First, let me note…
The correct term is Daylight Saving, not savings. Daylight is singular, so saving should also be singular. I’ve always been annoyed by commercials that say, “That’s a 20% savings!” A is singular. Same thing: saving should also be singular. “That’s a 20% saving” would be the correct way to say it. I realize that “a savings” is used in commercials all the time, but it’s wrong 100% of the time.

Back to Daylight Saving.
It’s one of my favorite days of the year…right up there with the 4th of July and Christmas.

Why? We lose an hour of sleep.
Sure, but it’s on a Sunday morning, and these days most of the clocks advance themselves. iPhone, iPad, cable, etc. Okay, you still have to do the oven, the microwave, the cars, and any old mantel clocks you might have. But in the 90’s it was way worse. One year back then I counted 27 clocks I had to re-set…that included both our house and my mother’s.

So what’s so great about it?
It signals the end of the long, dreary winter. Even with March snowstorms, you know that daffodils will be popping up within days. Spring officially begins in just over a week (before they moved Daylight Saving it would have actually been spring), the feel and smell of melting snow is one of the top 5 sensory experiences. Even with March snowstorms, you know that daffodils will be popping up within days. You start thinking about pouring some aluminum sulphate around the hydrangeas so they’ll be a spectacular blue in July. Opening Day, when Hope Springs Eternal and the world is new again, is only three weeks away. You can head home from work without turning on the headlights. Maybe even sport your Wayfarer sunglasses.

Appropriate songs on the radio.
There aren’t any. When we “Fall Back” there are several: “Turn Back the Hands of Time” by Tyrone Davis, “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper, “If I could Turn Back Time” by Cher and several more. No one has done a Spring Ahead song that was a hit.

But you have to admit it’s a great feeling when we Spring Ahead.

People come to you for music, not information.
How many times have you heard that from a consultant? People have lots of places to go for information: Facebook, Twitter, web sites, TV news channels…some even still read the newspaper. Your station spends all day saying that it plays the most music and that’s what listeners expect when they flip you on. Right?

Not always.
First, let’s acknowledge that, regardless of how many times per hour you make the claim, your station does not play the most music. People might say in a focus group that all they want is for you to shut up and play the hits, but if that’s all they really wanted they’d go to Pandora or Spotify. They come to your station because it’s comfortable, familiar, plays a decent amount of songs they like, and has at least one or two “real people” on the air with whom they can feel some connection. If the station also owns the image for something that is important to them, that connection is even stronger.

So what do you do when there’s a storm?
For years Adult Contemporary stations made a point of doing school closings on the air. In some areas they have county school systems, and private schools typically follow the lead of the county, so there might only be ten districts to announce. In New England, however, every town has it’s own school system and each one makes it’s own decisions on cancellations or delays. This usually resulted in a really long list. Then TV stations starting doing an alphabetical crawl, but they’d cut away during commercials and you might have to wait a half-hour to get to the W towns. In the late 90’s station websites came along and you could take an RSS feed from the local Fox weather department and simply direct people to your site. It’s quick, clean, and definitely PPM friendly.

So what’s wrong with that?
Most of the time, nothing is wrong with that. In the last year and a half, however, we’ve had three especially bad storms: Irene, Sandy and Nemo. In some areas people were without power for a week or more. So what do they do? They turn on a portable radio to find out whether school is closed or when power might be restored. Their favorite station, the one that plays the most music, is either saying nothing about the storm or saying, “go to our web site to check the cancellations.” Not very helpful if you don’t have power. If they have a smartphone they could get the info there, but with no power one must conserve battery life. Either way, it’s one more reason for people who want to listen to your station to wind up going elsewhere. Can you afford that?

A better way.
Make sure your station is ready to spring into action in emergency situations. Know where the power is out – it may well be only in certain areas – and give whatever helpful info you can. Do it quickly over song intros so you don’t violate your music promise, but do it regularly so listeners in those areas know that you’re thinking about them. And no teasing! None of this “When will the power be back on? We’ll tell you…coming up in 15 minutes” business. Let them know right away. Otherwise you create another excuse for your fans go somewhere else to get what they want right now.

