Jerry Del Collianio — the end of radio

by Howard Lapides

“Hello Honey, it’s me. What did you think when you heard me back on the radio? I am the morning DJ, on W*O*L*D, playing all the hits for you, wherever you may be.” (Words and music by Harry Chapin, “W*O*L*D”.)

Once, not long ago, radio, AM stations and FM, was special. Always entertaining, radio found new music and DJs told us about what the new. Always, radio made listeners wonder and it’s hard to accept how far radio has fallen.

Jerry Del Colliano knows the acme and the nadir of radio. He lived the height of radio success and watched its horrific descent into nothingness. When he says the end of radio is now, not tomorrow, you must believe him.

Knowing Jerry Del Colliano, as I do. Reading his blog, “Inside Music Media” and speaking, with him, I sense I’m sitting Shiva for an old, trusted and loyal friend – radio. Radio is not yet dead. Still, we’d be foolish to believe radio wasn’t near the end.

I talk to men and women who love radio, but want to murder the messenger. They say Del Colliano sells doom. “Why doesn’t he focus on the answer to save radio,” they ask, “rather than focusing on failures?”

Del Colliano has answers. His answers speak to the future of radio, not its past. As any unknown or uncertain terrain, the future is sketchy and scary for most of us. Many try to stop his message.

Most important, Del Colliano inspires thought. Inspiring thought is his greatest gift. Converting thought into action is our job, not his.

Del Colliano is a polarizing figure. Many years ago, I learned not to pick a fight, with someone who buys ink by the barrel; that is, the media. By exposing the sins of media consolidators, Del Colliano takes aim at those who buy ink, figuratively, by the barrel.

“You haven’t made it, in Hollywood, until somebody wants you dead,” is an old saying. Radio consolidators and corporate owners want Del Colliano silenced. He must be right.

I spoke with some of his harshest critics, recently. The irony is rich. Off the record, they speak with great respect, even admiration. For the record, they defile him.

Radio is on life-support, slipping into and out of a coma, unlikely to see the light again. Del Colliano beats this drum loudest, but he’s first to beat the drum, most loudly, for a new radio day. Radio, he says, is in the delivery business, using Model-Ts in an age of spaceships.

The big record labels, such as Warner Music Group or EMI, are along for the ride into a void. The labels cling to ways that didn’t work yesterday and won’t tomorrow. Is it a fluke, how radio and labels are crumbling together?

Del Colliano urges we look to the future, not to the past. Listen to the young, mimic what they do. Get a grip, he says, it’s not back to the future, but into the future. Click here to radio the complete Grub Street Interview, with Jerry Del Colliano.

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Tim Byrd, the Byrdman, feature interview

“Byrd is the unknown A-list DJ,” says New York media maven, Leroy Jones. “No, he doesn’t work with a bag on his head, but he’s among the best DJs. He’s missing from top ten lists, too often.”

“Tim Byrd went one-for-one with ‘Cousin Brucie,’ for years,” says Jones, “but when someone thinks of New York City radio, she or he overlooks Byrd. The only radio sin Byrd committed is not working Los Angeles.

“Working LA, with freedom, he’d give The Real Don Steele a run. I know it’s a sacrilege to say any DJ is as good as was Steele,” says Jones. “Yet, Byrd is in that league, with Rich ‘Brother” Robin, Ken ‘Beaver Cleaver’ Levine” and maybe one or two other LARPs.

Comments about the radio work of Tim “Byrdman” Byrd seem deep in hyperbole. As Stan Klees, co-founder of the Juno Awards says, “If you did it and you tell, it isn’t bragging.” Tim Byrd did it and does it.

Early in his career, Byrd had an unheard-of 42 share, for his evening shift, on the renowned WAPE-AM, in Jacksonville. More recently, he took his evening show, on WRMF-FM, in West Palm Beach, from last to second place, in one rating period. The “it,” Tim Byrd does, is the best music radio in America and listeners respond.

