The On-going Soap Opera Called "Where’s David Lee Roth": He’s back on the radio…without his voice

On Wednesday, we played an updated version of “Where’s Waldo”, wondering where in the world was AWOL David Lee Roth? Was he fired? Suspended? Too sick from partying all night in Miami? Turns out he was disciplined and, in his words “suspended” for a couple of days so he could get his New York-based radio show back in line with management expectations. Which meant drastic changes, including letting go most of Roth’s sidekicks.

David Lee Roth was back on-air with Free FM this morning after two AWOL days sounding just like a dog would look with his tail between his legs. Defeated. It was not “Free” Radio, it was simply uncomfortable radio. Sad, really. If “cringe” radio masters Opie & Anthony made you cringe from their outrageousness, the new version of Roth Radio made you cringe for something much worse: listening to a former King of the Rock World who — literally — had lost his voice.

As frequently as he could (almost after every change in topic or between phone calls), he told listeners he now was doing a new format implemented/forced upon him by CBS radio’s management. He was simply now doing what he was told to do. I felt bad for him, actually, because he sounded almost lost in the wilderness, like “what do I do now?” Anyone who’s felt pushed around by their bosses — real or not — and felt forced to do something you completely disagreed with knows how David Lee Roth felt.

Has the rock fire extinquished from Diamond Dave? Aren’t Rock and Corporate supposed to clash? Doesn’t Rock tear down walls corporate puts up? Just listen to Pink Floyd over the weekend, Dave.

Here’s Roth’s new marching orders in memo form as reported by AllAccess.com (a radio and music industry news site) and shared by Roth on-air this morning:

ROTH shared a memo on-air from CBS NEW YORK programming honcho MARK CHERNOFF. Paraphrasing the key points of a reported 4-page memo, CHERNOFF says that DIAMOND DAVE needs to work on:

More Topical Interviews
Interview guests regarding subjects that are important to listeners, as opposed to sharing personal stories.

Shorter Bumpers
Bumper music runs too long… over a minute, and sometimes over two minutes.

Cut Back on the Use of Loops
Don use the same music under your breaks all the time.

Promote What’s Coming Up
There’s no promotion of upcoming elements.

Little Evidence of Prep
Improvement needed in this area.

The tone of CHERNOFF’s email makes it clear that this isn’t the first time he’s discussed these matters with ROTH, and it threatens disciplinary action unless they are addressed. Obviously, the problems between ROTH and CBS RADIO run deep, as it is highly unusual for a new morning personality to be suspended – or to need a day off due to late night activities in MIAMI, depending on which story you believe — on the first day of the SPRING book.

Meanwhile, last night Free FM’s Jake and Jackie overnight show as well as today’s midday fill-in Booker Show were talking all about the bizarre mood inside the station and how freaky it was working while security guards (who arrived when this latest DLR controversy happened this week) were wandering around protecting the facilities, as if there was a “situation” about to happen.

I tell you, while I’d rather hear better programming, this on-going behind-the-scenes, spilled-on-the-air soap opera is good stuff. It’s in-fighting in the family. Waitaminute…doesn’t that sound like old Van Halen problems? Was Eddie Van Halen right?

Rock on, DLR, rock on…

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

MySpace drop kicks 200,000 profiles: "As you can see, we’ve been looking into your files for some time, Mr. Anderson"

Looks like News Corp has brought in Mr. Smith to put the clamps on all those MySpace Neos…just as MySpace is repositioning itself as a more friendly AdvertisingSpace.

In a move designed to help calm teen safety fears and a building perception that the site may be possibly a future brand image threat to corporate owner News Corp., MySpace deleted 200,000 site profiles deemed “objectionable”.

Up until now, MySpace has been relatively censor-free. If you’ve ever spent any time browsing through the sites, it’s filled with a chaotic jumble of mish-mash. It’s estimated there are more MySpace profiles than there are people living in Canada. To most users, its lack of limitations and lawlessness sensation has been thrilling, helping stoke the spirit of freedom and endless possibility. Some use it to create elaborate lies and pretend personalities, allowing them to “be” whatever they have in their imagination that is not in their real life.

