 

Latest From The Blog

“Save WNKU” Begins with Quick Local Support

May 17th, 2016|0 Comments

Music and radio usually live in an entertainment bubble away from politics. Unfortunately, the waves of a new budget slashing governor in Kentucky have washed ashore on noncom Music Discovery WNKU-FM. Now a fire sale of WNKU is on the table, and local supporters of WNKU are quickly lining up to help save the invaluable and unreplaceable local community service. CincyMusic.com started the ball rolling today by posting a compelling story and a petition to “Save WNKU.” The petition already has 1,210 signatures and is growing fast. Signatures include community leaders, local business owners, event and concert promoters, NKU students, alumni, faculty and staff. Many local musicians, including members of the Heartless Bastards and Wussy, have chimed in to ask the university to reconsider a possible sale. Lisa Walker of Wussy wrote, “This station makes it possible for me to make music in Cincinnati and actually succeed.” Charles Auerbach, father of the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, signed saying NKU should keep the station, “Because it’s the best radio station in the Midwest.” […]

Prince: The Day the Music Died

April 21st, 2016|0 Comments

(Note: This Prince poster hung proudly on the walls of WUOG.) For a previous generation, Buddy Holly’s death was coined in song as “The Day the Music Died.” Prince’s death today marks an equally huge loss for my generation and in the evolution of alternative-based music. When Prince exploded onto the scene in the early 1980s, I was running WUOG-FM in Athens…the student station. We were proud pioneers of the “college radio” wave that started in small music centers such as Athens, where B-52s, R.E.M., Pylon, Widespread Panic and many others emanated. Frankly, “new wave,” as we referred to it then, was lily white. Yes, we were breaking all kinds of new progressive music that wasn’t getting played on radio, including now mainstream artists such as U2, Police and Talking Heads. But, there was no denying, this was not a genre where artists of color were involved. […]

Public, community radio stations labor to keep up

April 1st, 2016|0 Comments

Story posted on BizWest March 4, 2106 By Dallas Heltzell “Nonprofit stations labor to keep up with competition while vying for dollars to pay for it all. Cork-popping celebrations don’t often happen at 6 a.m. on a Monday, but then the scene at dawn in Greeley on Feb. 29 wasn’t your typical party. It was the dawn of a new era in radio along Colorado’s Northern Front Range — and a new challenge for noncommercial broadcast competitors vying for donor dollars. KUNC-FM 91.5, which for nearly a half century had brought an eclectic mix of music and award-winning investigative reporting to Northern Colorado, switched on a new station it had purchased for $3 million in December to split off its music format so that it could devote its flagship frequency to local and national news. KUNC general manager Neil Best made a rare appearance behind a hot microphone to introduce the new format — branded “The Colorado Sound” — on former sports-talk station KJAC-FM 105.5. Then the alternative-rock songs began to play, providing a soundtrack for a mounting battle among the area’s community and public stations for listeners’ ears and dollars. […]

