Ciao Bella (new Blog for Jan 16/17)

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When I was working out of Boston, Bob Christy (pictured with me) and I used to frequent a few restaurants and bars in the Back Bay. One of our favorites on Newbury street was called Ciao Bella and was located upstairs from Daisy Buchanon’s. Daisy’s was filled with pretty things from the surrounding colleges so there was always an ample supply of Boston’s best pro athletes sniffing around.
Not only did we know the whole staff at Ciao Bella we also knew most of the wait staff at all the nearby watering holes like the Capital Grill, Skip Jacks, Charley’s, Joe’s, and Legal Seafood which of course meant that we never had to wait for a table even when the town was crawling with tourists. 
One night while sitting at Ciao Bella’s bar waiting for Bobby the bartender approaches me and says, “George you’re in radio right” and when I answered indeed I was, she asked for my help. (of course, she was good looking) She went on to say that her nephew was graduating from broadcasting school soon so she was wondering if I could help get him a job. I told her that I would be glad to help but first you need to get him to write down everything he wants to say on the radio, then you bring it to me and if I like it I’ll put him on the radio that very night. A few weeks later back at the bar once again I asked her what was up with her nephew. She told me that when she excitedly told him who I was and what I had said, he claimed that he didn’t really have anything he wanted to say on the radio and besides that wasn’t it guys like me who supplied all that stuff anyway.
 
BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE
 
Santa’s the only one who hands out free stuff without making you dance for it.
 
AS listed below there are several ways of expressing your love but only one of them is the “I would die for you” kind.
 
1. Love ya!
2. Love ya Man!
3. Love ya Babe!
4. Love you.
5. I love you!
 
The early imperfections of Rock&Roll were what made it great.
 
How come there are no Muslim attacks in Russia, they must be onto something.
 
The only time a man should get married is when he’s smitten otherwise he’ll wake up and realize one day that his new life resembles his bride’s old life.
 
As Garth Brooks once said, “I was wild in high school but not as wild as I wanted to be, I was too afraid.
 
Is there anything quieter sounding than crickets?
 
Swapping an I for a U usually results in a rating increase.
 
Rules are intended for the people who can’t tell right from wrong.
 
After getting into radio I began to dislike weekends because that’s when I got to do normal things and why would I want to do that.
 
You are measured by what more you did after doing what you were expected to do.
 
When a woman says you’ve done something wrong one would be wise to just apologize and move on.
 
Learning to say no will be more useful to you than ever learning algebra was.
 
In order to have a long career, one must be as easy to work with as they are talented.
 
After visiting the DMV and/or Post office would you vote for increased benefits for them?
 
As the airlines know the price of a seat is based on supply and demand but radio thinks it’s based on adding more seats.
 
I wonder how frightened the lobbyists in DC are now that Trump is in power.
 
What we imagine Trump is gonna do and what he actually does is probably light years apart.
 
Despicable words when whispered into your ear by a beautiful woman take on a whole new meaning.
 
Unfortunately, I’ve come to that phase in my life where some young ladies actually hit on me but of course they’re only looking for a sugar daddy. Am I obligated to tell them that they’re too late because others beat them to it.
 
Everything that happens is not good but there’s some good in everything that happens.
 
As long as things are going well private things stay private but then…
 
Has big oil, banks and pharmaceutical companies ever heard the word no from the government?
 
I see said the blind man to the deaf man who responded with … And I hear where you’re coming from.
 
You can’t overplay someone’s favorite song.
 
The first rule of show business is to get noticed, have you noticed any radio stations lately.
 

Speaking of radio, it’s pretty difficult for a national act to get people to shop at a local store.

I wouldn’t be rushing out to buy any stock in “Politically Correct” after Jan 20/17.

More at GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Christmas Hallelujah.

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Cami’s Christmas Card.

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Merry Christmas To My Wee One
And Happy New Year To You Too
This Year My Christmas Wish Was Granted
So I’ll Be Spending It With You
 
Holidays Are Usually Very Joyful
There’s Always Something Brand New
Although Every Day’s A Special Day
Whenever I’m With You.

I Remember Doing Your Very First
Which Is Pictured Up Above
We Did It At Your Poppy’s House
And We Did It With Much Love.

We’ve Had Some Joyous Holidays
Of That, I Can Be Reasonably Sure 
But Most Of Them Will Never Match
The One We’re Gonna Have
On This Year’s Christmas Tour.

