smays.com

How to ruin a podcast

Mark Ramsey points to a classic example of MSM cluelessness (CBS in this instance). His post makes me uncomfortable because our networks produce a lot of programs (newscasts and sports reports) that are comprised of 3 minutes of programming and one minute of commercial.

What if we were only podcasting that program. Would listeners swallow that? I'm thinking not.

Back in the dark old days, when one of our networks was oversold, we'd just jam in more spots and ask stations to air programs that had more commercial content than programming. Shudder.

Mark sums it up nicely:

"In our zeal to monetize our online content, remember that podcasts are downloaded and played voluntarily. It's because we like you and want more of you. Yes, we'll tolerate advertising in podcasts - but not 30 out of 90 seconds!"

Four more years!

Dave Winer wonders if President Bush will leave office at the end of his term:

"Someone should ask him that question and listen carefully to the answer. An unequivocal "yes" is the only acceptable answer. I don't think he's planning to leave. That's what all this maneuvering is about. The next step will be they'll find some American citizens who are terrorists, and Congress will vote that in time of war the President doesn't need to charge them with anything to imprison them until the war is over. They can already put non-citizens, legal or illegal, in prison, indefinitely without charging them."

I wish that seemed crazier to me than it does.

Delta Fair

Charles Jolliff describes this year's Delta Fair as the "cleanest" he can remember. [Flickr set]

LHP #47: Immunization

Henry and I are closing in on the first anniversary of the Living Healthy Podcast. Program #47 will be online around nine o'clock Friday. The topic is immunization. Specifically, shots and vaccines for adults. I think the open is mildly amusing.

Is it possible to cheat if the game is rigged?

You're playing Black Jack at some little out-of-the-way gambling joint in Nevada. You discover --beyond all doubt-- that the dealer is cheating. No question. Knowing this, is it even possible for you to cheat? I mean, once the honesty of the game has been compromised, how can the other players "cheat?"

Your Sunday School teacher would tell you that two wrongs don't make a right. And that cheating --even though the dealer or another player is cheating-- is wrong because it harms you (at some moral/ethical level). And, perhaps, once you begin cheating, it some how validates the immoral behavior of the dealer.

If Congress and the White House are the casinos, they're running a lot of crooked tables. Pissing away our tax dollars faster than we can send them to DC. I don't have the balls to cheat on my taxes but I'm not sure I'd vote to convict someone that did.

"If you're unhappy with your elected officials, smays, you should work within the system to elect new people to represent you." Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's like saying, if you think this carney game is fixed, perhaps you should try one on the other side of the midway (I just need one more metaphor to tie the record).

In the words of Howard Beale/Paddy Chayefsky (Network):

"I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crying in the streets. All I know is first you've got to get mad."

If you'd like to comment on this post... write your congressman.

Podcasting candidate endorsements

Just listened to the latest podcast from the Missouri State Teachers Association. They call it The Pulse. Co-hosts Todd Fuller Gail McCray broke a little digital ground (I'm guessing) by using the podcast to announce the canidates the MSTA is endorsing in the November election. They spent the first part of the podcast explaining how their endorsement process works. Then they mentioned a few specific endorsements and pointed the listener back to their website for the full list of candidates.

Why do I think this is worth a post? As I listened to Todd and Gail explain this process, I kept thinking they would NEVER get airtime (radio or TV) for that kind of "deep dive." But it's important to their audience (teachers, candidates). And by using their podcast to make the announcement, it raises awareness of their podcast. (You now know about it because you read this blog which has nothing to do with education or politics.)

If you want to see/hear how to do an "association podcast," check out MSTA's The Pulse.

Delta Fair Parade

Charles Jolliff shares his flickr set of the 2006 Delta Fair Parade. Brings back lots of memories. My first radio interview (1972) was with Bill Walsh and Jack McDaniel, the Kennett businessmen who have been organizing the parade for about 50 years. My end of the interview was so bad, I spliced (magnetic tape, grease pencil, splicing block) in new questions. Took hours.

For years, Jeff Wheeler, Tom Colvin and I broadcast the parade live (You had to be there).

Back in the fifties, my father rode in the the parade in a wheelbarrow, as part of a radio station promotion. God bless America!

New Arbitron rules

Mark Ramsey explains what they mean to terrestrial radio stations:

"When listening is defined as broader than "radio" alone, then you are no longer in the "radio business." You're in the business of audio entertainment and information, regardless of distribution channel. That little home-grown Internet radio station from Zimbabwe is now your competitor. When "Listening" is defined according to things that do not require a radio, you are no longer in the "radio business." Get it?"

My kind of contract

Roger brought back a copy of the affiliation contract for The Davey Ramsey Show (financial advice?) from the recent meeting of the National Association of Broadcasters. They shove all kinds of promotional stuff under the door to your hotel room every night and this was in Roger's pile one morning. I'm not familiar with the program but I love the contract. One page (front only). I spent my youth (okay, my middle years) trying to get people to sign affiliation contracts with our networks.

