What can you do with the stuff that did not make it air? Or the stuff you left out because it just was too outrageous? Maybe there is material that does not air because the content did not fit in the moment. One show that does a good job in using every last morsel is the Paul Brown Show at 100.3 The Bear in Edmonton. An online segment called Off Mic that spends a few minutes unloading all the B and XXX material. While it's nothing more than an extension of what aired earlier on the show - it is a way for listeners to engage after the show. Click here to see an example. It's sponsored by a gun shop which is very Alberta. Don't worry, the commercial will not turn any Liberal into a Conservative. Before you declare there is no money in your station budget, your general manager will have a tough time saying no if it can be sponsored. The hosts have the segment ready on a daily basis, giving viewers a reason to come back. What are you providing your audience after your show to get them to come back tomorrow?

I remember the first time I heard the song. It was in 1982 after my hockey team was eliminated from a tournament. Somewhere on the bus, there was my defence partner Llew NcWana who would go on to Bowling Green University and then to the CHL. He would amass single digit goals and double digit penalty minutes. On the other side of the bus was forward Matthew Perry who went on to prime time TV and then into syndication with the same big TV show. I just remember being pissed we lost 5-2 in the semi-finals. I picked up the song on Q107 on my Sony Walkman and the piano sound was crisp and the song rather catchy. As the years went by, the song never resonated with my peers. At the end of the year, Journey's other song Open Arms finished significantly higher on the year end Billboard chart. So how did this song get so popular? Well there was this famous scene at the end that ended the Sopranos TV series. Followed by many other appearances on television and sports arenas. It is safe to say that the song is more popular than it was before 2007, and has given birth to generation of Millennials clearly can't sing. Baby Van Beezly filmed this and obviously spent a long time cutting it all together with her producer Will Lemke who is credited at the end of the video. Alcohol and Journey do indeed mix. This is why you play this hits, kids!

The NHL's Trade deadline is Mardi Gras for two types of people: The hardcore NHL fan and those who love uncomfortable broadcast moments. While today was an all time low on the trade front and lower on the broadcast front. It started the 2 nights before with NHL Dustin Penner removed himself from the TSN team for a collection of bad tweets on Saturday night. There was an odd moment less than 2 hours into the show where Aaron Ward got up and walked off the set after growing tired of the Edmonton Oilers discussion. There were some excellent moments including a comedic rehash of the two llamas who escaped in Sun City, Arizona last week. TSN brought two llamas on set. NHL rights holder Sportsnet had a similar show called Trade Deadline which doesn't have the heritage of TSN's TradeCentre, but found a way to fill time by talking about their direct competition. The best moment is always the spontaneous one. TSN's James Duthie got to tell Chris Stewart of the Buffalo Sabres where he would be playing next. The worst moment came from a gaff on the TSN TradeCentre Twitter feed. We're not sure how these things get to air but proofreading was clearly absent. The gaff left TSN scrambling to issue the necessary apologies. While the trades did not find their way into the New York media, the twitter gaff did. The cutest moment, although not broadcast related, was Justin Leopold's daughter penning a letter to the Minnesota Wild asking them to bring daddy home. #tsn #hockey #trade

