowhead Route' out of Brandon which was even more barren and even a lot colder.
As we drove Northward I remember quietly pushing aside a bunch of clothes we had hung on a rod in the back just to check on Candis who was back there sleeping in her Bassinet.
As I peeked back through all the hanging clothes, there she was on her tummy all stretched out and just looking back at me with a big toothless grin that seemed to say ... It's all going to turn out OK Daddy.
As we approached Saskatoon late that night I finally picked up what was to become my new radio home CKOM. The station seemed to be doing some strange kind of programming as we listened. I though It just must be some special weekend show that didn't turn out as good as someone had anticipated. I'll fix it first thing. I never suspected that weekend show was a sneak preview of things to come.
Management earlier on had decided they wanted me to spend a week or so in the Motel and just listen to the radio and make notes before I came in to the station. When I was ready they would introduce me to everyone, show me my office and then decide what time we should sit down and discuss all my findings. They were quite anxious for me to get on with the fixing because the ratings were dismal.
Much later when we finally arrived in Saskatoon, we checked into the Motel the station had provided and tried to settle in as best we could.
It was so cold outside that we had to turn the heat on high in the room and leave it there which soon made the air unbearably dry which wasn't very good for our daughter We had to keep wetting bath towels and hanging them on the heating vents so she could breathe properly while Daddy did his radio thing.
As bad as the conditions were in the Motel, I still couldn't believe they were paying me to do what I would do anyway ... Just isten to the radio.
I got up early the next morning and turned on CKOM. The morning guys name was Easten Wayman he was kinda just OK and was playing what I guess you would call MOR ( middle of the road) music. You know Patti Page, Dean Martin, Frank, Tony, and all the rest of the usual suspects.
There also was some News done by Bill Stovin Jr. and Gord Hume. Sports was handled by Wally Cameron whom I found out later on also sold used cars on the side.
I was just starting to pick up the rhythm of the whole morning show and get an idea of what Easten's style was all about when suddenly he was joined by a piano player. Easten and Mr. Piano just kinda chatted on and on about nothing and I believe if memory serves me correctly they even took a few piano requests.
The thing I picked up on as this nonsense continued was the fact that they hated each other. That was their problem mine was trying to figure out why this show is on the air or even better yet find out who is the piano player related to at the station.
Mercifully soon the morning show was over and on came a pleasant enough sounding guy by the name of Dale Heath. I liked Dale's smooth sound right away. He had one of those those rich warm Peter Jennings type voices that a few Canadian announcers possess. Jim Hilliard says I'm a sucker for that sound to this very day. That was all good but for some unknown reason Dale was playing Country Music. He didn't look or even sound anything like a Cowboy.
What the hell happened to all the MOR music was the next notation I made in my note book. I was glad the tinkling piano was gone, but Country.
I didn't know much about Country Music other than I didn't like most of it. I did sorta like Buck Owens though because when I weekend toured with my band The Jury sometimes Country music was all you could get on the car radio and as I remembered it Buck's band sorta rocked.
I will always remember teasing Dale about how I thought Tammy Wynette's days were numbered now that Patti Page had her version of "Stand By Your Man" out. As I recall he just laughed at me.
What a strange sounding station this was turning out to be I thought as my listening marathon continued. I had never heard anything like this before but most of the surprises were still ahead.
Next up was a kid by the name of Ken Sebastian Singer. Ken also referred to himself on air as The Psychedelic Banana and as he came blasting out of my radio lo and behold he was playing rock. My note book was filling up and I was only about halfway through the day.
Later when I met Ken I found out Ken was a musician who like me was coming off the band thing and this was his first radio gig so like me he was a rookie too.
I hadn't seen Ken since I left Saskatoon but I got to catch up with him last year in Ottawa at Gary's induction into The Radio Hall Of Fame. Ken laughingly told me he remembered when he me for the first time. At that brief meeting he said he asked me what what a PD did. He claimed I said ... I hire and fire the jocks. I got it he said, then quickly disappeared.
