Geo’s Media Blog. (Righteous) New for 8/31/20

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This morning, I stumbled across a feature on YouTube where you get to watch people’s reactions to a song and artist they were previously unaware of.

This particular video was Righteous Brother, Bobby Hatfield, singing “Unchained Melody” at a nightclub in 1965. Bobby said later that because his parents were in attendance, he was very nervous, but he nails it, and in fact, I think it was better than the record.

Now the person who was seeing this for the first time some fifty years after the fact is a black lady whose reaction as she watches the video is priceless. (see it by clicking the link at the bottom of the page)

I’ve loved The Righteous Brothers dating back to 1962 and “Little Latin Lupe Lu. Unfortunately, I never got to see them until the early ’80s when I saw them in concert along with Fats Domino at the San Diego Zoo.

However, my favorite Righteous Brother moment may have been when we were running a promotion at K101 in San Francisco, where Don Bleu married a couple aboard the Goodyear Blimp high above the Golden Gate Bridge.
When the ceremony was over, the happy couple requested Unchained Melody as their wedding song. However, when Bobby Hatfield called to thank them for requesting his song, I got goosebumps.

GEO’S LIFE-LINERS

Repetition = Success.

There’s always lots of room at the bottom but very little at the top. 

Just because it’s urgent doesn’t mean it’s important.

The problem in America isn’t with the immigrants; it’s with some of the folks who were born here.

Did any world leaders write their famous quotes?

Why are we letting Governors, Mayors, and Police Chiefs off the hook for the Coronavirus? If they can impose curfews, they can also impose mandatory face masks and social distancing.

I think the middle class should abstain from being involved in the upcoming election. Seeing as the politicians only help the rich and poor, maybe we should let them have at it. Good luck.

So far, I’ve been over informed about so-called bad boy Trump, but very under-informed about what Biden has planned. Why is that?

Back when I lived in western Canada, not only were we pissed about the fact that Quebec was over-represented in parliament, but how most of the federally funded projects just happened to end up in Quebec. Surely that’s over by now?

COMMENTS
Steve Eberhart: Regarding Tim Moore’s comments on KVIL. I can remember many staff meetings where discussions would be held about how many out of town radio types were coming to Dallas to listen to KVIL to try to figure out the secret to its success.
Occasionally, we’d hear stations who tried to imitate it, only to smile amongst ourselves at the very significant elements to the strategy they’d miss.
The truth is, it wasn’t THAT complicated. Most of them started with music. Sure, they could find our playlist and copy that. But what they missed was the music wasn’t the star. It was a concept that baffled many in the industry; the music was the easy part. A carefully tuned ear could instantly recognize a song we’d either play or not. No chart position or record company hype EVER entered the conversation.
The promotions could be copied word for word. Some of the marketing, perhaps, if you had the budget (most didn’t).
The one thing they could not duplicate was the PEOPLE at KVIL.  Not just the on-air legends that occupied the various time slots. Literally at every position, from the receptionist to engineer. Sales to management, to news, to board ops. Each person in that position was hired because they were the very best person to accomplish that job.
At every level, you were working with passionate, driven, and talented individuals with one goal. To do and be the very best. It was no accident, and there wasn’t a lot of luck involved. Literally, everything in that building was purposeful. Almost all of it contrived by the brilliant mind of Ron Chapman and a laundry list of very talented people, with second on the list George Johns. (no offense George).
How dedicated was management to the task?  There was a full-time salaried person whose only job each day was to create a one-sheet “Daily Sheet.” It listed all of the various local events and topics that were top of mind awareness for that day. Air talent used it seamlessly on the air to relate to listeners. One might think that could be a task assigned as an add-on to perhaps an administrative assistant or DJ. It could have been, but it would have been a secondary task for that person resulting in a secondary effort.
It might surprise many to learn that the daily sheet was as important as any air talent, promotion, or billboard management spent money on.  I can’t imagine a scenario in which any other Program Director would be able to go to management and say we need to hire someone to do the daily sheet and pay them equal to an on-air talent. KVIL did.
There were a lot of BIG reasons KVIL was enormously successful.  There were probably a lot more SMALL things that created the magic as well.  Quality control at every level was uncompromised.  Most could never decipher it from listening to a couple of hours of recording of the station. But that’s cool too!
Geo: Jim Hilliard often said that the Daily Sheet was responsible for at least half of KVILs ratings. The beauty of the sheet was, if you read it on air as it was written, you’d sound like an idiot. Everybody had to rewrite it to fit them, so it seemed brand new with every read.
Bill Gardner became so addicted to the Daily Sheet that when he worked in other markets, he wrote his own.
At one point, Bill went to work for my brother Reg in Toronto, and after being held up at the border, he barely made it in time for his first shift. However, as Reg later said, Bill sounded more Toronto that day than any of his other jocks ever did.

Chuck Knapp: Great words of wisdom. Your son and grandson are so blessed by their grandfather. (Rules)

Dick Taylor: Geo, what a FABULOUS list of things to remember to be grateful for in our senior years. Thank You for sharing it. I’ve printed it out. It’s a keeper. Sharing it with others too. (65+)

2 thoughts on “Geo’s Media Blog. (Righteous) New for 8/31/20

  1. Tom Hoyt: Thanks for the memory, Geo! Your notions of what the on-air folks did every day were passed along thru your consulting to my morning show at KFRG, Scott & Bo, “The Frogmen in the Morning”. Bo was the goof but Scott was the glue and he did his own “The List” for the show that was used and passed on the following hosts.
    The FROG’s secret was LOCAL baby! Everything from that little list of what’s happening to the charity involvements to community service. The other guys never did figure that out. We did twice as much w’ the time we were on-air talking than our competitors. Our listeners grew to trust us….that visceral connection to the station that you NEEDED to listen because it was your neighborhood! It was fun to work there and I was honored to be the GM for 16 years. Thanks. (Righteous)
    Geo: What a great station, Tom, and other than a few of our adventures in LA, my favorite moment was, not only did you got a Cardinal to come in and bless the new studios but beneath all his finery, he was wearing Cowboy Boots. I believe our next book was the best ever.

  2. Doug Chappell: George, the Daily Sheet is exactly what is missing in most radio. Since the wife and I moved to Niagara Falls we have the radio on all waking moments and have yet to find “Our Station”. One of the local stations has the John Tesh Show, it’s OK but it is a syndicated no local content program. Another station has Ryan Seacrest the same thing, no local. As we have always believed radio was important because it was a “Hot Medium”, it was ours and it was informing us of what was happening now. When I first started listening to radio and fell in love with it Rock ‘N’ Roll was just starting and I hung onto the DJs every word as they told me stuff about the music, the artist, and what was happening in my city. I got hooked, I became a musician then morphed into a record company guy BUT if that was not my route I think I would have gone into radio. I loved working with radio people and did my best to understand their industry and how we could have a symbiotic relationship…attempting a result where we both became winners. I was lucky enough to run some labels, I hired great people including a great financial guy so I only had to spend a small amount of time thinking money and most time was spent with artists and music….what a good time we had. (Righteous)
    Geo: I always enjoyed your visits, Doug, and because of that, I remember taking a flyer on a couple of your tunes. However, as I read your comment this morning, what popped into my head was an embarrassing moment that occurred during one of your visits.
    When I was hired as the PD of CFTR, I always wore Beatle Boots which I continued to do even when they made me the Station Manager. Anyway, when you were shown into my office, I arrogantly put my feet up on my desk, only to discover a black leather boot on my left foot and a brown suede one on the right. You were so cool, you didn’t even mention it. 🙂

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