I did my best to keep them simple and understandable. But our attorneys never let me go this far. Here's the full contract (PDF) and here are a few paragraphs:

Thank you for deciding to include The Dave Ramsey Show as part of your station lineup. Are you looking for a big, detailed contract? They are a pain and quite frankly, we don’t feel like dealing with them. Below you will find afew points that will guide our relationship. Please initial each one and return the contract via fax to 615-372-0573 (confidentiality assured).

1. You like us and we like you and therefore are agreeing to work together. You are going to start airing the program on station (station info)

3. Now that you have decided to carry The Dave Ramsey Show we will not be available for another station in your market. Don’t know why we have to state that we are not interested in cutting our legs out from under ourselves, but I guess this market exclusivity thing is a big deal.

5. Let’s try this. The Dave Ramsey Show should be carried LIVE. We think it is a mistake if it is not aired live. However, we understand that some stations are not able to make this happen. For now that is acceptable. All we want you to do is let us know that after we start winning for your station, that you will consider us for a live slot. You are not guaranteeing us this slot, you are not promising this slot, you are simply letting us know that you will consider it. Come on, is that too much to ask? We should be live anyway.

I don't know how good this is from a legal standpoint, but it's good marketing or PR or something. And in my experince, most contracts with radio stations weren't worth much. My hat is off to whomever wrote this agreement.

WSJ: "How to get attention in a New-Media World"

That's the headline on a story in today's Wall Street Journal. I won't bother posting any of the many nuggets in this piece. You can read them yourself. And if you spend anytime online, you know a lot of this already.

Here's what I want to know: How can any intelligent, semi-educated, reasonably well informed, man or woman entrusted with running a business (or some division or department of that business) not have at least heard about the things referenced in this story (blogs, podcasts, RSS, etc etc)?

We talk to people every day that insist (and I belive them) they've never even heard the terms. I don't expect the average Joe (or Joanne) to be as into this "new media" (someday we won't need the quotation marks) as I am... and I know that not everyone has access to the Internet. But if you own a TV set, a radio, read a newspaper or a magazine... how could you not have seen or heard one or two of the countless stories about "new media" during the last couple of years?

* I just read the local sports scores in The Daily Bugle
* I only watch Wheel of Fortune and QVC on TV
* I haven't seen anything in People Magazine about all this stuff
* Cousin Bob on Country 108.7 would tell me if any of this stuff was important

What do you know? I answered my own question.

Let me stress that I'm not saying your business should be using any of the new media tools (you should)... but I remain mystified that there are people who have not a glimmer that something is happening.

Average U.S. home has more TVs than people

That threshold was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said. This means something but I'm just not sure what.

read more | digg story

Radio listeners don't mind ads

Mark Ramsey points to this Arbitron study that concludes radio listeners don't tune out when commercials come on. And wonders about the implications:

"If listeners don't mind spots then why should they mind mediocre songs? And what ARE they listening through the spots for?"

The whizzing sound you hear is thousands of radio sales reps emailing the Arbitron study back and forth.

Best of: Jon Stewart (not on the daily show)

Here are the best videos of Jon Stewart that aren't of him on The Daily Show. Appearances on Letterman, Dennis Miller, Larry King, Crossfire and more.

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The power of the hyperlink

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin talked, by phone, with a group of Iowa radio reporters on Thursday morning. One of the reporters asked the Senator for his reaction to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez's comments about President Bush at the UN. One of our reporters was on that conference call and posted a story about the senator's response to our website, RadioIowa.com. ("Harkin defends Venezuelan President's UN speech against Bush")

Radio Iowa News Director Kay Henderson blogged the entire story but the short version is The Drudge Report linked to the story...a shit storm rained down on Senator Harkin...his people try to get Kay to change the headline of our story on the web... a long, stressful day for everyone.

This is just one more small example of how the web has changed things. The stations the other radio reporters (on the conference call) work for probably all have websites but I don't think they post news stories. So, in all likelihood, our little story was the only one online, at least initially.

BTW (Before the Web), one or all of those reporters might have aired the story on a couple of newscasts and people in Des Moines or Sioux City might have been pissed at the senator. And even if the wire services picked it up, it would have taken a little time to ripple out, and the reaction would have been diluted.

It's now Saturday morning and I googled "Tom Harkin." The top search result is: "Hearing Is Believing" on what appears to be a blog called Power Line.

"Harkin must have taken some heat for his comments on the radio, because he put a completely different statement on his web site, after the fact. To see what he really thinks, listen to the audio below."

Power Line didn't bother to link to our story or mention our network by name. And they stole our audio and posted the MP3 file to their site. But no matter. You get the idea.

Media was once an orderly thing:
Local radio station(s) - Local newspaper
Handful of larger city newspapers, TV stations & radio stations
Statewide radio network
Associated Press
National media

You could manage these. If you were clever, you could spin and control them a little. No more. We're all breathing the same media air.

If Senator Harkin does the radio reporter conference call again, I sure would like to listen in.

