New Rock Radio: Passé?

Again, the debate rekindled.

"The format in the last couple of years has gone through an identity crisis. You have stations that are too cool, that move too quickly and are only playing the coolest music, which doesn't at the end of the day attract enough of the audience. Or you have the other extreme, dumb rock, red-state rock that the cool kids just flat out aren't into." - Kevin Weatherly, program director of KROQ

Channel Z was definitely the station that moved quickly. Too quickly is debatable. I will say it was a struggle at times to keep up with new music, as sometimes they seemed to stay on a 'new music rotate' for a week or so, then put into the mash and 'lost' - especially tracks that would have had legs. It seemed like those songs just vanished after a month. By that time, it'd made the ZM/Edge playlist and Channel Z was already onto the followup single.

Its a reflection of how much priority the record companies put into rock music, when released alongside artists like Frankie J etc..

Its a reflection that if ZM/Edge are playing the song, it may no longer be perceived as 'cool' by a Channel Z audience (or programming). I know that GeorgeFM keep an eye on ZM when they playlist artists like Armand Van Helden, or that shocker by Eric Prydz. As soon as its on ZM, its off George (or a low rotate if its unavoidable).

Perhaps it would have been better to age these singles and build a stronger back library? Im not saying thin out the pickings of new singles and keep the same d-dates for songs in categoeirs, im saying keep recurrents on longer. This may strengthen a rock format?

The only other comment id have about rock formats would be its message, aside from the music. Are their personalities boofheads, or knowledgeable. Is it entertaining and progressive or liner/sales/promo driven radio shows?

Everybody needs good neighbours

In an effort to intice you to read some of my favourite blogs, links and resources out there on the web which are linked in that other column over there, I've added a small blurb about each site. Just hover over the link for the guff.

Example, hover over this word >> Appetite <<

chur.

In-Between Days

I awake at 6am. Its like, zero degrees outside and I dont want to get out of bed. I may as well be in the middle of Antarctica.

I get to work about 6:45 - the sun has just climbed the horizon and the world is waking up around me. Temperature warming.

9am and the temperature is much better. Comfy.

I know its April and here in NZ, its Autumn (Fall) heading into Winter. The isobars are getting closer together and im already washing the frost off my car windows every morning... but, the weirdness about all this is that by 11am most mornings at my office, the temprature is Ibizic and almost unbearable.

Two tings jah.

I have airconditioning. It's just not working at the moment.
Last week, the kitchen was flooded so we had giant industrial HEATERS drying the carpet, warming what was already the hottest part of the building. (so why am I gonna try and hide one of those heaters...)

The irony? By the time everythings fixed, I wont need it.

But I digress.

Ghost Mouse

I've been in the remote networking world for the last week, since purchasing a Woosh modem and putting my server online. It has the potential to be a really stressful headspace - let me tell you.

Can I just say, thank god for Wizard programs - coz after talking with Woosh and a few other tech savvy peeps about ports, IP addresses and all that 'geek' stuff (it is geek, don't deny it), I managed to get everything running last night - although I was still a skeptic until I entered my IP address with password and like magic, on my screen, was a computer 30km away.

Up until now, I have had to drive there every damn day to upload a measley 700kb of information. An expensive trip, and although I dont mind driving - it often put pressure on my daily schedule and after-hours activities ("I just gotta go to the hill") knocking me out for up to 90 minutes, depending on traffic.


I can highly recommend Woosh Wireless if you are in Auckland. They were super-friendly, listened, and offered knowledgeable and practical support. I know this looks like a cheap endorsement but if you're a Jaffa shopping for uber-broadband internet - see Woosh - they support PC/Mac/Linux, and you'll get May free.

Secondly, I highly recomment VNC software. It's open-source, tiny, and just too freakin' simple to use. Try RealVNC or UltraVNC. Each a slighly different flavour of each other. Others here.

VNC is also available across PC/Mac/Linux/Palm platforms and the theory works - you can view other platforms from your machine [take a look], it includes Java versions for browsers and a swag of other utilities.