Dick Summer worked with Byrd at WPIX-AM, in New York City. He says, “Tim is the complete radio personality.” Batt Johnson worked, with Byrd, at WKHK-FM, also in New York. He says, “Tim became my brother almost the day I met him.

“Byrd is fiercely fun-loving, hard-working and dedicated,” says Johnson. “He’s not afraid of his feelings. He’s not afraid to be kind. He’s not afraid to do right, on or off the air.

“There was an older African-American woman living in his building,” says Johnson. “She became ill and couldn’t work. Tim took it upon himself to pay her rent and give her money for food.”

Matt Seinberg, of Big Apple Air Checks, tells a similar story. “My family and I were stranded, in Florida, near West Palm Beach. All the hotels and motels were full. Yeah, I know, but it was June.

“We had nowhere to go and knew no one, except Tim,” says Seinberg. “I phoned him. In no time, Tim got us into a top hotel. We got much needed rest before the flight back to New York.”

“Such acts define the person,” says Batt Johnson.

Byrd made a career of hard choices. When others opted to take much abuse, to keep a job, Byrd quit. His career mixed small and large radio markets, without pattern.

For twenty years, Byrd worked New York City, the top radio market, in the USA. He also worked VH-1 for four and one-half years; he was the favourite VJ of Phil Collins and Carly Simon. The story of Tim “Byrdman” Byrd confirms talent and principle breed success.

In this exclusive, in-depth interview, Tim Byrd talks about how the only boy, of a preacher man, found success. Click here to read the full interview.

Streeter Click

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Rainy Nights in Bangkok: interview with Timothy Hallinan

Introduction by Shadoe Stevens

Timothy Hallinan is simply the smartest, most creative person I know and the most inspiring. When we met, we became instant friends. Tim has been one of my best friends, all my adult life.

I met Tim, in 1970. I came to Los Angeles to work KHJ-AM and Tim was doing station promotion. He came up with some of the most innovative, creative campaigns Bill Drake and RKO General, which owned KHJ-AM, delivered. We met when Tim took some head shots, of me, for station promotions.

A year or two later, we were neighbours in Topanga Canyon. I was creating the “World Famous” KROQ-FM and Tim had formed Stone Hallinan Consulting. Stone Hallinan was an international public relations (PR) firm, with offices in LA, New York City and London, England.

Despite his success in PR, all Tim wanted to do was to write. He wrote and wrote. Every novel he’s written has received critical acclaim.

About his new novel, “Breathing Water,” Maddy van Hertbruggen writes, it’s “truly an excellent book – I don’t know how Hallinan can get any better – he set the bar … high for himself! Hallinan sprinkles perfectly wrought phrases throughout the narrative, like gems falling on to the pages, never failing to delight. In some ways, it’s harder to write a review for a book you love …. The tendency is to want to put out all sorts of superlatives, to gush with adjectives. Please indulge me for a moment: the book is extraordinary, magnificent, exceptional, heart shaking, heart breaking, brilliant. As I read this book, I laughed, I cried, I gasped, but I never … yawned. “Breathing Water” is a great book. Period” (from ReviewingTheEvidence.com, August 2009).

“Breathing Water” is the latest book in the Bangkok Series. This may be the only thriller series, in the world, in which the hero is a family. The family includes Poke Rafferty, an American writer living in Bangkok; his wife, Rose, a former bar worker, and Miaow, the ten-year-old street child they adopted.

At the core of these books by Tim Hallinan, there’s the love and tenderness of a family trying to stay together, while separated by culture, language, religion and, often, hair-raising events born out of real-life. Tim writes multilayered stories. His stories are rich, with colours, engaging, unforgettable characters and love. The love is of the family, of life and of the Thai people.

His mysteries are compelling and unpredictable. A novel by Tim is hard to put down. As thrillers, his books are riveting. At the same time, Tim writes with incredible wit and unexpected, laugh-out-loud humour.

I recommend “Breathing Water.” After reading it, I’m sure you’ll rush out to pick up the other novels in Bangkok Series. I’m certain you’ll find them so rewarding, you’ll forage used books stores for the six novels in his Simeon Grist Series, too.

There’s no one like Tim Hallinan. He’s one of the finest writers, of our time, and among the best storytellers. Click here to read an exclusive interview, with Tim Hallinan, and find out why.

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Screenwriter Neal Gumpel: free falling and almost famous

Introduction

by dr george pollard

A hundred years ago, Albert Einstein didn’t know physicists believed E could not equal mc-squared. He wrote about the effects of E equaling mc-squared and changed the world. Einstein didn’t know he was supposedly wrong.

Neal Gumpel, the screenwriter, is similar. He’s a usual person around whom unusual events occur. “Many of the fictional screenplays he writes,” says Brian Linse, of Linsefilms, “happened to him. No one believes his life is the fiction he writes.”

During high school, Neal worked as a house painter. He developed a knack for high-end kitchen finishing work. As he painted, in Rye and Greenwich, he talked with his clients.

The talk was mostly about preparing food. Customers asked Neal to cater, and he did. Two years later, he went from house painter to caterer, with no training in either.

When Neal met his first wife, she was a bible student. He took up bible study to be with her. After they married, Neal became a minister, licenced by the State of New York.

When his marriage ended, Neal worked at Dean and Deluca, a trendy, high-end café, in New York City. Two years later, he opened a bistro in Kona, on Hawaii, called “A Piece of the Apple.” Two years later, Neal and second wife, Helen Shelby, the super model, returned to New York City, where he worked at the high-end Citarella Fish Market.

Two years later, Neal and Helen wanted to sublet their New York City apartment. Jim Sheridan, the film writer and producer, came to view, with his daughter. As daughter, Helen and Neal toured the building, Sheridan noticed, on the coffee table, a story Neal wrote. He read it, while waiting.

Ten days later, Gumpel was the sensation of the Toronto Film Festival. Sheridan was saying, “Neal is my new writing partner.” Sheridan said his next project, which Gumpel wrote, was “Lucky Men.” Then Sheridan took Neal to Hollywood.

Mel Gibson, the actor, owns Con Artists. “When Neal first came to Hollywood,” says Brian Linse, “Sheridan took him to Con Artist for a meet and greet. Last person Neal meets is Gibson. They talk for a long while; Neal always has a steady stream of enticing ideas. When leaving, Neal shakes hands, with Gibson, and says, ‘Thank you, Mr. Costner.’”

This is Neal Gumpel. He writes the best screenplays, but knows little about Hollywood. “He knows almost no one in Hollywood,” says Linse. “This is good.”

“Neal pitched an idea to Brian Cooper, at DreamWorks,” says AJ Benza. “Cooper loved it. Neal got a six-figure development deal to write the script. The story came directly from the life of Neal Gumpel.”

“He’s a natural screenwriter, not studied,” says Brian Linse. “Neal doesn’t know he can’t write a scene this way or that. He decides what he needs. Then he does it.” Neal is two steps forward for Hollywood.

Neal Gumpel has an extraordinary life story. He tells it well. Click here to read his first in-depth interview, now, to know why his basic instincts prevail.

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Howard Lapides: media maven

Streeter Click

Howard Lapides is a storyteller. “I helped him discover his missed calling,” says business partner, Bill Siddons. “He should have been a raconteur.”

“I used to think he only talked,” e-mails Leroy Jones about Lapides. “Now, I see that he tells stories. His stories are lessons, with morals. He dispenses 21st century lore, sometimes cynical, always honest, never off mark. To restate Beat poet, Jack Kerouac, ‘Go read, of Howard, now and learn.’”

Lapides is about media. His favourite adage is the media are 99% business and 1% show. That folksy wisdom is his recipe, his talk and walk, for success.

“If you don’t exist to the middle world,” he told Dr Drew Pinsky, “among managers, agents and publicists, you won’t succeed.” Producers, atop the media food chain, rely on middle world farmers. Talent creates, best, when free ranging.

“Creative fulfilment takes many forms,” says Lapides. “Radio is one. Promoting rock and pop concerts is another. Helping talented women and men build careers is a third.” He knows, having done all three, with élan and much success.

Centuries ago, Lao-tzu said, “Those who justify themselves do not convince.” Shakespeare thought she “Doth protest too much.” Baseball great, Yogi Berra claimed, “If you done it, it ain’t bragging.” Lapides does it, won’t talk past the sale or justify.

This is rare. “Lapides works a phony town and industry,” says David D’Arcangelo. “Yet, he remains genuine, with bona fides; dignity and integrity intact.”

Lapides sees himself as “a disc jockey from Buffalo, New York.” It’s true, of course. Still, this self-image grossly downplays his protean ability.

“Howard knows radio,” says Bob Wood. Wood hired Lapides to host the Buffalo “Bills” post-game show. You’re unlikely to find anyone who knows radio as well as him.

“To this day,” says concert promoter, Harold Levin, of Bass Clef, “Howard is the brightest person in show business. He’s imaginative and successful. Howard is among the best managers and promoters, of all time.”

“If there was no Howard Lapides,” says Pinsky, “there’d be no Dr Drew, period; end of story. He told me what to do. Often, he told me how to do it. I listened, learned and benefited.”

Most telling is the opinion of rivals. A top agent, who negotiated anonymity for his comments, knows Lapides, well, often working with him. Though his words abused, his style praised. The agent always referred to “Howard,” never that so-and-so. When he spoke the word, “Howard,” his tone softened, his volume dropped, if so slightly. In midsentence, he clearly paused before saying the name. What’s unsaid is most revealing. The agent can’t help respect and admire Lapides.

Lapides likes to work live, over lunch, at The Palm. Supposedly, the art of conversation is dead. Monday to Friday, at The Palm, over lunch, Lapides confirms the art of conversation is alive and thriving, in Los Angeles.

In this rare interview, Howard Lapides is at the top of his game. He tells stories, offers insights and gives advice. Most of all, he entertains.

Click here to read the complete interview, with talent manager, Howard Lapides, of Lapides/Lear, Lost Angeles.

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It’s all in the name

dr george pollard

“From the moment I heard Shadoe Stevens, on WRKO-AM, in Boston,” says Howard Lapides, “I knew he was one of the few radio people I’d always idolize. That was 40 years ago and my opinion hasn’t changed.

“I was student, at Emerson College,” says Lapides. Evenings, I produced Steve Fredericks, on WMEX-AM. Weekends, I worked area stations, as the ‘Frogman.’

“Instantly, I knew Stevens was the man. What I didn’t know was the name, Shadoe Stevens, was inflicted on him. He had been Jefferson Kaye, for years, and didn’t like the new name. Most important, he made ‘Shadoe Stevens’ a widely-known success.

“Go out on the street. Randomly ask 100 people, “Who is Shadoe Stevens?” Most will know. They might remember his radio work, ‘Hollywood Squares,’ ‘Traxx,’ ‘Dave’s World,’ ‘Loose Cannon,” ‘Fred Rated’ or maybe “The Big Galoot.” Everyone knows something about Stevens.”

“Shadoe follows,” says John Rook, “in the footsteps of such greats as ‘The Real’ Don Steele, Robert W. Morgan, Larry ‘Superjock’ Lujack and Rick Dees.” Those are big steps to fill, but Sevens does it, easily. “Still,” says Rook, “he needs to learn how to spell!”

“For too many,” says Rook, “radio fame is a brief blink of the cosmic eye. Success, for Stevens, hasn’t peaked. He reaches new heights, daily, it seems. Don’t hold your breath, waiting for the day he can’t top yesterday. Heaven, hell and purgatory supposedly have top production studios and, since Dante left, new ideas are few. I predict Shadoe lifts the afterlife to new, creative heights.”

