smays.com

Paul Simon: Old

The first time I heard "Peggy Sue"
I was 12 years old
Russians up in rocket ships
And the war was cold
Now many wars have come and gone
Genocide still goes on
Buddy Holly still goes on
But his catalog was sold

First time I smoked
Guess what - paranoid
First time I heard "Satisfaction"
I was young and unemployed
Down the decades every year
Summer leaves and my birthday’s here
And all my friends stand up and cheer
And say man you’re old
Getting old
Old
Getting old

We celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas day
And Buddha found Nirvana along the lotus way
About 1,500 years ago the messenger Mohamed spoke
And his wisdom like a river flowed
Through hills of gold
Wisdom is old
The Koran is old
The bible’s
Greatest story ever told

Disagreements?
Work ’em out

The human race walked the earth for 2.7 million
And we estimate the universe at 13-14 billion
When all these numbers tumble into your imagination
Consider that the lord was there before creation
God is old
We’re not old
God is old
He made the mold

Take your cloths off
Adam and eve

Couch Change: 04.30.07

:: The 20 jobs with fastest growing salaries
:: "House" and "The Office" most DVR'd shows
:: Poll: 72% of troops want out of Iraq in a year

Unexpected uses of iPods

Like all good lists, there are 10 of these but my favorites are:

• Train Doctors to Save Lives: iPods can double interns' ability to identify heart sounds
• Bring Criminals to Justice: using iPods to hold copies of wiretap transmissions in a large drug-conspiracy case.
• Record Flight data: iPods as flight data recorders in light aircraft.
• Flashlight:  For about $13, you can purchase Griffin's iBeam, an attachment that will quickly turn your iPod into a combo flashlight and laser pointer.

Office-Cam Dark

The Office-Cam will be dark for a few days. Technical issue, but we'll be back soon.

Clear Channel launches social networking sites

From Billboard: "Radio giant Clear Channel is getting into the social networking business. The company's online music and radio division is introducing a dozen station-branded social networks in the coming months. Each social network will function essentially as mini-MySpace, but will be focused on the local community served by the station running it.

Not only can Clear Channel monetize the sites with targeted online spots from local advertisers, he says but also people using the networks have a better chance of making lasting connections with other users because they will share more regional affiliations. By contrast other social networks are focused on national and even international audiences.

Each social network will have a user experience similar to MySpace, Facebook, Bebo and others offer. Users can create profiles, customize them with HTML codes and widgets, upload photos, music and video, blog, and add friends. Users will also be able to customize their profile pages with videos from Clear Channel's catalog of over 6,000 music videos licensed from major and independent labels." [Thanks, Morris]

Does radio still "own" breaking news?

We radio guys (back when I was a radio guy) used to pooh-pooh the daily newspaper as "yesterday's news," for their inability to cover breaking stories. The folks at The Providence Journal are changing that and they're using a blog (among other tools, I'm sure) to do it.

They call their news blog "7to7" and it is "...is projo.com's first reporting channel for breaking news. The news gets to the blog staff in a variety of ways: posting, e-mail, or dictation -- whatever works well in a given circumstance. We've even set up a dedicated blog phone line and an e-mail address."

Publisher Howard G. Sutton takes this view: "Decades ago, the newspaper business abdicated the franchise for breaking news to broadcast media. With the strength of projo.com, and a newsroom at least 10 times the size of any local competitor, we are poised to take back the leadership position for breaking news. When people in our market need to find out what it is happening right now, they will turn to projo.com and The Providence Journal. We are taking back the franchise."

Editor Joel P. Rawson recently reinforced the initiative in his memo to the staff: "It is our goal to be the source for breaking news in Rhode Island, to dominate it, to own it."

More on how "7to7" works at Poynteronline.

Case in point: I was cruising Digg yesterday and came across a story about a shooting at a mall in Kansas City. Full story with pix, only 18 minutes old. Of course, the local radio guys might have been all over this. But the point is, the radio guys have to work hard to be first with breaking news. It's no longer theirs by default.

Blogger on front page of New York Times

It's stories like this one, on the front page of the New York Time, that put the "no shit?!" look on my face when someone tells me they've never heard of blogging.

Stories like this must make it a little harder for institutions and governmental bodies to deny access to bloggers. Not that the U.N. or the New York Times get much respect outside of The Big City. [Thanks, Henry]

Amberjack Landing: The Blog

I finally got around to converting AmberjackLanding.com to a Typepad blog. Getting the domain switched will take a few days.

