'06: The Year In Review

Well – the votes have all been counted and I have made my decisions for 2006 – The Year in Pop Music. My criteria isn't the same as a music critic for the newspaper (I don't need to be moved by the music). My list is of the top 10 songs you heard on the radio and probably downloaded on iTunes. Here goes ... starting with # 10:


# 10: Shakira / Hips Don’t’ Lie: Love it or hate it, it became the most played song on the radio in modern times (meaning since the music people can track it electronically). Plus – Dan Kyle can dance to it. Shakira is a world-wide superstar but like Soccer, she does not get the same respect in the states. Good for her.

# 9: Rascal Flatts / What Hurts The Most: Even those who feel it necessary to call us and accuse us of “going country” every time we play a Faith Hill song – Even they liked this one.

# 8: Nickelback / Savin Me: The band the ‘too hip for the room’ crowd loves to hate … But they keep cranking out the hits. I give a nod to this one over “Far Away” just by a smidge.

# 7: Christina Aguilera / Ain’t No Other Man: Three former Mouseketeers had big headline years (Justin for his “Sexyback” and Britney for her continued bad life choices), but it’s Christina who continues to be the talent. The song is instantly catchy and her respect for the olden days of film and music just gives her coolness. Her biggest challenge for ’07 is not to screw it up!

# 6: John Mayer / Waiting For The World to Change: The guy who takes himself way too seriously finally gives us something to bite into. When the song first came out we heard from many that it was too political. But if you listen closely, JM is speaking for the aging “X’ers” who have more on their mind these days then extreme skateboarding.

# 5: K.T. Tunstall / Suddenly I See: The music people tell me this was supposed to be K.T.’s debut single for America, but when ‘Black Horse’ got picked up by a TV show, they waited. Good move – that was a hit, and so is this one. Great lyrics, great hook – the feel good song of ‘06

# 4: James Blunt / You’re Beautiful: Who does not want to be told that they’re beautiful? The whole “out of reach” thing makes it seem real: An amazing ballad. ‘Nuff said

# 3: Bon Jovi / Who Says You Can’t Go Home: This song was a pop and country hit (like What Hurts The Most.) at the same time. Just a great straight-ahead pop/rock record with a message we all want to hear. BTW: Everyone from New Jersey eventually goes home.

#2: Rob Thomas / Streetcorner Symphony: TV made the song instantly recognizable … What a cool song. I’ll bet RT never goes back to MB 20 – his solo stuff is just so much better.

#1: Gnarls Barkley / Crazy: Sometimes I really appreciate a song that does not catch me on the first listen. This one took a few spins – but I think it was the best pop single of the year. My four year old son loves to wait for hook and belt out “Who do you, who do you, think you are? Ha, ha, ha!” This was the mass appeal hit song for 2006.

Honorable Mention to:

Rihanna / Unfaithful – gutsy … it gave me a chill the first time I heard it.
The Frey / Over My Head – easy on the ears, simple, like a comfortable old shoe.
JoJo / Too Little Too Late – talented kid … reminds me of Leann Rimes.
Justin Timberlake/ Sexyback – Honestly, I don’t’ know why. I want to hate this song –but I really like it.

The Best Song You Didn’t’ Like

Cheyenne Kimball / Hanging On – Amazing song, but our KTI listeners continued to give us negative feedback.

Worst Song – And You Didn’t Like It

James Blunt / Goodbye My Lover – quit y’er bellyaching … although it was fitting background music when Michael got dumped on The Office

Best Video

OK Go / Here We Go Again – These guys lived on You Tube.

Best Album (CD)

Sara McLachaln / Wintersong – Much more than a Christmas CD.

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

The Human Touch

Most of the holiday cards I get from vendors, colleagues and people in the biz are of the generic "Happy Holidays" genre. Fine with me: I have a long list of people on the card list and not all celebrate Christmas.

