David Hall

Everyone in the Adult Rock community was taken aback at the news of the passing of David Hall.

We all knew him, and we all continue to have great respect for a great guy.

But, most of us knew him from a business/industry perspective. We knew him as a music lover who could break bands and kept the trains running on time at a fiercely independent station.

So when we remember David, we’ll likely remember him in some context related to his Program Director role at WRLT/Nashville.

Then there are his fans. For them, David did exactly what an on-air talent is supposed to do. Curator. Companion.

Just a few posts from the Radio Lightning site, from David’s fans:

Pamela says:

I am just so sad today as I know everyone at WRLT is. I know David was the voice and feeling behind the idea of the fabulous independent radio station we are so lucky to have here in Nashville, and I hope his dream and legacy continues, as I’m sure it will. His loss will leave a huge void, but he touched a lot of folks and kept the spirit of independent music alive and well in an industry that does not honor true independent artists. My heart goes out to all of you who were fortunate to have worked closely with him, as I know you’ve lost a good friend.

Brian says:

Music on the radio is such an important part of life. Where would we be without it? Like so many in Nashville, while I never met David Hall in person, I knew him well through his wonderful voice on WRLT radio and consider him a special friend. He was there for me every afternoon on the drive home and on Sunday nights to wind down the weekend. He brought so much of that special joy of independent radio to my life. His knowledge and dedication to his craft was inspiring. Words cannot fully express my deep appreciation toward him for how much he enriched all of our lives. It is so very sad that he will no longer be there filling those moments for us. Thank you for the many wonderful years, David Hall. As a longtime dedicated listener, I will always remember you, and truly miss you, as a very special friend.

Dan Haseltine says:

Absolutely broken by this. He was definitely a fierce advocate for independent music, and the welcome and familiar voice on the radio for so many years. His passing is so incredibly sad. David… you will be missed. -Dan Haseltine(Jars of Clay)

Lynne Collier says:

Lightning 100 is such a treasure – an independent station that brings a great variety of music to Nashville. David was an equally independent dj and a champion for local music & musicians. My thoughts are with David’s family, both inside and outside the station, and may you all support each other during this difficult time. Thank you David!

kj says:

Just have to say Thank You, David Hall, for rockin’ us all so sweetly for all these years. Your radio personality has always been a true friend and inspiration for so many. You’re one cool Nashville Cat!!!!!

Thank you for culturizing us with some awesome music. You surely did rock us all! Thank you for the tunes, friend…

Todd Adams says:

So few cities are as fortunate as Nashville to have a radio station like Lightning 100, where the music is locally programmed by people who care about music, and David Hall was synonymous with Lightning 100. From hosting his radio show to hosting Sunday evenings at 3rd & Lindsley, you could tell David’s life passion was quality music and there was no bigger advocate for local Nashville musicians than David Hall. He is irreplaceable and will be dearly missed.

Mary Davis says:

I can barely remember a time when David Hall was not a part of Nashville radio. We have lost the best DJ this city will ever know. My thoughts & prayers are with David’s family & the staff at Lightening 100. Rock on, David – you will be greatly missed.

Mindy says:

Although I never met David, I feel like a good friend has passed just in listening to him on the radio all these years in Nashville. My condolences to all those who did know him….. his family and friends.

RIP my “vocal” friend.

mark says:

new to Nashville, I happily found lightning 100 on the dial. A great radio station much in part because of David. I never met David but feel a great sadness none the less that his voice has been silenced. A great loss for his family and the larger Nashville community. My deepest sympathies.

Ruth Ann Minshall says:

I was a year out of high school when David came to WKDF.I can remember how delighted I was when he joined WRLT. Those were the good ‘ole school days! I don’t think I will be able to survive the commute from Nashville to Spring Hill any more without hearing “David Hall rocks y’all!” He was a sweetheart of a guy, and really knew his stuff. He will be sorely missed!

Rufus Wainwright, courtesy RufusWainwright.com

The musical lineup for the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention is beginning to take shape with a slew of announcements.

Brandi Carlile, Sinead O’Connnor, Rufus Wainwright, and Diego Garcia are scheduled to perform at the Philadelphia-based conference May 17-19.