The experience reminded me (again) of just how much the tools have improved since I created (with FrontPage) the original site. There was no Flickr, no Google Maps, no Typepad. And best of all, Barb will be able to post, add pix, play with the layout and such. Much more fun for her.

But we gotta keep the thing fresh, so if you spot something about Destin, send it our way.

"How did the mainstream press get it so wrong?"

That's the question Bill Moyers attempts to answer in "Buying the War" (Bill Moyer's Journal on PBS). A damning indictment of the coverage of the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq. Tim Russert looked silly and Dan Rather was pathetic. I kept flashing on the old pre-WWII Nazi propaganda footage.

I always thought a good, strong, free press would be our last line of defense against the crooks and thieves we keep electing. ("Gooks in the wire!")

After watching Buying the War on Tivo, we watched Moyer's Conversation with Jon Stewart. An insightful look at The Daily Show. What it is and what it is not.

Following that, Moyers did a great segment with Josh Marshall, the political blogger from talkingpointsmemo.com. Blogging for Truth looked at Marshall's perspective on the role of politics in the recent firings of federal prosecutors.

Watching these back-to-back was interesting. And somewhat reassuring (if you watch them in the right order). You'll find video and transcripts on the PBS website. Good stuff.

Blog seeds

I love helping/encouraging a new blogger. I never accept any compensation. My reward is --sometimes-- helping create a great new blog. I could bore you to tears on what I think qualifies, but I won't.

Okay, maybe I will. A good blog is: personal, informative, timely, passionate, focused... and, yes, I do have an example in mind. Following excerpt is from yesterday post on Your Pet's Best Friend:

"When we welcome a new client to our practice, part of the process is a questionnaire about their pet's health history and environment. The last question is: "Do you consider your pet to be a member of the family?" and most people answer "Yes". The human-animal bond is very strong. It's very common for people to say that the pet is like a child to them. Cat-lovers often say that the cat owns them, rather than the other way around. Certainly many (most?) of us consider our pets as companions, as opposed to property. Thus it would seem that referring to ourselves as the "guardians" of our pets is just a nice way of saying how we really feel. [Trade Secret: the real key question is "Where does your pet sleep?"]"

If you come across what you believe is a better vet blog, send me the link.

I am equally (and undeservedly) proud of a number of other blogs on which I might have had some influence. I won't mention them here because I fear the bloggers might find my pride unfounded and call me out.

Blog baby on the doorstep

I'm trying to raise too many blog babies and one of them is badly neglected. The Missourinet is a state radio network. They cover the legislature, state government and some of the bigger stories from throughout the state.

The news director is philosophically opposed to blogs so we can't go the obvious route and enlist the reporters. And who blogs is less of a challenge than what we blog about.

Since a fair number of smays.com readers are bloggers, perhaps you can suggest an editorial direction. If you were going to hang a blog off a Missouri news website, what would you focus on?

Email Dumb Storm

Earlier this month I ranted about the mindless, clueless use of the REPLY ALL button. We're currently experiencing one of these Dumb Storms. The following exchange has been shared with 80+ people in our office. (Yes, I do understand that some of the recipients find this witty exchange delightful.) I'm posting in reverse order to make this (on-going) thread easier to read.

This is the work email equivalent of Open Mic Night at the Comedy Club. And you're chained to your chair.

"Word has already been passed back to Learfield from I-70 that the troopers are out in full force, so be careful and watch out"

"Watch out now… my son is a trooper

"We love your son, but would like to interact with him in a more informal manner."

"I really think it would be a great idea if police officers were put to work protecting people from murder, rape, and other vicious attacks … instead of being used by the state, counties, cities, and towns as men and women in uniform who main duty is to generate revenue. I’d wager they would probably prefer to be fighting crime than ticketing someone who has the audacity to drive at 65 MPH in a 60 MPH zone on I-70 in St. Louis County. How dare anyone drive at such an “unreasonable” speed on what is, at that point in the highway, an 8-late thoroughfare!"

"Thank your son for performing his duty. Many people have died at the hands of wreckless drivers who thought they were doing nothing wrong until it was too late."

"I second that!!"

"Me thinks (name) is a bit cranky."

"Maybe he got a ticket on the way to work???

"Well if he did, at least it wasn’t me this time!!

What can social media add to your news website?

