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Frank Johnson, WRTI Music Director, Joins Mediaguide As Jazz Specialist
After serving as Jazz Music Director for WRTI, a listener-supported radio jazz and classical station licensed to Temple University in Philadelphia that reaches several markets in Southeastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, for 7 years Frank Johnson joined Mediaguide as a Format Specialist for Jazz, Smooth Jazz and Oldies music and stations.
While at WRTI, Johnson accomplished quite a lot and was ready to move that experience outside of the local Philadelphia market or to "take it on the road" in his words. Serving as the Jazz Music Director provided Johnson with the opportunity to interact with and learn from veteran industry professionals in all areas of jazz. As a result he developed a holistic understanding of the challenges that all areas of the jazz community face... the radio station, the announcer, the jazz club, the promoter, the label, the artist, the manager, the concert venue and others.
At WRTI Johnson tried to be more than a Music Director to serve as a resource for the industry's relationship with the Philadelphia market. With Mediaguide serving as the exclusive radio information provider for JazzWeek, the format's leading publication and industry resource, Johnson hopes to accomplish a similar mission in his new position.
In speaking about his new position, Johnson enthusiastically states, "Management and staff have been great! Everyone has been so warm and welcoming. The fast growth of the company is exciting and you can feel it on a daily basis. I'm excited to be here."
You can reach Frank at fjohnson@mediaguide.com.
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 10th ANNUAL USA SONGWRITING COMPETITION
Enter your songs in the 10th Annual USA Songwriting Competition and win $50,000 Grand Prize worth of cash, cool music gear from Sony, Steinberg, Ibanez Guitars, Audio-Techica and more! Winning songs will receive airplay on a nationally syndicated radio program in Unitd States and Canada. Judges include A&R from Universal, BMG, EMI, Warner and SONY Music.
Get early entry Bonuses and please obtain the entry form from the internet at: http://www.songwriting.net
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Mediaguide To Serve As Sponsor For South Park Music Festival
Mediaguide will serve as a sponsor for the South Park Music Festival and Industry Retreat that will take place September 8-10, 2005 in South Park, CO. As such, Mediaguide is giving tracking for one song to every group who performs at the festival via Artsitmonitor, the only electronic airplay reporting system dedicated to independent artists and full access to its MusicMonitor system for the conference organizers as they research artists for the various showcases.
Other sponsors for this event already include XM Radio, E! Entertainment Television, Village Voice, Interscope-Geffen Records, C|Net, spinART, Performing Songwriter Magazine, TapeOp Magazine, Rhapsody, FORTUNE, PopMatters, MIX Magazine, Guitar Player Magazine, Denver Post, ASCAP, Midwest Music Summit, REAL Networks, REMIX Magazine, TinderBox Music and many others.
"This festival and conference provides a perfect opportunity for artist, fans and industry professionals to interact and learn from one another in a beautiful atmosphere" states Paul E. Wright, Vice President of Music Business Development for Mediaguide. "For us, it puts our data and information in the right context, that of passion, creativity and open communication between music lovers"
Over 12,000 independent music fans, artists, executives and select industry are expected to retreat to the charming and scenic town (population only 500!) for the 3-day event featuring 100+ of the very best independent bands from across the USA. Adding to the distinction of the event, admission for the street festivals and camping will be FREE for this Nationwide pinnacle of independent music. And, as the premier Industry Retreat Conference in the country, the South Park Music Festival creates a vacation-like atmosphere with all the talent and networking of a major music conference
For more information visit www.southparkmusic.com.
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 Broadjam is all about "Driving the Music." We build web-enabled technologies to globally service musicians and professionals in the music industry. We are committed to providing easy-to-use and affordable web services to help independent musicians promote themselves and get their music heard. Our world-class web site has attracted musicians from all 50 states and over 100 countries around the world.
In addition, Broadjam provides music industry executives with the tools to search, catalog, find, and place music in a variety of channels. They also build mechanisms to conduct song contests and operate online voting systems. If it's promotion you're looking for, Broadjam offers co-sponsorship opportunities to a highly targeted and responsive audience. The biggest names in this industry trust Broadjam with their music, so should you.
