“Good Time Charlie” (a mostly radio geo Blog for the week of Nov 06/17)

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On March 09 1995 a good friend of mine, Charlie Minor was gunned down by a stripper at his Malibu home in California, and the music industry has never been the same since. When I first met Charlie he was Senior V/P for A&M records and was responsible for the success of such acts as Janet Jackson, The Carpenters, and The Police to name but a few. It was once reported in the LA Times that if you wanted your Hollywood party to be a big success just get Charlie Minor to show up. Charlie traveled with an entourage so large that you really wouldn’t need anybody else on the guest list.
Whenever I was in LA, Charlie would invite me to have a quiet dinner with him which of course meant that I would also be dining with 50 of his closest friends which always included a few stars. 
On his arm at these intimate dinners were the most incredible women I’d ever seen. Unfortunately, you only got to see these beautiful women once, and I for one have always wondered whatever happened to them. However, I was told that most of them showed up for his funeral and I’m pretty sure that many of them are in the video at the bottom of this page.

WHAT ELSE YA GOT YOU ASK?

Well, the beautiful Camera Anne Johns Summerfield turns 22 today. Happy birthday “wee one,” I love you. xoxoxo.

Speaking of daughters, Candis also had a birthday recently, but I’m no longer allowed to know how old she is. 

I read somewhere that Jane Fonda now claims that she was terrified whenever she was with Harvey Weinstein. I would think that climbing around tanks and hanging out with the Vietcong in North Vietnam would have been much scarier.
 
What I can’t figure out is when did any NFL players find the time to be thugs? Didn’t they spend most of their time working out?
 
How is a man supposed to tell the difference between a woman willing to sleep her way to the top and those who don’t? A lot of them sure look the same.
 
Have you noticed that the sound of music seems to evolve when you’re young from, “That’s what I’m fucking talking about man,” to “What’s your fucking problem man” as you grow older?
 
As Walt Disney said, “There’s no magic in the magic, it’s all in the details.”
 
I can only wonder if Trump was black, Hispanic, or female, would the same comments be made? If so, wouldn’t those comments be labeled racist, prejudiced, and sexist?
 
It’s the little things that make the big things happen.
 
The word thank you has the power to ease a lot of tension.
 
The only problem with a big rating jump is that the advertising agencies all want to wait for one more book just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke.
 
A great morning show always continues to sell their city back to the people who have already bought into the concept.
 
I love hanging out with salespeople; they’re just not fun at work.
 
When pressed for an instant answer to a sales request, Ron Chapman always said no which always seemed to buy him a little more time to think about it.
 
Clients will always pay more for promotional announcements than commercials, but radio continues to give them away.
 
When you sell cars, you have to know everything about your product. I wonder why radio people are not required to do the same?
 
The morning show host should always represent themselves like they own the radio station because their fans already think they do.
 
My favorite people on the radio are the ones who when I threatened to take away all their records just to see if they had anything to say, begged me to do it.
 
Most Dee-Jays when asked what they just said on the radio can’t tell you.
 
I really like NPR but what I don’t like is their constant begging for money and the far left attitude, but I love all the rest.
 
The people always find the hot station. The rest better advertise.
 
Hey, when the new music research shows up at the radio station, don’t get too excited and go home just yet, you’re only 25% done.
 
Most radio stations already have enough cume to more than double their average quarter hour share.
 
The easiest way to have big ratings on the weekend is to make your weekday numbers bigger.
 
So goes the morning show so goes the station.
 
Good morning show hosts are great storytellers, and their fans tell great stories about them.
 
The way it’s supposed to work is the radio station makes the morning show host famous and they, in turn, endorse the rest of the station.
 
Nobody ever got rich working for someone else.
 

Only a handful of people can make a stock rise, but none of them, unfortunately, work in radio.

To see Charlie’s Angels, click on the link below.

Much much more @ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing appreciated.