Here are a few of the features USA Today added to their site earlier this year:

• Scan other news sources directly on USATODAY.com;
• See how readers are reacting to stories;
• Recommend stories and comments to other readers;
• Comment directly on stories;
• Participate in discussion forums;
• Write reviews (of movies, music and more);
• Contribute photos;
• Better communicate with USA TODAY staff.

"As a direct result of these community-focused changes, the site has seen a staggering 380% increase in new user registrations, in addition to a 21% increase in unique visitors, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Not only have the registrations and visitors increased, but there has also been exponential growth in user-interaction with the site. For example, for the month of March, users posted almost 40,000 comments on the site." [Pronet Advertising]

When CEO's blog

This is pretty close to home but I'm proud to report that our CEO writes pretty much everything he posts to his blog. He might ask me to add an image to one of his posts if he's on the road, but nobody is ghosting his blog. Don't forget to visit Scott Adams' Dilbert Blog.

More on Pointy-Haired Boss blog.

Future of TV? Live video from your cell phone to the world

Podcasting News: "At the 2007 National Association of Broadcasters show, ComVu Media demonstrated live video transmitting at 30 fps at 640 x 480 resolution from a mobile phone over a wireless data network.

ComVu used its PocketCaster software to broadcast full screen video from a Nokia N95 multimedia device, transmitting over HSDPA data connection. Anyone using a Nokia N95 device -- including field reporters -- can now capture and broadcast video directly to air and concurrently stream live video to Web-portals, blogs and 3G-enabled phones. ComVu CEO William Mutual called the end-to-end solution “the future of news gathering worldwide.”

If I was running a news operation, I think I might invest in one of these and see if it's as cool as it sounds.

Barb gets her blog on

My favorite lawyer has started blogging. Allow smays.com to be the first blog to link to LongTermHealthLaw.com (the domain will be hot in a day or so). Everything you might ever want to know (and then some) about the legal aspects of "long term health care." If you own a nursing home, you'll want to subscribe to her feed and add the site to your favorites. If not, well...

I don't have access to the stats for the website of the firm Barb works for, but I predict that within 12-18 months, her blog will be generating more traffic.

Lost Tribesmen of Webonia

While doing a little blogging training with a client this week, I mentioned YouTube. "What's that?" she asked. I asked a few more (gentle) questions to be certain but she clearly had never heard of YouTube. I have enough moments like this to no longer be completely surprised by such moments. The woman explained she doesn't watch TV or read a newspaper.

She's probably a mom who works hard with little or no time for popular culture. Maybe she has a flower garden and is active in her church.

But I meet enough people like her that I've started thinking of them as The Lost Tribesmen of Webonia. Totally isolated and cut off from New Media trends (YouTube, blogs, podcasting, etc.). Just as there are tribes deep in the Amazon who have never seen a flashlight or a flush toilet.

No, that's wrong. It would be like discovering that tribe in the middle of Central Park.

And while I'm stereotyping... let's talk about the Urban Amish. They know what the Internet is (AOL or the Earthlink Home Page) but don't much care and limit their use to a little email and checking to see what's showing at the local Cinaplex.

I vow to be more patient, but I fear the Lost Tribesmen are beyond help and the Urban Amish don't want any.

Why do you want to be president?

"I'd like to be in charge for just five minutes. Balance the books. Get us out of debt. Be nice to our friends, tell our enemies to fuck off. Clean up the air and the water. Throw corporate crooks in the clink. Put dignity back in government. Fix things."

-- Randolp K. Jepperson. Boomsday by Christopher Buckley.

Video: RSS in plain English

God willing, I'll never have to explain RSS again, thanks to the folks at Commoncraft who produced this short video.

ExpertVoter.org

If you dig around on YouTube or candidate websites or MSM news sites... you can probably find these videos. But ExpertVoter.org has them all nicely organized.

According to the Submission page: "All movies are stored on YouTube. Movies are initially selected by myself or suggested by viewers. Movies can also be suggested by the candidates. Candidates have final authority over which movies are used, subject only to the below guidelines. Candidate approved movies are identified with a yellow band."

I can see where candidates might not think this is as good an idea as I do. They've gotten good at tweaking their positions for the audience they're speaking to. A candidate could wind up with half a dozen nuanced positions on gun control, for example. But not at ExpertVoter.org. Tell us what you believe. We'll compare it to what the other guys say and make a decision. [Thanks, Gary]

Presidential debates go online

Yahoo! News: "The 2008 election is already shaping up to be the most cyber-savvy presidential contest in the brief history of the Web. Now three major Web sites -- Yahoo Elections 2008, The Huffington Post, and Slate -- have announced that they will collectively host two online-only debates, one for the announced Democratic candidates and one for Republicans.

