Radio-Info.com

Bill Drake: a Legend, a Genius, a true Gentleman

by Tom Watson

For those of us that came up in radio in the '60s and '70s, Bill Drake was THE genius of radio programming. We all wanted to work for a “DRAKE”  station -- KHJ, WRKO, WHBQ, KFRC, etc. He was a man who was way ahead of his time. Bill had the foresight, intuition, and most of all gut instinct to make magic on the radio. This is something that corporate radio has killed in our industry.

Today, if it doesn’t research well, or if it doesn’t please a client , then you don't do it. You play it safe. If Bill Drake did that, we wouldn't have radio as it is today.

Bill Drake was an out-of-the-box thinker and knew what people wanted when they turned on the radio. He always thought about the “what if” instead of  worrying about what some corporate jerk sitting in their ivory tower would say. Full Story

Mark Ramsey's New Book is Making Waves

by Dana Hall

Respected marketing consultant and frequent guest columnist for Radio-Info.com’s “On the Mic”, Mark Ramsey, has written a new book, “Making Waves: Radio on the Verge.” As CEO/President of Mercury Media Research, Ramsey works side-by-side with broadcasters on a daily basis, strategizing the best ways to brand their product and better understand the listener. He also writes about what he discovers in his work, on his blog Hear2.0. Full Story

Repeater Radio

by Jerry Del Colliano

My old mentor, the radio program director Paul Drew, used to tell me about an idea he had where a campus would be built for a national radio company in Southern California -- he cited the weather and abundance of talent for his choice of the location (not in that order). PD (as I called him) believed that great radio could be done in one location allowing for many economies of scale and yet providing customized local programming to individual stations in their markets. I understand he took the idea to a couple of CEOs at the time -- back in the 1990s -- and received no traction for the concept. Full Story

Ignore The Grammys

by Mike Henry

The favorite past-time of other media, their PR organizations and now the Grammy Awards of all things, is to smear radio to the general public.  As others from radio have already chimed in to say (Bill Stakelin, Bob Neil, Randy Kabrich), the Grammy nominations television show opening theme that radio is no longer relevant is the ultimate slap in the face to radio so far. Full Story

Songs that Made A Difference In 2008

by Sean Ross

In recent years, large-market stations have gotten the attention for breaking records. But as we salute the songs that changed the radio landscape in 2008, we found that not only the sound of radio but the route up the charts had changed (at least for a few songs). In our final "Ross On Radio" column of 2008, we single out the "Songs That Made A Difference In 2008." Full Story

Good Branding Advice for Broadcasters

by Mark Ramsey

The best way to avoid the doom and banish the gloom is to do what you do really, really well. Here's some advice from my friends over at Neutron: 1. What makes you different? Full Story