The Coast Hits The Coast

Bye, bye oldies. at 10pm last night, less than a year after the demise of legendary New York oldies outlet WCBS-FM, Connecticut's Fairfield County lost one radio station and gained another. Cox pulled the plug on oldies Kool 96.7 and launched 96.7 The Coast.

With the slogan "Fairfield County's Greatest Hits", The Coast claims to be born of "micro-targeted research" that showed a programming hole in the Fairfield County marketplace. Cox claims that this research was conducted in the gold coast towns of Greenwich, Stamford, New Canaan, Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Weston and Wilton.

On my drive back to the office today, I heard Earth, Wind and Fire, The Bee Gees, Todd Rundgren, Otis Redding, Eric Clapton, Tommy James and the Shondells, and The Four Seasons. Clearly, The Coast didn't toss their oldies library into the dumpster, and is trying hard not to alienate their remaining Kool listeners while adding enough classic hits to win over listeners from WEBE-108, Lite-FM, Jack, and even some from Cox-cousin Star 99.9.

The Coast is starting off with lots of music, a minimun number of commercials, and no air personalities. We're told that an air staff will be added, but talk will be kept to a minimum.

By superserving Fairfield County's gold coast with "micro-targeted" music, and local news, weather, and traffic, 96.7 The Coast should garner a larger audience than it's predecessor did, and will offer the listening public with another easy to listen to choice.

Check out the live stream at http://www.967thecoast.com

Daily Newspapers Will Survive - Commentary

My daughter rushes home from school each day and races to the mailbox, hoping to find that the mailman (er, postal carrier) has delivered yet another acceptance letter from one of the 4 universities she is still waiting to be accepted to. She is a budding journalist, with dreams of some day assuming the role of Editor of a major magazine or newspaper. This commentary from UCONN's Daily Campus made me think about the student who penned it, wondering in the back of his/her mind if there will be any newspapers left to employ him upon graduation.

Daily Newspapers Will Survive - Commentary

Hartford: It really doesn't suck all that much

from AdWeek's Adfreak blog...

Since we’re on the topic of tourism slogans, let’s ponder this rallying cry for Hartford, Connecticut: “Come to Hartford. I swear, it’s fun.” A ringing endorsement bordering on the pathetic, the words were first uttered by one Lyndsay Stephenson in an article on Hartford’s supposed resurgence in a January New York Times piece. Now they grace a billboard along the southbound side of Rte. 91. While not the official city slogan (that would be the nowhere-to-go-but-up themed “Hartford. New England’s Rising Star”), “I swear, it’s fun” still has a peculiar appeal as one of the few statements made in tourism marketing that’s actually honest.

—Posted by Catharine P. Taylor

While My Guitar Gently Weeps

This has absolutely nothing to do with advertising or branding or business at all. I'm a huge Beatles fan, as well as an old hippie who still thinks Clapton is God. I just came across this old video, and just had to include it on my blog. George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Phil Collins, Jeff Lynne, all on one stage. Talk about marketing synergy! Enjoy.