The debates will allow the candiates to participate wherever they are located around the country. Each will appear on live video, and will be able to speak to and question the other candidates through the online connection.

The debate will also be uniquely interactive for the audience. Viewers will be able to submit both written and video questions in real-time, and can blog their responses to the candidates' answers.

The idea of hosting a virtual presidential debate was the brainchild of conservative-turned-liberal-pundit Arianna Huffington, who saw the potential for an online forum while at the World Economic Forum in Davos. That event was covered by both traditional journalists and bloggers."

So, I can be sitting in the Coffee Zone in beautiful downtown Jefferson City (slurping Rocket Fuel)... record a 30 second question and zap the the video clip to the debate site...and see my question (and candidate responses) 5 minutes later. Or, watch what hundreds (thousands?) of bloggers are saying, about what the candidates are saying, in real time. Okay, that's only cool to bloggers.

I find most TV debates to be a waste of everyone's time. But I might watch/take part in something like this.

iDVD

[Mac shields up!] I created my first DVD last night, using iDVD that ships with OS X. Now, I've burned files to DVD's before but iDVD makes it fun and easy to create a more finished product. Pick a theme, drag over your video from iMovie, your still images form iPhoto, pull some music over from iTunes... hit the burn button and you're done.

This first effort looks like it. But the next one will be better. I haven't done much with DVD's because it seemed like a cumbersome way to share media. But this was fun and the resulting DVD looks pretty snazzy.

Triblocal.com

Tribune in Chicago just launched a new hyperlocal site today called Triblocal.com that encourages users to submit stories from nine communities, with more to come. Explains the Tribune, "The site, which will be largely unedited and self-policing, is designed to let citizens and organizations publish their own stories and post everything from high school team photos to favorite restaurant menus." Triblocal.com also employs four of its own staff reporters to cover stories in those regions, and many of the stories from the site will be reverse-published to print. [Lost Remote]

This seems like a really good idea to me. There must be examples of radio stations trying similar things. I'm just not finding them.

Commercial radio...without commercials

New York Times: "Facing increasing competition from satellite radio and iPods, Clear Channel Communications is trying something radically different at a commercial radio station in Texas: getting rid of the commercials.

As of today, KZPS in Dallas -- on the dial at 92.5 FM or online at lonestar925.com -- will no longer run traditional 30- or 60-second advertisements. Instead, advertisers sponsor an hour of programming, during which a D.J. will promote its product conversationally in what the company calls integration."

Rove to Sheryl Crow: "Don't touch me."

Sheryl Crow goes one-on-one (well, two-on-one) with Carl Rove. It happened last night at the White House Correspondents Dinner:

"In his attempt to dismiss us, Mr. Rove turned to head toward his table, but as soon as he did so, Sheryl reached out to touch his arm. Karl swung around and spat, "Don't touch me." How hardened and removed from reality must a person be to refuse to be touched by Sheryl Crow? Unphased, Sheryl abruptly responded, "You can't speak to us like that, you work for us." Karl then quipped, "I don't work for you, I work for the American people." To which Sheryl promptly reminded him, "We are the American people."

Sheryl Crow and environmental activist Laurie David are wrapping up an 11-date "Stop Global Warming College Tour" aimed at inspiring students to become part of the movement.

Photo via Ann.

Life before YouTube, Flickr and Mac Book Pro

I just wasn't thinking ahead. When I started messing with websites and putting stills and video online, everything was just hard. Almost nobody had fast internet connections. YouTube, Google Video et al were somewhere over the digital rainbow. And hard drives had not become as cheap as they are today, so just "keeping" these big files was a problem.

And I was so intent in putting everything I did online, I didn't bother to save high resolution still images. I rendered most of my video down to files sizes that could be downloaded.

I'm reminded of my lack of foresight every time I go back and upload a clip to (in this case) Google Video. Like this performance by Daniel "Slick" Ballinger, recorded in March of 2004.

And I should add that the iLife suite (iDVD, iMovie, iPhoto, etc) that ships with OSX just makes it so easy and fun to create. Who knew? Now we save everything. Uncompressed. Best quality. Word to the wise.