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Each issue Mediaguide will present an artist whose self-released song or album has placed in the top 10 of its Artist & Self-Released charts by genre, format or specialty program. To learn more about Mediaguide's airplay information on self-released or artist-imprint songs and releases, A&R/Music Discovery section of Mediaguide.com.
Artist: Michelle Lewis
Album: This Time Around
Genre: Americana (Folk)
Release Date: September 24, 2004
Website: http://www.michellelewismusic.com/
Based in Brighton, Massachusetts, Michelle Lewis is a folk singer who has received college airplay support in several places along the East Coast. Her leading supporter has been WAWL in Chattanooga, TN who has played the album over 140 times since Mediaguide first detected the album in March.
The other stations who have followed the WAWL lead are:
| WBER |
Rochester, NY |
| WCSB |
Cleveland, OH |
| WDOM |
Providence - Warwick - Pawtucket, RI |
| WMSE |
Milwaukee - Racine, WI |
| WORT |
Madison, WI |
| WTCC |
Springfield, MA |
According to the bio on her website:
If you meet Michelle before you hear her music, you might be surprised to find out she plays folk. She doesn't fit the profile. She quotes Homer Simpson before Paul Simon. She prefers Mardi Gras to Earth Day. She drives fast. She throws snowballs. She talks loud, she eats meat, and if you leave the mayonnaise off her sandwich she might try to fight you.
If you hear Michelle's music before you meet her, you might be surprised at her exuberance. Her songs throw you against a wall. They kick you out of the house and walk around naked. They call up to heaven. They crumble at your feet.
At first, it doesn't add up.
But then you get to know her better and you begin to notice that she always tells the truth. You notice that she's been listening the whole time. You realize how much she values sincerity and that, even when she's clowning around, she's just being herself.
Then you listen to her lyrics and you hear the triumph. You understand that she finds as much exhilaration in performing her music as she does the rest of her life. More, even. You realize that when she performs she is living the life to which her songs aspire.
Michelle's music is caring, vivacious and completely authentic. Watch her perform and you will understand. Her fingers articulate every note; her voice picks out every word. But you don't hear notes and you don't hear words. When Michelle plays, all you hear is music, and it all makes sense.
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The Midwest Music Summit is the premier music festival and conference for the central US. For the first time, the MMS will be held in conjunction with the NAMM Summer Session. This July 21-23 over 300 emerging artists will perform on 30 stages in Indianapolis, IN. Hundreds of interesting, like-minded individuals will participate in thought-provoking panel discussions featuring some of the industry's brightest executives. Deadline for artists to submit music for showcase consideration is May 13. Past performers have included: KRS-One, Ambulance Ltd, Robbers On High St., Juliana Hatfield, Marc Farina, Still Remains, Rhymefest, Burning Brides, Rachel Yamagata, Cat Power, Ice Nine and more.
For more information visit www.midwestmusicsummit.com.
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Each issue Mediaguide will bring additional attention to one of the stations in its monitored network. In some weeks, we will be fortunate enough to have one of the monitored stations share their thoughts on an album that has captured their staff and listeners. In other weeks, we will highlight a playlist that has captured our attention for its diversity and combination of local, regional and national artists.
This issue, KRTU from Trinity University in the San Antonio, TX market is our featured station. Their top 10 albums, based on the number of plays detected by Mediaguide during the 7 days between April 30 and May 6 show a combination of rock, jazz, pop.
The station is an industry-moving Jazz all day and then from 10pm to 5am its Nocturnal Transmissions lead a charge of independent and adventurous rock for its loyal listeners. KRTU makes sure to include airspace for local artists and live recordings because, in the words of its website, "if it's good we want to play it, and play it we shall."
