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Friday, June 30, 2006
6/30: Jimmy won’t be on GST after all
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Former 99Xer Jimmy Baron was given a weeklong sub gig for the Kimmer next week, July 3-7. But he got himself in trouble because of some offhand comments he made on his blog about Kimmer’s modest number of listeners possibly lynching him (jokingly, of course) and that GST boss Randall Bloomquist told him not to worry about ruffling feathers. Jimmy told me the Kimmer got steamed and so did some sales people there. So Jimmy won’t be on GST after all. “I was fired,” he said, with a mixture of regret and bemusement.
“If you want to play on the team, you gotta support the team,” Randall said Friday afternoon. “We didn’t care for the characterization of the audience [by Jimmy].” Still, he added, “we might work together down the road. Just not right now.”
Instead, he’s using a talks how host from Las VEgas named John David Wells to work Monday through Thursday. Eric Von Haessler from the Regular Guys will fly solo on Friday.
The lesson: blogs can get you in trouble. (His wife Lisa, a PR gal and Sunday Paper columnist, questioned him about posting such comments. So sometimes, yes, the spouse is right.) Then again, Jimmy and GST in its current incarnation isn’t a natural fit anyway.
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6/30: Hot 107.9 creator steps down
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mary Catherine Sneed, not a household name outside of radio circles, is leaving Radio One, which operates more than 70 radio stations nationwide including four in Atlanta. She had been chief operating officer since 1998 but will be known locally as the exec who helped launch Hot 97.5 (now Hot 107.9) as Atlanta’s first hip-hop station in 1995. That shook the foundations of V-103, which soon added Greg Street and began playing rap. She also boosted Ryan Cameron’s career by giving him the morning show slot before a contract dispute 18 months ago led to his return back to V-103. As a white female, she also overcame stereotypes to become a well-respected radio programmer and wheeler dealer in the hip-hop world. Not coincidentally, Radio One is led by Cathy Hughes, a strong black woman.
“I am going back to consulting,” Sneed told Billboard Radio Monitor. “I think I have a lot to offer in the urban field both in sales and programming. I also want to consult Hispanic stations on sales, which is a wide open field and reminds me of where urban radio was 15 years ago.”
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6/30: Paris Hilton single
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Paris Hilton attempting a singing career sounds like a bad idea. In fact, her notoriety is what many may say is the reason she even has a record, not necessarily any actual talent.
But our music critic Nick Marino Friday wrote about how the song “Stars are Blind” is actually frothy reggae fun along the lines of Blondie’s “The Tide is High.” Her vocals are breathy and oddly coy. Both Q100 and Star 94 have jumped on the song. It’s now the 10th most played song on Q100 with 40 spins the past week and the 21st most played song on Star 94 with 30 spins. Nationally, after about a month out, the song is up to 24 from 30 a week earlier, according to allaccess.com. It’s likely to hit the top 10 given its rate of momentum.
The question is: would folks like the song more if they didn’t know it was Paris Hilton? Would that very knowledge color listeners’ opinions good or bad? Q100’s Melissa Carter said she was inclined to hate the song but can’t help but like it. I get a sense a lot of people feel the same way. For folks who have heard “Stars are Blind,” do you fall into Melissa’s camp? Or does the fact it’s Paris make it impossible for you to like it?
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6/30: Internet radio study
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Here’s an interesting study showing that 40% of folks (but more likely if you’re younger) go to specialized Web sites to listen to streaming music rather than AM/FM station streams. More details here
hear2.0: Users Like Internet Radio, But… June 29, 2006 By Chuck Taylor, Billboard magazine
A new survey from hear2.0 says that among those Americans who have listened to streaming Internet radio, 40% do so at specialized sites such as Live 365, Launchcast or Yahoo Music. However, more listen to online radio at local or distant radio station sites. Further, online radio usage of these specialized sites is dramatically higher than for radio station sites among persons 12-34.
The research is based on a 1,000-person nationwide telephone study of persons aged 12-54.
In total, 40% of online radio listeners say they’ve tuned in a specialty Internet radio site, while 26% said they had listened to local radio stations online and 22% reported listening to Web sites of distant stations. Usage of specialized Internet radio sites was dramatically higher than local or distant radio sites among persons 12-24, marginally higher among persons 25-34 and in a dead heat with local and distant radio over age 34.