When I worked in country music radio back in the early 90's, it was not uncommon to get personalized cards from the artists themselves. Country artists are like that - they are much more accessible than pop and rock artists. Today, we get holiday cards from our music labels and local reps (ie. "Happy Holiday from Atlantic Records.") But this year we got a card that caused quite a stir from the time it entered the building.

I got a call from the mail room saying that I had an envelope with my name and address hand-written - with a return address from the Goo-Goo Dolls. When we opened it, there was a card inside hand signed by the guys. One of the signatures was even slightly smudged - proving that it wasn't photo-shopped in. The mail room was all abuzz and everyone wanted to see it. TALK ABOUT IMPACT!

Once I got the card back to my office, I closed the door and put my cynical investigative skills to work. The Goo's played a show for us here in Radio City back in April and they signed a bunch of stuff for the office. Sure enough - the signatures matched. Robbie's was almost an exact match, while Johnny's was extremely close. They were real.

Again - we have a ton of stuff that they signed for us back in April. But there was something about the human touch that really stood out. We immediately started sharing stories about their visit back in April:

http://podcast.wkti.com/LivefromStudioD/tabid/923/Default.aspx

BTW: Notice how they got around the whole "Christmas" versus "Happy Holidays" thing: IT WAS A HAPPY NEW YEAR'S CARD.

As a marketing tact - this really cut through.

Dear Casey ...

Love him or hate him, you’ve got to respect a guy with the staying power of Casey Kasem.

Here’s a note from someone I would put in the ‘hate’ column. I’ll skip all of the long, verbose, irrelevant details and jump right to the part about Casey. Our author works Sunday mornings during the time Casey is on KTI at an easting establishment that plays KTI:

… For the love of God, can you please kill off Casey Kasem? The sound of his voice on the radio makes me sick. I am forced to hear his dreadful countdown every week and by the time he gets to number one I am actually feeling nauseous. His stupid long distance dedications have the credibility of a Penthouse Letter and if I hear “keep reaching for the stars” one more time, I might actually scream …

On the other side of the spectrum, we get calls & letters from true fans – a few so ardent they collect shows. Again: you love him or you hate him. I just get a chuckle out of this poor guy’s stressing out as the countdown rolls on. I’m thinking about showing up some Sunday morning to have a late breakfast – say around 11:30. Look for the guy gripping the side of his head “…as the countdown rolls on.”

In fact, Casey has made some pretty big contributions to the pop/entertainment world. Here is a great site that spells it all out:

http://top40.about.com/od/artistsls/p/caseykasem.htm


BEHIND THE SCENES ALERT: If you ask anyone in the biz what is the first thing that comes to mind when they hear Casey Kasem – most will say “Snuggles the Dog.” Like many of the old-timers in the biz, Casey is not a nice and “squeaky” clean as he comes across over the air. Some producer that was looking for a little revenge kept an outtake from an old American Top 40 recording session where Casey went off on … well everyone. You can hear it unedited or uncensored by clicking the link below.

WARNING: The following link uses explicit language … the kind we could never use on the air. But as this in the internet, “F-Bombs” are allowed. Please do not click the link unless you are 18+ and want to hear the real Casey Kasem.

http://jayssite.com/audio/kasem.html

This weekend, Casey counts down the top 60 songs of the year beginning Sunday morning @ 9am. We will repeat the entire countdown again @ 3pm. Man, I hope that guy has New Year’s Eve off!

airbag mercedes

This has been making the rounds at Radio City. Any objective viewing exposes it as fiction:

** A real air-bag firing looks like an explosion and it's very loud.

** The driver would be stunned and covered in that white powder used to pack air-bags.

**Any guy who would honk at a granny would surely "pop his cork" after she smashed his car. He is rather calm.

Still - I laugh every time I watch it. I think it's because I'm rooting for Granny.

Feliz Navidad

My favorite Christmas memories are of the kids experiencing things for the first time.

In order to get my 4 year old son to behave during a long day of shopping - a trip to Cheese Cake Factory was promised as a reward for good behavior. He earned it - and got 100% out of the experience.