When The Psychedelic Banana finally said good night on came Gordy Brown who was not only married to the Continuity Director but like me was also from Transcona. Gordy played some more MOR music and this went on for a couple of hours, till it happened!
Are you ready for this ... Are you sitting down. Square Dance Party hit the air! You've got to be S**Ting me, I thought to myself. Square Dance F**King Party, are you kidding. Is this some sort of trick my old station CKY had prearranged with these folks. Naw!
I'm going to bed this has got to be a giant mistake. It's got to be some disgruntled engineer who has gone mad and taken over the transmitter and locked himself in. Someone hopefully will soon break down the door and drag him out while I'm sleeping and all will be well with the world by sunrise.
OK then! I'm up and at 'em again bright and early the next morning thinking it must have just been one of those strange Monday's where they were filling some CRTC (FCC) requirements or something. I'll find a better place to hide that kinda stuff soon as I go in.
Nope 2nd verse same as the first. As I go threw the day it seemed to follow the same pattern as the day before but with one big exception.
This time after the MOR serenade we didn't go to the Square Dance Party which was a blessing in it's self ... We went to Schizophrenic Anonymous.
I'm not kidding that was the name of the show, Schizophrenic Anonymous. The crazed engineer who had locked himself in the transmitter shack last night must back in there again tonight, only this time he has put himself on the air.
That's it, I cant take anymore, I'm going in coach! This place needs major construction. The only thing I could consistent about CKOM was it's inconsistency.
I think the real reason I was really going in was because I was afraid to listen any more. I knew I would be frozen in place out of fear.
My going in away ahead of schedule and blurting out to the man who had put it all on how much the programming all sucked cost me a year and also introduced me to the monster whom to this day I have never mastered. Politics!
But all of that some other time because another meeting has broken out here in South Florida and this time it's sales. They claim they really need my help. That's radio speak for they want my promos.
April 13, 2010
Women are a lot more current than men.
When my oldest kids Candis and Curtis were both very young, they saved up their allowances and baby sitting money so they could present to their Mother and I, a quit smoking plan called "One Step At A Time". I have never ever smoked again. It turned out my children were and are lot more influential and powerful than any Teachers, Politicians, Doctors, Wives or Bosses in my life.
It's been said that if you think you can or you think you can't your absolutely right.
Morning shows should take tip from Garth Brooks when he was on stage at all his sold out concerts. He sang to the people in the back row not the ones in the front row.
Thinking about my "Last Programmers Conference I thought hey who have I missed that needs to be there like Paul Dunn who had a pretty good run in West Palm Peach and George Francis said we've got to include Dick Orkin. George also wondered if the odd SM could sneak in. I told him it would be OK as long as they were prepared to serve drinks to the rest of us. I know I've gotta be missing a bunch of super radio guys. Bring 'em if on you've got 'em.
george@georgejohns.com
Radio needs to entertain the people who are only hearing it, not just the ones listening to it.
You cant make anybody love you more, no ratings there. But if you can turn like into love, a whole bunch of ratings waiting there.
Now that Jeff & Jer are going National on the weekends, I wonder what station in San Diego is going to be savvy enough to put them on weekdays. They then of course would have Jeff and Jer on the air 7 days a week. How the hell do you beat that.
Other than our Government can you find anybody else that believes anything the oil companies say.
One of the big reasons Ron Chapman is being inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame today is because Ron has always been a champion of women, and they could hear it everyday on his radio show.
Speaking of Ron Chapman, We have put together a little partnership we think could cause a little radio damage around America. Details at GeorgeJohns.com
Have you ever noticed that when your impatiently waiting for a red light to change and it finally does you still sit there anyway because all the very slow drivers always manage to be first in line. How do they get there first.
I'm working on a new radio concept called "Cocktail Confessions Of The Socialites" with four very beautiful Miami women, Marnie, Angela, Beatriz and Josette. At some point Angela turned to me with a sly smile on her face and said, your a Cuchacho. A Cuchaco! Yeah an old guy who acts young was her response.
Jo Jo Holotka sent me a couple of her unmixed tracks from her upcoming album that seemed very hot to me but still nothing a cold shower couldn't take care of.