Today is Glenn Ordway’s last Big Show
The PM Drive host of WEEI does his last show this afternoon. Ordway has been on the air in the Boston area since the mid-70’s: on the old WMEX, on WRKO, doing Celtics games with Johnny Most, and on WEEI since it was at 590 AM – that was before 850 AM and later 93.7 FM. The program was originally called The Big Show with the Big O, with Glenn as the main host surrounded by rotating co-hosts: former BC and NFL players Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie, during football season, Michael Felger, former Red Sox player Lou Merloni, and Boston Herald columnist Tony Massarotti during baseball season. Pete Sheppard was the Sports Flash guy, constantly derided because he pronounced it like “Sptfsh.” Everyone was always fighting to get a word in edgewise. During the Magical season of 2004 WEEI was #1 25-54 for the entire year. With adults, not just men. Ordway was honored with the NAB Marconi Award nomination for Personality of the Year.

So what happened?
In January 2009 Ordway was signed to a new contract for a million dollars per year. This was 2009, remember. Big contracts for radio Talent typically come with ratings incentives, because the correlation between ratings and revenue is very clear. The beginning of that contract coincided with the Red Sox not winning any more playoff games, the economy hitting the bottom and parent company Entercom nearly being delisted from the NYSE because the shares fell to under a dollar, and a new FM sports talk competitor, WBZ-FM, going on the air that summer. Two-and a half years into the contract Ordway’s salary was cut in half because ratings incentives were not being met. Still, he was making five large.

And then…
WBZ-FM, known as “98.5 the Sports Hub,” surpassed WEEI quickly. They had a younger sound – especially in morning drive. In afternoon drive Ordway’s Big Show was competing with WBZ-FM’s Felger and Mazz, (Michael Felger and Tony Massarotti, both former co-hosts of Ordway’s). In the summer of 2010 WBZ-FM was #1 with Men 25-54 in afternoon drive and WEEI was a close #3, but WEEI was still slightly ahead with all adults.

By September of 2011, when the Red Sox fell apart, WBZ-FM was #3 with adults and WEEI had dropped to 14th. Entercom responded by cutting Ordway’s salary in half, firing Pete Sheppard, and moving WEEI from 850 AM to 93.7 FM.

Hope springs eternal.
It does, every year. By Opening Day last year Ordway was #6 in afternoon and Felger and Mazz were 8th. We all know what happened in 2012, and by year’s end Ordway came in 12th 25-54 and Felger and Mazz were 4th, and #1 with men.

Who’s to blame?
WEEI is the flagship of the Red Sox and Celtics, and WBZ-FM is the flagship of the Patriots and Bruins. Certainly the fortunes of the flagship teams affect ratings, but the primary blame here goes to Entercom. Poor management, poor decisions when it came to teaming co-hosts with Ordway. They should have moved to FM much earlier. They should never have given Ordway that huge contract in the depths of a recession. They should never made made the 50% salary cut public because it made them look scared and Ordway look like a loser.

One good thing I’ll say for Entercom.
The announcement of Ordway’s firing was made on Tuesday evening, and he has been allowed to stay on the air through this afternoon. That is unheard of in radio. When they decide you’re gone, you’re gone immediately, like you never existed. Ordway has handled it on the air like a true gentleman. Glenn may be out, but he is not gone.

Today is Glenn Ordway’s last Big Show.
The PM Drive host of WEEI does his last show this afternoon. Ordway has been on the air in the Boston area since the mid-70’s: on the old WMEX, on WRKO, broadcasting Celtics games with Johnny Most, and on WEEI since it was at 590 AM – that was before 850 AM and later 93.7 FM.
The program was originally called The Big Show with the Big O, with Glenn as the main host surrounded by rotating co-hosts: former BC and NFL players Fred Smerlas and Steve DeOssie during football season, Mike Felger, former Red Sox player Lou Merloni, and Boston Herald columnist Tony Massarotti during baseball season. Pete Sheppard was the Sports Flash guy, constantly derided because he pronounced it like “Sptfsh.” Everyone was always fighting to get a word in edgewise. During the Magical season of 2004 WEEI was #1 25-54 for the entire year. With adults, not just men. Ordway was honored with an NAB Marconi Award nomination for Personality of the Year.