989 people out of 1,000 listen to radio

Regular readers know I'm a fan of Mark Ramsey's blog, Hear 2.0. Mark is the president of San Diego-based Mercury Radio Research, which recently conducted a 1,000-person national study of radio listening habits of people ages 12 through 54. Just 11 people said they didn't listen to radio.

Mark spoke at one of the sessions at the NAB Radio Show, underway this week in Dallas and the Dallas Morning News covered:

"One of the key things that makes radio different from all these others (iPods, satellite radio, Internet radio, etc) and makes it stand out, and valuable, is the fact that there's stuff between the songs that people value. In fact, the loyalty to the stations, preference for those stations, is driven very much by what's between those songs. It's about connecting with other people."

Here's Mark's take on commercials:

"...there's one group that hates commercials and another that can tolerate them. The issue with commercials seems to be, 'Look, if you're a zealot about commercials, well, of course you're going to listen to an iPod.' People inherently understand that commercials are a tax that you pay. The issue for radio is whether we demonstrate to them what that tax is buying them. ... 'Are we giving people something that's worth the price they're paying in commercials?'

That wasn't such a scary question when there were no alternatives to the radio.

Note to self: Record a couple of hours of morning drive on one of the local radio stations and edit out everyhing except the "stuff between the songs that people value."

Commnet from Jim M:

"It seems to me the ratio between commercial time and music / content is way out of whack compared to what it used to be. I wonder if there are some statistics on how this ratio has evolved over time? I was thinking about this today, again, when a drive to the store and back treated me to 100% advertising. I like commercial radio for the fact that I can pick up on new music and the variety, but finding music these days seems to be truly hit and miss."

Boys get cameras, girls get microphones

The photo above is procecuting attorney Robert Parks talking to reporters following the arraignment of Shannon Torrez, the women who allegedly kidnapped a week old baby and slashed the throat of the mother. Are there no female photogs? Were there no male reporters? Something about this image (taken by UPI photographer Bill Greenblatt) just spoke to me.

"Thousands Will Enter. Millions Will Vote. Four Will Win"

Can't say why, but my first flash upon reading about the YouTube Underground Contest was the early days of MTV (back when they played videos). Then American Idol popped into my head.

Cingular is sponsoring the contest so the winning video will be showing up on a bunch of cell phones. There's some other cool exposure that the winning band will love but doesn't cost YouTube or Cingular much money. What a great promotion. [via Podcasting News]

NAB Radio Show: The Newspaper of the Future

Scott Brandon's latest dispatch from the NAB Radio Show ("How to Make Your Station Website the Newspaper of the Future"):

"We begin with internet problems. Not a good sign. Wish I had my camera. Feels like a college lecture hall. The session is led by Paul Coates from Branson. Roger Utnehmer (DoorCountyDailyNews.com) was scheduled to present but had to drop out due to illness.

Really, this thing was all about why to do it (revenue opportunities, audience movement) nothing much about how to do it. More "ain't this neat" than anything else. Toward the end people started to push him for logistic info. At some point, Coates lost control and the herd took over. Lots of independent conversations and random questions being thrown out and answers coming from the gallery.

Some notes:

Traditional newspaper is continuing to decline. That means there is an opportunity to grab those non-traditional readers.

Radio can drive people to the web and make money. If newspaper drives you to web, they lose your traditional sub rev.

Your website has to supply news not history.

You already have news and sports departments.

You can charge premium price. Print buyers used to spending lots. Too low and it doesn't seem worth it.

Sky is limit on content.

[More internet problems. Everyone in the crowd has advice.]

Fresh content is needed everyday and early in the morning. By 5:30 or 6:00.

His unique visitors have leveled out but his per-day visits have gone up. On average, each person visits 3 times a day. Guess what? They update the news 3 times a day.

"Show-me more" feature on Roger's site allows sponsors to put up a video of their biz or offerings.

Hometowndailynews.com is working on adding a feature to their "area dining" section that will allow you to do on-line orders to your favorite restaurant.

Your site should have different name than station. Must be a full stand alone feel. Otherwise, people feel they are just spending more money/time on your station.

Did not hire new staff. Shuffle duties of existing staff.

Now we're into legal stuff. Is it legal to link to google? Sigh.

Mistakes he made: 1) Have more patience; 2) Sell it to your staff first; 3) Crawl, walk, run"

NAB Radio Show: Podcasting session

Scott's notes and impressions from the podcasting session at the NAB Radio Show. I am assuming the focus was on how broadcasters can use podcasting.

Rather slow and uneventful (although the panel was loaded with the right kind of people)

Subscriptions should be for extra stuff only

Merchandise is huge rev source

Repurposing interviews and special segments GOOD. Normal programming BAD. But time shifting is GOOD. ????

Listeners don't mind commercials if content is good and on-demand.

The guy next to me breathes very, very loudly.

Podcast listeners are more apt to be info junkies.

None on this panel seem excited or comfortable.

Use podcasting to distribute info/ent that you wouldn't normally spend valuable air time for.