My old pal Bob Christy all going well, will take possession of what was a lifelong dream for a lot of us, his own Radio Station. The station he is buying is even in his favorite city Boston, and he is doing it with no debt. That will make it kinda tough for him to fail I figure. Congrats Bobby.
The best location for radio station facilities is where the talent can bring 'em to work, then send them home.
I've had a lot of pleasure from being a part of the radio industry but none as great as sitting at Gary Russell's table as he got inducted into the Canadian Radio hall Of Fame and now as you read this I'll be proudly sitting at Ron Chapman's table as he most deservedly gets inducted into the Radio Hall Of Fame at the NAB in Las Vegas.
I remember the day I sat down with my son Curtis and explained to him that it was the end of the money supply from Dad. But I said should he want to take any courses to better his career opportunities, I would gladly pay for that. He said he had a feeling for a while now that this little chat we were having was coming. I asked him if he had any idea what he would like to do or what courses he would like to take. He responded with ... I just wanna hang out Dad! I've watched you work hard my whole life and you don't look that happy to me, so I think I'll just hang out.
In June my brother Reg and I are headed back to my home town of Transcona for a big reunion of people born in the 30's 40's and 50's. Each group probably thinks they are the most important, but our group invented Rock&Roll and nothing else has lasted as long as that, so we win.
In 1964 a momentous occasion occurred when Elvis and The Beatles met for the very first time. There must have been so much electricity in the air that special day that everyone one must have been frozen in place because not one picture was taken at the historic meeting.
I read somewhere that a tattoo is the permanent record of temporary insanity. More@
www.GeorgeJohns.com
Radio Performance Legends Ron Chapman and George Johns Launch Talent Coaching In order to do something uncommonly well, you simply can’t do it for everyone. Yet for a select group of radio companies and their talent, two of our industry’s most prolific personalities will soon be available to help craft advanced skill development for people with an unassailable commitment to rise above the field. Through the seventies, eighties and into the nineties, NAB Hall of Fame inductee Ron Chapman and KVIL were synonymous with the rare air of achievement. KVIL was acclaimed “AC Station of the Year” season after season, while its revenues set records for the vaunted Fairbanks Broadcasting group. Chapman’s versatility shined brightly when in Paul Harvey’s later innings, Ron became Paul’s go-to pinch hitter, proving that inordinate talent belies set-piece roles.Behind the scenes—though not by much—says Audience Development Group’s managing partner Tim Moore, was George Johns; architect of Fairbanks’ uncommon success in Dallas-Fort Worth, Indianapolis, Boston, Philadelphia, and West Palm Beach. Neither Chapman nor Johns have been sitting quietly polishing their trophies. Both continue to be active in multi-layered consulting projects or in Chapman’s case, sustaining talent involvement. Soon, both will be accessible to select radio stations and their talent, through in-field station working labs or on-line webinars. Select companies will tap the creative gifts of this acclaimed tandem. Moore adds, “The irony of this development is its ‘back-to-the-future’ implication. Here are two gifted people who bring incredible stylistic techniques from the past, into today’s talent void, bereft of most of the secrets of pyrotechnic stylistic delivery, at a time when its arguably more critical than at any time over the last 30 years. Ron and George’s presence in a radio environment equate to master painters or sculptors as visiting faculty at a great university. Their ability to transfer rare skill-sets to good radio talent is game-changing.” George Johns recently wrote in his radio blog, “There are three types of people in radio: the gifted, the creative, and everyone else.” For the creative in search of a winners edge in our over-communicated society where consumers are drowning in a sea of sameness, Ron Chapman and George Johns are ready and willing to be the difference-maker in your stations or clusters where winning still matters, and “talent development” has meaning. Tribune CEO Randy Michaels said " George Johns is synonymous with Fairbanks, Ron Chapman, Jeff and Jer, Class FM, creative contesting, and unique, powerful impossible to duplicate talent. We've all stolen from him." Scott Shannon of Citadel Broadcasting adds "With George and Ron, You Have Two Radio Legends, Who Also Happen To Be Great Teachers, Thats A Lethal Combination!"Ron and I look forward to working in a myriad of ways with a variety of talent. We have partnered with Roy Laughlin former GM of KIIS FM as well as a new player in the private equity entertainment world to negotiate and select our projects. You can contact Roy at roylaughlin@gmail.com to start the ball rolling.April 6, 2010 I think Delilah is an incredible woman, not only is she the Oprah of radio, or is it that Oprah is the Delilah of TV, but no matter when Delilah is not helping people on the radio she is helping them in person all over the world. She told me that she just got back from Haiti where it's even worse than she imagined.
