DESSERT IN THE DESERT !

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As you can see my one on one research projects are continuing but I think I should be ready anyway for my presentation at our annual “Confab In The Desert” which is held in Palm Springs each year around this time. I plan on making a very spirited presentation this year to Gordon Zlot, Tom Skinner, Brent Farris and John Lund which will be fueled by the excellent Mojitos Tom mixes up so nicely each year. I wonder if I should bring Dessert.

One of the things I found out about Women from Women is when they fall in love their friends can no longer count on them because they just seem to disappear. On the other hand it’s very hard to figure out when a Man is in love other than when you hear a rumor that he got married so he must be huh!

There is a “Gay” rumor going around about Tebow’s college days. Barsky claims that rumors like that only get started because when you’re going to college and someone is better lookin’ than you are, you feel compelled to point out the obvious to the young ladies … He’s gotta be Gay!

Speaking of Barsky I heard him claim on Big Talk 8-50 the other day that the Nation’s debt could be wiped out in an instant if Hookers and Pot dealers just paid taxes.

I have learned that Teens seldom use e mail anymore and mainly it’s just we old timers that do. Damn and I was feeling so up to date.

PPM devices always find the “Hot” stations so if that doesn’t describe your station you better go looking for them. Good luck though there’s not a lot of ’em out there.

Have you ever been walking down the street thinking about nothing when out of the blue the perfect solution to a big problem you’ve been having pops into your head. Have you ever been happier than you are at that moment and did you feel the need to find somebody to share it with. I would venture that the pursuit of happiness is really just the pursuit of truth.

I sure agree with this statement. “Life is lived forwards but can only be truly understood backwards”

When you first hear a name like Boz Scaggs, Buster Bodine, Boomer Dinkins, Jo Jo Kincaid, Buzz Barnett, Booger Mathews, Moto Groove, Fast Freddy Fever, Shotgun Tom, Cat Simon, The Magic Christian, Delilah, Austin in Boston, Burger Jeff, Raccoon Carney, Panama Jack Crabbe, Psycho Billy Cadillac, Major Tom, Billy Raven, Johnny Dark, etc. Do you ever forget it, especially if they sound anything at all like their name.

Last week the “Honda Classic” here in South Florida was up 64% over last year because of one man. That man was Tiger of course so the question is how much should that one man band make do you suppose.

Rich Stevens said he saw a homeless guy with a sign on the corner and as he got closer to him and was about to give him some money he noticed the sign read … “This Could Be You” so Rich held on to his money just in case.

Well this has gotta be a first for Radio! Rush wont let a client called Sleep Train back on his show after they cancelled. I guess now you can say he cancelled them.

I wonder if the folks in Indy understand or care that the dropping of Peyton Manning was just a good business decision. All they know is their hero is gone.

Only close family gives you unconditional love. The only love you can ever hope for from clients or listeners even in the best of times is very conditional.

Back in the day when WIBC AM in Indianapolis was living in an FM world but ratings wise beat the next two radio stations combined we had a very neat system we used for commercials. The production department labeled each and every commercial with an A, B, or C code. A’s were great sounding spots, B’s were good and C’s were just OK and we didn’t run any D’s. We started each stop set with an A. In oversold conditions we started pulling the C’s off the air and replacing them with A’s. What a silly system eh!

Bob Christy claims because he had a similar operation to Peyton Manning’s so he knows first hand that under ideal conditions the nerves grow back into the arm only an inch a month. Peyton had his last operation September 11 … Do the Math!

In Massachusetts it’s against the law not to have a balanced budget. Just sayin’ …

Someone once told me before you make an important decision about anything you should do a good and a bad list about the matter at hand. Once done the decision becomes a whole lot simpler … Still no contest with sales folks for me but I’ll try doing the list again next year. I promise Barry. (Smith & O’Brien)

Big Bad Bobby Cole is Back in the City by the Bay Bangin’ it out Baby! http://youtu.be/bKYBQe7Dahk

14 thoughts on “DESSERT IN THE DESERT !