Perishable programming - content must always be fresh but must have a long shelf life too. People have to be able to come back and relive or discover (archives) and that info/content must be relevant. Ads are the killer. Ads have to be current at all times. PodShow's tech allows the show to be assembled with current ads whenever the consumer downloads.

Length - 22 min for audio, 5 for video.

Podcasts must promote interaction.

All of this (podcasting, mp3, internet) comes from telephones. It will all go back to telephones. No more "ipod only" products. Speculation.

NAB Radio Show down with New Media

Scott reports there are at least eight sessions on "New Media" at the NAB Radio Show going on this week in Dallas:

1) Pod Squad - Getting the Drop on Podcasting
2) Text Messaging - Where U @?
3) How to Make Your Radio Station Website the Newspaper of the Future
4) Promotions with New Technologies
5) Harnessing the Power of Blogging
6) Radio's Future in Focus: What Millennials REALLY Think
7) It Ain't Just Radio: Where Else Can You Find New and Bigger Revenues?
8) Email marketing

Let's hope Scott fires up that Blackberry and files some dispatches from a few of these sessions. We'll post them here if we get 'em. They've got some people who know their stuff on the blogging and podcasting panels. (Scottie: Make Roger buy the tapes for those two sessions.)

Stalking the prospect. Shhhhh.

Dear J:

Thanks for sending me the newspaper story about the big liquidation at Reagan Hyundai. It looks like a great opportunity to buy a pre-owned vehicle!

Wait a minute. I don't think this is a real story at all! You know what this is? It's a sales gimmick! But that can't be right, it came with a hand written Post-It note. What the heck is going on here?

This is what direct mail marketing has come to. Can the marketing wizards at the car dealership really think I'm this stupid? Or, do they think this is insanely clever and assume I will, too. My guess is they weren't shooting any higher than just getting some chump to open the envelope. ("He opened it! He opened it!")

From the same bag of tricks:

At a recent sales training session for a national marketing group, one of the more popular tactics for getting appointments was a how-to on hiding your phone number from the prospect's caller ID. That one has haunted me all week. If the prospect knows it's me calling she won't take my call. So I gotta sneak up on her. How about dressing up as the Culligan man and toting in a big bottle of water? Once in the office, drop the bottle and start your pitch.

Blogging Consultant

gapingvoid, meet AgWired.

Hello, this is (your name here) for Claire McCaskill

I'll never know the story behind this fund raising video Sheryl Crow made for Claire McCaskill's U.S. Senate campaign. Maybe Sheryl insisted on reading the stilted copy, off mic, while looking a couple of feet to the left of the camera. But I doubt it. I have to believe some flack wrote the copy and it was poked and prodded until there was not an ounce of humanity left. Control the message! Control the message!

Do you really think you can write a better sentiment than a Grammy winning songwriter? Please. You just start rolling and let Sheryl tell us why she thinks McCaskill is the best candidate. You do a little editing if you need to. Leave it to a campaign flack to make a charming rock star look like an animatron.

Kasie is 24! Arrrrgggh!

One of the young Learfielders turned 24 this weekend and we gathered at a local bar to help her celebrate. For reasons that were never entirely clear to me, the party had a loosely enforced pirate theme. Kasie overcame her shyness long enough to talk (on camera) about what it means to be 24 years old [2 min video: Quicktime 10 meg | Windows Media 7 meg]. Barb and I left early (before the photo ops got good) but I grabbed a few images of Kasie and Friends.

It's all about links

I'm always a little surprised at how well blogs do in search rankings. For example, my interview this past week with Dan Shelley. While Dan is not famous, he works for WCBS-TV in New York; he's the past chairmain of the Radio and Television News Directors Association; and he was the news director at WTMJ in Milwaukee, a well-known and respected radio station. Each of these organizations have websites.

I googled "Dan Shelley" and the smays.com post was #4 (ahead of WTMJ, where he workd for years). I did a Technorati search on WCBS-TV and my recent post was #8 of 2,000 results.

Nobody is thumping chests here. smays.com is a modest little blog with a couple of hundred page views a day. The take away: If you want to get your company or organization noticed... there are few better ways than blogging.

Breaking up is hard to do

I pulled the following excerpts from an article (Media & Advertising) in today's New Your Times ("Changing Its Tune," by Richard Siklos).

"While more than 9 out of 10 Americans still listen to traditional radio each week, they are listening less. ... As a result, the prospects of radio companies have dimmed significantly since the late 1990’s, when broadcast barons were tripping over themselves to buy more stations. Radio revenue growth has stagnated and the number of listeners is dropping. The amount of time people tune into radio over the course of a week has fallen by 14 percent over the last decade, according to Arbitron ratings."

"Over the last three years, the stocks of the five largest publicly traded radio companies are down between 30 percent and 60 percent as investors wonder when the industry will bottom out."