If you are a pimply 14-year old kid still suffering from teen angst and social disconnect, MySpace can allow kids to try on their idealized “popular” aspirations. They can be rock stars, hip hop moguls, video game designers, anime/manga artists, movie stars. They can set up fan pages for any subject of interest and attract new “friends”.

However, to some, these fake digital extensions of their inner me have crossed the lines of personal safety or even libel laws.

The truth is…once something is no longer “underground” and becomes so popular it is mainstream, lawlessness can not work if it is a social networking community. Especially if it is web’s #2 most-visited website (as it was in February). Otherwise, it is not social and people will get hurt — emotionally or even physically for those adventurous, curious hook-up seekers.

Censoring and screening out profiles due to new standards probably signals the beginning of the end of MySpace as we know it now. The reason why MySpace has grown so quickly and massively is BECAUSE of its lawlessness. Everyday, we are all expected to follow loads of rules. On MySpace, you only have your own rules. You have experimentation. You have digital freedom with some anonymity.

That freedom apparently has just be curtailed. Probably to the dislike of many.

The site, which allows users to create their own profiles with details of their interests that can be viewed and linked to by other MySpace.com “friends”, was acquired by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp last year for more than half a BILLION dollars and its phenomenal growth has placed it at the centre of the media company’s internet strategy.

In response to MySpace’s success and the News Corp (Fox) acquisition, it has been reported that Viacom/MTV Networks wants its own social networking community and offered $750 million for Facebook.com…which was rejected for sale because that site’s owners wanted $1.2 billion.

Lots of dollars being tossed around for these new enterprises. Social networking continues to be a major activity of internet usage and it will stay hot for many years. But will MySpace and Facebook still be important destinations 2 years from now or will some other site suddenly become the coolest on the planet?

My bet is on the later.

FT.com article

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

How word of mouth works online (psst!, tell a friend about this cool article)

Viral videos and viral content is the hot media trend of this 1st quarter in 2006. Ever since the launch of sites like YouTube and Google Video, people are viewing videos — and sharing them with their friends — at record levels. VH1 has quickly picked up on the popularity by creating the weekly Top 20 TV show of “WebJunk“, which Letterman highlighted on tonight’s show.

In the marketing world, delivering messages that consumers, in turn, recommend to their friends is the ultimate measure of positive impact (well, that and the continuing purchases of said product). “Word of marketing” is always highly desired (she’ll tell her friend, who’ll tells her friends, who’ll tell her friends…and so on, and so on…you know the ad).

The Internet allows consumers to share with their friends things they love in a whole new way. And chances are, you are already actively doing it. You might even be blogging about it.

A study by Sharpe Partners revealed that 89% of adult Internet users in America share content with others via email. The recently released study on viral marketing also found that 63% of the study’s respondents share content at least once a week and as many as 75% of the respondents forward this content to up to six other recipients (and so on).

Other interesting findings:

• 25% forward online content daily or most days while 23% do it several times a week.

• The most popular forwarded content is humorous material, with 88% of us forwarding jokes or cartoons. 56% forward news items or articles (if you like something here on the Jointblog, go ahead and forward it to your friend!)

• Interestingly, only 12% admitted to forwarding sexually provocative content

• The most likely online content sharer is a woman in her late 30’s/early 40’s who resides in the South or Midwest.

You can read the complete press release of the study here.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

More "Where’s David Lee Roth?"

One month ago, former Van Halen lead singer — and new CBS Radio/Free FM morning man — David Lee Roth was on holiday for a week when his first morning radio rating trends from Arbitron started coming in. Being the replacement of Howard Stern, a lot of eyes were watching the results. And they didn’t turn out good at all.

(5:30PM UPDATE AT POST END)

This week, the new numbers have been rolling in…and the results aren’t much better. Still near the bottom. Once again, DLR is not around. And where’s DLR now? Well, he started broadcasting his show from Miami Monday and Tuesday while also attending the annual Winter Music Conference. This morning, he was a no-show on-air…and the CBS Radio stations had to scramble. Free FM/NYC middayers JV and Elvis did mornings (with no explanation other than filling in for DLR) while evening show Booker and crew did middays.

According to AllAccess.com — a radio and music industry news site:

[[ JV and ELVIS filled in for the absent DAVID LEE ROTH. They were also heard on ROTH's affiliates in Philadelphia, Dallas, Cleveland, and Pittsburgh.

