A Conservative MP who serves as parliamentary secretary to the Canadian Heritage Minister raised thousands of dollars in political contributions from people involved in a high-stakes campaign to win a new Toronto radio licence.
Paul Calandra, the MP for Oak Ridges-Markham, attended and received money at two private fundraising parties that included people connected to two of the bids under consideration by the CRTC, which reports to Canadian Heritage.
Read more here.
HONOURS PETER AND TONY VINER with ONTARIO HALL OF FAME AWARDS
The Ontario Association of Broadcasters is pleased to announce CONNECTION 2012 will be held on Tuesday, November 6th in Toronto at the Westin Bristol Place Hotel.
The annual fall conference will commence with the OAB Annual General Meeting.
The OAB’S conference committee is diligently working to improve on last year’s stellar line up of speakers. Paul Weyland, branding, marketing and sales strategist, will be doing a special half day sales training session and joins hosts Jaye Albright, award winning radio consultant and Stephanie Winans, digital media specialist for Integration in a Digital Age. Connection 2012 will also feature a Programming Panel, moderated by Chris Byrnes, President, Byrnes Media, and includes Julie Adam, Vice President, Programming, Rogers; Rob Farina, Executive Vice President, Content, Astral Radio; David Farough, VP; Brands, Programming & New Media, Corus Entertainment; and Steve Jones, Vice President, Programming, Newcap Radio. This accomplished group of programmers will discuss some of the key programming issues facing the industry today.
The Gala Awards Dinner will include presentations of the OAB Community Service Awards, Broadcast Order of Achievement and Hall of Fame Awards. The Ontario Association of Broadcasters is excited to present Hall of Fame Awards to Peter and Tony Viner!
This is the first year the OAB will be presenting the Ontario Broadcast Order of Achievement and OAB Hall of Fame awards. Other regional Associations across the country have agreed to continue these long standing traditions of broadcasting. Presentations will take place at each Association’s award dinner.
The OAB Hall of Fame will replace the OAB Lifetime Achievement Award. Previously, the CAB honoured broadcasters into the Hall of Fame at their national conference. This award will now continue to honour excellence at the regional level.
The Broadcast Order of Achievement will replace the CAB’s quarter/half century club. There are three levels of recognition, Bronze for 10-14 years of service, Silver for 15-24 years of service and Gold for 25+ years of service. Persons wishing to be recognized for their tenure in broadcasting may do so by applying on-line at www.oab.ca.
Save the date, Tuesday, November 6th and register soon for CONNECTION 2012!
http://www.oab.ca/events/conference/index.php
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC) today released its decision concerning the use of a racial term on the American radio program Tom Kent broadcast on CFXL-FM (XL 103 FM, Calgary). The CBSC concluded that the broadcast of the term “chinaman” violated the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ (CAB) Equitable Portrayal Code.
The Tom Kent show consists of music and some talk. On the February 10, 2012 episode, Kent spoke with a caller about a man who was planning a world record parachute jump. The caller made the comment “when he splats on [the] ground, [people will] say ‘Well, it definitely wasn’t Superman’”. Kent then replied, “They’ll say it was that famous chinaman, Sum Dum Guy.”
Read more here.
Thunder Bay Stations Assist Flood Victims
Dougall Media Release
Thunder Bay was declared a state of emergency when it fell victim to extensive flooding. Over 1200 homes were damaged and roads were destroyed.
Within days Dougall Media’s three radio stations, Rock 94 (CJSD-FM), 91.5 CKPR (CKPR-FM) and 103.5 The Thunder (CFQK-FM) ran a 12 hour Radio Marathon to raise funds for the Salvation Army to be put directly towards the Thunder Bay Flood Fund in aid of those affected.
In just 12 hours, individuals and businesses donated everything from their piggy banks to donations of $50,000 to raise over $250,000 in total! This is a huge success story of not only the power of radio and its ability to react at a time of need but the trust that Thunder Bay has in Dougall Media.
I really hate to bring this up when the weather has turned nice, you’re working to lower your handicap and the word “patio” is being thrown about. Just the same, you really need to be thinking about fall and if you aren’t you’ve largely missed the bus (board) already. It’s now the start of July and for many smaller markets their only ratings period of the year is two short months away. Do you have all your plans made? I hope so, but if not, here are some things you need to be doing now.
Are your BBM promotional plans put to bed? By this point in the year the budget should have been finalized, your promotion(s) should have been decided on, and preparations should have been completed or at the very least well underway.
Successful stations normally start looking at their fall promotions as early as spring and in some cases the start of the year. Understandably, some things are out of your control. How much money you will have (if any) is something that may not be decided on for a while longer, but the earlier you have a proposal into the GM, the more time they have to consider its merits in their fiscal planning.