"Clear Channel Communications, the nation’s largest radio operator, is now considering selling some of its 1,200 stations in smaller markets after years of acquiring everything in sight, according to industry analysts. The CBS Corporation did the same thing recently and now says it is looking at further station sales. The Walt Disney Company struck a deal this summer to get out of the radio business altogether."

" 'A possible reason is that unlike other media businesses, radio appears to have come late to the game of focusing on viable online business models. Although digital revenues are growing fast, they accounted for only $87 million of the industry’s $20 billion in 2005 revenues, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson Communications. As an industry, we’ve lost the hipness battle,” said Jeffrey H. Smulyan, the chief executive of Emmis Broadcasting. “Like a lot in life, it may be more perception than reality.' ” (Mr. Smulyan tried to take his company private earlier this summer in the face of its sagging stock price, down more than 40 percent since 2003.)

"Amid so much uncertainty, it is little wonder that sessions at next week’s National Association of Broadcasters radio convention in Dallas advertise things like: “Learn to steal money from your local newspaper” and “Harnessing the power of blogging.” It is also a sign of the times that the convention’s opening reception does not have a broadcaster as a host. Instead, Google will be buying the drinks."

I wonder if this isn't a very positive trend for broadcasting. Could "small be the new big" here? Perhaps a locally owned and managed radio station could better serve the community than a cog in some monstorus media machine. What if you didn't have to claw your way up through many layers of corporate org charts (and back down) to try something new? What if it really became about serving the local community and not the share price?

No, I don't think it's ever going to be the way it was. But a more nimble, self-directed, home-town radio station might be able to change course faster than the USS Juggernaut.

Interview: Dan Shelley, WCBS-TV

In July, my old friend Dan Shelley left WTMJ in Milwaukee and moved to New York as Executive Editor of Digital Media for WCBS-TV. I spoke with him this morning about digital media, journalism, blogging, radio, life in NY and riding in the elevator with Andy Rooney. Dan is pumped about his new job and living in Manhatten. [Audio: 27 min, 11 meg MP3]

Dan offered this warning to broadcasters: "If you don't do more than just stick your toe in the water, if you don't plunge head-first and totally imerse yourself in the digital media future, and do it now, you will die."

For those that might have missed it, I interviewed Dan in May, 2005, right after he took over as chairman of the Radio and Television News Director's Association. He talked the "digital talk," and now he's "walking the digital walk."

"Baghdad Is Burning"

The following is an excerpt from a dispatch written by William Langewiesche to his editors in June of this year (2006) and published in the September issue of Vanity Fair magazine. I was unable to find the full text online but will watch for it and post link if/when I find it.

"The government is hardly a government at all. There is some small hope--a last, residual hope--that the new prime minister may be able to pull things together, and through force (rather than conciliation) keep the civil war from growing. Nobody really expects it to happen, and they give him at most a few months. Afterward? The middle class is trying desperately to get passports and take refuge elsewhere, especially in Damascus and Amman. Meanwhile, a small group of elected officials and high bureaucrats, most interested mainly in stealing as much as they can before they escape the country, huddle in the Green Zone, protected by American forces, going through the motions of governing. The money they take comes for the most part from the United States, though apparently the on-again, off-again oil production is also making some people very rich. On every level corruption here is pervasive, inescapable, and beyond anyone's ability to contain."

Affiliate Relations

Tell us, smays... how hard was it leave that affiliate relations job?

Do not forward this post

Your Pet's Best Friend

Kennett pal Everett Mobley started blogging recently. He's still finding his rhythm but is off to a great start. The blog is primarily a companion to the website for his veterinary practice and I predict it will be very popular if he keeps posting useful and interesting information like today's on dental care for dogs. If you have pets, you'll want to visit and subscribe to Your Pet's Best Friend.

Podcasting, broadcasting, advertising

Excellent interview at AdAge.com with Leo Laporte. Leo is the man behind TWiT (This Week in Technology), one of the most popular podcasts (monthly reach of 500,000). Which is why the podcast has attracted Dell, T-Mobile and Visa as advertisers. According to the AdAge piece, Laporte's podcast mini-empire could rake in as much as $2 million dollars in a year, but he says he's more concerned about how to not ruin the medium with advertising. Excerpts:

"...all podcasters agree that podcasting has more value than radio or almost everything and we deserve a high cost per thousands [of listeners] and are going to create an environment that's worth it for advertisers. We don't want to jam it for advertisers. And the audience will let you know -- they're not passive. It's more of a conversation than a monologue. ... We need to hold the line and really deliver quality advertising. It's going to be hard at first, [podcasters will have to be] turning down advertisers, running fewer ads than you'd like, not take in as much money as you'd like. But if we can focus on delivering something of value we can make both advertisers and listeners happy."

When asked if he thinks podcasts from mainstream media companies will exercise enough restraint in the advertising:

"I hope they screw it up. I see them as using podcasts to drive to their bread and butter. We're narrowcasters and they're broadcasters and there's a big difference. "Ask a Ninja" wants to be "Seinfeld" but people like me and most I know are narrowcasters. We want to super-serve an audience and develop a relationship. [Broadcasters] see themselves as delivering a lot of people to advertisers and inefficiently. But those days are drying up. There will always be the Tides and Coca-Colas who can afford that but most companies in this modern world need to be efficient and they can be by using these new technologies."