March 29, 2010 Hello Radio, It's concept first and details later.
If you talk about what Rush, Hannity, Beck, or Savage talk about on their shows, they then become unbeatable.
Negativity is the killer of Creativity.
If we all evolved from Monkeys how come they still exist, or were they just the smart ones that decided not to come along.
Hugh Heller who did some brilliant jingles for us at Fairbanks, told me it was real tough mixing Black and White singers together because Whites tend to sing a hair sharp and Black folks tend to sing a bit flat. The result kinda produces a dis chord.
Rhody Bosley once told me if he owned a radio station he first would find out where his signal was the loudest and cleanest. Then he would go door to door and ask the folks who live there exactly what do they want to hear, and just do that. Rhody that's a way too simple, we radio folks need it to be a lot more complicated than that.
Having dinner with The Murph, Robert Murphy the other night he told me that the greatest thing that happened to him in radio was getting fired.
It seems the station he was working for wanted to change to an Urban Format, so they cleaned house and paid his contract off.
That sudden move allowed him to get all his financial ducks in a row. The best part of it all he says is now he no longer has to have anymore meetings with GM's & PD's.
When your past is bigger than your future ... It's time to start writing.
Before I hang 'em up I would love to put together "The Last Programming Conference".
At this final get together I would really enjoy talking a little radio trash with some fine folks like ... Buzz Bennett, Lee Masters, Bill Tanner, Ron Jacobs, Bob Pittman, Randy Michaels, Kevin Metheny, Claude Hall, Jerry Del Colliano, Scott Shannon, Reg Johns, Ron Chapman, Jeff and Jer, Brent Farris, Reid Reker, Bobby Cole, Tim Moore, Jim Hilliard, Lee Abrams, Jack McCoy, Bill Gardner, Cris Conner, Delilah, Gary Vidler, Chuck McCoy, Keith Elshaw, Woody Cooper, Doc Harris, Ken Singer, Bob Christy, Pam Cesak, J Robert Wood, Red Robinson, Pat O'Day, Jo Myers, Rollye James, Chuck Knapp, Rick Shaw, Little Tommy, Russ Morley, Bruce Munson, Ken Moultrie, Jason Williams, Gary Burbank, Bobby Rich, Warren Cosford, Charlie Van Dyke, and Mike McVay.
I'm not sure that radio sales people are too much different than any other sales people. But I do believe that on air talent are unlike any other human beings I have ever met.
Robin Garret claims money is an aphrodisiac.
When Jim Hilliard owned WRMF we were billing over a million a month and were #1 biller in the market. WRMF is still the #1 biller in town but I hear now they bill around Four Hundred and Fifty Thousand a month. That I think about sums up how radio sales is doing.
Roy Williams said unsolicited advise is abuse.
Jake (Scooter) Hagen said all the smack talk used in all the Olympic Hockey games by all the teams from all the different countries represented, was all English.
I guess the F bomb just doesn't sound as special in other languages as it does in English.
66% of the Canadian population watched the Canada, US, Olympic Gold hockey game. My old good friend from Transcona Jim Quail said, it's lucky Canada won the gold, otherwise there would have been a mass funeral immediately following the game and the NHL would be looking for a whole bunch of new hockey players.
Gary Ryan Blair says life doesn't go according to plan, if you don't have a plan.
Scott Shannon told me that he likes the musings where I write about my daughters the best. He and I both intensely agree that if anybody hurt our daughters they better hope they get put away quick because they would never make it out of the court room alive. We figure the worst that could happen to us is, we would be judged by our peers. Fathers of Daughters.