"In cyberspace everyone can hear you scream"

Christopher Buckley (Boomsday) gives us this wonderful play on the tagline from the 1979 scifi classic, Alien ("In space no one can hear you scream.")

More fictional software: RIP-ware

BADMAP is an acronym for Bio-Actuarial Dyna-Metric Age Predictor. It works like this:

" A person's DNA profile, family history, mental history, lifestyle profile, every variable --how many trips to the grocery per week, how many airplane flights, hobbies, food, booze, number of times per month you had sex and with whom, everything down to what color socks you put on in the morning-- were all fed into the software. RIP-ware would then calculate and predict how and when you'd die. In the testing, they had programmed it retroactively with the DNA and lifestyle profile of thousand of people who had already died. RIP-ware predicted their deaths with an accuracy of 99.07 percent. In a simulation, it predicted the death of Elvis Presley -- just four months from he actual date of his demise. The ultimate "killer app."

Insurance companies had been working on similar programs. What a windfall it would be for them if they could sell life insurance to someone they knew was going to live another forty years--and conversely decline life insurance to someone the computer predicted would be pushing up daisies within two years.

Another field of vast potential were the old folks' homes. typically, these demanded that a prospective resident turn over his and her entire net worth in return for perpetual care. You could live two years or twenty years; that was their gamble. But if a nursing home knew,in advance, that John Q. smith was going to have a fatal heart attack in 2.3 years while watching an ad for toenail fungus ointment on the evening news, they would much rather have his nest egg as advance payment than that of, say, Jane Q. Jones, who RIP-ware predicted would live another twenty-five years and die at the ripe old age of 105.

Page 119, Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley

Fictional Software: Spider Repellent

"You loaded the software and typed in the search words. Say you'd been arrested for drunk driving or soliciting a prostitute, or you'd been in a gossip page biting the ear of some pretty young thing in a nightclub. Or, for that matter, you had been charged by the SEC with swindling your shareholders. You typed in your name, along with "drunk driving" or "prostitute" or "ear" or "embezzling." Spider Repellent found all the references to you on the Web and --deleted them."

Page 117, Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley

Is such a thing possible? Does it already exist? No idea. Would people pay anything to get their hands on it if did exist? Oh, yes.

Couch Change: 04.21.07

:: The Landlord (funny or die - it's that easy... you decide) via Dave's Window. Update: 7 million views in 24 hours!
:: 21st century advertising - Dave Winer says: "In the future, advertising will be so entertaining that it will create its own pull. No need to intrude, to hitch a ride on other more compelling content."
:: Matt Taibbi on Imus, rap and network execs - "The idea that NBC -- the company that proudly produced 241 episodes of Baywatch, a show whose two main characters for nearly a decade were Pamela Anderson's tits -- the idea that that network was "offended" by the use of the word "ho" is beyond preposterous."

Voice-to-text-to-blog?

Planet Nelson points to Jott: "...is a free service (to the extent that your cell can call anywhere in North America for free) that allows you to dictate a 30-second message into your phone and then have it sent as a text email to a friend/colleague/self/offending politician/anyone whose email address is in your Jott address book."

From Jott.com: "Using Jott, yoau can either Jott your blog directly or just jott yourself and post later. Better yet, your readers can listen to you too -- a great way to connect?"

If I understand this correctly... a news reporter could be posting audio and text reports directly from their mobile phone to their blog. And given the evolving definition of "reporter," this tool could be used by anyone, whether they went to J-School or not.

Update: Jamie at Planet Nelson Jott'ed back on this post. The voice-to-text was close. "Blogroll" became "blog rule" and "Gnomedex" showed up as "noon desk." But pretty slick all the same.

Gumbo Bottoms: The Blog

I'll give him a few days to find his blog feet before adding him to the blogroll, but Andy Neidert is blogging from Jefferson City's newest (and smoke-free) bar. I introduced him to Typepad but he didn't need much help. And he's got a bunch of really good ideas for using a blog to promote his establishment. Here --one more time-- video from opening day.

Google Maps: Update

Learfield Sports is far and away the largest division of Learfield Communications. We have offices all over the country and --if I had to guess-- more to come. Which makes keeping the CONTACT US page (on the company website) current a real chore. Maintaining a current map of our locations is even more challenging. Enter Google Maps.

I created this one in less than an hour, just to get a feel for the tool and whether it might work for us. Each pin pops up with addresses and phone numbers...and directions to/from the location. You can edit the html to embed photos or images. It's really easy.