So what happened?
In January 2009 Ordway was signed to a new contract for a million dollars per year. This was 2009, remember. Big contracts for radio Talent typically come with ratings incentives, because the correlation between ratings and revenue is very clear. The beginning of that contract coincided with the Red Sox not winning any more playoff games, the economy hitting the bottom and parent company Entercom nearly being delisted from the NYSE because the shares fell to under a dollar, and a new FM sports talk competitor, WBZ-FM, going on the air that summer. Two-and a half years into the contract Ordway’s salary was cut in half because ratings incentives were not being met. Still, he was making five large.

And then…
WBZ-FM, known as “98.5 the Sports Hub,” surpassed WEEI quickly. They had a younger sound – especially in morning drive. In afternoon drive Ordway’s Big Show was competing with WBZ-FM’s Felger and Mazz, (Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti, both former co-hosts of Ordway’s). In the summer of 2010 WBZ-FM was #1 with Men 25-54 in afternoon drive and WEEI was a close #3, but WEEI was still slightly ahead with all adults. By September of 2011, when the Red Sox fell apart, WBZ-FM was #3 with adults and WEEI had dropped to 14th. Entercom responded by cutting Ordway’s salary in half, firing Pete Sheppard, and moving WEEI from 850 AM to 93.7 FM.

Hope springs eternal.
It does, every year. By Opening Day last year Ordway was #6 in afternoon and Felger and Mazz were 8th. We all know what happened in 2012, and by year’s end Ordway came in 12th 25-54 and Felger and Mazz were 4th, and #1 with Men.

Who’s to blame?
WEEI is the flagship of the Red Sox and Celtics, and WBZ-FM is the flagship of the Patriots and Bruins. Certainly the fortunes of the flagship teams affect ratings, but the primary blame here goes to Entercom. Poor management, poor decisions when it came to teaming co-hosts with Ordway. They should have moved to FM much earlier. They should never have given Ordway that huge contract in the depths of a recession. They should never made made the 50% salary cut public because it made them look scared and Ordway look like a loser.

One good thing I’ll say for Entercom.
The announcement of Ordway’s firing was made on Tuesday evening, and he has been allowed to stay on the air through this afternoon. That is unheard of in radio. When they decide you’re gone, you’re gone immediately, like you never existed. Ordway has handled it on the air like a true gentleman. Glenn may be out, but he is not gone.

Hope springs eternal
Pitchers and catchers open camp today in Fort Myers, and hope springs eternal for a better season in 2013. I mean, could it get any worse than 2012?

Sure it could.
I lived in Baltimore in the late 80’s. In 1988 the Orioles were only five years separated from their last World Series win, in 1983. That’s the exact same gap as the Red Sox had last year, 2007-2012. The ’88 Orioles opened the season by dropping the first 21 games. After the 3rd loss, Bob Rivers, new morning show host on 98 Rock, announced that he’d stay on the air round-the-clock until the team won. And he did. The manager, Cal Ripken, Sr. (father of star shortstop Cal, Jr.) was fired after loss #6. Everyone slumped simultaneously. It was so bad they didn’t put batting averages on the scoreboard because they all started with a zero.

The O’s finally won a game in Chicago on April 29th, then dropped two more, and returned home for “Fantastic Fans Night” (this was already on the books before the season started) on May 2nd to a sellout crowd at Memorial Stadium. Bob Rivers was given a full Orioles uniform, name on the back and all, and got a standing ovation when he threw out the first pitch, like a girl, as they used to say. (An outdated phrase. I happen to know from experience that girls can throw really well if you show them how.) Baltimore went on to win that game, 9-4. They finished last that year, with a record of 54-107. That’s fifteen games worse than the 2012 Red Sox.

So what happened the next year?
In 1989 they improved to 87-75 and finished 2nd, two games behind Toronto and four ahead of the 3rd-place Red Sox. That’s a 33-game improvement. If the Red Sox do the same thing in 2013…win 33 more games than last year…they’ll win 102 games, win the AL East and go on to win the World Series. Hopefully, the National League will win the All-Star game, so the Red Sox clinching win in the World Series will come at Fenway Park.

Hope springs eternal.