This weekend House of Cards returns for a third season with One Nation, Underwood. Oops! Sorry. For those who haven't seen seasons 1 and 2, I might have just spoiled it for you. Tough. Get over it. You've had 2 years to watch season 1 and 2 and if you still haven't, well the rest of us can't wait for you. And if you think I've just "ruined" the show, the creators also don't think much of your procrastination; their new ad campaign pretty much said the same thing I did. There was a time when nothing was off limits. No one cared if you had the show recorded on your VHS. These days, we treat Breaking Bad like the Empire Strikes Back; House of Cards like a John Grisholm novel. We do not give away the best parts. One of the struggles morning radio shows have had over the last few years, is dealing with the culture of PVR's and Netflix TV series. It used to be that with appointment viewing, we could all spend Sunday night talking about what we saw on Breaking Bad or the Walking Dead. However, over the last few years, morning show media consumers have demanded that plot lines not be revealed because they were watching the Patriots-Broncos game and have the show safe guarded as a Monday night after dinner treat. That's all well and good for the consumer, but what does that do for your show? Does it depend on the TV show, the show's viewers, or the way the show is distributed? The answer is probably a little from each, but ideally it's about the relationship you have with your audience. Okay, so in the summer of 1980 if you had said, "I can't believe Darth Vader is Luke's father!" - that's pushing it. Maureen Holloway from Q107 struck a fair deal with her audience a few years ago: You get 24 hours to watch it on your PVR, then it's fair game. We're not sure what her Netflix policy is, but knowing Maureen, it is more than reasonable. If you want to set fire to your broadcast Monday, what would be wrong with challenging listeners who watched all 13 episodes to call in your radio show and summarize the entire season in 30 seconds? Provided that YOU did not offer any spoilers nor leaked any outside those 30 second segments, it would make for some intense listening. It's a practice you could do for every TV show that gets the PVR treatment: "We're going to be talking about last night's Walking Dead, so if you haven't seen it yet, we're in Spoiler mode until 8:10". Trust me, your audience will come back and appreciate the fact that you considered them. Another thing to consider is Sunday night's appear to be a heavily PVR'd night of television as Football, Hockey, and award shows definitely can't be PVR'd for anyone who wants to check Facebook or Twitter. And speaking of that - why is it that consumers can expect to have a spoiler come at them on Twitter, but don't expect the same from their morning radio show? Because your show is more powerful and has an emotional touch point that Social Media doesn't. Whatever your approach, don't let the vocal listener disarm you from doing the best show possible. Be honest and tell them what you're doing - then do it. #houseofcards #underwood #spacey #netflix #q107

If you think your show can't afford a weather man, think again. Frankie MacDonald is fast becoming North America's most important weather man with his YouTube Channel. His weather broadcasts generally make it to YouTube before your local media outlet has come back from its temporary state of automation. Each broadcast is contains a number of warnings that Frankie perpetually needs to repeat, because either people don't pay attention to common sense, or CNN hasn't gone over the top enough with their Blizzard Mobile. A line of clothing featuring Frankie's clothing has also gone on sale recently which my brother Henry didn't hesitate to buy up immediately. This Rock 100.5 Morning Show in Atlanta saw fit to bring Frankie on to talk about their impending storm. Hear the audio! Here is Frankie's Atlanta report that led to the morning show interviewing him. #frankie #weather #atlanta #rock1005 #classicrock