Also announced are Dry the River, JC Brooks & the Uptown Sound, Lee Fields, and Father John Misty. Many more artists are yet to be announced.

Sinead O'Connor by Kevin Abosch, courtesy of sineadoconnor.com

As the NON-COMMvention returns to Philly from Wilmington, performances will take place at World Cafe Live, adjacent to the WXPN studios.

Early Bird registration rates are currently in effect, with multiple radio station employees able to attend for as little as $50. See the NON-COMMvention registration page for details.

The official hotel will again be the The Inn at Penn, with reservations now being taken. Learn more at the NON-COMMvention hotel page.

TheTop22.com will have complete details as the conference further develops. Information is available via the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention tab on the top navigation bar.

On August 30, 2009 I wrote that radio was blaming all of its problems on the recession, and once the economy bounced back, everything would be fine.

In short, I called bullshit.

Instead, I argued that commercial radio’s business model was on fire well before the recession, and everything big radio companies have done since has simply fed that fire.

I pointed out Bob Garfield’s excellent observations in his book The Chaos Scenario. Among other things, Bob noted that media’s expansion was seriously outpacing the ad dollars that supported it.

The result would be sinking CPMs and a greater proportion of the ad dollars going into digital.

Big Radio’s response to all this has been to circle the wagons, cut costs, and turn the content into a commodity. Arbitron’s Personal People Meter handed over more data, which was immediately misused by managers and consultants who didn’t understand how to use it.

In the almost two and a half years since I wrote that piece, commercial radio has gone literally nowhere. On the other hand, Broadcast TV, Cable, Digital, and Mobile are up big across the board — regardless of the economy. Only print has fared worse.

With commercial radio having just announced another flat month (December year-over-year), Strata’s fourth quarter survey sums it up.

(Strata, by the way, is a software company in Chicago that supports around 1000 ad agencies.)

Check this unfortunate finding…

The top medium of choice for clients in Q4 2011:

* Spot TV (Broadcast and Cable) 51%
* Digital 31%
* Spot Radio 8%

As bad as the 8% is, it’s down from 16% last year.

As Bob Garfield correctly predicted, not enough dollars being spread too thin across too many new forms of advertising.

And if you’re wondering where the next trough of money is going to go, look at your phone. Ad Age reports that mobile advertising will be up 80% in 2012 to $2.6 billion.

If you’re curious as to why Clear Channel dropped radio from its name, the answer lies in this chart:

Mobile Advertising Projection: Ad Age

I’ve said it before and will say it again — it’s not the medium, it’s how the medium is being programmed. Pubradio is hanging in there and in many places, growing. Commercial radio is just plain getting it wrong with a game plan that may provide audience, but that audience is less and less desirable to advertisers.

And that’s all that matters.

The dashboard of the 2013 Chevrolet Sonic, sans CD player.

News out of the Consumer Electronics Show has GM announcing that the 2013 Chevy Sonic RS will not have an in-dash CD player. And the reason is not because the Sonic is a stripped down cheapo.

It’s inevitable that CD players will disappear, but it comes as a bit of a shock — and has implications for music lovers, record labels, radio stations, and the car companies.

For music lovers, it’s a miserable development.

We have two cars in our household, and both have in-dash CD players. However, only one has an auxiliary input for my iPhone. Guess which car I prefer.

But a dashboard without the CD player will suck for one simple reason – most MP3s, satellite, and all streaming music sounds like ass. If you’re serious about rocking out in your car, it has to be on CD.

For labels, the message is clear: physical goods are one step closer to being manufactured for superfans only. Everyone else will tolerate lower grade digital copies.

For radio stations, the auto industry’s hyper-focus on high tech entertainment systems is only bad news — particularly if that radio station has reduced itself to a nationally distributed jukebox. Music-stations-as-commodities are dead men walking.

And speaking of commoditization, that’s the exact reason why the auto industry is so hot for connected dashboards that can provide Pandora and so much more. In short, so many cars are so well made by so many companies, they’re desperate for product differentiation. They’ll innovate to make the product more desirable wherever they can.

Radio stations would do well to follow their lead.

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Heaven's Gate cult leader Marshall Applewhite

If you think I’m about to compare many radio operators – especially those on the commercial side – to a UFO cult, well, you’d basically be right.

