[BC] On Air Operations - MJ Tributes

[Rich Wood]

------ At 06:00 PM 6/29/2009, Barry Mishkind wrote: -------

>I've been reading a lot of comments that say, essentially, that aside
>from a very few stations, most of the "oldies" stations and rockers
>basically ignored the Michael Jackson story because there was no one
>in the studio all weekend.

I know of no network that's unmanned at any time. I think that's 
going to be the future. Unmanned local stations will cover the event 
by default. That's good for national stuff but local still needs to be local.

>You programmers out there, was your sense that the industry let its
>listeners down?

I think it's let listeners down in general. Look at the recent Clear 
Channel fiasco in Grand Rapids. They attempted to stage a station 
event and kept running a seriously out of date weather forecast. I 
understand the Weather Service changed the forecast as early as 5am 
warning of rain and flash floods. The station was predicting a glorious day.

Of those who attended many found themselves and their cars deep in 
water and mud. Fortunately, it wasn't a tornado. I wish I owned the 
towing service. Maybe it's an idea for some Non Traditional Revenue 
by making a deal with towing companies for a piece of the action. 
Gotta think outta the box. Or out of the water.

Rich