  1. Three points:
    1.) I understand that the meeting between Jim Irsay and Peyton Manning was largely Irsay explaining to Manning that the support system and team Bill Polian assembled and Manning approved was gone or going because of salary cap issues, sustained injuries (for example, Gary Brackett and the prior year, Bob Sanders, etc.), coaching staff changes and so forth. Several local reports have noted that Peyton was convinced he should stay in Indianapolis and Irsay finally drove the point home saying, look, can you wait four to five more years before you have a team around you that can make it to the Super Bowl ? It would be like one of your station owners for whom you consult telling a morning person you had developed that the station that was number one ten years ago has changed because of a number of factors and that everything else around that key person had changed. Would you advise that key talent to stay and wait ? Many believe that if Manning had decided to step back from being a starting quarterback and accepted a role as a quarterback-coach-mentor to Andrew Luck, Peyton would still be with the Colts. It still does not lessen the blow to the heart, but 14 years is a lifetime in the N.F.L.
    2.) Concerning the balanced budgets required in Massachusetts: Indiana’s 1851 constitution requires balanced budgets, but that has not kept the Indiana General Assembly (once termed by the late Harrison Ullman as “the best legislature money can buy”) (or the occasional governor) from passing and operating the state with an unbalanced budget and running up deficits. Although I was a fan of the late Frank O’Bannon and his successor, Joe Kernan, Mitch “The Blade” Daniels at least took the state from being over a billion dollars in debt back to firm fiscal footing within his first term in office, even though he pissed off nearly everybody in the state except the voters.
    3.) The “pro and con list” for making a decision is what the late J. Douglas Edwards and his protege and successor, Tom Hopkins, call “The Ben Franklin Close”, because supposedly Ben Franklin used it whenever he had to make a difficult decision. Any good salesperson will pull out a legal pad and handle the benefits and the objections that way in iffy situations.

    Best regards.

    • Well I am certainly happy to hear that the 28 Mill had nothing to do with Manning’s departure. Is Irsay counting on the fans to hang in there for 4 years and pay huge ticket prices to watch him re build or can they just come back when he claims they are are almost ready to Rock(-:

  2. George,

    As a long time creative type (writer/producer/director/studio sweeper upper), I have to say (and you already know this anyway as a former production type) that nobody sets out to create jusy an OK spot. Time and talent often dictate how it turns out. And who decided what was an A, B, or C commercial?
    I’ve put promos together in 20 minutes and then I’ve spent 8 to 10 hours on one promo. I’d like to think the promo I put all that time and effort into was the better one, but sometimes, your first instincts work best.

    • Coming from the same world as you Doug I am of course a promo freak. You’re right some promos just fell together almost in one take. I was lucky that Hilliard loved Promos because I always got to hire great Production people some with Magic Hands some with a Magic Voice and a rare few with both. Most of them went on to National Prominence. As good as some of the spots were they weren’t even close to the promos.

  3. “My idea of a great vacation would be two weeks in an iron lung!

    Because that way I wouldn’t even have to move!”

    The Magic Christian 1984

  4. Recall on Indianapolis’ WNAP-FM in the 70s, if the jock was paying attention to quarter hour maintenance and flow, he/she would run spots in a break in this order. Alright, it was mostly me:

    A) seque into Station Promo
    B) into Concert spot (unless station promo was a concert promo)
    C) Record spot or record store spot
    D) Jingle spot
    E) Voice spot with music
    F) Voice spot without music

    Theory being if we could keep em listening thru 1 or 2 spots, have them tune away, they could return into the next song and be counted as two listeners by the Arbitron computer! Installed same system in San Diego. Not sure if helped, but sure sounded damn good.

  5. Just got home from Palm Springs. Sorry I did not know about the Dessert in the Desert. WE could have hooked up!
    Sebastian

    • That would have been so fun Ken. How are you doing aren’t we in a new decade now which as I recall is very dangerous but fun time for you(-:

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