From a behavioral standpoint, there are increasing similarities. And it’s those related behavioral quirks – Cognitive Dissonance, True Believer Syndrome, and Cognitive Inertia – that combine to take the #1 spot on our Top 22 Players in AAA and Adult Rock for 2011.

Cognitive dissonance is defined as a discomfort held by having two conflicting cognitions — ideas, beliefs, values, etc. The theory holds that when people experience cognitive dissonance, they will try to reduce the discomfort by altering one of the cognitions — often using some level of rationalization to do so.

For example, in Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Grapes, the fox wants to eat the grapes — but they’re hanging too high and he fails to reach them. To resolve the discomfort, he tells himself that the grapes probably weren’t worth it anyway — they were probably sour. Hence “sour grapes.”

A related concept is True Believer Syndrome.

An example of this type of behavior is the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult.

In 1997, 39 members of this San Diego based cult committed suicide, all wearing brand new purple Nike high-tops, as they believed that there was a UFO trailing comet Hale-Bopp that was going to pick them up, then wipe the Earth clean.

When the world didn’t end, the two surviving members of the cult had an explanation: Wrong Comet.

Trailing comet Hale-Bopp was Arbitron's Personal People Meter, which promised great things for radio.

Starting to sound like anyone you know?

For radio owners, managers, program directors and the consultants and researchers who enable them, the rubber hits the road with Cognitive Inertia.

The idea holds that once a set of beliefs are formed, there is a strong tendency to rely on those familiar assumptions and a refusal or inability to revise or adjust the assumptions as new information becomes available. Ultimately, cognitive inertia becomes a psychological barrier that prevents organizational change.

This is where the Heaven’s Gate UFO cult and radio’s “cult of the Personal People Meter” show their similarities.

Commercial Radio has so bought into Arbitron’s Personal People Meter, it is collectively unable to think beyond it — even as new information becomes available that shows its shortcomings.

Instead, radio operators have convinced themselves that PPM is the Answer, changing formats, firing more staffers, killing off local programming, tightening playlists, and more — all with the aim of transforming radio into a “reach medium” that values commodity-level mass audiences above all else.

While social media rages forward, showing that relationships and communities are of upmost importance, Commercial Radio guys, and they are almost all guys, make more sacrifices to the People Meter god.

Heck, some true believers even use statistically-unsupportable PPM data as music research, showing how far they’ll go in drinking the Kool-aid.

But it’s not just the radio owners and programmers. Consultants and trade mags such as Inside Radio have become cheerleaders and apologists for a series of strategies that have flat-out failed. They’re basically willing to say anything to get paid in a shrinking economy.

Public Radio sometimes suffers from cognitive inertia, failing to update its sound as the market changes or failing to accept audience feedback. But there is one major difference between Public and Commercial Radio: Public Radio is a growth story.

In 2011, Commercial Radio stumbled along – using a tired, failed playbook that earned the industry revenue increases in the low single digits — likely lower than the rate of inflation.

Meanwhile, in the same lousy economy, broadcast television is up 12%-15%, cable television set an all-time revenue high, and new media continues to eat more of the advertising pie.

You’d think that an inability to grow the business would be enough to get radio operators to change course.

You’d be wrong.

Instead, they’re lacing up their Nikes.

-Paul Marszalek

Related Articles:

Memo To Commercial Broadcasters: It’s Not Working

Death of WYSP Proves Our Point: Commercial Radio is Getting it Wrong

New STRATA Survey Shows Potential Triple Whammy for Radio

Mike Henry to Radio: Walk From Arbitron

Music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz

WXPN is pleased to announce that registration for the 2012 NON-COMMvention is now open.

Early Bird registration rates are now in effect, with the added twist this year that allows multiple radio station employees to register for as little as $50.

The NON-COMMvention returns to Philadelphia May 17-19, with meetings and music performances taking place at the WXPN studios – adjacent to World Cafe Live.

The Inn at Penn will serve as the official hotel and is currently taking reservations.

Additionally, the NON-COMMvention is proud to announce that music industry pundit Bob Lefsetz will be at the center of the NON-COMMversation with WXPN host Dan Reed. Certainly this will set the tone for a fun and frank event.