Merry Christmas!

Winter Wonderland ...

Ever since I was a kid, the story of the Titanic fascinated me (long before Leo and Kate steamed up the big screen).

How could floating ICE take down such a mighty ship?

I think I saw a small example this morning when I arrived at Radio City. We have one of those snowbanks - hard-packed by our snowplows. You know, the ones in the corner of the parking lot.

It just won't go away!

After a week of 50+ degree weather and two days of driving rain - the giant ice cube still exists. I was never good at physics in high-school, but I can only image the density of our remaining snowbank. At this point, it's more than just ice. There's plenty of dirt and mud and who-knows what at it's core. But I bet we couldn't move that think with the biggest snow-plow we have.

So if you take my small example, multiply it by hundreds of times in size and set it loose in the Atlantic Ocean: Bye bye Titanic.

I had to take a picture to send to my family in Colorado. Yesterday I got their amazing photo's of the 3+ feet of snow in their yard. I wanted to share my "winter-wonderland" with them.

BTW: I am not complaining. As Lips said this morning - you don't shovel rain!

Happy Christmas

I have never been a huge fan of contemporary artists remaking the Christmas classics. I'm also not a huge Sarah McLachlan fan. But somehow these two forces negate each other on Sarah's Christmas CD - Wintersong

This may be the best Christmas CD in my vast collection (and I have an entire CD wall of Xmas music at home).

I'm hoping for Reitman's & Yoko's forgiveness on track one - but Sarah's Happy Christmas is the best rendition of that song I have ever heard - better than the John Lennon original. The strings, the choir and Sarah's ability to cover the range needed on this song - it's magic.

Track two is a haunting rendition of What Child Is This. With due respect to Vanessa Williams - this one is also the best I have ever heard.

Sarah covers What Child Is This, I'll Be Home For Christmas, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, The First Noel, Silent Night and Have Your Self A Merry Little Christmas. All pleasing to the ears.

There is an original song, River that may be her best work yet. I see that getting airplay on my iPod long after Christmas is over.

I know I am gushing about this CD - but you have to understand how many cross my desk each year. There were 3 or 4 new versions of Happy Christmas alone. The others were terrible. This may be the one time I recommend by-passing iTunes to buy the CD (for old times sake).

Amy Taylor and I got to hang with Sarah a few years ago before a show at the Bradley Center. Things I remember about that afternoon:

• The aroma of stir-fry. Sarah travels with her own personal chef and he was busy whipping up some dinner
• Sarah's dog roaming freely around he B.C. We had a good laugh at the intern who had to follow him with a "pooper-scooper" (Hey kid - this is how you break into the music biz)
• Amy made me pay for parking.

Website for the CD:

http://www.sarahmclachlan.com/wintersong.html

Let's Roll The Video ...

I think my favorite moment of our "Farwell To Reitman," was Dan Kyle finishing the "Billie Jean" bit with THE DANCE. Good thing the KTI studio is designed so the talent can stand-up behind the console! We have a video pod-cast live at:

http://podcast.wkti.com/WKTIEvents/tabid/931/Default.aspx


My second favorite segment was the improv-troop from Comedy Sports doing "A Day In The Life Of Reitman, Mueller and Amy Taylor." FYI: They only spent a few minutes with the gang. They are trained to pick-up those little personality quirks - see for yourself at:

http://podcast.wkti.com/KTIMorningShow/tabid/837/Default.aspx

Mom Was Right - You've Got To Try It!

Even though it's been open now for a month or so, I made my first venture up to the Bayshore Town Center after work today. It's near our office - I just don't like the whole "shopping" scene. I remember thinking I would hate all the congestion, walking outside in the cold, trying to find my car afterwords ... typical guy whining.

But - man - I was wrong.

Sure - it was too damn cold tonight, but the town-center's quaint Main street and "brave" little band playing xmas stuff really set the scene. The big tree with the high-tech light display was mind-boggling. Those electronic signs that say how many parking spots are left on each lot/level really helped. The place was packed - but didn't feel congested. I stand corrected.