In Philadelphia, WYSP midday host BARSKY quipped, "JV and ELVIS ran a little long ... which isn't good to do on your first day ... I mean your fill-in day ... now everybody will think I know something ..."

So far, CBS RADIO hasn't responded to a request for comment on the DLR absence. Will it be permanent? ]]

It’s that latest question that has been asked among many radio observers. DLR’s latest “Where’s Waldo?” only makes it a stronger question. However, the biggest question: Do the listeners care DLR is missing?

UPDATE AT 5:30PM: Trade newspaper Radio & Records has the following update on the search for “Where’s David Lee Roth”, saying he will return on-air Friday morning:

[[ CBS Radio tells R&R, "David Lee Roth has not been let go. He is on his way back from Miami and is scheduled to return to the air on Friday."

Roth's unscheduled day off on Wednesday certainly didn't help the rumor mill cycle down for the past 24 hours. According to Roth's website, he's in Miami, reportedly attending the Winter Music Conference, and the rumblings emanating from South Beach claimed Roth didn't get any sleep Monday night and needed some time off. ]]

Rock stars have their flaky reputations…and DLR sure is doing nothing to alter it.

92.3 Free FM MySpace webpage blog here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

A Blogging Update On Who’s Reading

Here at the Jointblog, we’re always looking for new media trends to publish articles that you’ll want to read. That’s the biggest problem still with blogging: the amount of readers is still small. Most blog readers are those interested in staying of the trend curve (which is part of the attraction).

About 82% of our readers come from the U.S. — mainly from large urban centers. Another 7% come from Canada. The rest come Germany, U.K., Australia, France, Italy, Mexico, and various spots throughout Europe, South America and Asia/Pacific Rim. Google is the main way people find the Jointblog, usually through one of the subjects we cover. They tend to read the main page and then either click through the previous month’s archive or do a specific Jointblog search for something they are looking to read.

Okay, how about blog readers in general?

A new survey from The Gallup Poll organization finds that blogs, while catching on with Web users, haven’t quite yet become required reading for most of the Internet population. Among Americans who use the Web (which is now 73 percent of the population), reading blogs appeared last on a list of thirteen things to do online. On average, one in five of those polled said they consult blogs “frequently” or at least “occasionally,” but the 20 percent number trails other Web activities like instant messaging (28 percent), auctions (23 percent), videocasts and downloading music (22 percent each).

Not surprisingly, e-mail heads the list at 87 percent, followed by news and weather, 72 percent, and shopping and travel planning, both 52 percent. Nearly 60 percent said they “never” look at blogs, but there’s an age gap: 28 percent of those 18-29 read blogs, while only 17 percent of those over 50 said the same thing. In total, 1,013 adults were surveyed nationally for the poll.

For more, click here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

Grups are cool…and Has Our Celebrity Culture Peaked?

Pick up a copy of this week’s New York magazine or check it out online here. Excellent reading pointing out some media trends to watch. Two feature stories grabbed me. One (“Up With Grups“) legitimized my fashion and style sense, explaining how we 40-year olds still rock it in our 20-something gear. Even came up with an updated description of our Gen X selves: Grups (we Star Trekkers understand the reference). Also, how our Grup resistance to growing-up in the image of our Baby Boomer parents has helped close the generation gaps with our own children (we “Grups” do rock). On the worry side, though, if our teen kids form their own style opposite of their Grup ‘rents, are we just creating a new generation of future Republican prep namby-pampbys?

The other feature article asks “Has America’s seeming insatiable appetite for celebrity finally begun to cool?” Well, “maybe” it has. Kurt Anderson observes that many cultural barometers have pointed down lately (magazine circulation and subscription figures are down for many celeb mags; can anyone say oversaturation?). Meanwhile, the gossip mags (like the Enquirer) are also down. Ratings on TV are down, too. Interestingly, all the recent market research we do at Joint Communications shows that the demand trend for enternatinment news and gossip is way down and among the weakest of programming items. People magazine — launched in 1974 — is considered the epicenter for today’s modern celebrity watching; sales are also down.