The musical lineup is being finalized and TheTop22.com will report additions as they are confirmed.

Additional details and appropriate links to registration and hotel reservations are available from the top navigation bar of TheTop22.com. Look for the 12th Annual NON-COMMvention Home Page tab.

#2 The Late Night TV Bookers

Jimmy Fallon with Chris Martin of Coldplay

Late night television musical bookings have been nothing short of great.

With good AAA radio stations few and far between, it’s an understatement to say that there’s a lot of the U.S. that falls between the cracks. What to do? Get your band on TV.

The fact that the late night television scene is crowded probably helps — Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel have innovated, and Letterman and Conan continue to book aggressively, as evidenced by Dave’s ongoing support for St. Vincent and Conan’s booking of Deer Tick and Dawes. Hell, even Colbert has been getting into the act, with recent bookings of R.E.M. and Radiohead.

Leno tends to play it safer, pandering to a “less-hip” crowd. (Witness: Leno’s September 2nd guests — Dick Cheney and Carrot Top. Honest. That actually happened.)

These hosts and their music bookers have both great ears and some serious balls.

There’s a lot at stake. These show are worth, in some cases, hundreds of millions in revenue — Letterman pulled in $271 million in 2010. And you don’t see them wimping out or hear them asking if Benson added it or if KBCO is playing it yet.

These shows represent much of the mainstream, and if they’re booking these acts, it’s because they’ve done their homework — listened, seen them live, checked the online buzz, and taken sales into account, among other things.

In terms of reach, it’s a pretty good thing for artists: (Average audience in fourth quarter 2011)

Carson Daly 1.0 million
Conan 1.0 million
Jimmy Fallon 1.8 million
Jimmy Kimmel 1.8 million
Colbert 2.3 million
Letterman 3.3 million
Leno 3.8 million

Just a couple of highlights:

Jimmy Fallon not only books The Shins, he goes next level and gets them to cover Breathe as part of his Pink Floyd Week stunt…

Ray Lamontage stops by Letterman…

Jay hosts the Tedeschi Trucks Band…

Conan booked Mayer Hawthorne last October…

And Jimmy Kimmel’s outdoor stage hosted Death Cab for Cutie…

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#7 Lisa Sonkin

We'd kill for a surveillance tape.

The Columbia Records rep benefits from the label’s strong roster and A&R, but rarely do records get themselves played.

Columbia took the sophomore release from Adele to new heights and new formats, and the album still dominates the AAA charts.

But Sonkin gets props for breaking two developing acts at Adult Rock — Cults and Foster the People — the latter probably the best new band of 2011. Throw in strong work in getting play for outliers Raphael Saadiq and Tony Bennett.

Lisa will be extraordinarily busy in 2012. Train and The Shins and Bruce Springsteen in January alone. Add to that new albums from John Mayer, Brandi Carlile, and a Leonard Cohen album that you’re going to like, plus a handful of baby bands…

Bonus points: Late in the year, Lisa got run over by a deer. Standing at a bus stop. Yep, run over by a deer, which was being chased by cops. Awesome.

#6 The Whole New Media Thing

When making the list, there were so many potential new media pieces of the puzzle, they threatened to take over the list entirely. So we wimped out and combined them. And while their combined force should be way higher than #6, we’re simultaneously fatigued with packed-with-statistics new media stories.

So it is with those conflicting emotions that we salute Pandora, which could be the most amazing solution for labels — if the labels could only see it. The music industry needs to lower royalty rates to encourage new media innovation. If the Pandora’s and the Slacker’s and the Spotify’s fail in any way due to ridiculous royalty rates, expect a rise in piracy — among other things.

But it’s not just the streamers making noise this year. We see the return of video. Yes, video may again kill the radio star as Vevo unquestionably turned the corner in 2011, increasingly making promotional videos viable again.

Lastly, on the independent musician side, we’re loving the off-the-shelf tools being delivered to the DIY set. Who cares that MySpace is dead — it needed to die to make room for everything from Bandcamp to crowdsourced funding sites like Kickstarter.

#5 WXPN/Philadelphia

WXPN host and NON-COMMvention ruler Dan Reed.