60% of Americans believe that if off shore drilling is allowed that oil and gas prices will drop. The oil companies of course are very very quiet on the subject or should I say ... SILENT!
My Brother Reg said there are no sales nor ratings without one simple word. Engagement !
Frances Frei says you cannot change a persons behavior until you change their beliefs.
The only people who want radio to be different today are the folks who are listening and the folks who are not.
I keep noticing that when I hit spell check on my computer it always claims I have misspelled my name.
I learned very early in my radio career that those who made all the decisions also made all the money.
Have you noticed the more deregulated the big companies get, the more regulated we the folks become.
John Hayes said to a KKOB staff member in ... Would you please drive me to downtown Albuquerque. We are downtown the staff member said. "Then you need to drive me to the airport" was John's reported response.
Gary Miles said to me after I had just spoken to a gathering in Toronto of all the Rogers Radio stations in Canada ... " George even though we didn't pay you to do this, I still feel we overpaid."
Cat Simon once pointed his finger at me and said, I, I, I, I get it now Johnsy, I got it! Even though on your clock you don't have any room for bits, I, I, I can do them anytime I want to as long as you laugh ... Right?
I don't think PPM reacts well to radio slogans and radio jargon.
I doubt very much that many people would pay for what most radio gives them for free.
A huge ego is not a very pretty thing.
Jack McCoy once told me that when they took the word please out of the instructions, more people filled out even more listening in their ARB diary.
Jarl Mohn (Lee Masters) just told me that even though they were actually naming the 24 million dollar studios they were building at KPPC in Pasadena after him ... His main job at the station was to write the liners.
Jeff Vidler says a new study shows that radio in the United Kingdom is now gaining listeners unlike North America where even though Satellite Radio is not that successful, it is still a big enough force to prevent any listenership gains by Traditional Radio.
"Got Scoop" Just received a very early draft from Marnie Howard of a new book she is writing which serves up a 101 ways to have and hold on to the worlds most beautiful women. Color me fully armed and loaded with insider info.
Ford Wilson who has this whisper act going, wants to know if I have enough juice to get him on American Idol.
Roy Laughlin told me that PPM hurt morning shows two ways. First, the device doesn't capture the total listening time early in the morning. Secondly, it discovered that the P1s didn't listen as often nor as long as they thought they did when they used to fill out a diary.
March 21, 2010 In "The New Beginning" I was writing about how I went from just a guy in a rock band to a Program Director of a radio station in about six months time.
To explain how I had the audacity/courage to load my baby girl and her Mom into the car, wave goodbye to the Grandparents and head out across the snow laden prairie all the way to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan where I would become CKOM's new Program Director and start a whole new life, means I have to digress a little.
Around the time I was thinking about leaving my band The Jury, three exciting things happened in about a weeks time that kinda sped up the need for me to make some lifetime decisions.
First I started hearing a rumor that the Radio Station was getting set to give me a big promotion. If this rumor was true it meant my part time job at CKY would soon turn into full time. As I was contemplating how I would handle that because it would surely end my band days, my old boss Jimmy Darin calls me.
Jim had been the afternoon drive Dee Jay and PD of CKY when I first started working there part time. Hey every artist needed a day job to help finance their run for fame, and I was very lucky because mine was very very cool.
You would think that would be enough excitement for the week, but no within a few days I also got a call from Randy Bachman who heard I might be leaving The Jury, so he called to recruit me for The Guess Who.
When I told Randy I wasn't near good enough to play for them he said, George I can teach you all the music stuff, it's that other stuff you do that The Guess Who needs.
The call from Jimmy Darin though turned out to be the mind boggling event of a very eventful week. Jim at this point was the newly appointed PD of WFIL in Philadelphia.
His new job was a career maker and he took himself off the air forever so he could totally focus on making the station #1.
Jim was a great Jock back then, but now he had his sights set on a whole new vision, and jockin' just didn't cut it anymore. He also no longer needed his stage name, so he went back his real name, Jim Hilliard.