 

He’s Wearing A Black Hat Man! (a new geo blog for the week of Oct. 30/17)

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Back in the day when radio was more like TV is today, they used to run shows like the “Lone Ranger” and “The Shadow Knows.” Whenever the producers were casting for a new drama they would put the hopeful voice actors into a blind studio and as each actor read their script, the producers would mark “Black Hat” or “White Hat.” It didn’t matter what words they used or how they looked; the producers could tell from their voice alone if the listeners were going to perceive them as a good guy or a bad guy.It’s no different today; the listeners still continue to put a black hat or white hat on radio people.
When Bob Christy and I launched Boston’s first Country station, we found this great jock to do nights. He’d never done country but because he sounded so good, we decided to give him a shot. Unfortunately, even though he sounded great, his ratings were a disaster. The folks had figured out real quick that he was only a Rhinestone Cowboy who probably wasn’t wearing a black or white hat let alone boots.
Doing mornings at the time was the legendary team of Loren & Wally.(pictured above with the whole crew)The listeners definitely knew that Loren was wearing a big ole black hat because whenever he answered the phone the caller would nervously ask if they could speak to Wally. Delilah, on the other hand, was definitely wearing white but afternoon funnyman Tom Doyle (pictured above in front, on the right) who wanted to be perceived as a white hat guy, was spotted early on as just another angry Irishman. His listeners knew that he was probably dressed in black while doing his best to hide behind humor which was all part of his charm.

JUST A FEW MORE THINGS TO GET OFF MY CHEST… 

Without trust, there is no loyalty.
 
Every industry has its own jargon; I wonder why Doctors and Pharmacists chose Latin to be theirs?
 
I find it strange that one of the biggest companies on the planet, (Amazon), doesn’t really manufacture anything.
 
Is it just the government and a few business types who understand why we give away so much free money to foreign nations? 
 
The two types of people in radio who deserve most of the money are … Those who can get someone to listen to their radio station and those that can get clients to advertise.
 
The way it’s supposed to work at a radio station is a bunch of people accomplishing a mission while having fun.
 
If your radio station is failing, it’s not fatal. However, not changing it is.
 
When a gifted person decides to get creative, it’s time for the rest of us to get out of the way.
 
People only notice the inconsistencies of a radio station, good and bad.
 
The only good show on radio is the one which produces a good promo.
 
Wrapping a hundred dollar bill around a commercial doesn’t make it sound better.
 
If you’re not talented, I suggest getting famous. Right, Ryan.
 
Inspiration is at least ten times more powerful than motivation.
 
A radio station sounds totally different outside the walls of the station.
 
When you manage a business from the bottom up, it puts enormous pressure on the employees to come up with something worth managing.
 
There are two types of women out there, those with babies and those without.
 
Music is either up, or it’s not, and it’s either loud, or it’s not.
 
There is no finer celebration than a huge rating party.
 
A radio station eventually begins to sound like its program director.
 
Why do people who are not at all funny try to tell jokes on the radio?
 
Holding on to what you have usually keeps you from having what you want.
 

Radio has survived the onslaught of TV, CB’s, Satelite, Computers, Video Games, iPods, etc. but we weren’t ready for the accountants.

What a strange World Series huh?
 
I recently read that the young people today prefer praise more than sex or money. Well, that certainly screams old at me.
 
Does anyone on welfare ever vote Republican?

Much more @ George Johns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing and commenting encouraged.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Yes Men! (new geo Blog for the week of Nov 20/17)

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A lot of people have the power to say no, but only a few can say yes. Unfortunately, finding a yes man is tough duty but necessary if you hope to become successful.
Case in point, I remember an evening years ago in Coronado when my fifteen-year-old daughter Candis shocked me by saying, ‘I want to finish up high school in France Dad.” Before I could gather my thoughts and respond, my wife Lana’s voice rang out from the kitchen, “Tell her she can’t go.” Having never said no to her I hoped to buy myself a little time; I told her, “Before I can even begin to discuss that honey, I have to be looking at straight A’s on your report caed. Sure enough, straight A’s it was, and before I knew it or ever wanted it, I was watching my petite daughter boarding an Air France jet bound for Paris. Man, that was a terrible day. The only thing good about it I guess was when she returned to Coronado to graduate with her class; she was completely fluent in French.
Later that summer, once again she came to me with another shocker, this time she excitedly told me that she had been accepted at NYU in New York and once again Lana’s voice rang out from the kitchen, “Tell her she can’t go.”
Recently Candis and I (pictured above with me shortly after she had completed the Ironman competition) were reliving some of our more memorable days in Coronado. One of the things we laughed about was how embarrassed she was when she returned home from school in France. I’d put a billboard up at the entrance to the Coronado bridge which welcomed her home but unfortunately, it stayed up for months so whenever she was ever introduced to somebody new, they’d say, “Oh you’re the chick on the billboard.” We also reminisced about how we had to take her to New York on the train because she had developed a fear of flying. However, when I asked if she remembered all the times her Mom had yelled from the kitchen, “Tell her she can’t go” she claimed that she didn’t know from that. She said that the only thing she remembered was that she was talking to the right guy.
 