Turn your Lunch Around

How a virus manages to decipher and change detailed information in a wave-form astounds me, but I'll go with it - coz it made me laugh. Sorry about your troubles with this Jonathan, but whoever came up with this at least had a sense of humour.

..from Jonathan's explosion..

"Well it has been a harrowing week in Explosionville folks, as we clean up after one of the meanest, nastiest and destructive viruses that can befall your MP3 files. No doubt you've read about it in the tech press and it caught us before we could update the virus definition files. Yes, it's that Lunch Virus. Many of you will have heard that this virus goes and looks for the word love in your MP3 files, and then changes the sound in the file to make it sound like lunch instead. That's why you've been hearing songs this week such as I'm in the mood for Lunch, Lunch is better the Second time Around, I've got my lunch to keep me warm, The Things we do for Lunch, my Lunch, my life, The Look of Lunch, I'm all out of Lunch, Lost in Lunch, Making Lunch out of Nothing at All, When we Make Lunch, We don't make Lunch anymore, I just fall in Lunch again, How Deep is your Lunch, Do you Lunch as Good as you Look, The Gift of Lunch, To make you Feel my Lunch, Lost without your Lunch, Too much Lunch will Kill you, Lunch will keep us Together, Never Ending Song of Lunch, Endless Lunch, Where did our Lunch go, You Can't Hurry Lunch, Puppy Lunch, Better Lunch Next Time, After the Lunch is Gone, What is this thing called Lunch, I Want Lunch, Part time Lunch, Bye bye Lunch, Lunch and Marriage, Turn your Lunch Around, Everlasting Lunch, Sea of Lunch, What the World needs now is Lunch, You always hurt the one you Lunch, Lunch is a Battle field, Tonight I celebrate my Lunch, A Woman Needs Lunch Just like You Do, Feel like Makin Lunch, Let my Lunch be your Pillow, Tainted Lunch, You've got to hide your Lunch away, Don't throw your Lunch Away, The Greatest Lunch of all, and Saving all my Lunch for you."

A New Hope?

I mean Pope?

Im one of those people who find these things funny, even if its seen as bad taste. Good comedy is often at its funniest this way.


Of all the pictures that have come my way (Schwarzenneger, Hasselhoff - even Brian Tamaki), this one is probably the best quality, and good for a quick giggle.

Like Mike

A true gentleman, humble charisma.

Mike Francis will be sorely missed. I saw him as a rock in the industry, continually keeping standards, not slipping, staying focussed. Mike ingrained a lot of tricks, passion and professionalism into our industry, sharing radio tru-isms and inspiring many.

A great loss to our airwaves, our industry and our country. He had a voice heard by many yet the man known by few.

Sad to see you go buddy.

Sweep out your tomb

Qing Ming and the only cleaning going on is that of Easy Listening i. The four markets this station is in (Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua & Hawkes Bay) will soon have another station on these frequencies.. "Viva".

Viva - an exclamation expressing good will, well wishing.
n. The word viva, or a shout or sound made in uttering it.

Wish it luck? What for?

Sweepers have played to introduce the "new" brand claiming to keep the "best parts of easy listening i" and "so much more". So what difference, other than a name change TRN? And why do you need to change it?

Radio i has been around since 1970 here in NZ, and it seems awfully un-necessary to change it. If you have the capability to offer "so much more" already, why not empower the Easy Listening i brand instead of writing it off (can't believe im writing this!) and pointing out that i is inferior, only to replace it with something that is pretty much the same thing. Another easy listening station.

Worst rebranding in history. Sorry guys, but the name Viva to me means something exciting, charged and reminds me of European dance festivals... not elevator music!
I feel like spewing.

Private enterprise keeping consistent: sucking ass.

Radio I first hit the Auckland airwaves in late 1970 on 1250AM, four years after Radio Hauraki opened the door to private radio, initially under a share arrangement with state-run 1YD. Eventually it was granted a full licence using 1550AM, before relocating to 1330AM in 1977. It has been a feature on the FM band for the last decade, purchased by TRN in the late '90s as part of the GWR sale, and more recently networked into Hamilton, Hawkes Bay, Rotorua and Tauranga. -medianstrip