I guess it's hard to project how we are going to feel about something we have never really experienced. That's the thinking we use when we add new songs. Sure - we want your feedback and will put it to good use. But until we've been playing the song for a week or two - I'll bet you can't really form an opinion.

Who would have projected Starbucks success? Let's see, you're going to charge me 3 bucks for a cup of coffee which I will be glad to fork-over and maybe even up-sell to a 2 dollar hunk of lemon cake ... And I will love it because it's a place that makes me feel better about myself (by hiring cheery cashiers ... playing Alanis Morissette acoustic songs ... firing up the gas fireplace ... etc). Who would have seen that coming?

Come Here Often?

When you work in radio - it's almost impossible to take a day-off.

On Friday I did take a day off to meet a friend in Chi-Town. He is a Chicago Bulls season ticket holder and I mooched my way into the Bulls-Bucks game at the United Center (Bucks lose a heart-breaker).

Since we were friend in the mid 80's, he has been in the navy, gone to law school, and joined an international business which takes him on sales calls to places like Russia and South America (Kind of makes my stories about hanging with Rob Thomas seem a little shallow)

Even in the day - he never quite understood my longing to be in the biz. He knew the pay wasn't great. He knew the odds were against making it just because of the sheer number of people who were sending out tapes. But we both kind of forged out our lives.

After a surprisingly good half-time show (Blue Man Group), we were headed to the men's room when I spotted someone wearing a KTI hat. Even though I was taking a day off, I had to go and say something - anything - to this ardent Bucks fan who must have braved her way through the toll-booth jungle to make it to the game ... just like me. Here is a brief recap of the conversation:

--

ME: Hi there ... I see you're wearing a KTI hat. I work for KTI and just wanted to say Thanks for supporting both KTI and the Bucks ... even down here in Bulls territory ...

FAN: Excuse me?

(I recap what I just said above)

FAN: I'm here for the Bulls and I have no idea where I got this hat.

(she walks off)

--

Like that guy who uses bad pick-up lines at Victors - I just moved on. My friend pointed something out to me about the encounter after the game:

"Now I know why you are in the biz ... there is no way anyone in my field would ever go out of their way to market their product on a day off in a city where they don't even do business."

You know - it never dawned on me ... but that is what we do - instinctively. Not just me - or just my co-horts at KTI. Successful radio people who build big careers do it on passion - like musicians. I don't think they always get the props. But I know it's true.

I'd still love to know where she got the hat ...

The Sun Did Rise In The East ...

Transmitter .... check

Frequency Modulation .... check

Rob Thomas song .... check

We're still on the air - and Reitman's gone ... I guess they were wrong ...

Reitman Has Left The Building: 12/13/06

30 minutes left: In between bits, we allowed local TV to come into the control room and shoot some video. Where is Gene? He hit the sandbox so he would be able to last through the "big" moment."





Below, Bob and Gene share one last moment together before Bob's sign-off.

You can hear Reitman's last break on KTI and his goodbye from the Riverside Theater by clicking below:

http://podcast.wkti.com/ReitmanMuellerandAmyTaylor/tabid/837/Default.aspx

Farewell To Reitman - From the Riverside

What an amazing week for all of us at KTI. For the first time since I-94 signed off back in the Carter administration, Reitman will not be our morning show host tomorrow morning. I had my camera phone handy all day on Tuesday - trying to give you a peek behind the scenes. Here is what I saw:

The set is built for the Riverside Show. You may recognize that neon sign from our main studio in Radio City. One of our promotions people - John Weyer - had the idea to bring it down. Thanks to Leno DeRoune and Tony Lucas for getting it here in one piece!

Milwaukee's own Wil Durst wonders why we keep electing guys with nicknames like "Dubbya" and "Bubba" to the highest office in the land.

The KTI street team is like a Nascar pit crew. They have only a few minutes to make adjustments to the set and update copy while the talent uses the "sandbox."