During our very brief but very stimulating conversation on the phone, he explained he didn't have enough time to really explain all the details, but he needed me to jump on a plane as quickly as possible and fly to Philly. He said he wanted to talk to me about me doing all the promos at The Famous 56.
Turns out he had always loved the way I did the promos for him at CKY when I was the production board op. He claimed they all sounded like movie trailers to him and he wanted a whole bunch of that on the new WFIL that he was presently in the middle of creating.
Just writing this of course brings back to me a few of unusual things that went on when I was a rookie and didn't understand a lot of stuff.
One of them was a line Jim said that took me about four years to figure out. Jim said ... I came to Canada as a Democrat but I will be leaving as a Republican.
I completely understood what he meant instantly when I opened up my first big paycheck after hitting the big time at CFTR in Toronto.
I stared in horror and disbelief at the total of all the tax deductions and I remember thinking ... Boy this free health care is sure expensive ain't it. Good morning America how are ya!
But much more on all that much later, lets get back to Jim's unexpected but promising phone call.
His proposal was very scary and very exciting all at the same time. The most difficult part of it for me was just figuring out how you get to Philadelphia quickly.
I had two problems I needed to over come. First of all I had never been on an airplane before and secondly I wasn't even sure where Philadelphia was exactly. Back then I had never been east of Kenora.
When you live in Western Canada unlike what they think down here in South Florida, you don't speak French, and you don't look east you only look further west at places like Calgary or Vancouver as maybe a good place to live when you finally can't take the winters any more. As the saying goes, "Go West Young Man" Not east!
You don't even go anywhere east for vacations. Hawaii is the chosen dream destination of western man, not the Bahamas. The Bahamas are even further east than Florida, why would you want to go there.
Even if for some reason when you were drinking with all your buddies and someone shouted out " Lets drive to Florida" you would only head out to the west coast of Florida. There are no Western Canadians in Miami, not even drunk ones, trust me on this.
Those easterners are a way to too stiff and serious for we westerners. We like to say strange things like, good morning, how are you doing, hows your family, how are you feeling etc. We even smile at each other.
But then again there is something about the people of the east that we do love. We love to stomp them in the Grey Cup. The Grey Cup is the Super Bowl of Canada and pits the best of the East against the best of the West.
Just picture the differences between the folks in the North and the folks in the South here in America and you come a little closer to the feelings held in Canada. Whats that, What are you saying ??? The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in the Eastern Division of the CFL now. You've got to be sh**ing me!
When Jim finished up his surprise call to me about my coming to Philadelphia, he told me not to worry about anything because he would have a travel agent take care of all the details, she would be calling me shortly.
He told me I needed to arrive hungry because he and Barb were taking me to dinner at a very special restaurant called Bookbinders which was a world famous fish place in downtown Philadelphia.
When the travel agent finally called me with my trip details she informed me that I would be flying from Winnipeg to Toronto where I would change planes and fly to La Guardia in New York.
Once at La Guardia I would board a Helicopter for the short flight to JFK, there I would board my flight which would take me directly to Philadelphia.
Say what ... Do What?? Are you kidding, there has to be another way. I have never been on an airplane before and that's going to be scary enough. There is no way I'm getting in a helicopter, are you crazy.
She informed me that the only other way I could do it was a milk run that went from Winnipeg down to Minneapolis where I would start changing planes and landing in every city between Minneapolis and Philadelphia. I said ... I'll take it!
Much much later that evening when I finally arrived in Philly I was by now of course a seasoned flyer that was very anxious to stop flying
Jim and Barb picked me up at the airport in a bright red Cadillac convertible and off we went to Bookbinders. Jim asked me when I had left Winnipeg, I told him around dawn. He asked what took so long, when I told him he said I should have taken a bus it would have been a lot faster.
We get to Bookbinders and spend a very enjoyable evening chatting about a bunch of the folks we all knew when we worked together back in Winnipeg.
The meal was excellent but as we were eating and I was kinda looking around drinking it all in, I just have to describe the whole scene to you as I saw it that night.