Chatter

It is always a pleasure to involve Mike Henry in the projects that we do. Mike has successfully helped us with both single song placement and long form programming and remains our ‘go to’ guy for all things radio.
John McDermott, Catalog Director, Experience Hendrix
Mike has truly become a partner more than a consultant. He’s smart, focused, honest and thorough. I credit him, along with Chris Mays, Scott Mahalick and our great team at KINK with helping us bring home a Marconi Award recently for Rock Station of the Year.
Bob Proffitt, President/COO, Alpha Media
Mike provided strategic guidance to Clip Interactive from the earliest point in the company’s history and he continues to support the business in a variety of ways.  His experience in radio and familiarity with the inner workings of the radio industry are invaluable.
Michael Lawless, CEO, Clip Interactive
WXPN worked with Mike and his colleagues on a highly successful market and music research project. We were extremely satisfied and confident with Paragon’s work in the field. The great results from the project speaks to the effectiveness as consultants and researchers.
Bruce Warren, Program Director, WXPN-FM
I adore Paragon. Not only do I trust the data and the methodology when you use their research, but you also get full service when you hire Paragon….so that creative ideas and strategies become a part of the package.
Haley Jones, Former Program Director, KPRI-FM
Paragon has been instrumental in the formation and growth of RadioMilwaukee.  Mike Henry has been involved with us from the early days and remains a valued consultant partner.  His experience and advice informs key decisions on format, marketing, audience development and staffing.  Working with Mike saves us tons of time because he gets right to the point and his advice is always on target.
Mary Louise Mussoline, Executive Director, RadioMilwaukee
In launching both 99X in Atlanta in 1992 and WRXP in New York in 2008, Mike Henry and Paragon helped me create the best market position for ratings and revenue.  Paragon helped our brands through reliable audience research and sound consulting advice.  I always called Mike my “un-consultant” because no one does it better.
Leslie Fram, Former Program Director 99X/Altanta and WRXP/New York
Mike Henry helped us re-launch KKXT-FM in Dallas and has consulted us on programming and all other aspects of the radio station ever since.  Within 18 months after re-launch, KXT had almost 400,000 listeners and became the most listened to non-comm Triple A station in America.  Mike has been a great resource and partner as we have grown KXT into the station it is today.
Mark Abuzzahab, Program Director, KKXT-FM
I’ve worked with Mike Henry at Paragon since 2000 on a number of public media projects that range from local market projects to those that are national in scope. These projects have been critical to establishing important foundations focused on building a more viable and successful public media reaching new audiences.We’ve never been disappointed with Mike’s contributions and work.
Marc Hand, Managing Director, Public Media Company
We appreciate Mike’s ability to help us combine his knowledge of programming best practices, market conditions and professional programming techniques with our need to effect changes both through management and through the education of our volunteer staff.  I can’t say enough about his approach, skill, professionalism and ultimately, the advice he gave us.
Beverly Hacker, Former Executive Director, KDHX-FM
With a market leading heritage Country station for nearly 25 years, quality, actionable research is most important in maintaining that position. Paragon has been our research partner in achieving that goal.
Bill Hagy, Group Programming Consultant, Bristol Broadcasting
One of the 1st calls I made when I came to WNKU was to Mike Henry.   WNKU was an underperforming noncommercial Triple A that desperately needed a new coat of paint.  Mike visited the market, met the staff and got everyone excited for what was about to happen.   A strategic plan and timeline was developed and implemented.     Format consistency, focus, spins, talent, imaging and marketing all equal audience/membership growth and sustainability.    He gave us the confidence and encouragement to make bold decisions that have directly impacted WNKU’s position in the market as a relevant cultural cornerstone in Cincinnati.     In our most recent fund drive we experienced one of the largest increases of new memberships in the 30 year history of WNKU.
Sean O'Mealy, General Manager, WNKU
http://www.paragonmediastrategies.com/
www.paragonmediastrategies.com
crawl=CC-MAIN-2016-22
179353
application/http; msgtype=response
sha1:JGVNCSATE3A7IPH44UVOCZV4SFMS4BMX
<urn:uuid:10539c9f-14c1-42ef-bdcc-13388e866fc8>
2016-05-25T09:06:03Z
69.195.124.167
sha1:47KQIEJWSAQSTGV2ESZ2IW5BPUALWG4G
<urn:uuid:b83dd375-827a-4be8-9473-6d4839420d70>
http://www.paragonmediastrategies.com/
response
<urn:uuid:f0f98c86-19f3-4926-97d3-2c5a3205ef7f>
robots: classic
hostname: ip-10-185-217-139.ec2.internal
software: Nutch 1.6 (CC)/CC WarcExport 1.0
isPartOf: CC-MAIN-2016-22
operator: CommonCrawl Admin
description: Wide crawl of the web for May 2016
publisher: CommonCrawl
format: WARC File Format 1.0
conformsTo: http://bibnum.bnf.fr/WARC/WARC_ISO_28500_version1_latestdraft.pdf