I have no doubt MSM companies (like ours) can produce quality podcasts. And, given our built-in promotional opportunities, we should be able to attract listeners. Will we "screw it up" when it comes to the advertising model? Don't know. To be continued.

Apple polishing

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced some new stuff yesterday. These events get Mac users hopping from one foot to the other and --now that I have a Mac-- I sort of understand why. I can't explain why, but I kind of get it.

Speaking of "get it" ... I'll eventually have to get one of the slick new nano's (I just watched the amazing ad for same). The new Shuffle is literally wearable computing.

And there's a new version of iTunes. I'm a sucker for a pretty UI and this is about as nice as they come. I haven't seen them but there's talk of a new series of Get A Mac ads poking fun at Windows efforts to mimic the sleek look and feel of the Mac OS. I'm sure Vista is/will be pretty but if the new iTunes is a hint of what the new Mac OS is going to look like... it's no contest for me.

If you spend 90% of every waking moment looking at a computer, that time is more pleasant...more fun... if it's Mac.

"Oh my god."

I made a conscious --or unconscious-- effort to not think about the attack on the World Trade Center Towers. I didn't think I could stand to watch the video again. This evening I stumbled across never-before-seen video shot from 500 yards away and 36 floors up. I can't think of any words to describe this video. I could not look away. It was somehow more horrible and more compelling without the mindless chatter of news goofs telling us what we are seeing.

Steve Rubel (I found this on his blog) says we should watch this that we never forget. There will be no forgetting the anguish in the voice of the woman shooting the video when the first building collapsed. I can understand why the couple never released the video. And why they finally did.

Forget all the news specials, docu-dramas and made-for-TV movies. This amazing account will sear your brain and break your heart. It's a long download but, as Steve says, something you should see.

Early in the game

31.4% of Americans don't have internet access; 88% of all users have never heard of RSS; 59% of American households have zero iPods in them; 30% of internet users in the US use a modem; Detroit (one million people) has six Starbucks.

Seth is reminding us "all the growth and opportunity and the fun is at the leading edge, at the place where change happens" and we're living on a never-ending adoption curve.

For those of us in media, who depend on advertising... I'd rather be early to the this dance than late.

Bonus Quote: Doing it for free

"...pioneers are almost never in it for the money. The smart ones figure out how to take a remarkable innovation and turn it into a living (or a bigger than big payout) but not the other way around. I think the reason is pretty obvious: when you try to make a profit from your innovation, you stop innovating too soon. You take the short payout because it's too hard to stick around for the later one. "

The Religion War

Excerpts from The Religion War, by Scott Adams:

"The Internet (is) God's central nervous system, connecting all the thinking humans, so that one good thought anywhere could be available everywhere. The head would know what the feet were feeling. It would be an upper consciousness, above what the human beings that composed it would understand." (Pg.151)

"God is everything, all the matter and empty space that now exists, or ever will exist. He expresses his preference in the invisible workings of gravity, probability, and ideas. God is that which is unstoppable, permanent, all-powerful, and by its own standards perfect. God was in no hurry. He was reforming. He didn't think in the way that humans do, as that is unnecessary for an entity whose preferences are identical to reality. Humans think in order to survive and entertain themselves. God has no need for a tool that is useful only tot he frail and unsatisfied." (Pg. 177)

Can the impact of your actions rippling into the future be considered an immortal soul? (Question to Ponder #7, at end of book)

The Case Against Caps

ALL-CAP TEXT REDUCES READING SPEED BY ABOUT TEN PERCENT. MIXED-CASE LETTERS HAVE VARIATIONS THAT BREAK UP THE TEXT INTO RECOGNIZABLE SHAPES, WHEREAS A PARAGRAPH IN ALL CAPS HAS UNIFORM HEIGHT AND SHAPE, MAKE IT APPEAR BLOCKY AND RUN TOGETHER. ALSO, THE USE OF ALL CAPS CAN SEEM CHILDISH AND AMATEUR, OR AGGRESSIVE OR UNPROFESSIONAL. RESERVE ALL-CAP TEXT FOR SHORT HEADINGS AND TITLES, AND FOR SHOUTING.

Prioritizing Web Usability by Jakob Nielsen, Hoa Loranger.

Ripped

Singer Sheryl Crow entertains the crowds at the UMB Bank Pavilion in Maryland Heights, Mo on September 10, 2006. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt) - Larger image

Casio Exilim EX-Z1000

My beloved Casio camera started giving me some weird white screens and rather than wait for it to completely fail at a critical moment... I upgraded. The Casio Exilim Ex-Z1000 is the new, bigger brother to the model I had. Slightly larger form factor but that allows for an even larger display. Lots of megapixels and some optical zoom. But the real clincher for me was the video. With a 2 gig SD card, I can record up to two hours of video! Amazing. Sound is pretty good, too. Here's a little 2 min clip (13 meg .wmv) I shot last night. John Fougere and David Brazeal doing the weekly high school football scoreboard show.

