Hot August Nights....Summer Nerves

Imagine getting on a stage in Dallas with temps coming down slightly from 100 degrees...everyday for the last 2 weeks 100 plus......ouch! Beer can't even help that....How do these pickers do it?

The Chesney fans in Detroit inside at Ford Field are at least comfortable this weekend....Great venue! But that poor town and the car economy. Talk about a place hurt by high gas prices!

Radio and the car are like a heart and lung. I hope we don't run everyone out of their cars because radio is really going to get hurt!

Morning TV is getting too hot. Do the radio GM's know this? Do they care? All these NON Local, coming from out of town, syndicated morning shows are KILLING local radio and just handing the keys to TV pre 7am...go look at any growth in radio versus TV pre 7am... people want INFORMATION and FUN not just FUN with hijinks and canned bits. How does anyone listen to these shows?

TV is making a MINT with the good demos go look! It's there only area of good news really. I love radio and when it works it is so cool...nothing like it...Some people running these businesses couldn't run a corner store in Slapout, Alabama.

Read almost any story and see where the magic number seems to be minus 10 to 15 percent on any subject you like. Ad sales, profit, staff cutbacks you name it. These are nervous times, but don't give up on humans in a town communicating with HUMANS in there own town. It was nice to see those sales figures for Miley Cyrus and Sugarland and those Mamma Mia numbers were huge. So people DO buy physical music (CDs) if you give them something they want.

The cutbacks in radio executives at CC and even CBS dropping stations altogether will certainly have some kind of effect. It's hard to see where things are going when the bean counters take over the front offices. It's never growing the business, it's always cutback.....never fails! Been that way since I started... times get tough and it's backtracking...glad these people weren't in charge of World War Two!

The XM-Sirius merger was probably necessary. I love my XM not for the music though I have always loved the 60's on 6... I love the TALK! And information and the kids love Disney. The times when I had a rental car with Sirius, I was never impressed. Howard Stern can be fun but gets boring at times. So what will this do to Country music? ...who knows? XM does some good stuff and not having Sirius I don't know what they do. Mergers in my life have never been a good thing for the workers...jobs do go away.

This HD radio thing for most is a huge unknown....These are radio stations in a closet if even that....who cares? Maybe if it was in every car or on every radio then all these I-pod competitors. Can you have 100 stations in a market like Nashville and anyone really care about any of them? 10 listeners here...10 there....ok...Maybe that is where we are now, in NARROW casting not broadcasting and niche sales. No wonder people in music business are so confused they are nearly paralyzed. TV is no different. NBC tossing Leno is a prime example of morons in the top seats.

What we do know is people want to come outside to play. Kenny Chesney proves that every week. Look at all the country shows on the road this Summer. It's been HOT but folks want to escape the bad economic news. Maybe that explains the big time BOOZE drinking at these shows.

Anyone notice the 100 arrested at the Chesney Boston show. 100 is high even for a NFL game, but with that many young folks drinking you are going to have trouble. Responsible drinking PSA's should be beefed up a bit. Someone getting drunk and killed or seriously hurt is just a matter of time. Almost got that in Boston with the 2 girls killed near the stadium. Hit a tree but they didn't have tickets and no one followed up on the circumstances.

Booze is like a ticking time bomb. Having people drink from 11am to 11pm...tick tick tick tick...I pray I am wrong. Push the designated driver or sober them up the last 3 hours....Everyone is leaving themselves wide open....Lucky so far.... Baseball teams and others learned their lessons the hard way too. It's a subject no one seems to want to deal with...The money is huge and people are having fun. Lawyers are circling these venues like sharks....Beware!