Posted by Mike Riccio on July 21, 2007 at 02:17:39:
In Reply to: question for you posted by dan on July 21, 2007 at 01:20:19:
Hello "dan".
Wow...I don't even know where to start, but hope others will also respond to you in an effort to BEGIN to let you "in" on what's going on.
You so don't get this, nor do you understand what's happened or is happening here in New York.
This is so much more than having listeners "wet themselves" every time they (hear) a song.
CBS-FM built a foundation here in the NY for some 33 years and wove itself into the fabric and the lives of literally millions of people. It was a companion, a friend, an advisor, a center of information. It brought us fun times, and got us through some VERY rough times in the New York area and New York City.
It was a pioneer in the format that was responsible for thousands of offspring stations, like yours and others, around the world.
It helped us remember the times we loved as kids. It helped us enjoy times we were experiencing as adults.
It "connected" with its listeners in a way that so many of the "automotron" radio stations of today just don't or can't.
It's so much more than just picking songs and jingles and commercials and throwing them on the air and looking for cumes and rating breakouts.
This is a celebration of the return of the "friend" we lost for two years, a friend that had built itself into the fabric of our lives day after day, and then suddenly and unexpectedly disappeared in one fell swoop in June, 2005.
We had to put up with the chortling and gloating of the so-called radio geniuses who took over the station with a so-called radio format called Jack and Jill and Tom and Dick and Harry that aired here and on thousands of stations and web sites around the country (or at least "so called" thousands of stations according to its inventors).
What you're seeing is an embracing of an "old friend" that has been missed for all of the above reasons, and so many more I don't have the time or inclination to get into.
An "old friend" who essentially said, "Hey guys, sorry, but I blew it. Now let me know how to make it right again". And it's a friend who's actually listening, as best as it can, to what we we're saying.
That you "don't get it" doesn't really surprise me.
That you can't comprehend the biggest radio story in a long, long time, literally getting coverage around the world, is really not hard to understand.
You see, "dan", I guess you just "had to be here".
Don't try to figure this one out, "dan". Because you never will be able to. You either understand this or you don't. You're either in or out on this one.
You can't measure what's going on here with your little people meters and bean counters. You won't find out what all the excitement's about in one of your programming manuals. You can't discover what's happening on one of your consultant conference calls. Because this one comes from the heart, "dan", and goes much further than some auditorium focus group.
Not saying this in a mean or nasty way, but on this just accept that you're on the outside looking in.
Mike Riccio