First off Bookbinders as I remember it, was kinda old looking with a very conservative feel to it. The place was filled mostly with lawyers who were very easy to spot because they were all wearing the Brooks Brother suits with yellow or red power ties.
Even a radio rookie from Winnipeg could pick them out of a crowd, they looked exactly like they do in the movies.
Jim and Barb on the other hand to put it mildly just didn't seem to quite blend in with this serious Pennsylvania crowd.
Jim was wearing a wine colored Nehru suit with a huge gold medallion around his neck that hung down to about the middle of his chest.
Barb on the other hand was decked out in what can best be described as a very short white Toga. She had on gold Grecian sandals that went perfectly with all her ancient looking gold jewelry.
The sandals had very long straps on them that kinda wound up and around her legs from her ankles to her knees. Her blond almost golden hair was piled a way up high with long ringlets that cascaded down to her bare shoulders.
Wile we were chatting I was also looking around a little and I started to notice the whole place was staring at our table and maybe even whispering to each other a little.
When I mentioned this fact to Jim he said they were just pissed because he made more money than them.
The next morning we went into the station which I thought was really neat looking because the building was round and sorta looked like a stack of 45 records to me.
Once inside It was time to fill out a bunch of the company's paper work. I of course also had to swear that I had never been nor planned on becoming a member of the Communist party.
That was the only kinda boring part of the whole trip. But it soon started to heat up real good when I got to meet all the great jocks who were fast on their way to becoming radio legends, Dr. Don Rose, Jim Nettleton, Jay Cook, George Michael and Long John Wade. The sad thing when I think about that exciting day now is, they are all gone except for Jim Hilliard who is the only one from that very special day that is still with us. Wow, how sad.
Once I finished all the paper work and meeting the Jox, I went back into Jim's office where he told me he needed me to join his team immediately. He wanted me to start producing some great sounding promos right now
I later learned that Bill Drake's right hand man Paul Drew was coming to WIBG to do battle with him, and up until that time the Drake format had never been beaten.
Jim said I could send for my then pregnant wife Lana later, because we had a lot of work that needed doing and we needed to get at it as quickly as possible.
At some point during the time we were discussing all this, I remember someone in human resources mentioning to him that it just wasn't possible to have a Canadian just start working in America.
You need to apply, and the way you applied was by filling out a bunch of complicated immigration papers. A mere formality, Jim snorted ... We'll have you here in no time squirrel!
By the time that mere formality came through I was the Station Manager of CFTR in Toronto.
But that story and how I got there is way way down the line, and I may be too bored by then to write it and you will probably be too bored to read it.
I returned to the station and did get the promotion I heard the rumor about, in fact I got two promotions. I became the Production Director and the Music Director of CKY and soon after the birth of my daughter Candis, left the band business forever.
A few short months later I got the offer to become the new Program Director of CKOM in Saskatoon. I didn't have hardly any radio experience which kinda made it a very scary proposition.
But what popped into my head and gave me the courage/arrogance to accept that position I think was ... Hey if I'm good enough to work with Jim Hilliard, Dr. Don, Gentleman Jim, Jay Cook, King George and Long John in Philly, plus be good enough play for The Guess Who ... How tough could Saskatoon be!
March 12, 2010 There are only two types of people left in the Radio Biz these days. Those who are scared to death they are going to be fired and those that hope to be.
I was driving along I-95 North in my car headed for West Palm Beach from FT. Lauderdale with a buddy. Being originally from Canada and having no idea about these sort of things but kinda curious nevertheless I asked him how many people in America way back did he suppose owned slaves.
He looked around a little, I think even checked out my back seat before he said, maybe 3 or 4%, 5 tops
I asked him why he was looking around before he answered. He said we can't talk about this kinda stuff man! I asked why not and he replied because it's politically incorrect and people's careers have been ruined for even saying less than we just have.
Why are the reputations of used car salesmen and politicians so terrible, surely they don't deserve them.
You can become whatever and whomever you want to be mainly through repetitious action.