Where do we start?

How about with congratulations to David Dye and World Cafe on its 20th Anniversary, celebrated in 2011.

And then there’s the NON-COMMvention, clearly emerging as the annual gathering of the AAA set. After successfully taking the show on the road to Wilmington in 2011, the event returns to Philly this May.

If you’re in the business of breaking artists, the NON-COMMvention is a must — whether you’re on the label side or the radio side.

Period.

#4 Sky Daniels

Skyboy on the right, circa 1980.

Last year Sky Daniels made our list for his work on the label side.

2011 found him back where he started — on the radio side with scrappy startup (or relaunch) KCSN/Northridge.

What the station lacks in signal and budget, it will more than make up for with hustle and smarts — as evidenced by its Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – headlined fundraiser.

With so many artists with no place to go in LA, we expect a line to be forming shortly outside KCSN.

#3 Jim McGuinn

The Public Radio pay scale sometimes forces McGuinn to live off the land to make ends meet.

With a playlist that can only be described as “that shouldn’t work,” KCMP/Minneapolis-St. Paul (The Current) somehow manages to make it work.

With a 3.1 share and an audience that approaches 300,000, The Current is the envy of many in public radio.

One reason for success lies in the fact that the Twin Cities have been primed with Left of the Dial-style radio since way before The Replacements sang about it in 1985.

Another is that The Current is part of pubradio juggernaut American Public Media – packed with smart people who know how to program, promote, market and sell.

It’s interesting to note that, in a market with a commercial AAA (Cities 97) and a non-comm, the ratings share and related cumes demonstrate almost everything about the differences in the execution of the two related formats.

Cities pulls a 3.4 share with 625,000 audience. Compare that to The Current’s aforementioned 3.1 with much less than half the audience. Cities arguably suffers from low TSL — much of the 625k simply isn’t engaged. Over at The Current, it’s a community – and they’re locked in.

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#12 Jenni Sperandeo – Dangerbird Records

Future Supabroad Jenni Sperandeo

Jenni Sperandeo’s move to Dangerbird Records has met with considerable success.

Dangerbird’s A&R is strong, with artists like Silversun Pickups, Sea Wolf, Hot Hot Heat, Butch Walker, Ben Lee, and Oasis-spinoff Beady Eye.

But it was the unlikely rise of Fitz and the Tantrums that gets Jenni kudos.

Let’s be honest, nobody in radio was sitting in a music meeting thinking, “Man, an LA-based retro-soul band is exactly what we need right now — if someone would just give it to us!”

Perhaps it was her master use of different colored fonts in her emails. Perhaps it was just good ol’ fashioned hustle.

#11 Steve Yasko and WTMD

WTMD's Steve Yasko

This one’s easy, WTMD put up the numbers in 2011.

Finding a sweet spot with plenty of new music without being too hip for the room, the station increased its audience from around 90,000 to a current cume of 129,000

Huge.

See their Top 89 of 2011 for a snapshot of what worked in Baltimore.

#10 The Coalition of Independent Music Stores

Mom and Pops of all stripes have struggled in the recession, and the physical music variety was no exception.

The loss of Ear X-Stacy in Louisville was gut-wrenching. But CIMS kept moving forward, adding a special-product-driven Black Friday to complement the annual Record Store Day each April.

Bonus points for the CIMS “spinoff” Junketboy Records and distribution, which has put out projects from Josh Ritter, Government Mule, Matisyahu, Mazzy Star and many more.

Michael Bunnell, Scott Register, and the whole crew are music lovers to the core, doing the communities served by Mom and Pops a huge service.

#9 Anti-/Epitaph Records

Krystal Robbins has been with Anti-/Epitaph for more than a decade.

Last week, Anti-/Epitaph had three albums on The Top 22 Public Radio Albums chart with Wilco, Kate Bush, and Tom Waits.

In addition to those vets, Anti-’s roster is becoming a who’s who of Adult Rock critics’ darlings, ranging from Joe Henry, Marketa Iglova, William Elliott Whitmore, Bob Mould, Mavis Staples, Spoon, Michael Franti, and more.

And then there’s the harder rocking Epitaph, now home to Weezer and Social Distortion, among others.