TSN put out a press release declaring that they had the most watched January in the last five years; with none of it actually being NHL hockey. The proverbial sports bloggers like Awful Announcing ran stories with an undertone of surprise. While hockey has long been the holy grail of sports during our Canadian winters, the NHL product is riddled with holes. Quoting directly from the Press Release, here are the highlights: World Juniors TSN and RDS combined to average 7.1 million for the Gold Medal Game, ranking as the most-watched telecast ever on Specialty TV Team Canada’s seven games averaged 3.2 million – the highest ever for a World Juniors tournament and the first time every Team Canada game attracted an average audience of 2 million in tournament history Pinty’s All-Star Curling Skins Game TSN’s annual curling skins game earned an average audience of 461,000 – the highest ever for the event Audiences were up 40% compared to last year The Team Jones vs. Team Carey semifinal and the women’s and men’s finals became the only TSN skins game telecasts to ever achieve average audiences over 500,000 College Football Playoff The three matchups from the highly-anticipated debut of the COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF averaged 564,000 viewers The ROSE BOWL on TSN drew a record average audience of 698,000, ranking as the most-watched U.S. College Football game ever, up 11% over the previous record set in 2010 Australian Open The average audience for the 2015 AUSTRALIAN OPEN on TSN was up 24% over last year Genie Bouchard’s quarter-final match vs. Maria Sharapova ranked as the most-watched AUSTRALIAN OPEN quarter-final broadcast ever for TSN NFL Playoffs TSN’s average audience for the AFC Divisional playoff between Indianapolis and Denver averaged 991,000 viewers on TSN, up 10% over last year’s AFC game SportsCentre TSN’s primetime edition of SPORTSCENTRE earned an average audience of 201,000, up 59% over last year TSN’s evening edition of SPORTSCENTRE earned an average audience of 172,000, up 8% over last year For the sake of comparison, here are the top 10 watched sports shows from last week that appeared in a post on Yahoo. (source: Numeris) 1. NHL, Leafs-Habs/Jets-Wings, Saturday, CBC: 2,600,000 2. NHL, Canucks-Flames/Caps-Kings, Saturday, CBC: 975,000 3. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game, Saturday, CBC-Rogers: 712,000 4. Curling, Scotties draw 4, Sunday, TSN: 609,000 5. Curling, Scotties opening draw, Saturday, TSN: 516,000 6. Curling, Scotties draw 2, Saturday, TSN: 490,000 7. NHL, Oilers at Senators, Saturday, CBC-Sportsnet: 454,000 8. Curling, Scotties draw 3, Sunday, TSN: 448,000 9. NHL, Bruins at Canucks, Friday, Sportsnet Pacific: 402,000 10. NBA, All-star Game, Sunday, TSN: 373,000 Here are the biggest takeaways after analyzing and over analyzing all these numbers: If there's something at stake, people will watch it. College Football finally got it right and created a Bowl Series so more people would watch. Hockey is really boring until after the Super Bowl: There have been a few Globe and Mail articles like this one and this one that have basically dumped all over Rogers for their hockey broadcasts. And yes, there's something about the presentation of these games that leaves it feeling marginal or unimportant. There's also so many more games on TV, the need to watch is reduced. The ongoing problem over the years is that prior to the Super Bowl, the games aren't important. Only the Leafs, Oilers, and Sabres are truly out and have started a new race called the "Connor McDavid" race to the bottom. Chances are good your team isn't out of it yet and the games mean just a little bit more now. If the NHL were smart, they would do away with this idea that "some games are more valuable than others" when teams tie. They should look at making it 3 points for a win, 2 for an OT/SO win, 1 for an OT/SO loss. Why tying a hockey game increases the value of the game 50% is beyond me. Numbers are up because it's tough to PVR Sports: There are a few television events that can't wait. Sports Centre is up because it's actually on now: No longer does it find itself pre-empted or pushed around. It is now living up to its name in the literal sense by being the centre of all things sports. Last night when the Duke-UNC game was about to go into overtime, in came the 15 year old who immediately went fishing for hockey highlights. TSN is not unlike ESPN in the states: If it's on TSN, it must be important. The fact that a number of hockey games are no longer on TSN and being broadcast elsewhere leaves the end product feeling secondary. It takes time for people to get used to it. The World Junior Hockey Tourney is still massive: Seven million people? Was there something at stake? Yes... and that's why people watch. #tsn #hockey #sports #nhl #rogers #bellmedia #bell #curling #ncaa #ratings

It took about ten seconds for the media to start killing the Seattle Seahawks on their play calling after Russell Wilson threw the interception of Death. Chris Collinsworth was first, followed by Al Michaels, followed be every Seahawk fan ever. Here's the deal. Y'all need to give it a rest. You're sounding like Amateurs. Have you been following the Seahawks? This is the team that goes for the jugular. They could have played it safe and kicked a FG against Green Bay but let their Field Goal kicker float a duck to the endzone. It's brilliant because he made it, if he doesn't, you're watching Aaron Rodgers in the Super Bowl. Have you done the math? In the NFL, there were 109 pass plays from the 1 yard line. ZERO PICKS all year. And I've seen the Youtube videos of Seahawks fans chanting beast mode - if everyone thinks Marshawn Lynch is getting the ball, isnt that when you don't give the ball to Marshawn Lynch? Also, Marshawn Lynch from the one yard line - he got stuffed a ton this year. Also, Bill Billicheck had the Patriots practicing for that play in the days leading up to the Super Bowl. He knew the Seahawks would probably do that from the one yard line... you didn't. Ergo, Bill Billichick is smarter than you. And just one play smarter than Pete Carroll. It's amazing how history manages to point the finger to the wrong guy. Somehow it's Bill Buckner's fault when Calvin Shraldi gave up hits and Bob Stanley uncorked wild pitches. The two of them only had to combine for three outs to win the 86 world series for the Red Sox. They managed 2. Watch the replay. And maybe you'll see a great defensive play and remember who actually made it..... Exactly. #superbowl #seattleseahawks #patriots #bellichick #carroll