| Artist |
Release |
Label |
Genre |
| The Hentchmen |
FormFollowsFunction |
Times Beach |
Rock |
| Percy Heath |
A Love Song |
Daddy Jazz |
Jazz |
| Graham Coxon |
Happiness In Magazines |
Transcopic / Astralwerks |
Jazz |
| Greater California |
Somber Wurlitzer |
Earthling |
Pop |
| Kneebody |
Kneebody |
Koch |
Jazz |
| Interpol |
Antics |
Matador |
Rock |
| Eldar |
Eldar |
Sony Classical |
Jazz |
| Gary Burton |
Next Generation |
Concord |
Jazz |
| The Cloud Room |
The Cloud Room |
Gigantic |
Rock |
| The Fatales |
Pretty In Pixels |
Self-Released |
Rock |
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Reprinted from Chris Anderson's The Long Tail , A public diary on the way to a book
The origins of "The Long Tail"
May 08, 2005
One of the signs of a great idea is that people feel like they've known it forever. That, at least, is what I tell myself when people suggest that the concept of The Long Tail predates my article of the same name last year. This first came up in the crafting of the Wikipedia entry on The Long Tail following my original article, and it again rose in my conversations with Tom Standage of The Economist last week. I'll take a moment here to explain the derivation and perhaps we can clear up this issue once and for all.
It is not new that powerlaw (and other) distributions have "heads" and "tails". It is also not new that some tails are longer than others. Indeed, if you search for "long tail" in the context of statistics (as opposed to animals with long tails and long tail boats [shown]) before September 2004, when my original piece came out, you will find quite a few references to various curves that have long tails. But the only one that even comes close to talking about the consequences of the abundance boom created by technology is a passing reference in a 2003 essay by Clay Shirky about powerlaws distributions in the blogosphere ("Meanwhile, the long tail of weblogs with few readers will become conversational...").
Given my intellectual debt to Clay for his groundbreaking powerlaw research, I was delighted to see him comment on this in the discussion behind the Wikipedia entry. He writes:
"For my part, when I used the term in "Powerlaws, Weblogs, and Inequality", I didn't think of it as a coinage at all -- linear distributions have heads and tails and the weblog tail is long and flat....Chris and I and lots of other people use the phrase to describe a particular kind of distribution, but Chris has taken it in the direction of Tipping Point, a phrase that conjures up a whole complex of related issues, particularly issues of the business aspects of media and culture, that I didn't. So from my pov, Chris should get credit for originality, not of the phrase but of its current application and vividness.
To be precise, what I coined was the notion of looking at the tail itself as a new market. The use of the proper noun (including "The") is not incidental, but is intrinsic to the observation that we have historically looked at the market at the head of the curve in isolation, and we can now shift our gaze to the right and see that the tail is another market. The notion of two markets--The Head and The Long Tail; one familiar, the other long ignored but now emerging--is at the core of the thesis and explains the initial-caps TLT construction I've used throughout.
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…from Paul E. Wright, Vice President, Music Business Development, Mediaguide
So Who Exactly Are Jack And His Friends?
The JACK format debuted in Vancouver, B.C., three years ago, but in the U.S. it began on 105.5 FM in Denver a year ago on April 14. The format was created by Bob Perry and named after his radio alias, "Cadillac Jack" Garrett, a grizzled old-timer weary of everything except his memories about how exciting radio used to be when you always sensed the next song would be a great one. Perry began Jack as a Web stream, where it continues today at www.jack.fm. The Jack slogan is "playing what we want," with the implication that it relies on a music fan's instinct of what other music fans like.
Mediaguide has seen nearly 20 of its monitored stations flip to the Jack format. With the earliest adopters just reaching their 1-year birthday, the listenership, ratings and share numbers are coming under scrutiny and analysis. I thought it would be useful, therefore, to look at the format from inside the booth as well. The list below lists those that Mediaguide has been monitoring.