As artists of a certain sales range have been cast off by majors or otherwise wanted to go independent, Anti- has thrown down the welcome mat. The slogan says it all: Real artists making great recordings on their own terms.

#8 Birmingham Mountain Radio

Workaholic: In addition to work with CIMS and Junketboy, Scott "Reg" Register does mornings on Birmingham Mountain Radio.

This is not a revolution. This is a solution.

So says the website of Birmingham Mountain Radio.

When commercial radio bailed out on AAA and alternative in the market, and no public station was interested, the folks behind Birmingham Mountain Radio didn’t just gripe about it, they created an alternate universe.

It doesn’t take a genius to see that, considering the success of Pandora, a hyper-local online/mobile music stream could be a winner. Ideas are easy, execution is hard.

With a little funding, a cool artist playspace called Workplay, and a very hungry market, BMR has now reached its first birthday — and is now cash-flow positive.

PD Geno Pearson, Reg, and a handful of others know how to execute, and they understand community.

Birmingham, Alabama is one of those mid-sized cities that corporate America loves to use as a test market.

If BMR becomes a success here, where else might a well-programmed, non-comm-style, hyper-local radio stream work?

We can think of plenty of candidates.

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#17 Dan Connelly – Capitol Music Group

Going for it with the slight-angle headshot. Projects power, yet still cool. This year's headshot winner.

With the Capitol Music Group, Dan Connelly started off 2011 strong, keeping The Decemberists at the top of the charts and widening Eli “Paperboy” Reed’s audience.

But nothing like finishing up strong, with crossover act Graffiti6, Ryan Adams, and Coldplay all charting.

2012 could prove interesting as the purchase of EMI assets by Universal and Sony make for one less major — something no one can be really all that happy about. Unless you’re Sony, which bought the publishing.

We can always hope that a little consolidation will make for stronger companies that are able to invest in more product, right? That’s possible, right?

#16 Kyle Meredith – WFPK

He's either emcee at some granola concert, or fronting an industrial electronica band.

Being Music Director at the most listened to AAA radio station in the country (based on percentage of population) was simply not enough for Kyle Meredith.

Apparently with World Domination on his mind, his hour-long syndicated show, The Weekly Feed, now airs on 16 additional stations.

The next Jason Bentley or Nic Harcourt? Can Louisville contain him? Neither of those questions will likely be answered in 2012.

Special nod to WFPK PD Stacey Owen for her part in all this.

#15 Bob Boilen – NPR Music

Bob uses the under-chin lighting scheme in an attempt to appear evil. It fails.

As the NPR Music guy, Bob Boilen is a shoo-in to make The Top 22 Players list. He’s one of only a few to repeat.

But here’s why he makes it this year: He won an Emmy with a little help from Moby.

Boilen’s Project Song — a video piece that documents the creation of a song from scratch — won an Emmy in the New Approaches To News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture category.

Sure, that’s a pretty narrow category. But if you think it sounds easy, read the name of the category again – and think about how you’d win it.

We need more people thinking the way Bob thinks.

#14 The Alternate Side

In what might be one of the best-kept secrets in Adult Rock, WFUV launched another station in New York this year.

Kind of.

The kid sister specialty show/HD channel of WFUV, The Alternate Side, brokered a deal to put six hours of its super-hip indie rock mix on WNYE — the big signal (but als0-ran) station owned by the City of New York.

That’s 6am to noon on 91.5 FM. Congrats to all involved.

#13 RED Distribution

Danny, Elle, & Dawn. Sounds like a Lite-Rock lounge act appearing at a Holiday Inn near you.

It’s possible that this might be the most fun place to work on the record side.

Lots of strong acts from lots of different sources, with plenty of risks in the product pipeline.

Combine that with a veteran promo staff with Danny Buch up top, Elle Osis handling AAA, and Dawn Hood heading Alternative, and you have the ingredients to not only take records to the next level, but offer a home for mid-size acts to continue to practice their art.

Radiohead, Mumford and Sons, My Morning Jacket, Rachael Yamagata, Steve Earle, Matisyahu, and 33 Grammy nominations.

There’s a reason that RED positions itself as an artist development company. It does exactly that.