We’re Traveling To California
To Be With Friends And Family Too
We’ll Watch Nathaniel Open Many Gifts

Which’ll Take An Hour Or Two.

We’ll Spend Christmas Night At Bob & Jan’s
And I’m Sure We’ll Ooh & Ahh
Jan’s Decorations Are So Beautiful
They’re Probably Against The Law.

You’ve Been Hard At Work At College
At Least That’s What I Always Hope
But Now That You’re Twenty-One
It’s Time for some Rum and Coke.

We’ll Do A Little Christmas Shopping
Of That You Can Rest Assured.
Although Getting Us To California
Has Made Your Daddy Very Poor.

I Can Hardly Wait To See Your Sister Candis
And Your Nephew Nathaniel Too
‘Cause Whenever We’re Together
It’s Almost Too Good To Be True.

We’ve Done Nineteen Of These Together
And Only Missed Out Last Year
When I Did My First With Nathaniel
And You Did Yours Back Here.

This Year We’ll Be All Together
In Los Angeles By The Sea
And I Only Hope This Special Day
That We Make Memories.

Here’s Wishing You A Merry Christmas
And A Very Happy New Year Too
But This Year I Get The Special Gift
‘Cause I’m Spending It With You.
 
I Love You!

xodaddyxo 

 

Big Winners Aren’t Predictable. (a nice Christmas card from Tim Moore)

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Audience Development Group

 

 

 

Big Winners Aren’t Predictable                               December 7, 2016

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After all this time, students of radio still reflect on the brilliance of KVIL (Dallas-Ft. Worth). I was lucky enough to be an early-twenties guy arriving in Dallas to take a great job with the then globally renowned TM Companies. On arrival there as a northern “radio snob” raised on Chicago and Detroit behemoths, I naively thought nothing in DFW would compare. It took two weeks to digest 103.7 KVIL at which point I proclaimed to no one in particular, this is the greatest radio I’ve ever heard.

 

KVIL broke all the rules starting with exquisite talent development. No one sounded like a jock; instead they were intimate, personal, always upbeat and listener-empowering. Ron Chapman (now a Hall of Famer) was the personification of morning ringmasters in the Metroplex, nearly as revered as the Cowboys’ franchise. Behind the KVIL larger-than-life aura was Fairbanks Broadcasting, smart enough to bring Canadian George Johns to the project, entrusting Johns and Chapman with keeping their market-leader so out in front they played in another league. The rest of the DFW market incidentally was no roll-over; exceptional talent, programming, and marketing. But there was only one KVIL. Nothing the station did was conventional…when everyone else was going east, KVIL was going west. KVIL’s winning streak ran-long, until a couple of corporate sales in the nineties meant a different direction. It took about six months to deconstruct what Fairbanks’ years had built in Highland Park.

 

Today, many still reverently speak of KVIL’s gilded run including a fun remembrance which underscores the typical brilliance of “K-VIL’s” thinking. One day the largest TV franchise in Dallas-Fort Worth challenged the KVIL staff to a charity tug-of-war across the Trinity River. Everyone at the station was jacked-up, sporting new T-shirts with bright red “KVIL” across the front. The team was pumped beyond measure; that is until Ron Chapman gathered his staff and said, “Hey gang, we’re going to lose.” Perplexed, the horrified staff moaned “but why?” Chapman went on to explain that if KVIL won, they’d probably not make the evening news. But if they lost, they’d be assured of at least a five minute slot in front of hundreds of thousands of DFW viewers! Ron told them their job was to prolong the tug as long as physically possible, then collapse into the Trinity River.

 

As predicted later that night you could still see the big red KVIL letters on wet, muddy T-shirts and to top it all, you could see them for a total ten minutes over both TV newscasts. George Johns summed it up with the not-so-obvious: “sometimes you have to lose to win.”
Fast forward to present: there is absolutely nothing to prevent any program director or market manager from thinking the way Fairbanks thought. In fact there are some outposts of the KVIL mentality alive and well (though too few and seldom applauded for it by the industry). On taking inventory there is no shortage of people with exceptional creativity. The shortfall lands squarely with some companies who haven’t the faintest idea of how to encourage those minds or where to engage them. The truly “gifted” are those who see things inside-out, hear what others don’t, underscored by a raging passion to do the unexpected. That was KVIL.