JUST A FEW MORE THINGS THAT I’D LIKE TO RANT ABOUT
 
This moment is the only moment that counts; it’s about to launch your future.
 
I like a lot of other immigrants to the US had no involvement in slavery nor do I have any interest in paying for it.
 
Speaking of slaves, less than 5% of Americans owned them; maybe their descendants should be hunted down and be held accountable. I’m sure they’re still all rich.
 
I remember when Mr. Businessman used to bring money to the party, what the hell does he bring now?
 
Radio’s only future is bankruptcy, why not now?
 
I wonder if the rest of the world realizes that most Americans only think of them as Crises Du Jour?
 
Pig Harvey forgot the rule, “If you’re gonna sexually harass someone, you better be good looking.”
 
Also, seeing as Mr. Piggy has women talking out of school and even though we’re supposed to be gentlemen, I’m sure they won’t mind if we do too?
 
If you wanna blow your phone lines out, put a psychic on the air but don’t expect any ratings. Nobody wants to hear about a search for a missing diamond earring.
 
When I moved to America in the 70s, the big demo was 18-49. A little later it moved to 25-54 as they followed the money. Unfortunately, it hasn’t moved even though the money has.
 
So when the ladies are servicing the “Guitar Gods” who’s zooming whom?
 
I think that if I had a talent, it would be who should play what part in what play. Kinda like years ago when I heard that Monday Night Football had hired Dennis Miller as the third guy in the booth. I thought that would have had Dennis point out all the unusual things he saw in the stands, but instead, they had him talk about football. Huh?
 
Consultant Doug Erickson claimed that he remembers when he could go into any market, turn on the radio and tell if I was involved.
 
Have you ever noticed that the people who claim that you need to learn to listen are those who do most of the talking?
 
When recently hearing that I shouldn’t treat women like sex objects, I responded with, “I agree, most of them aren’t qualified.”
 
Why do the wives of prominent men think they are the authorities on everything. Hey, there is no such as Mrs. Doctor.
 
Brent Farris of KZST claims that the NFL ratings have never been higher for the start of the games.
 
A radio station’s deadliest enemy is not their competitor; it’s the off button.
 
A good attitude with little aptitude doesn’t produce very much.
 
It doesn’t take brains to buy a radio station, just money.
 
Anybody can sell great ratings.
 
Women make absolutely no sense until you love them so I would suggest falling in love with your listeners.
 
We tend to celebrate bad ratings and bad sales figures a hell of a lot longer than good ones.
 
Always remember this, nobody is for you.
 
The #1 biller is the real #1 station in every market.
 
There are three types of people in radio, gifted, creative, and all the others.
 
People only dream about their wants, but they have nightmares about their needs.
 
If a promotion doesn’t excite the on-air talent or cause talk in the marketplace, it’s called a sales promotion.
 

A song usually has to go make top 10 before it gets into your memory bank.

Did the Dolphins really lose at home to one of the few teams who have a worse record than them?

I wonder what favor Trump had to give up to get those 3 UCLA basketball players released from custody in China? How embarrassing.

Speaking of the sticky-fingered trio from UCLA, when you hear one of their dads speak out like he’s now doing, you sure can tell why one of them may have gone bad.

Much more @ GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Appreciate the share.
 
