Page Deux Monthly Newsletter Updates for Management, Sales, Promotion McVayMedia.com Domain Names Podcasting 411 Recommended reading, flix Cool Deals/Free Stuff HC bio, airchecks: [WPRO 1977] [WBIG 2001]

Evidence is everywhere: Demographic demand will shift. While Sally Timebuyer and chop-shop buying services grind 25-54 numbers, a din of anecdotal data points to a higher sweet spot. I write this the morning after seeing Neil Diamond at Fenway Park. Imagine? This act -- which owes its existance to AM radio -- sold-out at sky-high ticket prices, sold $40 T-shirts, and rang-up 7 figures in concession sales. Demographic? Bottom-end AARP, and a promising number of the 40-somethings whose TSL is at-risk. Yet radio conventional wisdom shies-away-from "Oldies."

By all means, pitch Sally. And if you're a Boston radio station do this too: Have staffers attending sneak-in as many deflated logo'd beach balls as they can stuff under their windbreakers. Once inside, blow 'em up and launch 'em into the stands. Your call letters will bounce-around for that exciting hour of pre-show anticipation when attendees feel like they're at a happening.

MUST READING: from Arbitron and Edison Media Research: "The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio's Digital Platforms AM/FM, Online, Satellite, HD Radio and Podcasting," and “The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008,” which documents significant increases in consumption of archived audio and video, and paints an attractive qualitative picture of podcast consumers.

Audience for Limbaugh's commercials higher than for El Rushbo's show! In my session “PPM: Cutting Through the Fog” at R&R's Talk Radio Seminar in Washington, Coleman Insights president Jon Coleman previewed "The PPM DNA of Rush Limbaugh." If you’re a Rush Limbaugh affiliate – or competitor – you WILL want to read this. Jon’s firm logged the content of 30 hours of The Rush Limbaugh Show, and compared it to moment-by-moment-by-moment PPM data from those hours. 3 provocative conclusions will be instructive to anyone who hosts radio.

When you see the Coleman data, you may roll-your-eyes JUST-a-tad-less when your consultant preaches, as-relentlessly-as-I-do, that talent should "cut to the chase, spit it out, and get to callers ASAP." This was the theme of "12 SECONDS OF GREATNESS: How The Very First Thing You Say Can Multiply Your Ratings," my session at Talkers magazine’s New Media Seminar in New York. "Excellent Presentation" AllAccess.com News/Talk Editor Perry Michael Simon, with generous, unsolicited applause. Want a copy? Click here to order the session on CD, an audio/video Flash file. It's a-meeting-in-a-box you can play on your computer, and share with associates.

On-Air/Online: Which is the dog, which is the tail? HC is R&R's guest News/Talk columnist. Internet passes radio, as your listeners' "essential media" (as they line-up for iPhones): Edison Media Research. 2 words Talk hosts should avoid? Clue: They're two of the words too many Talk hosts use too often. Sean Hannity shares success secret. Some hosts scorn consultants. He writes one a big check. Not me! But Sean -- not his network -- is funding sophisticated research to tweak his show, as he detailed when he spoke at Arbitron's recent Consultant Fly-In conference. Read how you can emulate this success technique, FREE, with information you already have, in my Fly-In notes. No password, no spam. You will also read: > Why your TV spots aren't working... > How to INSTANTLY amp-up Direct Mail results... and more. So you want to syndicate. I can help you. But first, can I talk you out of it? The mojo radio NEEDS, on-display @ CES2008. At the massive, mind-boggling Consumer Electronics Show: 140,000 attendees, a 35-football-field-size Exhibit Hall, an obsession with innovation. As new devices compete for our time with listeners, never forget: NO other gizmo has more copies in use than AM and FM radios. But that’s a history lesson. And, if we're smart, a big head start, as outlined in my December newsletter.

If Al Gore can turn his PowerPoint into an Academy Award winning movie, I can put mine on YouTube. Use the-very-same-Internet of-which Gore really-WAS-a-prime-mover to see-and-hear 5 Ways To Make Arbitron Ratings Go UP. And The Boss will like this: 4 of 'em are FREE.

Copyright 2008 Holland Cooke