Have we finally reached the down-curve of celebrity gawking the likes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Anniston and hundreds of other so-called pop-culture stars? One can only hope. As Anderson says:

“The Nielsen ratings for this year’s Oscars were down 8 percent, and for the Grammys 11 percent. During the last half of 2005, the Enquirer’s newsstand sales were down by a quarter and Entertainment Weekly’s by 30 percent. The American OK! is said to be unwell, the magazine Inside TV was launched and killed last year, and a magazine called Star Shop was killed before it launched. Like other American social tides, the fascination with celebrities has been cyclical, and after several decades of rising (as it also did from the twenties through the forties), perhaps it will now (as in the sixties) ebb.”

Meanwhile, I’ll be waiting for Grup-favorite FHM’s April 4th issue featuring the newly-annointed “Sexiest Woman in the World” Scarlett Johansson…

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The Power of Radio, Espanola-style: How DJs Got 500,000 To March In LA

Even in this digital age, radio still wields tremendous power to reach people. Radio — with no subscription or Internet connection required, just the real thing — can inspire, entertain or inform…or sometimes even do all three.

Over the weekend, two popular DJs on Spanish-language radio stations in Los Angeles started a major pro-immigrant rally/peaceful protest which clogged the streets all the way to downtown City Hall.

Public officials estimate that more than 500,000 people showed up to march, a lot more than the anticipated 20,000 that might show. It turned out to be one of the largest demonstrations in Los Angeles’ history.

Radio still reaches the masses, something other niche forms of radio can’t quite say yet. And Spanish Radio showed its strong connection to the community…a strong reminder for all radio programmers to keep those community bonds strong.

They got the word out to the people, who not only listened…they responded.

click here

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

MySpace: It’s hot now, but is it on the way to becoming a junkyard?

MySpace has been in the news quite a bit in the last 18 months, especially since News Corp acquired it last summer as well as the negative news stories regarding how sex offenders are preying on unknowing teens. For the good and the bad, MySpace has grown into a massive online phenomenon in just a little over 2 years. It buried formerly-hot Friendster and opened up a whole new way for teens to express themselves and experiment with their (online) identities.

According to on-line traffic counter Alexa.com, MySpace ranks as one of the 10 most popular sites on the planet.

Personally, when estimating MySpace as a media trend, it is only a blip in the bigger picture, which is the consumer demand seeking ideal new communities finding more people “like me”. Call it the “Like Me Culture“, if you like. We are all reaching out to find others that share our interests like never before, covering an amazing global range of possibilities. This is as true from the first Compuserve and NewsServ billboard posting clubs in 1991 as it is today. Only way better and more far-reaching.

MySpace’s growth was created due to an unbelievably vast assortment of free tools and access now available to all web users, especially those with broadband access. The Web — which only 15 years ago was still a text-driven form of interactivity accessed by baud rates of 9600kbs or less (remember that?) — now is a high-performance graphical universe of unlimited possibility. And it is still trying to take shape. It’s the search engines that are helping create that shape. They help us find the webpages we want on the ever-expanding Internet.

Chaos is part of the reason why MySpace works. Most of the personal sites are chockablock and choking with excessive graphics and a huge list of “friends” who add whatever they want to the site through individual messages, links and jpgs or .mov files. It exhausting and so busy looking, it serves as a barrier for on-the-move, don’t-waste-my-time adults. Which is why teens love it. Their parents hate it…so that gives teens the “okay” to do things in the relative “open” without risk of being discovered (future employers, they think…who cares, right?)

That strength of chaos and “noise” making it unfriendly for adults and more attractive for teens is also its greatest weakness. Ultimately, if Google, MSN and Yahoo! or MySpace internal search engines can’t properly index its webpages, the efforts of each webpage creator will go more and more unnoticed or forgotten. Which means MySpace is vulnerable to new competitive online community services offering a fresh clean slate, especially if they can manage search capabilities while growing.

Facebook is one terrific example continuing to soar, taking a more disciplined approach of managed growth. It launched just about the same time as MySpace but was much more selective in its approval of new members because they had to be registered with schools who approved of the online club. In order to join, you have to be in either high school or college. Which helps keep out the ‘rents! It’s a way for peers and potential friends to find each other online. Their innovative ways of sharing music playlists and other Top 10 popularity items helps searchers find who and what they want.