 
 
 

Can You See It Now? (a new geo Blog for the week of Oct 23/17)

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The first time I met Victor Gold, it was at his home in Falls Church just outside of DC where he told me something I’ve never forgotten.(At the time I was smitten by his daughter) Mr. Gold was the type of person who when wasn’t suited up to watch the Crimson Tide demolish another team on TV, or busy writing a new book, could be found in the Whitehouse assisting several of our presidents.
When I had the privilege of meeting him, he was writing the screenplay for a movie based on one of his novels. After touring the house and admiring the pictures of all the famous people who had visited his home before me, including his good friend Bear Bryant, I asked how the scriptwriting was going? He said that it was finally finished, but when he showed it to me, surprisingly, it appeared to be less than a third the size of the original book. When I queried him about how much he left out, he said, “Absolutely nothing!” Noticing the confused look on my face he explained, “George there’s a scene in the novel where a woman is visiting her husband in prison which took me thirteen pages to describe. I wanted the reader to be able to visualize how dark and rainy the day was, and how gloomy the prison looked as she walked towards the entrance where the intimidating guards awaited her.” The cameras he claimed, will show all of this in less than five seconds.
Ahh, I said to him, “Are you suggesting Vic that it would behoove a disc-jockey to use some descriptive phrases which may start a movie in the mind of the listener, helping them see what he’s saying?” Exactly!

A FEW OTHER THINGS THAT WERE RUNNING THROUGH MY MIND (they dare not walk)…

Victor Gold, (pictured above) also told me, “Sometimes the squeaky wheel gets replaced not greased.”

You’re only deemed courageous when everyone else is afraid, and you’re not.
 
The only women I know who are treated as sex objects are those who wear too much makeup, show lots of cleavage while strutting around in stiletto heels wearing very short skirts.
 
Does anybody other than the government give a damn what Mr. Businessman wants?
 

Walt Disney believed that it all came down to metaphysics. You either believed life was good or you believed it would turn out bad. Oh, and if you believed bad, you couldn’t work at Disney.

Hey FCC, listen up. Most radio stations in America don’t have a local staff so they couldn’t have handled the Santa Rosa fires which would mean that peoples lives would have been in danger. Fortunately,  KZST handled the crises just fine.
 
Men have a lot of “me too” stories too; unfortunately, I guess we liked them.
 
I think the saddest day in a man’s life would be the day that he discovers he’s not even the star of his own story.
 
What do you do when you finally get what you dreamed about, and it doesn’t make you happy?
 
I yearn to see a golden triangle.
 
It only takes one person to start and end a dispute.
 
I wonder how much money businesses are losing by saving money?
 
Is it possible to buy anything without being upsold?
 
Figuring out how to do product placement should be radio’s new quest.
 
The responsibility of a program director is to make his or her radio station sound as good as it’s fans already thought it did.
 
Just because the PPM device is deaf in the early mornings doesn’t mean the listeners are.
 
92.3 % of all statistics are made up on the spot including this one.
 
My old pal Aristotle claims that what you perceive the truth to be, doesn’t change what the truth is.
 
Not only will the truth set you free, sometimes it will make you laugh out loud.
 
For years back home in Canada, the slogan on our license plates read, “Friendly Manitoba.” I don’t think that would ever work well in Quebec.
 
How come most real estate agents are so good looking?
 
The population of our planet is almost eight billion people, and only eleven of them are qualified to be called Victoria’s Secret Angels. How much should that gig pay do you suppose?
 
Through all my years of consulting various radio stations, the only thing they had in common was the PDs telling me that they were already doing what I suggested that they should do.
 
Most great radio stations had a cause, but I don’t believe paying down the debt was one of them.
 
Accountants don’t have ears they only have eyes, so we radio people all look the same to them, so they go with the cheapest.
 
Great radio personalities observe life and describe it using an exaggerated and slightly distorted view.
 
I wonder what radio would sound like today if TV hadn’t come along?
 
Rich people only care about saving money. People who want to get rich only care about making money.
 
Why do politicians think that they have more rights than the rest of us?
 
I truly believe that lobbyists harm America but the only people who can get rid of them are the only people who derive any benefit from them. The politicians.
 

It cost $30 a tank more to fill your car up in Canada than the US. Hey, somebody’s got to pay for that free health care.

Hey NFL, the longer you let the Dolphins hang around, the sooner Jay Cutler is going to turn into a real QB.

The first rule of showbiz is to get noticed, but if you’re not talented, that may not be a good thing.

Much more at GeorgeJohns.com and on Twitter @GeoOfTheRadio. Sharing appreciated.