Secure your cube

Lazer Trip Wire uses infrared light beams to secure your work space. When all the units are connected, a nice voice will announce “System Armed.” Break one beam, though, and an alarm will sound, alerting everyone to the security breach.

Speaking of fun things for your work area... Help Desk Pam has one of those big "Easy" buttons you can get at Staples. I love those things and stood there for a couple of minutes just banging it over and over and wishing I could program it to say something more interesting.

Excellent customer service from Embarq (Sprint)

Flipped open the MacBook last night and discovered I had no net access. No DSL light on the modem. No dial tone coming into the house. Called Sprint (now Embarq) DSL Tech Support because it was the only number I had. He transferred (nicely) me to the right number where Naomi gave me a couple of things to try. They didn't work. This morning I called back and spoke with Ivan who determined the problem is inside the house and since I didn't have the "inside the house service plan," it would cost me $25 for every 15 minutes a tech was on site.

But then Ivan said, "Wait a minute. I can put you on a new pricing plan that will save you about ten dollars a months AND include free "inside" support." Uh, yeah... let's do that. The tech will be out Monday morning.

I don't think I posted on this, but several months ago a nice lady at Sprint noticed that I was paying more for DSL service than I needed to, changed me to a package that gave me more features for less money.

I'm sure many of you have horror stories going the other direction but, for the record, the Embarq/Sprint folks have been making my life better.

PS: Weekends are usually when I do most of my blogging but w/o net access we'll be dark for a couple of days.

Update - 9/11/06: Embarq said a repairman would show up between 9-11 a.m. so I was prepared to wait all morning. Steve arrived at 8:30 a.m....found the problem almost immediatley and was gone by 9:00 a.m.

Update - 9/12/06: Couldn't get online last night. Had dail tone, but no connect to net. Called Earthlink (Sprint ISP) and talked to Jeremy. Polite, helpful and really new his shit. Quickly determined my account had be de-authorized (for some unknown reason) and got me going again. I hope I don't have any great Embarq/Sprint/Earthlink customer service stories to share for a while.

Comments

Some of you have noticed that I've turned the comments link off. I could offer a long-winded ramble explaining why, but my man Seth Godin says it so much better:

"I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters."

Ditto. I have turned on trackbacks, however. If I post something really dumb, you can write about it on your blog with a link to my trackback url. At the bottom of my original post are links to your post (as well as any others). Don't have a blog? Well it's high time you did. You should also feel free to email your comments on anything I post.

You know... I feel better already.

Blogging for president

I'm sorry, but radio and TV has completely fucked up the way we elect the leaders of our country. Think about it. We elect presidents and senators and governors and damned near everybody based on:

* :30 TV spots
* Debates that aren't
* Speeches the candidate didn't write
* Yard signs (that's a small town thing but it's universal. The guy with the most yard signs wins)

Do any of these reveal anything about the ideas or intelligence of the candidate. No way. You know what would? A blog. A blog written 100% by the candidate (not sure how you could keep the bastards from cheating and you know they'd try).

Make every candidate blog during the year leading up to the election. They can post as often as they like... about any topic they like.

This has the added benefit of requiring the American voter to get more involved than watching some mindless network television salted with attack ads.

"Wait a minute, smays. Leadership requires courage and values (like mine) and a bunch of other qualities that have nothing to do with how well you express your ideas in writing."

Horse shit. If you can't think... you can't lead. At least not well. And I want to measure the quality of your ideas. Not the ideas of your campaign manager, or your PR firm... your ideas.

If you're hung up on the writing thing... let's throw a podcast into the mix. Every candidate produces a weekly, fifteen minute podcast. Any topic, any format. But the candidate must produce it him or herself (they go into a glass walled studio, put it together and upload it).

Imagine reading blogs written by George W. Bush; Bill Clinton (or Hillary Clinton); Al Gore; John Kerry; John McCain; Al Sharpton; Dick Cheney; Ralph Nader... you get the idea. Can you honestly say you wouldn't have a better feel for who these people are and what they really believe? Of course they'd try to scam and bullshit you. But it would be so much harder to do.

I can fool you for 30 seconds at a time. Especially if you' re not paying much attention. But if you're reading what I say every day, for a year... you're gonna learn some things about me. Good and bad.

And here's the proof of this pot of pudding: Regular readers of smays.com have NO doubt that I would make a really bad (fill in the elective office).

---

Feedback: LeAnn says the tone of this post lacks "the same effervescent, entertaining qualities of your other posts. I am concerned someone pissed you way the “f” off on Thursday." Nope, Thursday was a very nice day. But the post does read "angry," doesn't it. I should really stay away from politics.

I had to look up the definition of "effervescent" (vivacious; gay; lively; sparkling). I think I can sparkle but vivacious will be a stretch.

