Radio Pick: Brand Loyalty

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The CBC made it two in a row for the first time this year on my weekly radio pick.

I suppose it shouldn't be surprising that a marketing expert can produce excellent radio, but Terry O'Reilley continues to both spin compelling historical stories explaining how marketing has developed, and to do so with excellent production values. The "Age of Persuasion" is interesting to listen to even if one doesn't care about marketing, and few in the series have been as compelling as this week's show on brand loyalty, featuring such gems as the Molskine notebook and the Harley Davidson motorocycle in a 27-minute program.

Click the listen link on this page to hear The Age of Persuasion "Brand Loyalty"

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An honorable mention this week goes to WBZ Newsradio 1030 in Boston and commentator Jon Keller. In a Good Friday commentary, Keller explained why following the logic recently invoked by Brown University in its cancellation of Columbus Day celebrations, there wouldn't be many holidays left.

Listen to Jon Keller At Large "No More Holidays"

Radio Pick: Keller on Old Sturbridge Village

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick comes from morning commentator Jon Keller from WBZ Newsradio 1030 in Boston, who is available on a podcast.

Keller had an especially good group of essays this past week, covering such issues as the possible end of the Boston Globe newspaper and why people are leaving Massachusetts (which in fact makes a nice companion piece to one of the entries on this blog). However, my favorite was one describing a rare tourist attraction that has increasing business during this recession, Old Sturbridge Village. His near-ode to the institution and its relevance to modern life in this two-minute commentary was a nice reminder that the art of the short-form radio broadcast did not die with Paul Harvey.

Listen to Shockwave Audio of Keller at Large "Where Tourism Is Up"

Margin Notes: Krieghoff, Bikes, Cranes, 'BZ

Kennedy Park near Bloor and Runnymede in Toronto, Ontario looked quiet on 4-February-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The works of Dutch painter Cornelius Krieghoff have been mentioned on this blog before. This winter, I think I have grown to understand his fascination with winter in what was then Lower Canada, even if I am in what was then Upper Canada. The scene at Kennedy Park in my neighborhood looked like an urban version of a Krieghoff painting to me, but no man with a dog walked by to complete the scene so I was left with the emptiness above.

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An anti-war message adorned a bicycle along Bloor Street West in Toronto on 3-February-2009

Not far away from Kennedy Park on Bloor Street, I found the above bicycle parked in the snow at dusk. The concept of a bumper sticker or rear-window sticker certainly is not new, but I think this is the first time I've seen a readable message on the rear of a bicycle. Appropriately, the bicycle was not far from an open house on the Georgetown South rail corridor covered last week.

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VIA Rail Canada train #84 from Sarnia, Ontario passed the construction cranes at the West Toronto diamonds on 2-February-2009

One of the minor questions I asked at that open house was whether the construction going on at the West Toronto diamonds was really going to lead to a four-track right-of-way on the current CN Weston Subdivision underneath the CP North Toronto Sub. As shown in the photograph above taken on Monday, it sure looks like the retaining walls being constructed leave room for only two tracks. Perhaps these are only for the purpose of making a "shoo-fly" track for use during the construction, but I wonder.

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My eyes weren't deceiving me on the world wide web earlier this week. Starting on Monday, CBC Television's The National started using their High Definition format on the Internet archive of the program, instead of the traditional television format. Of course, most of the advantages of HD are completely missing on the web, but it still struck me as an interesting change--television as we knew it is changing north of the border, as well.

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Another media organization deserves credit for doing some things correctly. Last month, I criticized twice WBZ Newsradio 1030 out of Boston, Massachusetts for ending their overnight talk show and not replacing morning sports reporter Gil Santos. Apparently, audience complaints have paid off, as WBZ has re-hired Steve LaVeille for the overnight slot and Walt Perkins will take Santos' morning sports slot. While the lack of overnight news reporting and an incredibly obscure time slot for Lovell Dyett (4:30 am Sunday) have been noted by Scott Fybush's Northeast Radio Watch, at least it now appears that WBZ is trying within the confines of decreasing ad revenue to maintain its brand, and it should be commended for that. Perhaps there is hope for the radio business yet.

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Is there hope for the concept of "read dating"? The combination of speed dating and book clubs came to Seattle last week at the University Book Store. In an interview with KUOW's Ross Reynolds before the Thursday event, spokesperson Stesha Brandon noted that plenty of women that expressed interest in the eight-minute one-on-one book discussions, but no men had said they would come. Apparently they did, as a blog posting on Friday implied that the event was a success. I have a feeling that the over-age-30 restriction placed on the meeting may have had something to do with that--unless the plan is to share things read on a Kindle or iPhone, I have my doubts the concept would work with members of Generation Y.

Media: Now Santos Too?

TORONTO, ONTARIO - It isn't pretty to watch the decline of a once-great radio station. Now, as a follow-up to the earlier story that it would no longer be live and local all day and all night, WBZ 1030 AM in Boston has quietly announced that morning sports reporter Gil Santos will be retiring and will be not be replaced.