…to the Red Seats!
As soon as the 2012 Red Sox season mercifully ended, I called the Red Sox office and asked of they were getting a barrage of angry STH calls saying they would not renew for 2013. (STH is Sox-speak for season ticket holder.) I said that I’m an STH in Section 29. Great view but the seats themselves are old, small and uncomfortable. Legroom is non-existant. These are the wooden blue ones built after the 1934 fire at Fenway. They’re the only wooden seats left in any Major League Baseball park. I told them I’d like to upgrade to the red seats. I’d actually made this same request after the September 2011 meltdown and the year before after the playoff Papelbomb against the Angels. And two years before that when JD Drew took a season-ending bases-loaded called third strike against Tampa Bay in the ALCS. They replied, “We really won’t know if anything is available until February, but we’ll put you on a waiting list. Send us an email saying what you’re looking for.” That was more encouraging than the 2008, 2010 and 2011 calls.

Why are the blue seats still there?
When the Henry group took over the Red Sox eleven years ago they did an excellent job of upgrading and modernizing the ballpark. They added the Monster Seats, the right field roof deck, took the glass off of the .406 Club, re-added the National League to the left-field scoreboard, put in high-def video boards, improved access, concourses, concessions, food, you name it. They also replaced a lot of the seats. But not the wooden blue grandstand seats. It was decided that they should remain because they are part of the aesthetic charm of Fenway. Clearly this idea came from someone who is 5′ 9″ or shorter, skinny and has not spent three or four hours at a time sitting in these seats. Also, the Red Sox have had no problem squeezing people into them.

Fast forward to late January.
I get an email from the Red Sox saying that there are a very few seats that have opened up…full season only, in the EMC Club. $348 each. Minimum of two seats, and it’s a multi-year deal. Do the math and that’s $56,376 per year, not including parking and food. For three years (isn’t “multi” more than two?) it’s $169,128. No, thanks. They did say that taking a pass on this offer would not affect my position on the upgrade waiting list.

Then came last Friday.
It’s February 1st, and there’s story in the Boston Globe – page one, above the fold – saying that Red Sox ticket sales are off by 10%. I called about the upgrade. They said I was definitely on the list, they had my email saying that I like my view from Section 29, but something lower down in the red seats would be ideal, and I would get a callback for sure. And I did. They offered me Loge Box seats one section closer to home with an even better view. The new red seats, sculpted for all your butt comfort needs. Cupholders, more legroom. At the end of the row, next to a railing, so there will be exactly no excuse-me’s from other fans heading to concessions. That was an easy yes.

But I’m not changing the name of my blog.
View From Loge Box 155 just doesn’t have the regular-guy-at-the-ballgame ring that View From Section 29 has.

This should be simple. Just play the songs in the order in which they tested, right?

That theory might work well in a format like Classic Rock or Classic Hits where you play one type of music from a finite era. Your top ten testing songs should also be your ten most played. Maybe.

Not so fast with AC. An AC station that has market tenure and a strong brand may very well be playing songs from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, 00’s and the Teens (we finally have a name for this decade). Everyone from Louis Armstrong to Demi Lovato with Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi and Hootie in between. When listeners vote for songs in an auditorium test they’re not asked whether they want to hear a particular song on their favorite AC station, they’re just asked whether they like it a lot, a little or not that much. And if they’ve ever heard it before.

The next step is where science meets art. The successful interpretation of these numbers. Some researchers and consultants use a formula in which you add up the “Like a Lot” and “Like Some” votes and call that “Total Positives.” Then subtract the negative and unfamiliar votes and rank the songs. That’s the science part. Easy.

How often, though, is the easy way the best way? Let’s look at the art part. If you take the process a few steps further and think about what the votes really mean to a listener, you see that the difference between “Like Some” (“Yeah, I guess it’s okay”) and “Dislike Some” (“Meh, not all that much”) is like the difference between 2 and 3 on a scale of 1 to 4. Not a passionate difference. If instead, you ignore the non-passionate votes and just look at the 4’s and 1’s…the “I Love it” and “I hate it” votes…you get a much clearer picture of audience reaction in the PPM era of split-second button pushing. Look at the spread on each song between the 4 votes and the 1 votes. That’s the percentage of listeners who would crank the station up compared to the number who would blow it off if that song were played.

Then there’s another step. The fit. Tastes change from year to year, and artists and songs that you would never have dreamed of playing on an AC even two years ago can have some of the top-testing songs today. The most important factor in the “fit” test is that the person who is making the final decision on what gets played and what doesn’t is not the out-of-town corporate person or consultant, but the person in the market, on-site, who has the sound of the station seared into in his or her brain. That would be the Brand Manager, better known as the Program Director.