Up on the 8th floor of the Riverside Theater is our favorite room: HOSPITALITY! For lunch we had "sliders," coldcuts & salad. Mueller says the chicken noodle soup was "to die for." You can see that Reitman has not lost his appetite! The 8th floor is a nice escape for the talent and crew to enjoy a few minutes regenerating.

Resistance is futile. The crew eats the cake ... The crew eats the cake ...

Reitman signs all 100 of the commemerative posters sold for charity. Thanks for buying authentic Reitman souvineers ...

The giant TV is fired up for the first time ... just in time to watch Oprah?

Your host for the evening show - and only KTI staffer who owns a tux - Lips Labelle!

Milwaukee's "King of Pop" Dan Kyle - dancing to Billie Jean - just moments before the famous "split." Footnote: He stood for his entire shift on Wednesday ...

Gene, Amy and Gino interview longtime KTI guest Leslie Nielson. Don't call him Shirley.

Reitman tries the "Horse walks into a bar" joke one last time. Being that this was his night - token laughter followed ...

After a night of laughs - Reitman offers a heart-felt thank you and says goodbye.

Monday 12/11 - 3 Reitman Shows Left

After a year of prep - it's finally here: Reitman's final week at KTI. I guess we can sleep next week!

Most of us were at the office before 5am this morning - and were still working well past 5 tonight. Showbiz is not a 9 to 5 job (of course even 9 to 5 jobs aren't 9 to 5). I guess we can sleep next week.

Here is what my camera phone caught today:





This beautiful cake was custom decorated for Reitman. We keep taking it from location to location. Nobody knows if it's still safe to eat! But it's amazing how well the writing has held up.







The gang "yuks" it up from studio D in Radio City. Around the table (clockwise) are Reitman, Mueller, Gino, Brian Howston, Lips and Amy Taylor. In the background, that is our engineer on-site - Trevor.

Radio City employees arrive to sit-it with RMA one last time.

Reitman is joined by his daughter Jessica. No offense to Bob - but she is the one with the voice. I can't believe how many people have asked me if she is in the biz.



Making time for the press ... Here is Reitman with Today's TMJ-4 reporter Diane Pathieu - story to run on Wednesday's Daybreak. It was refreshing to hear Diane interview Reitman because she is the only person who has interviewed Reitman who never heard of 'ZMF, QFM or (gasp) Dylan!






No time to rest this week. Right after Monday's big bash in studio D - we were off to the Riverside Theater as the set-up begins for tomorrow's "Farewell To Reitman: A Night of Laughs." I had never been in the Riverside when it's empty and dark.




Catering is delivered to the stage entrance - JUST IN TIME as we had been up since the middle of the night.








Tech's set-up the giant TV screen - as if anyone hasn't seen the pictures of Bob in the cemetery. I'll try to act surprised!

Reitman Press

Mike Jacob's Story on Bob Reitman - From Today's TMJ-4

http://www.todaystmj4.com/_content/news/special/story_5771.asp


Drew Olsen's Story on Bob Reitman from OMC:

http://www.onmilwaukee.com/buzz/articles/milwtalksreitman2006.html


Tim Cuprisin's Feature on Reitman in the Sunday Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=539739


Transcript of Reitman's On-Line Chat from Monday 12/11/06:

http://www2.jsonline.com/chat/chat.asp?id=reitman


Reitman story in MKE Magazine (from on-line transcript)

http://www.mkeonline.com/story.asp?id=1400318

Tragedy in the Valley

The two biggest challenges in covering a tragedy like this morning's explosion at the Falk Building?

1. Staying unemotional (when human lives are involved)
2. Reporting only verified facts.

The first part is probably harder for us because we are not hard/seasoned news people. Granted - Mueller has been a news man his entire career. But our gig doesn't put us in the middle of human suffering all that often - so it still effects us.