There can be much more of course if only leadership endorsed risk-taking (when there’s clear-cut gain) and are willing to break the surly bonds of “we don’t do it that way.” Before Corporate Radio thought it could improve on KVIL by engaging bi-rote sloganeering and deemphasizing swashbuckling talent, some people in Highland Park, Texas created something extraordinary. The legend lives on. What’s past can be prologue.

 

Sincerely,

Tim Moore

 

Tim Moore

 

Managing Partner

 

Audience Development Group

 

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A Taste Of Honey! (new for Jan 09/16) First New Blog Of 2017.

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I was reading an article recently about Herb Alpert which reminded me of when Charlie Minor set up a meeting with him for me. Herb who was a musician was alsp one of the co-owners of A&M Records where his office was located out back of the Charlie Chaplin studios in a Quonset Hut.
Once inside that steel building though something else was going on because it looked like you’d entered an old castle and you were in Camelot.
At home in Transcona I heard Herb and the Tijuana Brass all the time because my father owned every one of their records. As I sat there discussing a business proposition with Herb I couldn’t help but wish that my Dad was still alive so I could tell him how nice his favorite artist was to his son.

JUST A FEW MORE THINGS BEFORE I GO
 
Love doesn’t need to be perfect it just needs to be true.
 
As long as you always keep in mind that Mr. Businessman will cheat you if he can I think you’ll be alright.
 
The first time you ever wonder if the woman you’re dating is sleeping with anybody else will be the last chance you’ll have to run.
 
Most ladies go through a “bad girl” phase and one can only pray that he is nearby when that occurs.
 
It is said that on their death bed men only have two regrets, not spending enough time with their family and not sleeping with all of the women they could have.
 
If you need your woman to always live in your world you might consider treating her like she’s living in heaven.
 
In order to be successful, you have to focus on all the things that you control. In order to do that, though you may have to give up concentrating on women so much and they don’t take too kindly to that.
 
Even though I’m more spiritual than I am religious I often dream about Angels which gives me a nice warm feeling especially if they’re the Victoria’s Secret variety. 
 
When we launched the first ever Adult Contemporary radio station in America at KVIL in Dallas, we started with a hundred tunes that most represented the musical sound that I was chasing. When we finally added the variety, the music never sounded as good again.
 
I doubt very much if today’s radio leaders are greedy enough to ever make radio great again.
 
Speaking of greed, is the left greedy enough to move right in order to gain power.
 
Why do we think that if a person in a foreign country burns an American flag it’s hate but if an American does it in America it’s freedom of speech?
 
The definition of a good coach is a person who tells you what you don’t want to hear, makes you see what you don’t wanna see, and insists that you do what you don’t wanna do in order for you to become the person you want to be.
 
Being afraid to make a mistake is the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.
 
Is there any newscast on any network that doesn’t have an agenda?
 
Today is the perfect day to start dreaming about what you want tomorrow to look like.
 
The method used to harvest ratings determines who’s #1 a lot more than how many are listening.
 
It amazes me how much stuff I must miss on the radio. Whenever I get a new client and offer up some suggestions on what I think will get them bigger ratings the PD always claims that they’re already doing it.
 
Great air talent talk about the city they live in and the people who live there talk about them.
 
You can get away with playing any tune on the radio as long as you serve up to your listeners a good explanation of why you’re doing so.
 
The true measure of a man is all the stuff you know about him that’s not written down.
 
Anyone who ended up changing the world was regarded as a crackpot first until eventually being called a genius when proved right.

Well you can always count on the Dolphins to do a one and done and they didn’t dissapoint.

When all the signs show that something terrible is about to happen it usually does.

Doesn’t the US mess with elections all over the world all the time.

It’s real easy to come up with a reason to walk away but it’s tough to come up with one that will make you stay.
 
Nothing ever goes right until the philosophy is right.
 

How come the media never investigates how much of the money collected for a charity actually goes to the people who it was collected for ?

As I write this Blog I’m watching the coverage of a shooting at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport where 5 people have been killed and 9 others wounded but the strange thing about all this is that it appears that news has gone full circle because the media is getting their news updates from the people via social media.

Turns out that the shooter has a Muslim name, what a surprise huh!

Whenever you see a group of men together they always seem to be laughing whereas a group of women always seem to be upset about something. Why is that?

I think Trump’s legacy will be that he wasn’t as bad as a lot of folks thought he was gonna be.

For a lot more go to GeorgeJohns.com. On Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio.