NEW YORK

Here is the description on the CNBC site:

ABOUT THE SHOW: “60 Minutes on CNBC” takes you a step further into hard hitting investigative reports, interviews, profiles, and features stories that have made “60 Minutes” required viewing for millions. CNBC brings you the latest on these classic stories with updates and never before seen footage of these award winning business news stories. The program is produced for CNBC by CBS News Productions.

Certainly, the distinction between the brands is being made clear in the description, but when you see it on TV, it makes no sense, except to the people who have thought it up. NBC is a great brand. So is CBS. But they are different. It is as if Apple started selling used iPhones to Microsoft or Dell, and letting them put a Dell or Microsoft sticker on the phones in the process.

60 Minutes is a special case, and it needs to be protected. Through producer Don Hewitt, the show has a direct line back to the Murrow era that everyone loves to mythologize. It is and has been a cash cow for CBS; I think that it is fair to say that it has made millions (or even a billion) in revenue for CBS. For decades it not only fueled CBS News, but it powered the entire CBS lineup, keeping Sunday and Monday nights, the giant nights of TV viewing, for the Eye.

It may mean some extra revenue for CBS, as well as extra exposure for CBS correspondents. And perhaps it means some programming for CNBC to fill. But it is not good for the CBS News franchise to connect it to another brand that competes with it so strongly. People at CBS might feel that 60 Minutes is the “brand” but 60 Minutes and CBS are intimately connected, and are part of one another.

Certainly CBS is feeling inadequate as a news operation. The “star power” trick of hiring Katie Couric to anchor CBS Evening News didn’t work; it went against the longstanding brand tradition of CBS, which values the news correspondent over the news host or news hostess. Firing large numbers of correspondents, and paying an anchor millions, is a recipe that was destined to fail.

Meanwhile, NBC comes out even worse in the deal. NBC’s news magazines are pretty much concerned with solving murder mysteries and catching perverts, and those reruns tend to be a real bore after awhile. It’s the same meta-narrative over and over again. CNBC, by rerunning CBS news magazines, shows up how little programming there is from NBC that it can use for news. This is at the same time CNBC is getting real competition with brand-consistent Fox Business.

Certainly, brands in media get confused, particularly when film and broadcast companies have merged. For instance, the Paramount shows of NBC and ABC are now marketed by CBS Consumer Products, which acquired them through merger. And even in the olden days of network TV, some programs would switch networks when they were dumped. For instance, the longtime CBS soap Search for Tomorrow was acquired by NBC, where it ran for four years. And network stars switch camps all the time; David Letterman, so much associated with the NBC brand, made the switch to CBS.

That being said, they were only associated with one brand. Even in TV news, this distinction is made quite clear. For instance, in the rare situations where TV news correspondents appear on other news operations, they are handled differently, and shown a bit of deference.

CNBC would do well to fill its schedule with wacky and innovative concepts from NBC staff. I think they do have a few staffers left who might come up with some interesting shows, even with a low budget. Why not some wacky stuff like Fox’s Red Eye? Why not dig into NBC News archives? Why not try some pilot programs out on CNBC that might later evolve into NBC or other programs on Comcast cable channels? Why not explore some co-op programming with Comcast regional affiliates.

What does it say about CNBC when it must sell airtime around other news organizations’ programming? How about some imagination?

It seems all so very short term.

The Federal Communications Commission has rejected the proposal, but we still think it’s an intriguing idea. Let AM radio stations across the United States boost their signal power by a factor of ten. We found this on the Ars Technica blog.

“The time to get the static out of AM radio is past due,” wrote Richard F. Arsenault of New Jersey to the Commission in April. “We have watched the AM service degrade due to the increase in interference for too long. We must return AM radio service to comparable and usable coverage levels of the past.”

So over two decades the number of AM stations has dropped by more than 200, while the number of FM signals has almost doubled.

AM radio is still a viable format. It’s cheap to produce, and low-tech; click on the Flavoradio image above to see our story on these Radio Shack gems, collected by Phil MacArthur.

We need that redundancy in our telecom systems. We can’t have all our emergency systems dependent on the web, even though many AM stations now broadcast over the web. In emergencies and power outages, AM is the perfect alternative. Furthermore, it makes no sense to clog up valuable bandwidth with local radio, which is much more cheaply sent over the air.

Mind you, it’s not so important that THIS idea for AM get pushed through. It’s merely that AM is a useful format, not only in times of emergency, and we need different types of media systems to keep some sort of freedom in our system.

Our local AM radio stations are some of the most potent regional brand names around. While diminished from the 1970s, when they had large news teams, they still command enormous respect and audience, and form a critical part of local communities. The FCC needs to protect that. And radio companies such as CBS and Clear Channel need to continue to make a case to the FCC that the format is valid.

HONOLULU – Bringing back something as iconic as Hawaii Five-O is a major challenge. There is enormous love for the old, so you don’t want to change it up too much. But you don’t want to mimic the old too closely, which would desecrate the original, and obviate the reason for doing the redux in the first place.

The show will return this fall on CBS, its original home, on September 20.  The show ran on CBS from 1968 to 1980; after the show was canceled Magnum P.I. took its place. It ran on various nights, including Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

It looks so far like CBS has it right, and could easily have a hit on its hands. Apparently foreign sales of the show have been through the roof. Nevertheless, numerous TV show redos have missed the point. A Bionic Woman was plain awful, and 90210 just didn’t get it.

Looking at how CBS approached the theme song, we realized it has lessons applicable to all older brand names that need a bit of spicing up.

Eight tips from the masters at the Columbia Broadcasting System:

1. Give the public what it wants. Many times companies think they know better, they are going to one-up things. This was the case with Burberry, that great brand was tarted up and ruined. However, with the show, Executive Producer Peter Lenkov said he listened to people who wanted a faithful version of the theme song, and then the rest would fall into place. Says Lenkov in the video: “The first thing people say– don’t mess up the theme song.”
2. Remember what worked: Composer Brian Taylor says in the video: “You have to do the theme with a true vintage cool vibe. If you move too far away from the original you are losing why it is so iconic.”
3. Change it up a bit: Says Lenkov: “You don’t want to mess with something that is great, something that works, something that people are looking forward to. So We are staying very close to the original but it is a little more aggressive, a little bigger.”
4. Don’t be cheap: When they got the band together, they aimed for the best, and got many of the original musicians. If you are going to take the trouble to remake something great,  you better be prepared to invest. Now,
5. Do Unhip Things To Be Faithful: Apparently, the new McGarrett will also drive a Mercury Grand Marquis, just as Steve did originally. Sadly, the Mercury brand has been discontinued by Ford, just months before it gets a hip revival from a CBS show. Perhaps Mercury can be revived at a later time, too?
6. Call it rebooting. Remake has a bad connotation. CBS is calling it a “reboot.” That sounds better.
7. Cliches can go both ways: The show website has a poll on whether to say “Book em Danno” once as a tribute, or lots. We vote for somewhere in between. The new social media is a great place to let consumers have their say about brands. But the key is that the companies need to listen.
8. Have a Blessing: The show production started with a traditional Hawaiian ceremony. Kono said it had a “sense of history and tradition to it.”

Follow the Tweets of the show at twitter.com/HawaiiFive0CBS

1. De Facto Job Rationing: After World War II, when the men came home, the women went home too. Rosie the Riveter fired? Well, the problem was obvious. There were not enough jobs to go around, and society had survive. When you talk about it with family members who went through it, you get a different story than documentaries. While not all wanted to quit, they gave the jobs back to the men as long as the other women did it too and all the men had jobs. It was called realism, and while it is not pretty, and not fair, there was a rational reason. Today, this sort of discrimination would be illegal, but it could return, de facto. For instance, when a sole-breadwinner loses a job, networks of friends pay more attention to finding a job to one spouse, then efforts move to another family. Or if there are layoffs, and a choice is between a single mother or second-income mom, guess who gets the boot first.
2. Sharing Pay With Underlings: When employees at CBS were grousing about Katie Couric’s pay package earlier this year, they brought back the old commie idea of sharing pay with staff. Here was the situation. You have Couric making millions. And CBS is laying off staff. The ratings for CBS Evening News are lousy. So employees do simple math. If she made $1 million less a year, we would be able to hire 10 full-time underlings, or 20 part-time. Now, she has a contract, but what fun is a contract when your staff hates you. Beneficiaries? Companies with star payrolls that can be cut back. And lucky for the U.S. we have a “pay tsar” or looks after this for us!
3. Door-to-Door: Recent articles about the revival of life insurance and home selling businesses have illustrated this trend of commissioned employment. Avon calling? Tupperware? Term or whole? Some of these types of businesses sell overpriced goods through guilt and social pressure, but of the ones that create value can continue to do well.
4. Government Make-work: The stimulus was all about projects like re-paving, and funding intricate schemes created by bureaucrats. What was fascinating about Roosevelt-era programs was that they did all sorts of interesting things, on the fly, with the money. Build a park! Clean up the swamp! Neoclassical airport! Go for it. Today, how much longer can we afford to keep extending unemployment benefits? This rewards some at the expense of others. If as a society we need make work, we need to call it that, but do something useful other than repaving old roads.
5. Civil Disobedience: The array of rules stacked against home-based businesses varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but the common denominator is that governments favor regulated businesses over small businesses. But looking back at the case of Paula Deen, she began to sell homemade sandwiches to put meals on the table and fulfill her life’s mission. From living in downtown Richmond, where the economy had collapsed in the 1970s and 1980s, there were rules flouted every day that even the busiest Richmond bureaucrats would not dare enforce for fear of making their lives miserable. Auto shops in alleys. Nip joints. Boardinghouses. Admittedly, bureaucrats like to enforce laws, but at a certain point at the growth of bureaucracy, underground economies come in so that people can survive.
6. Back to the Farm: A few weeks ago, Clear Channel’s WFLA 870 was running commercials for Saturday seminars at Home Depot to learn how to grow vegetables. While relearning agriculture after generations takes longer than a single season, it can be done with only a little effort and attention. In addition, there is a mania for home-grown and truck farming that has not been seen since World War II. Even Walmart is trying to subsidize local truck farmers by selling their goods, and every one of the Seven Sisters magazines is promoting grown at home.
7. Hunting, Gathering: In most states, hunting and fishing are approached as leisure hobbies, and taxed and regulated as if we are all wealthy sport fishermen and part of Edwardian shooting parties. Instead, state governments would do well realize that many folks actually eat their plunder, and try to come up with balanced policies that protect resources while encouraging responsible subsistence hunting and fishing. Here in Florida, the BP mess could a toll on the small fishing boat operators, but there is plenty of fresh water. If you think I am overly gloomy with this, go ask someone sitting on a bridge if they are going to eat what they catch.
8. Hobby Income: Back in the Depression, some women would pull apart knitted yarn to re-use it. That won’t happen now; we have cheap Chinese wool from Walmart. But what it did make me realize that when people have free time, they like to create things with it. Certainly, the average housewife won’t be able to sew her way into a new home-based job, but a hobby that pays for itself with a small amount of income from Etsy or local woman’s exchanges and farmer markets? That’s useful, and benefits companies like eBay, Jo-Ann, Walmart and Michaels. Some of these turn into real businesses. Municipalities would do well to ask some of these folks what it would take, policy wise, to encourage more of this.
9. Magnetic Sticker Businesses: In my home state of Florida, and because it is a tourist economy, many are content to come here and make less, and enjoy life more. That means there are hundreds of little one-man businesses doing unregulated, cash-intensive professions like yards, painting and the like. They all have magnetic stickers on their cars, telling what it is they do. Framing. Exercise. Cleaning. Painting. Most are not technically “employed” but have a spouse who is. There are two policy directions with these companies. Government can either target them and chase after them, or they can create real incentives so that these businesses can begin to report their income and move into the real economy and add employees. A year ago, I argued for the return of more dealer repair shops; I still think that’s a good idea. Why is there only one Briggs & Stratton dealer near to me?
10. Domestic Service: I am going to get into trouble on this one. But if you have able-bodied people and no cash, those people will have to take up residence somewhere. During the Depression, middle class Americans became even more used to cheap help than they already were. Where I grew up in Virginia, most middle class houses built before 1940 had maid’s rooms. These pre Social Security “rooms” were often Spartan quarters in the basement where the maid, cook and yard man could stay. While this era will never return, officials at the IRS would do well to come up with easier ways to encourage Americans to hire part-time staff legally, to help rebuild Social Security coffers and ensure that the least protected are protected by wage laws. Even if wages are low, citizens on the edge should have some income, and all the protections of a legal payroll.
11. Prodigal Back Home: We all know the story of the Prodigal Son, who returned home to his father after his profligate ways. Well, it’s happening now, as families double up to save on expenses. With aging parents, less money and an empty house, this option becomes yet another way to absorb the impact of fewer jobs. For instance, Baby Boomers who do not have the money to retire will are moving move home to take care of aging parents, or moving in with their children to help with child care, something that mostly happened in the inner city. A cash-poor Boomer can choose between working into retirement, or taking Social Security and staying home and fiddling with the Harley. Good news is that the housing market explodes when and if the economy recovers, and Carnival Cruise Lines, Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and even neighborhood bars benefit when “Prodigal” needs to escape for a few hours, or a week.

Television networks began to talk about this issue when cable started fragmenting audiences, speaking of shows that were “appointment television” or shows so good, you would mark your week by them.

This issue has come up during the discussion of Conan O’Brien. We are all familiar with the issue and press attention, and there is no need to go over it anymore. Suffice to say, Conan O’Brien released a statement that The Tonight Show about the issue:

“I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the ‘Tonight Show.’

The idea is that if you mess with the timing too much, you confuse viewers, who often do not make the switch. Habits are ingrained, and if they have been going for generations, you really need to be careful. Some examples:

Time of Year

Each year, holiday expectations begin to assume a sort of regularity and predictability. If an event can get established a few years in a row, people get into the habit of it and begin to enjoy it, each year at the same time.

• Weather patterns, lunar schedules and such play with our sense of anticipation. We don’t always know why we feel certain ways at certain times of the year.
• In addition to the remembering the way we feel on certain holidays, we begin to associate certain times of the year with sporting events, back to school sales and such.
• One small example of this is Miss America. It lost its oomph for many reasons. One small reason was that it was usually seen in the first week of September, but NBC pushed it back a few weeks to the third week of September. This year, it airs Jan. 30, 2010. It’s on a minor cable network now. There are many ways they screwed it up, but its “brand” derived from a bathing beauty pageant, and when that connection was lost, the brand of “Miss America” was gone too.

Day and Time of Week

When watching television programs, it’s like we all have biological clocks. Why is it that some shows do well on one night, but fail miserably other nights? Why did Love Boat do so well on Saturday Nights on ABC? Why is it that the “60 Minute Wind-down” became a Seinfeld episode and catch phrase? Why did The Brady Bunch do so well on Friday nights on ABC? It’s all about the time of week. Our society makes us do certain things at certain times; we get in habits.

• Americans became trained to spend vast hours with professional sports on weekend afternoons, with college on Saturdays and pro on Sundays. Friday night is reserved for high schools.
• Masterpiece Theater has become fixed in its 9 p.m. Sunday slot, with over 30 years of habit around the date. PBS is smart with this; it also allows affiliate stations to air a repeat of the show when they like. The first airing is standard across the nation, building the excitement of being at the premiere. But then subsequent shows can be shown when local markets prefer.
• We got accustomed to watching Morley Safer and Dan Rather each Sunday; Sunday at 7 p.m. became the property of CBS News. Even if we don’t like the segments, we stick with it. The issue, of course, became famous in the Seinfeld “Puerto Rican Day” episode.
• Everybody Loves Raymond, a comedy centered around an eponymous actor, thrived at 9 p.m. on CBS. It was not an irony that Raymond had the same slot on CBS as I Love Lucy had back in the 1950s.
• Certain nights do well with certain kinds of programming. 20/20, when moved into the slot of Prime Time, lost its sense of itself when it moved away from Friday at 10 p.m. We were in the habit of the show on Fridays. The 7 p.m. Saturday period carved out a certain identity as home to syndicated shows like The Lawrence Welk Show, Hee Haw and The Muppet Show.
• Shows lose attention when they get moved around. Dateline tried to extend the franchise to three nights. It’s now one night a week. Who has looked at Dateline recently?
• Soaps have made a mess of themselves in the last decade, and many classics have disappeared. They came to their most success when they began to respond to the audiences that were at home when they were on. For instance, as more women began to work, they attracted college students in the 1980s, but by the 1990s and 2000s, were unable to hook a new generation of teens into watching the shows.

Time of Day

This is the issue that Conan is talking about. Once you get your time periods set, you want them to continue, unless there is a really good reason to change. Radio trains us this way; it’s Morning Edition in the morning; Rush Limbaugh at Noon. Television trains us this way too.

• Commercials show us how to drink branded coffee in mornings, and wake to showers with certain soaps.
• Our society became accustomed to sitting down with TV trays and watching the nightly network news, then forgot about it. Around the U.S., major markets like the network news at 7, but in the hinterlands,we like our network news at 6:30. Again, its habit.
• Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! have our minds fixed at 7 and 7:30 respectively.
• Newspapers rely on this too; once one becomes accustomed to reading a newspaper at a certain time of day, you expect it, and begin to get worried if it is too late.

As networks battle against time shifting and YouTube, they need to consider the factor that time plays on their programming. The audience is so fragmented, that most of the time, it’s not about what you are programming against but what you are programming.

But because of the clutter, you want to use every possibility where you can build an audience.

Each year when various Charlie Brown holiday specials arrive on ABC Family, I get a bit confused. Not only are they not on CBS, they are missing the “CBS Special” intro that dates from the Lou Dorfsman era.

If you don’t know about the late Lou Dorfsman, he is a great one. Dorfsman was creative director of CBS through its best years, and through it all he nurtured and protected the CBS brand. Once, there was an effort to take away the CBS eye. Some ass thought it would help the CBS brand. Luckily, Dorfsman won. His whole approach was to be clever, beautiful and have good taste. His greatest achievement was saving The Waltons, which holds a special appeal because I am from Virginia.

I don’t know if actually designed the CBS Special logo seen here, but it was part of his work for CBS, and for millions of us 1970s kids, it became part of the Charlie Brown specials.

Sadly, CBS does not show Charlie Brown anymore, and that is a shame. We’ve posted a YouTube montage of some of these intros, of which the CBS intro is one of the better. (The ABC Movie of the Week is a classic too.)

Now, there is no reason to think that ABC would ever give up the rights to Charlie Brown Christmas. And a new generation of children will be forever associating ABC with Charlie Brown, so they would hate to have to switch. That is fine. Times change. But it shows a problem in branding.

Branding is about habits, and while habits can change, you want to be consistent. For a TV network, its “brand” is its programming and the images that surround that programming. So for a network to change its programming AND images, it changes its whole look. Again, no one would say that CBS cannot change its programming or it cannot changes its intro bumpers. But if you can, you want to keep it consistent. And you want to be careful with what changes. Our brands store things with associations, and if you kill off TWO associations at once, you begin to disconnect. You want to be careful when you disconnect too many things at once.

So here is the message. At a certain point, CBS should have fought to keep the Charlie Brown specials on CBS. Too late, we guess, though if you look at the clip from the YouTube video, they mention an Arbor Day Charlie Brown special, and I had forgotten about that.

CBS ought to use the “CBS Special” intro when it has special programming that interrupts a network schedule. I think folks there at Black Rock (are there still folks at Black Rock?) forget all the great stuff that is in their archives. And CBS well ought to consider creating a new generation of branded Christmas specials, under this most useful network bumper.

Sad day for soap fans. Sad day for Springfield.

The classic CBS soap opera Guiding Light has been canceled by CBS. First started in radio, it apparently began on NBC radio in January 1937 and moved to CBS television in 1952.

It apparently will end its run in September, and will be replaced with cheaper fare.

We wonder if the show could move to the Internet, or if there are other ways to keep the storyline going online. After all, it began in radio.

CBS. P&G. THINK THINK. Be creative. There is a way to keep the franchise alive.

Anyone who values American culture appreciates Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch. Even if they were not critical successes when they first aired, because they have endured, you have to begin to wonder why. Here at BrandlandUSA, we are also curious about their perfection and classic status. What makes a classic? Is it chance? How do you make the chance happen? How do you recognize what will work?

Schwartz appeared on Mark Simone’s 77 WABC radio show Saturday Night Oldies. Schwartz gave some insight into his work, and explained a few things. We gathered up the best; we think they are very good life lessons.

1. The obvious is often ignored. The eternal question of Gilligan’s Island is why the Professor could devise all these crazy ways to get off the island, but he could never do the obvious, namely repair the boat. The usual, intellectual English lit answer is that it was a sitcom, and you are supposed to have a willing suspension of disbelief. But Schwartz says it actually did make complete sense: “That’s true of mankind. They can do except what they cannot do.”
2. Bad stuff turns good. Somebody can screw up something good for no reason. Gilligan’s Island was set for another year, but William Paley, chairman of CBS, had a wife, Babe Paley, who liked Gunsmoke. There is probably alot more to the story. But only two years later, Schwartz had the time to create The Brady Bunch, a show that has arguably been therapy to millions of kids around the world.
3. Ignore critics. The Brady Bunch and Gilligan’s Island were successful, but never a critical success. That’s true much of the time: “People got the message before the critics got the message.”
4. You can do things. Overnight. Schwartz wrote the Brady and Gilligan themes, though he wasn’t a composer. The problem was that CBS had to set up the premise, but they didn’t have time in the show to actually tell the story, so they did it in the theme song. Schwartz had to write it overnight; he was told by CBS that “tomorrow, you better have the song.” So he went home, sat down at the piano, and wrote it.
5. Mix up the same pieces and make something new each week. The secret of both of the shows was to “use the same pieces of material” over and over again, but keep “readjusting those pieces” to make something different. It allowed the cast to have the time to relax, be funny, and practice lines.
6. Use what you have. Take the total of your experiences in life, and make them work for you. “You only know life from the way you experience life.”

Thanks to Mark Simone for getting Schwartz on the show. If you want to read more about Sherwood, go to his website at www.SherwoodSchwartz.com  

Almost 90, he has a wife of 67 years and grace to say that he’s been terribly lucky, when it is plainly obvious that he has made his luck, all along the way.

He said on the show that he gets letters daily from folks who enjoyed the show. If you did, write him.

Sherwood

Who would have thought that Westwood One (NYSE: WON) would be in penny stock range, and near de-listing? It’s a shame, as it was once a terribly innovative company; in 2005 its stock was at around $25. It still commands star power. Above, a Paris Hilton interview with Westwood One at the MTV Video Music Awards, which Westwood airs on radio. Note the blue Westwood One brand information on the microphone. Good logo, eh?

Westwood One was formed in 1976 by Norm Pattiz, who created a syndicated Motown radio show. The show took off, and he began syndicating other shows, including Dr. Demento. The network grew, and eventually took over operations for CBS Radio, NBC Radio as well as created dozens of syndicated radio programs. Best known? Its Westwood One rock concerts, which for years were a staple on AOR radio stations. It now syndicates Bill O’Reilly and Dennis Miller, among others.

At BrandlandUSA, we present some advice for Rod Sherwood, the network’s fourth president, who has recently taken over. Sherwood arrives at a hard time for Westwood, as a number of folks have tried to revive Westwood, and failed. For instance, Peter Kosann tried to revive the company in 2006 with big talent (Adam Corolla, Jim Cramer) and staff cuts. Nice try, but companies in duress should not be adding high-priced talent and cutting bench strength. Instead, they need to think like entrepreneurs and find new and sustainable low-cost programming sources. (Think Scholastic and Harry Potter.)

Westwood needs some hits. But a hit doesn’t come when you are trying for a hit. A hit comes when the stars align, and the only way to align stars is to survey the ENTIRE sky, night after night.

The good news is that when companies fall to pieces, opportunities open up. Staff and management are willing to try new things. It is time again for network radio to be reinvented, and Westwood is in a unique position to make these innovations happen. There is a lot of share value to be unlocked, if the problems can be solved.

What to do?

1. Carve a different identity for each of its radio networks. Each network should have a different identity. NBC Radio should have a consistent group of programs, as should CBS Radio, CNN Radio and Mutual Radio, which needs to be brought back. For instance, CBS might concentrate on radio news and the CBS legacy in international reporting. NBC might concentrate on comedy programs. Mutual (see item number four) might build on talk. With all of the programming from Westwood that is available, begin to organize programs according to network. Right now, the network radio idea is largely dead, and shows all exist as “networks” all their own.
2. Network associations could help smaller stations. There are large numbers of stations without a major affiliation, or stations that are affiliated with lots of different radio networks. With a main association with one top radio brands like CBS, NBC or Mutual, local radio stations could again reinvent themselves as affiliates. This could get confusing, because “CBS Radio” is actually CBS’ powerful collection of owned and operated stations. But if somehow these brands could also be tied to affiliates, the history and legacy of icons like NBC, CBS and Mutual could bring revenue to Westwood and local stations.
3. Concentrate on weekends first. In the search to find new sources of programming, look to weekends. Local radio stations have little time for experimentation, except in the evening. AM stations are often cluttered with infomercials on the weekend and evenings, which does listeners a disservice, and only provides marginal revenue. In addition, these infomercials kill the “brand” and credibility of the stations on which they air. If you could come up with a program schedule for each of the networks over the weekend, you would do much to build up each of the networks’ identity. Not only could you carve out an audience at an off time, the smaller audiences on the weekend would be a great place to try out new talent.
4. Restart Mutual Radio. Mutual Radio was not only a network, but it was a philosophy and idea of radio programming. While we think the brand still has value, as it still shows up in thousands of historical photographs, what is still viable about Mutual is the way it operated. That is what needs to be revived. Mutual was a network that grew out of its affiliates. The idea was that the affiliates got together, and shared programming. If one station was airing a program that might have a national market, Mutual would pick it up, and try it out. Today, this idea has even MORE viability with podcasting and the Internet. There is a lot of good content out there, and if a new network could sort through it and give it visibility, there might be some surprises.
5. Be inspired by Lou Dorfsman. The graphic designer Lou Dorfsman just died at age 90. He was the man who truly raised the bar with CBS’ graphic identity. Go back and look at some of his work that related to the CBS Radio Network, and get some inspiration. For instance, CBS was a master at promoting special events on radio, which is a specialty of Westwood One. It’s all about class, and high standards. Learn from Lou.
6. Stop regurgitating television. Much of what Westwood One distributes is reconverted television programming. It’s fine and well to circulate items from The Tonight Show and MTV, but if you are just doing that, you aren’t taking advantage of the medium, which demands its own approach.
7. Don’t overuse the call in format. Much of networked radio relies upon call in radio. The format saved AM, and it will be around forever. But it gets used too often, and a contrarian approach for Westwood might be to come up with new radio programs that are not call ins.
8. Have a consistent schedule. All the stations in the network need to take programming at the same time, leaving spots for local programming at regular spots. America is a mobile nation, and if shows are on at the same time across the country, live, they stand a better chance of being remembered as people travel.
9. Build on the Classics: The jewel of CBS radio is the World News Roundup , circa 1938, as well as other CBS news programming. These shows have continuity, and they date from the era of Edward R. Murrow and William Shirer. This history needs to be promoted to advertisers; World News Roundup could even be something that is used in schools, like Weekly Reader. These smart, concise shows could have the authority and oomph of NPR’s programming, and create buzz and excitement if people actually knew they were around and where to find them. But listeners need to be reminded of their history. NBC, while it no longer has long-running radio programs, does have a legacy. Monitor, the weekend radio program, is well remembered, and Jim Bohannon has kept the NBC Radio banner alive.
10. Search L.A. and NYC talent agents for one-hour music concepts. National Public Radio and Public Radio International, of course, enjoy a special tax advantaged place. Nevertheless, they have been innovators in radio programming, with programs like Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. There are many musicians like Marian McPartland who might be able to create their own shows. Take a slightly out of fashion musician, offer them a radio special, and sell it to a sponsor. Music and conversation seem to do best on radio. And music shows have an infinite life AFTER broadcast.
11. Cut out the nasty stuff. Loveline has run its course, and so has MTV. Clean up the act, and audiences will follow. Of course, you can put stuff like that on the radio, and people will listen, but it is not a recipe to build a company. Advertisers want to be associated with clean content.
12. Try some advertiser sponsored programming. What if you could go back to the future and produce advertising-sponsored shows around consumer products? That’s one way for advertisers to cut through the ad clutter. Plus, any program that is aired on radio, and then put into iPod, is a permanent and eternal ad for that product. Think King Biscuit Flower Hour, but sell the sponsorship to real consumer products companies. Radio is cheap to produce, and with the iPod, has a great market. Movie companies, electronic companies and record labels would be ideal sponsors.
13. Don’t do too much demographic overkill. The successful radio franchises like Rush have listeners across all demographics. While each show has its core audiences, look for programming that can attract different kinds of audiences.
14. Think how to, home improvment and self-help. The how to, advice and personal growth industry is massive. There could be many possibilities with shows relating to electronics, religion, business management, etc.
15. Don’t push too hard on iPods. Now, we aren’t saying that Westwood should ignore the Internet, and we just recommended the use of iPods.  But Westwood should remember that their stations are in the business of selling network broadcast radio time. Any podcasting of a radio show too soon after broadcast makes it less likely that someone will tune into the live program. Westwood needs to really get behind HD radio. All radio stations need to get behind it, actually.

Below, a Katie Couric visit with Harley Carnes to CBS News Radio in 2006. It’s a great window into the CBS Radio News of today. In the video, they talk about being in Cronkite’s studio, and the history of World News Roundup. It is a minor miracle that this great American institution, CBS Radio News, is still around, thanks to CBS management.

The best of the best was In the News, a CBS Saturday morning news segment for kids. It was only one news segment, but it was slickly produced and told a great story. None of these didactic sort of lectures that networks give kids. Instead, the news departments would tell an ACTUAL story that was informative or entertaining. The lesson was buried.

The late CBS News correspondent Christopher Glenn, who died in 2006, was the host of the segments. The best thing about the segments was the introduction, which was designed by CBS’ award winning design department, we think during the Lou Dorfsman era.

Ideas? Comments? Contact the BrandlandUSA editor. We love to hear about old brands being revived, dead brands resuscitated or great brands in jeopardy. We will help spread the word. Click Here To Send E-mail

Confused? WNEW FM was the landmark rock station of New York, and launched on October 31, 1967 as one of the first great stations of the radio format that became Album Oriented Rock, or AOR. (This BrandlandUSA writer grew up with K-94, the Skynyrd-playing Moyock, N.C. AOR station.) Over the last decade, WNEW FM has had an enormous amount of bad fortune and format switches, but the station was still beloved. The new site, which apparently connect with the Pandora-like website last.fm, is an attempt to bring all the good history of the station into one place on the internet. A great history of the demise of the station is in this CNN article.

This “unparalleled” archive of interviews and performances will be the base of the new station, which will still broadcast. It will broadcast at 102.7 HD2 in New York and online at wnew.com. (Apparently, CBS transferred the call letters WNEW to a radio station in Florida. This raises an interesting idea; that call letters of stations have enormous equity. Perhaps transferring the station letters was a smart move, as now the equity can be preserved.)

The new HD radio format promises a new era for radio, and gives hope to defunct radio stations that have great legacies. (See the BrandlandUSA post on WABC 77 Musicradio.) No longer will fans of a declining radio station have to suffer if their format changes. Instead, they will just have to buy an HD radio and listen to it online or on the HD. This also might be an option for WNEW’s AM legacy, which was built around popular standards (Rich Conaty — Thank goodness he, and The Big Broadast, still lives on WFUV.) It also might be an option for WOR, which had a number of great lives as an AM station in New York.

A bit from the press release:

The WNEW revival project is led by Norm Winer, CBS RADIO Vice President of Adult Rock Programming, and former program director of the landmark WXRT in Chicago. He said in a press release, “As a music fan and radio geek who grew up in Brooklyn listening to the original WNEW, I’m excited to help recapture the spirit and philosophy of progressive radio, using tools we never dreamed of back in the early days. With the foundation of a timeless and totally one-of-a-kind archive, we will provide rock devotees of all generations the chance to hear incredible moments from our collective past and enable them to connect the dots to rock’s most compelling artists of the present and future.”

Programming includes:

• Interview With an Icon: showcases classic extended on-air interviews with rock legends from WNEW-FM
• Live From the Archives: vintage performances from rock’s most prominent artists. In addition to the vaults of WNEW-FM, the station will have access to the recorded treasures of many of CBS RADIO’s prominent radio stations such as WBCN in Boston, and WXRT in Chicago
• Emerging and Amazing: the station will regularly debut music from rising artists and those whose names are not yet known to the listening audience.

Interested in New York radio history? Check out Pirate Jim’s history of New York radio.

Each record brand has a story, often related to its founder. A&M is all about founder Herb Alpert, and evokes smooth orchestration, quality lyrics and jazz roots. Reprise evokes Frank Sinatra’s break from Capitol, and houses Michael Buble. Capitol oozes founder Johnny Mercer and the Beatles. Casablanca still evokes the 70s, with its Neil Bogart disco roots and artists like Kiss, Lipps Inc., Irene Cara, Donna Summer and Village People (the label was brilliantly revived in 2004 by Tommy Mottola with artists like Lindsay Lohan). Elektra has scholarly folk roots defined by Jac Holzman and Leonard Ripley, and has mostly been forgotten by Atlantic Records and turned into nasty rap purveyor. Asylum is all about David Geffen and Joni Mitchell. We could go on and on.

What is the brand story of Columbia, the nation’s oldest brand (1888) in recorded sound? What is it about the historic Columbia Records? It first evokes quality; the legacy of William Paley of CBS still oozes through Columbia. In all aspects—writing, marketing, graphics, typography and cover art—the label speaks to high design and creative standards.

Secondly, Columbia is all about technological leadership. It was Columbia, of course, that first moved to flat records. And it was Columbia that invented the LP and pushed it into the market. Columbia, with parent Sony in charge, still has that ability. Third, it has the Walking Eye. That’s the logo with the two sticks under an oval. The logo was developed during CBS’s greatest days when designers like Lou Dorfsman and William Golden ruled Eero Saarinen’s Black Rock. It is the best. Sadly, CBS sold Columbia Records to Sony.

But some good things have happened under Sony. The label supported the preservation of Spillers Records in downtown Cardiff, Wales. It continues to promote Columbia’s “Walking Eye” trademark and combine it with the satisfying deep red. Streisand and Springsteen continue to work for Columbia, and the latter will come out with a new album, soon. And CBS, spun off from Viacom and which is no longer connected to Columbia Records, in 2006 revived the CBS Records brand. In this new brand reinvention, CBS Records will develop new talent and (a little back to the future here) push it on CBS television shows as well as a newly revived CBS Radio Network. Brilliant.

But the worldwide record industry is in death spiral, and that includes Sony. Much of the record industry problems are completely self-created. With the exception of American Idol related artists, much of the popular music pushed by record labels is nasty, negative and unwelcome in a respectable household. In addition, executives are wearing hair shirts, and lack confidence. Some Sony exec told Fox News in a positive story about the Springsteen album that: “You are the last one writing about the record business. Don’t you realize it’s over?”

No, it’s not over. The problem is not file swapping. In generation after generation, the recording industry has responded to new technology and copyright threats, and won.

The problem is in poor content, and the fact that most labels no longer have brand identity. In the record industry’s heyday, if you saw a certain record label, it meant that the records issued by the label had a certain feeling, a certain theme. You knew when you got a record from Elektra, it meant something to do with scholarly folk credibility and stylish compositions. You were willing to try new things from an established label. But today, labels are catch-alls, and they mean nothing, so the consumer is not helped by the name. And this wishy-washy-ness does not help in signing artists; if labels don’t mean anything to consumers, they aren’t essential to artists either. No wonder once top-selling artists like Captain & Tennille and Joan Shaw/Salena Jones are issuing their own records, and new artists like Stone Temple Pilots go it alone.

Above all, the industry has invested deeply in vile, anti-social content. Most record labels are led by Boomers. This generation has an almost religious identification with popular music being caught up in rebellion and protest. That worked fantastically in 1969, but the market is different now. Newer generations, market research shows, do not feel that they need to go against parents. Thus parents and children together watch Burt Bacharach and Carpenters songs sung by new artists on American Idol.

In a recent CNBC special on the record industry decline, Universal Music CEO Edgar Bronfman acknowledged that his company was enduring 20 percent sales declines each year. “We have a format, the CD, that’s over 30 years old,” he said. The documentary later went to a room full of turks plotting how to sell unpleasant rap ring tones.

Columbia seems to have a different approach. It provides a home to Burt Bacharach, Tony Bennett as well as new talent. Sony would do well to keep the identity of Columbia distinct, and look to the past for future strength. Meanwhile, it should expand the Columbia brand to mp3 music players, web music services and music industry technology research.