| CALL |
BRAND NAME |
MARKET |
Mrkt Rank |
date of flip |
| KJAC/KJMP-AM |
Jack |
Denver, CO |
22 |
4/10/2004 |
| KJKK |
Jack |
Dallas, TX |
5 |
4/19/2004 |
| KNOB |
Bob |
Santa Rosa, CA |
117 |
6/25/2004 |
| WZGC |
Dave |
Atlanta, GA |
11 |
7/21/2004 |
| WWJK |
Jack |
Jackson, MS |
122 |
9/2/2004 |
| WPYA |
Bob |
Norfolk, VA |
40 |
9/23/2004 |
| KCJK |
Jack |
Kansas City, MO |
29 |
10/15/2004 |
| KSZR |
Bob |
Tucson, AZ |
62 |
11/24/2004 |
| KBBD |
Bob |
Spokane, WA |
92 |
1/14/2005 |
| KJQN/KNJQ |
Jack |
Salt Lake City, UT |
31 |
1/21/2005 |
| WBZU |
Charlie |
Madison, WI |
95 |
2/24/2005 |
| WJJK |
Jack |
Indianapolis, IN |
41 |
3/13/2005 |
| KCBS |
Jack |
Los Angeles, CA |
2 |
3/17/2005 |
| WMWX |
Ben |
Philadelphia, PA |
6 |
3/21/2005 |
| KDRF |
Ed |
Albuquerque, NM |
70 |
3/29/2005 |
| KDRB |
The Bus |
Des Moines, IA |
91 |
4/1/2005 |
| WDRQ |
Doug |
Detroit, MI |
10 |
4/1/2005 |
| KTOZ |
Alice |
Springfield, MO |
143 |
4/1/2005 |
| KFMB |
Jack |
San Diego, CA |
17 |
4/6/2005 |
| KKLT |
The Peak |
Phoenix, AZ |
15 |
4/8/2005 |
| WSMW |
Simon |
Raleigh, NC |
43 |
4/11/2005 |
| WMKK |
Mike |
Boston, MA |
9 |
4/14/2005 |
| WARH |
The Arch |
St. Louis, MO |
19 |
4/20/2005 |
| WXPT |
Jack |
Minneapolis, MN |
16 |
4/21/2005 |
| KEUG |
Bob |
Eugene, OR |
149 |
5/3/2005 |
| KKXX |
Pirate |
Bakersfield, CA |
82 |
5/4/2005 |
| WQSR |
Jack |
Baltimore, MD |
20 |
5/4/2005 |
| KYCH |
Charlie |
Portland, OR |
24 |
5/5/2005 |
| WFKL |
Fickle |
Rochester, NY |
54 |
5/9/2005 |
| KJAQ |
Jack |
Seattle, WA |
14 |
5/9/2005 |
With the variety of names, markets and taglines associated with the Jack format, I was curious as to how some of the airplay numbers broke down at this very early stage of the format for most stations.
Using the reports available in the Mediaguide Monitor platform, we can take a snapshot of these stations to answer a few questions. I have used only those Jack and related stations that have flipped to the format for at least 3-months according to the table above. The table below will address the following questions:
- How many songs are these stations playing?
- What is the overlap between the songs?
- Is there more or less overlap between stations that use the Jack moniker versus those that do not?
- What is the playlist age breakdown?
- How much new music is being played?
- How different are the number of songs per hour?
Over the past 3 months the Dave and Bob stations have given more preference to new music by an approximate 3 to 1 ratio.
|
|
All "Jack" |
|
Jack Brand |
|
Non-Jack Brand |
|
| |
|
8 stations |
|
5 stations |
|
5 stations |
|
| |
|
|
| Total Number of Unique Songs |
|
3,273 |
|
2,356 |
|
2,379 |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
| Songs Played on Multiple Stations |
|
1,969 |
|
1,553 |
|
1,425 |
|
| % of Total Unique Songs |
|
60% |
|
66% |
|
60% |
|
| |
|
|
|
| % of Songs Released in 2004 to 2005 |
|
3.2% |
|
0.5% |
|
5.9% |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| % of Songs Released in 2000 to 2005 |
|
12.2% |
|
8.3% |
|
16.3% |
|
| |
|
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|
|
| % of Songs Released in 1995 to 2005 |
|
25.9% |
|
22.0% |
|
30.0% |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
| % of Songs Released in 1985 to 1995 |
|
31.3% |
|
34.6% |
|
28.1% |
|
| |
|
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|
| % of Songs Released in 1975 to 1985 |
|
34.4% |
|
36.4% |
|
32.5% |
|
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|
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I have not addressed in this snapshot a discussion of the genre breakdown related to the age spread of these playlists. We can save that for later discussion. As the listenership numbers come in over the next months, we can better correlate the music broadcast to the market acceptance and truly see the financial and creative impact of this young format.
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