“Stevens made it on television,” says Lapides. “Shadoe succeed on game shows, sitcoms and in movies. He was one of us, the women and men of radio, showing the big shots we could do it all, and do it all well.

“KROQ-FM is a legend,” says Lapides. “Given no money, Stevens created this powerhouse station on his endless flow of ‘over the top ideas,’ a unique ability for radio production, unparalleled optimism, hard work and determination. How many, in any business, legitimately claim these characteristics? Stevens created KROQ-FM, twice. How few created such success, once, let alone twice.

“This,” says Lapides, “is the heart and mind of Shadoe Stevens: if I can think it, I can find a way to make it happen.”

His success comes of tenacity. “Stevens is a survivor,” says Don Barrett, “in his personal and work lives. Through a steady stream of creative output,” says Barrett, “Shadoe Stevens continues to share his journey with us.”

Shadoe Stevens is a Renaissance Person. He prospers in many areas and in many ways. He’s a Leonardo, working the digital age, with high-tech sound and radiant light.

Daniel Bornstein said, “A celebrity is someone known only for whom she or he is, not for what he or she does.”*** Stevens is a celebrity, but KROQ-FM and the AOR radio format, to pick only two examples, make Stevens most notable for what he does. What he does arises from a nimble mind, grit and no fear of dogged hard work.

Shadoe Stevens has a first-class character, a first-class mind and his work product is first class. He’s a first-class role model. Click here ’cause you need to know about Shadoe Stevens.

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The Compleat John Rook

by Streeter Click

“He’s too tall, too skinny and jogs too much,” says Dick Summer, of John Rook. The similes are apt. Dick’s a great summer upper and slick home run hitter.

Rook is a towering figure in radio. In his early 20s, John programmed number one stations in Top 10 markets, for ABC Radio. In five years, Rook lifted old-line KQV-AM, in Pittsburgh, to the top of the market; the equal, of KDKA-AM, the market leader for 35 years. In his 30s, only partisan politics kept him from a seat on the Federal Communications Commission. Later, he owned a radio station and battled Clear Channel.

His mind moves fast and knows no rust. When John changed stations, in Chicago, his new station beat his old station, soundly. “John Rook,” reported Billboard Magazine, “pulled off a miracle.” After 22 days, consulting WCFL-AM, “Rook beat his former employer, WLS-AM, the dominant Top 40 station in the market.”

Among visionaries, Rook leads, with ease and élan. At a time when many women and men see their final credits rolling, John leans into the wind. He’s after the next big idea. Today’s not enough. Only thinking about the day after tomorrow suffices.

Rook touts WiFi radio. “Thousands, of radio stations, at no cost, even from your car radio,” he says, “and by 2009.” In a breath, he’s on to MaxFi radio.

During his early years, Rook was a journalist and a steam locomotive grease monkey. He was an actor, with movie and television credits, and a shipping clerk for  Sears-Roebuck and Liberty records. No moss gathers under his feet.

“John Rook,” said Jack Thayer, “is one of a small number of programmers, with a natural ability to know what listeners want before they know it for themselves.” Thayer was first to hire Don Imus for New York City radio.  Jack knew good radio, its on- and off-air talent, well.

“SuperJock,” Larry Lujack, says, “Rook is the greatest program director of our time or any time.”  ABC Radio executive, Bob Henabery, says, “Rook understood the importance of doing everything right. He [is] a masterful Top 40 programmer.” “[His] talent,” says, “Ken Palmer, general manager, of KIMN-AM, “caused me to get him hired out of the market.”

The Hit Parade Hall of Fame is the latest Rook project. With son, Jason, Rook honors all recording artists. Anyone who had a Top 10 record, in any era, regardless of type of music, is eligible for the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.

Among the first Hall inductees, in 2007, were Johnny Mathis, Connie Francis and Neil Diamond. So far, the list of nominees, for 2008, includes The Doors, Dusty Springfield and The Kingston Trio. Each visitor, to the Hit Parade Hall of Fame, gets to vote once for each nominee.