And David reminds us to check out the satellite view. Hours of fun! I have to believe every university has (or will have) Fan Maps (or Contributor Maps)? Imagine a map showing 20 or 30 thousand Mizzou fans. Might take a little promotion or contest to accomplish that but what a cool thing to show an advertiser.

The Bank

Brilliant send up of the Wolfowitz sitcom by Phil DeVellis, the guy who gave us the "Hillary 1984" video. Starring Paul Wolfowitz as Michael Scott.

Five Common Headline Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

The headline of a blog post is arguably as important as the post itself. Digg points us to this handy list at copyblogger:

1. No Reader Benefit - Ask yourself “what’s in it for them?” If the headline doesn’t tell you, it’s missing a benefit.

2. Lack of Curiosity - Does your headline make you have to know what the promised answer is? Use questions, numbers, challenges and statements that compel the prospective reader to explore the beneficial content you’re offering.

3. Lack of Specificity - Use variations of the “list” headline, use words like “this,” “these,” “here is” and “here are” to refer specifically to your content, and also use hard numbers and exact percentages when appropriate.

4. Lack of Simplicity - Stick to one concept, eliminate unnecessary words, and use familiar language.

5. No Sense of Urgency - Check to see that items 1-4 above are truly present. If so, try reworking the headline to make it more compelling without stepping too far into hyperbole. If all else fails, examine the premise of the content itself. Is it really “need to know” information?

Another one bites the Mac

Learfield pal David Brazeal has looted his son's college fund to buy himself a new MacBook Pro. He'll be Mac-dazed for bit, unlearning the thousand things you need to know to make a PC go, but we'll try to keep up with his progress here.

On the off chance my own Mac experience contributed to David's high dive into the Mac pool, I've added him to the Mac Gallery.

The X Files

Chemistry. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn had it. Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd had it. David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson had it. Who has that kind of chemistry today?

Just watched the last half of the movie and was reminded how good Scully and Mulder were together. Where are Duchovny and Anderson now? Duchovny became something of a parody of himself but I don't recall seeing much about Anderson. Good for her.

Gillian Anderson was white hot. She was put-a-sparkler-on-your-tounge hot. She wasn't Victoria's Secret beautiful...but she was leave-a-note-and-run-away-from-home sexy.

Can I purchase DVD's of The X Files? Let's hope so.

Donkey Basketball

"This 12 to 10 score is amazingly high when you consider that you have to be mounted to shoot and the donkey is usually moving, so you're hanging on with one hand and both catching and shooting with the other. That's not to mention that the gym in the old armory is so loud that you can't hear yourself think. If you'd like a simulation, stick your head and a boombox (turned up loud) into a 55-gallon drum.  Have two friends beat upon it savagely with baseball bats. To add essence of Donkeyball, add a scoop of horse-manure to the drum. (And they say there's nothing to do in this town.)"

Read the rest of Dr. Mobley's hilarious account. Makes a boy homesick.

No such thing as an old junkie

This PSA is...disturbing. But I'm not sure what the target audience is. Not addicts. Probably not senior citizens. Is the message "If you do drugs, you'll die before you get old and helpless and they put you in a home?"

See what I'm saying? The PSA (created by amv bddo) has a high cringe factor but how effective?

NAB keynote: Broadcasters still don't get the web

I keep looking for signs that broadcasters are beginning to understand the importance (an potential) of the Internet. I'm sorry to say, I'm just not seeing them. And, based on Steve Safran's (lostremote) summary of the keynote at this year's NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) meeting, I won't find it there:

"The internet did get a shoutout at the National Association of Broadcasters keynote speech Monday morning in Las Vegas. David K. Rehr, CEO and President of the NAB, said “internet.” He mentioned it once. In passing. During his discussion of issues about radio. It came 47 minutes into the keynote session and was the only time anyone said “internet.” That’s really all you need to know about the keynote. The NAB is simply not interested in the potential of the web, and what little interest it may have is only in terms of saying how broadcasting is better."

Working for a company that provides services to broadcasters, I really hope they have a bright future. Mr. Safran's summary of the keynote is worth a read.

Survey: Daily Show/Colbert viewers most knowledgeable, Fox News lowest

New data from the Pew Research Study shows that viewers of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report have the highest knowledge of national and international affairs, while Fox News viewers rank nearly dead last.

Are you eating your own dog food?

