HomeBlog & Articles2016

  • Country: Jumping the Shark and Growing the Beard?

    • 06/13/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: country music, country radio programming
    No Comments

    We may look back on last week as the time when country “jumped the shark.” There was Pitbull (@Pitbull),Cheap Trick, Fifth Harmony and Pharrell (you could make a case for Pharrell given his collaboration with Little Big Town) on a country awards show. Then there were releases to country radio that had some programmers feeling the pop envelope had been pushed too

    read more

  • Ten Take Aways from Hivio Audio Future Festival (20-Somethings and Radio? See #8)

    • 06/06/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: podcasting, radio
    No Comments

    Audience, content and platforms – notably podcasting – were some of the more frequently discussed topics at the Hivio Audio Future Festival 2016 last week (see Hivio word cloud).   Mark Ramsey Media‘s annual Hivio event is a “hive” of audio ideas and actions shared by people who normally wouldn’t collectively make up a typical radio convention agenda

    read more

  • Infographic: How to Create Amazing Content for Every Show, Every Day In Seven Steps

    • 05/25/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: radio programming
    No Comments

    Facts are forgettable. Stories are sticky. But going from that knowledge to daily creation can be challenging. Here are seven steps to help you create and  tell a story that’s both relevant and entertaining: Try it out and let me know how it goes.

    read more

  • Lee Waas: More Than Just the Mister Softee Jingle Creator: His Thoughts on Today’s Ads Plus Three Take-Aways For Better Creative

    • 04/29/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: advertising, jingles, Mister Softee
    No Comments

    Lee Waas, creator of the Mister Softee jingle didn’t know how to read or write music. But he sure did know about advertising and thinking outside the box.

    read more

  • Best Jobs Survey: Entertaining on the One Hand, An Opportunity for Growth, Respect and Recruitment on the Other

    • 04/23/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: Uncategorized
    No Comments

    Not that I spend a lot of time thinking about surveys like this, but the latest CareerCast.com 2016 Jobs Report ranks “Disc Jockey” 197th out of 200 (we’ve apparently lost our bullet; in 2012 we were 180th). Obviously if you love what you do, your job is at or near the top of your own list and

    read more

  • New From Nielsen: The Replacements for Maximi$er and PD Advantage/Desktop

    • 04/21/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: radio programming
    No Comments

    Starting this week, many programmers will be breaking out their quarterly ratings for the first time without Maximi$er. Nielsen has just retired the legacy software along with PD Advantage Desktop and Data Express (ADE). Former Maximi$er clients will have access to PDA Light (the Max replacement) while former desktop PDA Advantage clients will have access to PDA Web. If you are a programmer

    read more

  • How Political Analysts Can Help Coach Talent

    • 03/31/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: coaching, radio, Talent
    No Comments

    Fivethirtyeight.com is full of interesting content. There’s sports and politics of course, but also science, economics and culture (read about the Batman-Superman bro-mance here). And now, FiveThirtyEight has a coaching tip for radio. OK, not exactly. But their recent post about the most frequently used phrases by Presidential Candidates Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders got me thinking

    read more

  • First January Nielsens Bring Holiday Hangover Relief

    • 02/16/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: Uncategorized
    No Comments

    The first ratings of 2016 are rolling out and – at least on the first day – it’s “thank goodness!” for Country. While a number of formats are no doubt looking forward to a ratings period that does not include Christmas music, probably no format is more excited to turn the page than country which

    read more

  • Need Some New Motivation? Imagine Yourself at an NFL Team Meeting

    • 02/12/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: Uncategorized
    No Comments

     “Peer pressure is one of the greatest motivators in professional football,” former Dallas Cowboys and OU Sooners Coach Barry Switzer told the audience at the talent coaching session at this year’s Country Radio Seminar.   To make his point, Coach Switzer went on to tell the story of a particular Wednesday morning team meeting –

    read more

  • Satisfaction and Switching – Listener Hot and Cold Buttons and the Impact of Switchers

    • 02/04/2016
    • Posted by: Mike O'Malley
    • Category: country radio programming
    No Comments

    Two of the many topics we track in Roadmap – A&O&B’s annual “state of country” online perceptual study – are country listeners’ 1) degree of station satisfaction and 2) switching behavior. As we shared last year in our Pre-CRS seminar, the three-year overall satisfaction level with the country stations in our survey has been consistently

    read more