It took a little time for people to figure out that cross-posting to both Facebook and Twitter platforms is rarely effective business. Inevitably one of your audience's is going to think you either don't care of don't know what you're doing. A few years back I had a defiant DJ who thought I was doubling their workload by preventing cross-posting at a company I worked at. I called one of the head social media guru's in front of the deviant employee and asked, "What am I to make of the an employee who perpetually insists that cross-posting to Facebook and Twitter is worthwhile?" "You should fire that person." Message delivered. Here are a few ideas that Webtegrity.com suggests: Facebook networks People while Twitter networks ideas and topics. Facebook allows you to write a book (not that anyone is going to read it). Twitter limits to 140 characters per tweet. Facebook and Twitter allow the use of hashtags to group ideas / topics. Facebook incorporated this ideas patterned after Twitter. You can search inside of either network for topics, people, businesses and organizations. Facebook allowing more options is considered more difficult to use than Twitter. Both networks are capable of allowing some customization to include your branding. Facebook allows likes and friends while Twitter’s call to action is to follow. Inside of Facebook you will Like or Share something. Yet inside of Twitter you will ReTweet or Favorite Something. You can find your old elementary friends or high school love interest on Facebook. On Twitter you can find the latest topic trending – like the Oscars, News, Celebrity Stories and more. Source: Webtegrity.com #facebook #twitter #socialmedia #media #internet

Shannon Burns is a familiar voice across Canadian radio. Her show iHeartRadio Nights with Shannon Burns airs nationally on 14 iHeartRadio stations, and she does evenings on the legendary radio station she grew up listening to, CHUM 104.5FM. On the podcast she talks about her career arc, how to plan a nationally syndicated show and suggests a name for the former Power 107 in Edmonton (Unicorn 107?). Burns grew up in Burlington Ontario. She says that she has always been mildly obsessed with pop culture and so when it came time to apply for college, radio was the natural choice. A career in media was a choice her mother supported and helped her to achieve. “She is a firm believer in not chasing the dollar and going after what you’re interested in,” says Burns. After her time in college Shannon went out west to hone her radio skills. In 2014 she landed a job in Medicine Hat on Rock 105.3 (Rogers) where she worked as a morning show host and news anchor. In 2015, Shannonn moved to Virgin 104.9 in Edmonton where she worked her way up the ladder from 2015-2018 eventually becoming a midday announcer and assistant music director. Shannon loved her time out west, but she says the goal was always to work her way back to the Toronto market. Today she gets to interview some of the biggest names in music from Shawn Mendes to Katy Perry. “My goal is to make them my friends,” says Burns with a laugh. On the future of radio Shannon is very upbeat. She came into radio at a time when it was fusing with social media, and that the medium of radio allowed producers to become early adopters of social media and digital marketing strategies. The story is ongoing with the content produced in radio being about so much more than what goes out over the airwaves. You can hear more from Shannon Burns by listening to her interview with Matt Cundill or by checking out her podcast Aftermath with Shannon Burns. This show also referenced the episode with Lisa Keys; Matt had no idea when he interviewed Shannon that they were roommates in Edmonton. One of his biggest downloads from the summer was his interview with Voiceover Pro Lisa Keys.

Lianne Laing knew there was a moment when she would have to make the jump. After many years of battling a 3:40am wake call to fulfill a role in television secondary to her original passion sports, change was inevitable. In November 2017, she left on her own accord and launched her website Lianne Laing - complete with a weekly podcast and You Tube Channel. Her guests are all leaders in the field of medicine, health, sports, nutrition and science. Lianne herself was a varsity athlete at the University of Massachusetts, and continues to lead and active lifestyle today. She started her career at CHRO in Ottawa and shifted from sports to morning show host. I asked her about her first year as CEO of her own company and what lies ahead for 2019. Lianne and Friends' Awaken A Better You Cruise was October 20, 2019. Here are the highlights of what happened while sailing up the Danube.