Meanwhile, today’s reality still shows MySpace as much more dominant right now than any other online community, with some 50 million+ members. That is a massive database. The question is will MySpace be able to keep that leadership position or will it quickly become a junkyard wasteland of dead webpages? Will the charming chaos that makes it quirky and cool burn out its popularity. Is there a limit to the amount of trash we are willing to sort through before giving up?

Considering how disposable this pop culture society is — especially online, it would not be surprising how quickly MySpace becomes the Internet’s fastest cool-to-uncool casuality lesson. Trashy usually doesn’t stay cool for very long.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

The Morphing of Tech Gadget Makers Into Content Creators (and Vice Versa)…Does It Work?

Do tech companies and content companies make a good fit in a digital age? So far, the answer has been “no”. We’re about to see if Disney and Apple can turn that around. Can Steve Jobs wear two hats as well as he wears one? It doesn’t look promising.

It wasn’t long ago that Sony was the tech company to beat. They pioneered transistor radios, better color TVs, invented the Walkman, the Betamax, the CD (along with Phillips), Playstation and so much more.

But these days, no one is excited that a product is a Sony. Whereas, they’re still excited about Apple.

What happened?

Simple. Sony got in the “content” business – movies, music, the whole shebang. And, sometime in the 90s, the content side of Sony got worried about how easy it was to copy and replicate all that entertainment – without paying for it again and again. They didn’t want Sony to make better “copiers”.

Steve Jobs wasn’t worried about that. He said “think different” and set out to make it really easy to use digital media to “share” music, photos and other emotionally charged, personal experiences. So, while the Sony folks wrestled internally (and the Microsoft folks, too), Apple took a commanding lead in technology, using iTunes as the stalking horse for their hardware.

Now, the tables are turned. Disney owns Pixar (all 6 movies and animators who can leave for a better job any time). Right now, it’s fairly easy for an average high school student to crack the copy protect on a Pixar movie and make as many copies as they want. So, how much are 6 movies really worth as we look forward? Who’s going to pay $19 for a DVD five years from now? Is the catalogue worth anything?

And, that’s Steve’s conundrum as he heads over to help Disney. He built a hardware company through relentless focus on useability and design (I am a happy Apple user and a huge fan). However, now he’s split in two.

He needs to focus on Apple (there is no #2 in sight) to keep the tech edge. And, he needs to figure out how to reinvent a family entertainment company that has had huge success in re-selling old product in new formats – at the very time that Apple is trying to flatten the format platform so that digital is all you need (iPod
video, anyone?).

Oh sure, everyone is betting on VOD and new applications to push to cellphones. But, is Snow White going to push to cell phones? Is Toy Story the fit for iPod? Not likely. It’s going to be short form. YouTube type stuff for the ADD digerati. And, a lot of it will be free – created by amateurs empowered by iMovie and other Apple creations.

My bet is that Steve will eventually tire of Disney (or they will have a nasty falling out) and he will head back to tech. So far, no one has straddled both the content and the tech horse. Will he be the one? What do you think?

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy

Emo Bands: Using the digital underground as a hot media trend to keep just below the mainstream

Peer2Peer download and file sharing tracker BigChampagne has helped emo bands like Death Cab for Cutie and Fall Out Boy to bigtime success. It’s one of the new bottom-up methods for bands to reach larger, more mainstream audiences. All those downloads and shared mp3 files create buzz, drive traffic to MySpace pages and ultimately sell concert tickets and merchandise, attracting attention to indie and major labels.

No longer do A&R record guys have to waste time scouring clubs to find The Next Best Thing; all they have to do see what’s hot in music file swaps and then go directly to sign the band. No wonder Love Monkey has failed as a new TV show…not realistic anymore.

“Emo” (that angst-filled rock style with depressed lyrics but uptempo neo-punk sound) remains just-below-the-mainstream…which keeps it cool with the kids.

Ross Rahaila writes on todays emo landscape, and how a handful of the popular bands are selling tons of albums, and calling the bands millionaires in the making.

“Social networking Web site MySpace.com has played a huge role in allowing broke teens to sample a seemingly endless number of bands all in one place and without cost (or the guilt of illegal downloading). And by the time a band starts selling serious numbers of records and signs to a major label, many of the hardest-core fans have already moved on in search of the next big thing.”

For another reference article, re-read this blog posting from Wired in March here.

– All posts written by Chris Kennedy