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NEWS Thursday, <strong>January</strong> 7, <strong>2010</strong><br />
years old and I haven’t stopped since,” says the multifaceted performer whose singing career began in the ‘60s as a member<br />
of the Osmond Brothers. “You can’t beat hard work and that personal touch.” To bring the latter, Citadel Media is making<br />
the show available in two versions: voice tracked via FTP site for stations to customize and add their own music, or as a<br />
fully-produced, satellite-delivered network show. Most are opting for the network version. Osmond tells Inside Radio he’ll<br />
cut station IDs and promos for affiliates. “Whatever is happening locally, I will cut those pieces for individual stations. Part<br />
of making the show successful is making sure it’s localized.” Osmond will also stage contests to fly winners to Las Vegas<br />
to see the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo and offer other “carrots to make it entertaining and a little different than the<br />
other guy.” Osmond says his “non-celebrity lifestyle” — he mows his own lawn — will help him relate to listeners. “I can tell<br />
legitimate stories about a real person washing my car or filling it with gas, yet I can also talk about what happened behind<br />
the scenes of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ and performing for the Queen of England.” His timing couldn’t be better, coming on<br />
the heels of a “Dancing With The Stars” win, which made for Thanksgiving week’s most popular prime-time TV program,<br />
according to Nielsen.<br />
Osmond: “I’ve always wanted to do something like this.” Donny Osmond’s on-air arrival is the latest example of the<br />
medium seeking fresh talent from outside the business. Conversations began one year ago, when consultant Mike McVay,<br />
in search of “a celebrity who could also be an entertaining radio personality,” approached the performer. The two met in Las<br />
Vegas last March and talks continued. Among the discussions that lead to the announcement by Citadel Media and McVay<br />
Syndication were how to work a five-hour weekday radio show into Osmond’s Las Vegas workload — he performs a live show<br />
with sister Marie at the Flamingo Tuesday through Saturday evenings. A sound booth was added to his Flamingo dressing<br />
room. Osmond, who also has a home recording studio, says he can produce the show “anywhere I’m at” with a laptop,<br />
microphone and internet connection. The former teen idol that scored his first #1 with “One Bad Apple” in 1971 has a special<br />
affection for radio. “It was radio that brought me back into the limelight when everybody else wrote me off,” he says of his<br />
1989 comeback “Soldier Of Love,” which went top 20 at AC after he traveled from station to station, working the song. More<br />
than a decade later, Citadel Media senior VP of programming Carl Anderson believes radio is ready to embrace Osmond in<br />
a different context. “Stations dealing with economic conditions that often times cannot afford the talent that Donny brings are<br />
now able to have access to a superstar like him in the form of a customized show.”<br />
Inside Radio Survey: Most employees don’t blame management for cutbacks. Layoffs, smaller paychecks and lost<br />
401(k) employer contributions aside, a vast majority of radio employees don’t appear to be holding a grudge against their<br />
company’s management team. A survey of Inside Radio readers finds three-quarters believe management is suffering along<br />
with everyone else. That is down slightly from one year ago when 84% said everyone was feeling the recession’s pinch.<br />
That’s not to say everyone is happy. One survey respondent says managers of bankrupt companies who still get bonuses<br />
“deserve a long, slow burn in hell.” More from the Inside Radio survey tomorrow.<br />
Pandora takes its first step into the dashboard. It won’t be widely available or cheap, but it’s a start for webcaster Pandora,<br />
which believes web radio in the car is just a matter of time. The company has struck a deal with Pioneer to detect its settings<br />
when iPhone users plug into the Pioneer AVIC-X920BT. The devices allow users to easily reach their favorite Pandora<br />
webcasts, although its main function is an in-car navigation system. It also includes other options, including HD Radio and<br />
Sirius XM Radio. The navigation system goes on sale in March and it won’t be mass-appeal product, costing $1,200. The<br />
Wall Street Journal reports no money changed hands between Pandora and Pioneer.<br />
Nielsen: One-third of consumers willing to pay for online radio. With marketers spending less on advertising just as<br />
inventory across multiple platforms has never been more abundant, media companies are considering new revenue models<br />
to monetize content. Premium content freely given away on the web may eventually come with a price tag. The Wall Street<br />
Journal has charged for certain portions of its coverage for several years and now other newspapers are following suit. A<br />
MORE NEWS >> InsideRadio.com<br />
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