Media Guerrilla has advice for companies or organizations trying to choose a 'partner' to help produce new media content. He has a series of questions to ask potential partners, including this one:

"How are they using new media in their business? It's a fairly straight-forward question, right. Is the company or the consultant you're talking to eating their own dog food? What you want to hear is of course yes, but I think what you also want to see is a degree of variety in how they're active across the web. Having a personal blog, for example, is great, but at this point in the game, it's practically a must-have. How else are they immersed? (Emphasis mine)

Oooh. Rude question. Are we using all of the new media tools we're proposing to help you with? Uh...well...

Google will sell ads on Clear Channel

Google has broken into radio with a multi-year advertising sales agreement with the largest U.S. broadcaster, Clear Channel Radio. Clear Channel said it has agreed for Google to sell a guaranteed portion of the 30-second spots available on its 675 radio stations in top U.S. markets, in a bid to expand the universe of local radio advertisers to Google's online buyers.

A Clear Channel executive said Google has access to less than 5% of the radio broadcaster's overall inventory of advertising air time. The U.S. radio industry generates $20 billion in annual sales. [USAToday]

Henry Domke hanging up his stethoscope

I have posted frequently about my friend (and personal physician) Henry Domke. I learned this morning (by email and blog post) that he has decided to leave medicine and do art full time.

He cut back his medical practice some years ago to devote more time to his art but this announcement will be a shocker (I suspect) to his patients and the local medical community.

Just as Dodge City wasn't the same without Doc Adams, Jeff City will miss Old Doc Domke.

The Zombie Function

Saddened to learn that one of my favorite bloggers, Kathy Sierra, is closing up shop (Creating Passionate Users). It's not entirely clear why but I'll miss insights. Here --from her final post-- is a graph of The Zombie Function.

Taking the Imus story to the big screen

Aging white radio personality (Bill Murrary) gets fired for racist remark. His career appears to be over until he's hired by the owner (Bernie Mac) of a struggling, urban (Detroit?) radio station. Seems the radio personality saved the station owner's life in the jungles of Viet Nam.

The station manager (Queen Latifah) doesn't like the idea at all but the program director (Jack Black) --a white man who longs to be black-- sees big ratings.

The local minister/activist (Eddie Murphy) keeps the heat on to get rid of "this loud-mouthed saltine!"

The station sales manager (Regina King) sees nothing but angry advertisers but soon finds herself falling in love with the repentant Murray character.

As with all my movie ideas, I have no third act, but know Kay will come through as she always does. I guess I need a title, too. Maybe, "What'd I say?"

Radio doing TV News

"At WDEL-AM in Wilmington, Delaware, our reporters produce stories using video cameras instead of cassette recorders," news director Christopher Carl says in a comment on Poynter.org. "The audio is used on the radio. Reporters then produce video packages for out website - WDEL.com. WDEL.com users can then choose to watch individual video stories or a daily 10-minute video newscast. On weekends, users can watch a recap of the week’s big stories. Wilmington, DE is a a market with NO local commercial television station. [via CyberJournalist.net]

Mike Relm: Mondo media mash-up

As impressed as I was with Blue Man Group, I was even more knocked out by the wizard that opened for them. Mike Relm is harder to describe than BMG. Take 1,000 milligrams of military grade amphetamine, mix it with an arena-sized sound system and a MacBook Pro.

You can get a micro-taste of Relm's art on YouTube. And he reminds me a little of Concrete TV.

Imus fired. Again.

The news that CBS fired Don Imus today brought back a memory and a quote:

"If you've stayed at one little radio station for ten years without getting fired or quitting, you'll never go anywhere in this business. You should pack it in."

Blue Man Group

I was expecting something else. A novelty act. Three guys (there can't be only three of them) with a gimmick that was getting a bit long of tooth. What I got was the best live performance I have ever seen. (You're right. I don't go to a lot of live performances, so my "best" is suspect).

I wasn't going to post on this because this puny blog can't begin to capture the event. It was, as they say at alincoln.com, "above our poor power to add or detract." So let me just offer a few superlatives, in no particular order. The performance (Mizzou Arena) by Blue Man Group was digital, interactive, smart, hip, techno, musical, percussive, clever, tight, wired and...fun.

I grabbed a few video clips and might add them but not even IMAX could capture the PVC-pounding vibe of the live performance. Like they say, you had to be there. I'm glad I was.

Update: Audio on my video sucked but there are lots at YouTube.