The move leaves WBZ, supposedly a news station in one of the most sports-crazy areas of the United States and flagship station for the Boston Bruins National Hockey League team, without any sports reporters at all on weekdays. Previously, Alan Segel and Tom Cuddy had been involuntarily removed from the schedule. Presumably, this means that in a month, news anchor Ed Walsh will be reading sports news at :15 and :45 after the hour in the morning, much as Diane Stern is currently reading sports in the afternoon.

As always, the best coverage of this change has come from Scott Fybush's NorthEast Radio Watch, a premier resource for broadcasting information in the region. In the October 12th edition of NorthEast Radio Watch, Fybush not only thoroughly covers the story, but offers substantial commentary on all the changes at WBZ, including the following:

The trust listeners have placed in WBZ for generations may not be as easy to quantify on the books as, say, the stick value of a clear channel at 1030 on the dial or the real estate adjoining the Harvard campus. But whatever value that trust once had - and whatever investment in the "WBZ Radio" brand could have been transferred from an aging AM facility to newer media - is instead being rapidly eroded.

Fybush has highlighted the most important point. This week on CBC's radio's Age of Persuasion, host Terry O'Reilly pointed out several examples of companies that spent money developing their brands during times of recession or other stresses like a war, and how those firms reaped significant benefits afterward. The most amazing story to me was about a company that kept advertising its margarine brand during World War II in Britain even though all sales were generic by law. After the war was over and the restriction was released, that brand completely dominated market share.

In radio, personalities are a big part of building a brand. I used to listen to KIRO every morning when I was growing up in the Seattle area, and I did so mainly because of local hosts Bill Yeend and Dave Stone. Now that Yeend has moved to KOMO and Stone is retired, I haven't found myself tuning in KIRO during morning drive when I visit Seattle.

When I lived in Boston, the chemistry between news anchor Gary LaPierre and Gil Santos made WBZ worth listening to in the morning, and Santos' sports commentaries at about 12:27 during lunch were a fixture of my time in region. LaPierre has retired, but Santos still worked well with Ed Walsh when I listened while visiting the area, and I still preferred that position on my radio dial.

That Santos would retire was inevitable. The mistake that WBZ is making is eliminating his position, rather than letting someone like Cuddy, Segel, or even a fresh talent take on the reporting and commenting position to develop his (or her) own relationship with listeners. By instead eliminating these features, they are weakening their WBZ brand at a time of stress--which Terry O'Reilly teaches us is exactly the time to consolidate brand loyalty.

I suspect the next time I visit Boston, I'll be tuning in public radio WBUR in the morning. For now, at least, they still have a significant news staff and substantial local reporting in the morning--something that is increasingly not true at once-stalwart WBZ.

Media: One Less Live and Local

TORONTO, ONTARIO - In the latest edition of Northeast Radio Watch, Scott Fybush has reported the news that WBZ Newsradio 1030 out of Boston has dropped its live and local overnight talk programming. As part of layoffs that also included afternoon sports reporter Tom Cuddy and the overnight news position, WBZ chose to let go Saturday night hosts Pat Desmarais and Lovell Dyett (who Fybush notes had been at the station for 37 years!) and, most critically, overnight host Steve LeVeille. This means that WBZ will no longer be live and local in the overnight hours.

Fybush notes in his article that this isn't the first time WBZ has tried syndication--in 1990, David Brudnoy was briefly supplanted by the nationwide Tom Snyder program, but the public outcry was overwhelming and Brudnoy was literally brought back for the rest of his life. The Libertarian Brudnoy was a clear radio highlight of living in the Boston area, worth listening to for at least a portion of his five-hour show each weeknight. Fybush also opines that the environment has changed so much that there is basically no possibility of a reversal of this decision--Jon Grayson or a successor will likely be on overnight on WBZ's amazing signal reputedly reaching 30 states after dark. Grayson's show, out of St. Louis' KMOX, will also air on KDKA from Pittsburgh and WCCO out of Minneapolis. A listener in, say, Indiana, would be able to hear the program on all of these powerhouse stations.

For those that care about broadcasting, the end of live and local overnight programming on WBZ is not a trivial matter. Having a local voice on the air at all times of day to turn to when a crisis occurs--or simply to call in and complain about a local issue--is something that ought to be available everywhere. As recently as fifteen years ago, there was a station that was live and local all day in virtually every major market--and those stations tended to be the ratings leaders. They were popular for a reason--they connected with their local audiences. While the significant audiences are during the daytime, the commitment to be local and available to listeners all the time was part of the appeal of these stations.

Slowly, one by one, these stations have given up on being live and local in significant day parts and turned to syndicated and repeat programming. Stations as remarkable as WABC in New York City and KIRO in Seattle no longer offer unique programming in the night-time hours. WABC has joined the herd of stations across the country running Coast to Coast AM, while KIRO offers Phil Hendrie and repeats of its own Dave Ross show.

The loss of WBZ's live and local status matters because as recently as when I left Boston in 2005, the thought of WBZ offering syndicated programming was unthinkable. Its commitment to serve the community all day and all night was long-standing, steadfast, and well-known. That the unthinkable would occur only three years later shows just how much the broadcasting industry is hurting.

Clearly, everything is on the table now. Might KGO's overnight Ray Taliaferro and John Rothmann be next? That was once unthinkable, but with KGO's late evening slot still open and the change at WBZ, it doesn't seem so unthinkable anymore.