Connections

Our chief operating office called me this afternoon to ask my assistance in posting the annoucement of two promotions to the company blog (GrowLearfield.com). I received an email from another senior manager, letting me know that he had found his way to smays.com via a link on GrowLearfield. He said he poked around a bit and particularly enjoyed some of the Seth Godin posts. A bit later, the GM of one of our sports properties emails the chief operating officer and encloses a photo snapped from my webcam, showing the COO chatting in my office. The GM found the pic on smays.com, via link on the corporate blog. The COO asks if the webcam mic is muted (it is).

What's the point, you ask? Links. Connections. That would not have been made in a world of Word docs or, for that matter, traditional websites. Blogs and the links that connect them create a new kind of communication. Stay tuned.

A place for everything

I am incapable of keeping a clean, orderly desktop on any of my Windows machines. Folders and files and shortcuts scattered from top to bottom. It is in no way the fault of the OS. It's my sloppiness. I have discovered, however, that I can keep the MacBook desktop clean. Maybe it's the dock or the way Finder works or, perhaps, it's just the beautiful desktop images that ship with OSX. It would be a shame to cover them. I don't know. But here's the desktop as of 5 minutes ago.

Google Audio is looking for sellers

Mark Ramsey (Hear 2.0) warns that Google wants your sellers. Check out the job responsibilities from the ad that's running in the back pages of the radio trades.

Short Attention Gamer

Had lunch with Todd Fuller yesterday. Todd's the communications guy for the Missouri State Teachers Association who --along with his partner, Gail McCray-- does a weekly podcast for MSTA. I posted an interview with Todd and Gail last week.

I don't know if it's his first love but Todd's a gamer and --along with his pal Matt-- produces another podcast called Short Attention Gamer. According to their website:

"Short Attention Gamer is the podcast for those who love playing games but don't always have the time to play them. Matt and Todd, both family men and gaming enthusiasts, take you through the newest games and consoles available and breakdown which of these reward those individuals who can play for only short periods of time. If you find some of your best gaming sessions are taking place in a
locked bathroom with kids banging on the door on the other side, then this show is for you."

Todd is a pretty modest guy but, reading betwen the lines, I got the impression SAG is a well-known and popular podcast. Exhibit A: A very clever annimation by one of their fans who took a segment from one of their podcasts and... just watch it. It's short and funny. And if you're into games, check out Short Attention Gamer.

Interview: Dan Arnall, Business Editor, ABC News

In the mid-90's (1996? 1995) I went searching for someone that could help our our company get online. Websites were a new thing and I didn't have a clue where to start, so I called Mike McKean at the University of Missouri School of Journalism (not sure if he was a professor back then) and he said he had a student that was really sharp, had his own web page, and might be just what we were looking for.

I met with Dan who told me he and his best friend, Allen Hammock, had a company that could do just what we needed. I think the company was about 10 minutes old at that moment but we wound up hiring Dan and Allen (who became affectionately known as the Cyber Twins) to guide Learfield into the new digital age.

We got wet --like everybody else-- when the Internet bubble burst and Dan and Allen moved on to pursue their careers. Dan, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, kicked around in Seattle and San Francisco for a bit and then went back to to get his masters degree at Columbia University.

We chatted for half and hour earlier this evening, talking about his duties at ABC; the changing world of journalism and media; living in Manhatten and Brushes with Near Greatness (John Lithgow and Tony Danza). (AUDIO: 30 min, 10 meg MP3)

Technical Note: After screwing the pooch on a couple of Skype interviews, I'm proud to report this sounds pretty good. I was a tad hot but I didn't lose the interview.

It's a guy thing

I came across this really amazing photo of urinals in a men's room (larger image) and remembered posting on this topic about a year ago. When I went searching for the earlier post I discovered my link now takes me to a page full of unusual urinals.

Perhaps one's fascination with urnials increases with age and we spend more and more time gazing at bland men's room walls.

Seth Godin: No more job interviews

I've long held that job interviews are a waste of time. They tell you nothing. And once someone is hired, you usually know within a week if you made the right decision. But then it's too late. My man Seth Godin (I know, I know) suggests a better way:

"There are no one-on-one-sit-in-my-office-and-let’s-talk interviews. Boom, you just saved 7 hours per interview. Instead, spend those seven hours actually doing the work. Put the person on a team and have a brainstorming session, or design a widget or make some espressos together. If you want to hire a copywriter, do some copywriting. Send back some edits and see how they’re received.

If the person is really great, hire them. For a weekend. Pay them to spend another 20 hours pushing their way through something. Get them involved with the people they’ll actually be working with and find out how it goes. Not just the outcomes, but the process. Does their behavior and insight change the game for the better? If they want to be in sales, go on a sales call with them. Not a trial run, but a real one. If they want to be a rabbi, have them give a sermon or visit a hospital."

I've been thinking about the various job openings we have at Learfield, wondering if this could work for us, and I can't see why it wouldn't. But more to the point, the traditional interview technique is worthless, so what have you got to lose?