The second part (facts) is something we take very serious. If you were listening to our wall-to-wall coverage you heard only what we could verify. We had calls from people on the scene with stories of everything from gas leak warnings to numbers of fatalities. This is where the broadcast industry has to distance itself from the bloggosphere. We took calls from people sharing their own experience (car shook, windows blown out, smoke covering the freeway). But we only reported as fact what we could verify from our partners on the scene from Today's TMJ-4, Annie Schwartz at Milwaukee Police Department, or a few other officials in the know.

BTW: many of the early reports were wrong. Acceptable here in the blog world: but unacceptable on KTI.

The End Of An Era

As you can imagine, our focus is 100% on Reitman's final week at KTI after 27 years in Radio City. If you haven't spent time with the REITMAN ERA website, you really should:

http://reitmanera.wkti.com/

Have we got plans for the final week or what?

First of all, this Friday we have re-scheduled the live show from the Goodwill store in Franklin. They went all out to welcome Reitman, Mueller and Amy last week and mother nature got in the way. So they will be there on Friday from 6-9 - come take a peek!

On Monday (12/11), Reitman, Mueller, Amy and Gino will do this show live from Studio D here in Radio City. Lips will actually be hosting the show as the 'gang of four' participates in a "Behind the Music" type of show. We have invited a live studio audience so Lips will blend his questions with those from the audience.

On Tuesday (12/12), the morning show will start a little later and be live from the Riverside Theater in downtown Milwaukee. You do not need a ticket - just c'mon in. The doors will be open just before 8 and you can watch Reitman's 2nd to last show as it unfolds. Gino has promised some pretty cool guests. That show will be from 8-noon and you can hear it all live on 'KTI if you can't make it down.

Later that evening, we are holding the Reitman Farewell Bash - a fundraiser for Reitman's charity "Buddies Against Prostate Cancer." We have an all-star line-up of funny people and some great comedy skits that are being practiced at this moment. This is a ticketed event, and only a few hundred tickets are left (again - charity event for only $15).

On Wednesday 12/13/06, Reitman will host his final show from Radio City. We have left that show up to Bob to do whatever he wants. At the moment, he has asked to be left alone in our main studio with Amy, Gene and Gino. This will be a special moment for all of us at KTI - and we'll be listening to it just like you - on our radio. The final show starts at 6am and ends whenever Reitman is done.

What a week - huh?

BREAKING NEWS: Snow Patrol Photos ...

Radio City at First Light - thar' be snow!

RMA doing their own "Snow Patrol"

Our panel of volunteers after putting in a long night / early morning of fielding cancellation calls

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful ...

You want to know what it's like to really be a broadcaster? Listen to Reitman, Mueller and Amy Taylor handle today's blizzard in SE Wisconsin (first official blizzard of the decade!).

We have a phone bank with a dozen operators on duty that has been busy since the end of Conan O'Brian. The phones are manned by volunteers from 94.5 WKTI, 620 WTMJ and Today's TMJ-4. These dedicated broadcasters have been here all night long. Businesses, schools and organizations who have signed-up ahead of time and have the "secret" code, can call in their closing and get in on all three of our stations plus our web-sites instantly.

Yes we use a code ... it keeps us from hearing:


"Ah, yeah ... this is like the principal ... and ... ah ... school is closed today ..."


Once the closings are verified, we have someone from our Internet department (known inside the building as "Internet City") enter the closing under the proper county. Reitman, Mueller and Amy Taylor then see that information pop up instantly on a control room monitor and get it right on the air.

The cool part - is that we have an interface on WKTI.COM that lets you see the information the same time they see it. If you click closings, you'll then be able to choose your county and search for your school/business/organization. Closings ON-DEMAND - how cool is that?

So if you're home today as a result of a "snow-day," remember all of those closings you saw on TV or heard on KTI were gathered and processed by some real broadcasters who you will never hear on the air. But they drove in this morning (or late last night) knowing their duty and they did it well.



Now ... we're going to have pizza. If you've been here all night --- it's lunchtime (at dawn)!