Tommy Kramer said Walter Cronkite spoke at the rate of about 120 words per minute when he was on TV. Most people speak at a rate of 165 - 200 words a minute. Walter knew that by speaking slowly he would stand out, plus he would be understood.
I do lean a little to the right, but not far enough as to not know The Oil Companies, The Banks, The Medical Insurers, and the Government are probably all my enemies.
You don't see any young men driving fancy cars only young women.
Now as we head away more and more from fossil fuels and consume more and more electricity, how long do you suppose it will be before the Electric Barons start kicking our ass.
As quickly as women forgive themselves I wonder if they just assume that the men in their lives have done likewise.
Do I need an Auto Tuner so as to better communicate with my fourteen year old.
In Olympic Hockey, what language do you suppose all the players from around the globe were using to trash talk each other with.
We all kinda know what the other person should do, it's what we should do that's most difficult.
I'm hoping at my 100th birthday party that my two beautiful daughters push the very good lookin' nurse out of the way and both roll me in together.
I've noticed that the sales folk seem to becoming a lot more sensitive lately, it may be I think because they want to be recognized as part of the art form.
Not going to happen!
What I have never figured out about NFL football coaches is why they predictably do what the other team knows they are going to do and have been practicing how to stop it all week. Hell I'm only watching and I know. The one time last year when the Dolphins didn't, was against the Patriots (Wild Cat) the Patriots couldn't stop them.
The folks who got fired in the early days of Consolidation were the lucky ones.
They got to sell their stock and became rich or at least almost rich. The unlucky ones who weren't fired had to helplessly stand by and watch their stock fade to the almost worthless state.
Sales systems will never replace good ratings as a sales tool.
I think the corporate executives who are lecturing sales staffs all over America using various electronic delivery systems should have to make a market visit and go out on the street really show us all how it's done!
If your not a poet can you still use poetic licence.
Have you ever noticed if your in a room and no one else is around and sometimes you might start to mumble out loud to yourself, but you immediately start to sing what ever you were talking about if someone happens to walk in on you.
One of the tricks I used to use when I was doing "The Class Format" was bring Major League Talent to Minor League towns, it worked every time. Hey I think it would work right now in LA.
You can't over play someones favorite song.
Jerry Del Colliano says that 40-60% of a station's revenue comes from the morning show, not counting all the forced buys to other day parts if you want to get on in the morning. Yet, and someone needs to help me with this, the big companies seem to be firing all their morning stars.
Color me very confused!
Way Back when I was at CFTR in Toronto I decided it was time for us to play the hits, but according to CRTC regulations we had to broadcast only Adult music. I went out and bought every Ray Conniff album I could find and played the original versions of everything he covered.
You cant get any more adult than that.
I used to imagine when women had sleep overs together they all wore baby dolls and stuff from Victoria's Secret. Turns out most of them were really wearing flannel pajamas with bunny feet in them.
What ever happened to "The Customer Is Always Right" Last night I had a small dispute at a local sports bar with the bartender about a ruling concerning their special rewards program. I asked to see the Manager to see if I could get it cleared up.
The Manager came out and opened the conversation with ... I was wrong and I was also rude. She wouldn't let me even state my case, in fact I never even got a chance to open my mouth.
Radio has always been under attack, TV, then MTV, then, The Internet, then Satellite, now there is a bunch of different kinds of technology competing for the consumers attention.
Through it all Radio prevailed mainly because it always looked for the new thing to do and always found it. Why do I get the feeling now nobody is even looking.
Tim Moore is a brilliant writer amongst other things and every time I read him I just marvel at how he crafts his pieces. Then suddenly it hit me, we write about mostly the same things, mine is just the blue collar version ... Ok I feel much better now!
I bet more people saw the Olympic Gold game between Canada and the USA than have ever seen any other Hockey game.
What's got radio in such dire straights today is the single digit multiples of course. Growth is the only way the multiplies will go up, but unfortunately it's only audience growth that can do that. Do you think anybody is working on more audience, are there any meetings about figuring out how to get more people to use radio.
© 2008-2009 George Johns
George Johns |
|||