One station I work with decided to try an entirely new promotion for them. It’s one that entails the gathering of a very large number of prizes through existing and possible new clients. Those people understand the need to plan far enough ahead, so the prize acquisitions have already begun. Still, though, they aren’t completely sure how long the task will take, given that this is uncharted territory for them. The point is, though, that the wheels are in motion.
At this point, though, you have no choice but to decide immediately what it is you wish to do and then get the ball rolling with your promotions people – and as is often the case in smaller markets – sales.
It’s time to beg, borrow, or steal.
“Cash is king” as the old adage goes. This is the quickest and usually most hassle-free way to create a promotion. People love winning money and if budget can be found, you probably should look at going this route. If there simply is no money, you can look to sales to assist through a promotional package with an STO.
Trips are another obvious avenue. Sun-destination vacations do work well after Labour Day. Partnering with a local travel company can oftentimes be done fairly quickly. The key here is to get enough trips to hopefully award one weekly, or at the least semi-monthly.
Whichever promotion you decide upon, please keep in mind that successful promotions (not just ratings promotions) should be based around a ‘simpler-is-better’ model. The more hoops you make a listener jump through (“If you were listening at 7:15 this morning you would have heard today’s sound effect that we’ll play again sometime later this afternoon to qualify for a chance to have the morning show call your name tomorrow at which time you’ll have 10 minutes to call us back and we’ll put your name in for the Grand Prize that we’ll draw for at this nightclub where you’ll need to be in attendance to win… blah-blah-blah-ad-infinitum.”) Cutting out as many ‘screens’ between the listener and the prize will heighten the excitement, make it more convenient for people to participate beyond the contest-junkies and ‘3%’, and given your time constraints, make it much easier for you to put together.
A well-designed and executed on-air ratings promotion builds TSL. That’s never a bad thing. Some promotions can even help in bringing more people to the station, but that’s fairly rare. If it’s something you are doing on the station, then you should take the mindset that you’re preaching to the choir. Cume building, however, is more a function of advertising.
If your advertising plans are not in place by now, then it’s very likely you won’t be able to carry out whatever plans you make. If you wanted to do outdoor, then you will probably find that quality billboard faces are hard to find or simply sold out. That also goes for any transit-related signage. It’s never too late to ask, but I fear you may not like the answer.
Similarly, if TV is your chosen medium, then the buy should have already been placed, let alone getting a spot made. Again, you might get lucky and find that some of the better targeted programs for your station still have some openings, but television’s limited local avails are notoriously hard to find the closer you are to their airing. If available, the one avenue you could still explore is cable-insertion. This can be a very cost-effective way to achieve frequency, but without the option of demo-targeting.
As for your commercial, be prepared to pay some money. You don’t have to go to Filmhouse to get something of quality, but you do need to have something that’s at least a step above the used-car salesmen making a pitch in front of a 1998 Buick. It’s okay for them. People are used to seeing that kind of schlock, but you can’t put your station in the same light. Just like a website is judged largely on its visual appeal, so goes the same for your TV spot. If it looks cheap, people will view it negatively, regardless of how relevant the message is.
As mentioned, you may already be too late to get the word out on your station in an effective manner, but you might still be able to. In short – get on it!
When was the last time you took a listening day? I’m not talking about having the radio on in your office. The only way to really listen to your station is out of the office with your phone off. Summer isn’t necessarily the best time for this task with vacations usually altering your normal on-air lineup, but you really should do this sooner than later since you will always find areas that need improvement if you just take the time to actually hear them. If you do this now, you will still have enough time to make whatever alterations are needed prior to the book.
Imaging is always an ongoing concern. Ideally, you should have an imaging ‘cycle’ that sees a percentage of your ID library freshened on a set timeframe. Unfortunately, all too often our imaging is allowed to outlive its shelf life and then an entire overhaul may be required. That in itself is not really an ideal situation in that it hinders your station’s familiarity in the short term. In fact, you should try to restrict applying a ‘new coat of paint’ for only those times when you change your station voice. That said, though, whether you need some or all new imaging, you have to do it now. By the time the scripts are written, approved, voiced, and produced it will probably already be later in the summer. Only larger staffs can consistently turn around imaging in a fairly short period. At most stations people are doing other tasks along with the imaging work and the job inevitably drags out.