It’s hard describing John Rook, without seeming hyperbolic. Many think his successes came easily.  For the lesser among us, luck justifies smarts.

Keen minds flourish, creating novel ideas. Intellect and want thrive. All needed for success seem in force, but failure rules. Often absent is the ability, the courage, to take definite action. Through action, keen minds, novel ideas, intellect and ambition cause success.

The Rookism is this: to succeed, think and act. One or the other won’t work alone. A simple aphorism, but seldom followed. Click here to read the complete interview, with John Rook

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Boston Blackie: the full story

“Boston Blackie” is a modern Robin Hood. A successful crook who turns into a highly successful law enforcer. Not a police officer or private detective, Blackie’s “a little on the gangster side, wise to all the tricks. but always reversing to do a lot of good. Click here to read more about “Boston Blackie,” including about the hobo, of the same name, and listen to four episodes of the radio show.

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Not Your Usual Web Site

by Mileena Vedas

Finding anything new or different, on the web, is like finding an honest mortgage lender in your spam-stuffed e-mail folders. Choices seem endless, but are few. It’s searching for a cyber ping, in a network of server haystacks.If a cyber boot is what you need, Grub Street is where you want to go. It’s a potpourri. Grub Street is where minds meet. It’s where everyone wants to know what you think, and why.

Grub Street jams much information into a small space. Think of WinRAR, and you get the idea. Grub Street appeals to minds, not pocketbooks.

There are few ads on Grub Street. “We wanted a clean, uncluttered site,” says Streeter Click – his real name – managing editor, of Grub Street. “There’s no ad clutter here, content rules.

Grub Street is a no-nonsense web site. There are clear links to featured content, on the front page. An extensive, an easy-to-navigate table of contents is also accessible from the front page.

Does it work? The answer is yes. About 30%, of Grub Street, visitors return, over a week. “Yes, they use their plastic, too,” says Click.

Grub Street went through a heady development. In a flippant posting, “Why Grub Street?,” Click tells how the web site got its name. “It’s a metaphor for writing,” he says.

The Ideal Journalist, a posting on Ed Murrow, lays out the ideals that drive Grub Street. “We assume,” says Click, “readers want honesty and integrity, even if it means posting items they don’t like.” There’s something to offend everyone, on Grub Street.

Grub Street aims for the highest common denominator. “After all,” says Click, “anyone wanting to know about the antics of Paris or Lindsay can pick from an almost infinite number of sites. That type of news doesn’t need repeating.”

“Not many sites post new fiction or thoughtful humor? Few sites promote literary artistry, op-eds or think pieces. We believe there should be more.

“At first,” says Click, “Grub Street seems elitist. It isn’t. We agree, with American writer, Lionel Trilling, that everyone has a moral duty to be intelligent. A moment of thought, about anything, always improves your understanding. Why shouldn’t you know your world better?

“Is it arrogant for us to believe readers can contribute, too? Grub Street has writers as young as 14,” says Click. “These kids are as sharp as our middle-age writers. All our writers, their ideas and words, get hundreds of thousands of page views. When it comes to ideas, many voices are better than a few.”

Postings on Grub Street range from media analysis to Yoga, fiction to philosophy, humor to social criticism. “We’re a general store, of ideas,” says Click. “Grub Street isn’t a niche site, in a conventional sense. Grub Street is a multiple-niche site in an unconventional sense.”

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RPM Song Lyric Search Engine LAUNCHED

The on-line version, of RPM Music Weekly, the publication that built the Canadian Music Industry from the bottom up, launched a song lyric search service. Over 400,000 lyrics in the data base. More added each day. Soon, you’ll be able to add your own lyrics. The free RPM Song Lyric Search serviced is ad-free, and will stay that way, forever and day. It’s a public service, in the traditional sense Click here to search for your favourite song lyrics, right now.

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RPM Music Weekly

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