When was the last time you went under the hood of your music scheduling software? Better yet, when was the last time you had a third party review it? Unless you’re programming a spoken-word format, music is the most important thing you do. If your songs are not rotating as well as they should, then that’s an error. The nice thing is that it’s quick and easy to correct. Now, if you happen to be playing the wrong songs, then that’s a huge error. At this stage it’s unlikely you would have time to book, recruit, execute and receive auditorium test data, so the next best thing would be to get your hands on a ‘safe list’ for your format and implement a music shuffle based on that. Looking ahead, though, an AMT is something to consider regardless of your market size.
One thing I hear often is that talent feel they don’t receive enough constructive feedback. PD’s do have more balls in the air than ever before, but this is one you can’t afford to drop. Having a regular aircheck with your jocks is necessary to ensure they are finding the right content for their show and then executing it to the best of their ability. The other thing that’s often overlooked, though, is that an aircheck should be a motivating experience for the announcer and if there’s one thing you need heading into ratings is an airstaff that’s confident and hungry to win. Try and do your utmost to spend some ‘quality time’ with every one of your jocks.
It begs credulity to think that your staff vacation calendar isn’t already filled. That’s not something people are likely to procrastinate about. Just the same, though, I have worked with people who were hard to kick out of the building. It’s important for jocks especially to get the time off they need to ensure they are ‘happy and well-fed’ come fall time. In markets with ongoing ratings the need to concentrate vacations into a relatively short span of time is certainly lessened, but this is Canada after all, and everyone does need some time to enjoy our all-too-brief summer. It’s true that you can’t force people to take time off, but you have a responsibility to the station to at least try.
I sincerely hope that you’ve already started or maybe even completed most of what I’ve written. If not, then you will probably have a couple of busy months ahead. If you need assistance, don’t hesitate to drop me a note at greg@byrnesmedia.com. In the meantime, make sure you also get at least a week off between now and the end of summer. Even with all that’s on your plate, you still need to recharge your batteries, just like everyone else. Have a safe and happy summer.
July 1-31 “Cell Phone Courtesy Month”: To encourage cell phone users to be more respectful of their surroundings and those around them. Call Jacqueline Whitmore, Etiquette Expert 561-586-9026, email info@etiquetteexpert.com. Web: www.etiquetteexpert.com.
July 1-31 “International Blondie and Deborah Harry Month”: Celebrates the band Blondie and its lead singer, Deborah Harry and their contributions to popular music. Call Allan Metz 417-873-7483. email ametz@drury.edu. Web www.blondiebook.com.
July 1-31 “Hot Dog Month”: Celebrates a favourite hand-held food with fun facts and new topping ideas. Call 202-587-4200. Web: www.hot-dog.org.
July 1-31 “Ice Cream Month”: This month celebrates ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90% of the population.
July 1-31 “International Zine Month”: An annual celebration of all zines, self-publishing and small press culture. For info, email brianscanzine@gmail.com. See www.internationalzinemonth.wordpress.com.
July 1-31 “Social Wellness Month”: Improve your social and communication skills and learn to act appropriately in prominent situations. Call Angela Brown Oberer 704-843-0688. email angela@WordsofWellness.com. Web: www.WordsofWellness.com.
July 1-31 “Women’s Motorcycle Month”: Dedicated to honouring women who ride, co-ride, or wish they could ride motorcycles. Call Sylvia Henderson 301-260-1538. email Sylvia@springboardtraining.com. Web: www.springboardtraining.com.
July 1 “Canada Day”: Formerly known as Dominion Day. Commemorates the confederation of Upper and Lower Canada and some of the Maritime Provinces into the Dominion of Canada in 1867.
July 1 “Halfway Point of 2011”: Because 2012 is a leap year, when July 1, 2012 ends at midnight, 183 days will remain before Jan 1, 2013.
July 1-8 “Nova Scotia International Tattoo”: Military and civilian performers in bands, singing, dancing, marching, gymnastics and comedy. Call 902-420-1114 or 800-563-1114, email info@nstattoo.ca. Web www.nstattoo.ca.
July 3-Aug 11 “Dog Days”: Hottest days of the year in Northern Hemisphere.
July 4 “Independence Day”: The United States commemorates adoption of the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress. The nation’s birthday. Legal holiday in all states and territories.
July 4-8 “The North American Tournament”: Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB. Show jumping tournament featuring the Spruce Meadows North American Championships. Call 403-974-4200, or see www.sprucemeadows.com.
July 4-15 “Cisco Ottawa Bluesfest”: Lebreton Flats, Ottawa, ON. 18th annual. Enjoy blues, gospel, roots, world and popular music in the heart of Canada’s national capital. Call 613-247-1188. email ajsauve@ottawa-bluesfest.ca. Web: www.ottawabluesfest.ca.
July 6 “Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day”: Keep the person running your website happy by making sure he or she is well fed. It makes your webmaster feel loved and gives him or her the energy to fix all the typos that you have on your site.
July 6-15 “Calgary Stampede”: Calgary, AB. One of the world’s largest rodeos, plus an agricultural fair, entertainment, parade and carnival. Call 403-261-0101. web: www.calgarystampede.com.
July 7 “Father-Daughter Take A Walk Together Day”: A special time in the summer for fathers and daughters of all ages to spend time together in the beautiful weather. Call Janet Dellaria 906-852-3539.
July 7-8 “Abbotsford Berrybeat Festival”: Abbotsford, BC. Heralds the height of the Raspberry Capital of Canada’s berry season. Call 604-850-6547. email adba@telus.net. Web: www.downtownabbotsford.com.
July 9-15 “Nude Recreation Week”: Why not go barefoot all over? Give nude recreation a try by attending special events at a clothing-optional beach, campground or resort near you. Call The Naturist Society 920-426-5009, email naturist@naturistsociety.com. See www.naturistsociety.com.
July 13 “Gruntled Workers Day”: There’s so much news about disgruntled workers that today’s the day for gruntled workers to unite! Drive to a fast-food restaurant and say, “Thanks, your service is fast, have a nice day.” Call Thomas & Ruth Roy 717-279-0184, email info@wellcat.com. Web: www.wellcat.com.
July 21 “National Parks Day”: A national event showcasing parks and historic sites in every province and territory in Canada. See www.parksday.ca.
July 22 “Parents’ Day”: To pay tribute to the men and women across the country whose devotion as parents strengthens our society and forms the foundation for a bright future.
July 22 “Pied Piper of Hamilin: Anniversary – Maybe”: July 22, 1376. According to legend, the German town of Hamelin, plagued with rats, bargained with a piper who promised to, and did, pipe the rats out of town and into the Weser River. Refused payment for his work, the piper then piped the children out of town and into a hole in a hill, never to be seen again.
July 22 “Spooner’s Day (William Spooner Birth Anniversary)”: A day named for the Reverend William Archibald Spooner, whose frequent slips of the tongue led to coinage of the term spoonerism to describe them. A day to remember the scholarly man whose accidental transpositions gave us blushing crow (for crushing blow), tons of soil (for sons of toil), queer old dean (for dear old queen), swell foop (for fell swoop) and half-warmed fish (for half-formed wish).
July 23 “Gorgeous Grandma Day”: The “senior citizen” label can no longer describe a feeble, antiquated person who is treasured only as a volunteer or a babysitter. Indeed, the majority are far from powerless, sickly or frail. Call Alice Solomon 561-498-3543. email GGalice@gorgeousgrandma.com. Web: www.gorgeousgrandma.com.
July 24 “Cousins Day”: A day to celebrate, honour and appreciate our cousins. For info call Claudia Evart 212-779-2227, email cevart1@earthlink.net.
July 26 “One Voice”: A synchronized reading of the Universal Peace Covenant by people on all continents at 1pm (CDT). For info, email peace@som.org. See www.peacedome.org.
July 27-29 “Annual Nova Scotia Bluegrass and Oldtime Music Festival”: Bible Hill, NS, 41st annual family event with groups from the US and Canada’s Atlantic area. For info, email redhead1@eastlink.ca.
July 27 “Walk On Stilts Day”: A day to walk on stilts, providing a chance to develop self-confidence through mastery of balance and coordination. Call Bill “Stretch” Coleman 303-922-4655. email stretch@stiltwalker.com. Web: www.stiltwalker.com.
Online music stores will not have to pay royalties on song previews to publishers and songwriters, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday as part of a series of decisions on copyright.
Song previews on digital stores like Apple’s iTunes, which usually last about 30 seconds, were determined by the Copyright Board as “research” in 2007, and thus did not infringe copyright and warrant royalties. The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, but were not successful.
Read more here.
BCE Inc. proposed Tuesday tangible benefits valued at $200-million to help support the country’s broadcasting industry in its effort to obtain approval by the CRTC of the company’s acquisition of Astral Media Inc.
Approval by the federal broadcast regulator of the Astral acquisition will also require BCE to sell 10 radio stations in five markets: Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa-Gatineau and Winnipeg, the company said.
Read more here.
The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council today released its decision concerning a prank telephone call broadcast on CKZZ-FM’s (Virgin Radio 95,3, Vancouver) afternoon show Kiah & Tara Jean. The CBSC concluded that the broadcast did not violate anyone’s privacy or contain sexually explicit content, but that the station should have obtained consent before broadcasting the segment.
Read more here.