smays.com

Curly Howard alive and well!

The local media were on hand for the Big iPhone Event yesterday. I was stunned to learn that one of my childhood idols, Curly Howard, is not only alive... but working as a videographer for one of our local TV stations. AgWired's Chuck Zimmerman did a touch-and-go and took this photo (which I consider very flattering).

I'm embarrassed that I didn't introduce myself, but I did watch the voice-over package that aired on the 10 o'clock news. About 40 seconds.

There was a photographer from the local newspaper on hand. A rather stern looking woman who didn't seem to be having any fun. Her paper ran the iPhone story on page one (above the fold) this morning. With a couple of her photos. I did not, however, find the story/pics on the newspaper website.

All of which reminds me of the wonderful freedom of blogging. I can post what I want (video, stills), when I want, with no pesky editors looking over my shoulder. I wouldn't suggest for a second that my amateur efforts are on par with these pros. I would argue that I had more fun than they did and maybe some of that comes through in my posts.

And one more thing. The video that aired on the local TV station and the front page newspaper story --unless posted to their websites-- is gone forever. With any luck, in a month or two, a Google search for "iPhone+jefferson city" will get you to smays.com.

MiPhone

Dave Morris took the plunge and writes an excellent review of  his new iPhone:

"How many phones do you have, and am I too late?" It was 5:55 pm, a full FIVE MINUTES before the doors opened. He gave me this little wink that was simultaneously geeky and cocky... and one of those dorky tongue clicks. The only thing missing was the finger-as-pistol "Shooter McGee" motion. He fished around in his pocket. This was his moment to shine!

"Here ya go." He handed me a voucher that guaranteed me the right to purchase a phone. A little quiver passed through my body... much the same feeling as when you find out your application for auto financing has been approved."

iPhone Line: 6:00 p.m.

Headed back to the local AT&T store after work to catch the final  hour of hype. At it's longest, I'd estimate the line at 50 or 60. The AT&T staff all had that deer-in-the-headlight look. Nobody had ever stood in line for anything they were selling.

My favorite moments (my battery was low so I didn't capture these) were cell phone customers who kept showing up to pay their bill and were pissed (and totally mystified) they couldn't get in. I shit you not... 9 out of 10 had never heard of the iPhone. Or the iPod. Or Apple.

One can only assume they don't have TV's or radios (forget newspapers). And to a man (or woman)... they had waited to the very last moment to pay their cell phone bill ("They'll cut my off tonight if you don't let me in to pay!").

I can't recall (in my lifetime) this much (buzz/hype/interest) in a product launch. There were men, women and children waiting in line. I saw a couple of families.

AppleJAC'er Tom Piper waited in line to get an iPhone. Learfielder, Paul Roberts, M.D. insisted he was "just looking," but I didn't wait around to see if he took the plunge. The video runs about 3 1/2 minutes.

Embed Google calendar in your blog or website

I've been steering clients to Google Calendars for some time but never bothered see if I could embed the calendar in a blog post. You can. In most applications, it probably makes more sense to just link them out to the full size calendar but I can imagine situations where I might want to display the calendar like this. Nifty.

iPhone Line: 10:00 a.m.

I stopped by the Jefferson City (MO) AT&T store to see if anyone was waiting in line for the new iPhone. James Whitehead was first in line. He says he's been on-site since Wednesday but was staying in his truck until this morning. James --from Lake Ozark, Missouri-- describes himself as a "technology whore," and is buying the iPhone mostly for the cool factor. He's not even a Mac user (yet).

There were four hardy (geeky) souls in line and I left them my umbrella since it looks like it could pour at any moment. I'll post some more video this evening, once James has his prize. [video runs about 3 min]

Ads that sell because they're sold

Seth explains the different kinds of advertising:

"The first kind is the rational kind. Yellow Page ads, direct mail and Google AdWords fit into this category. This is advertising that works, if 'works' is defined as, "pay $3 and make $4." With measurable direct advertising, you can count on profit-minded small organizations to give it a try (small buys) and if it obviously makes money, to buy some more.

The second kind of advertising is the glamorous kind, the kind that people think of when they think of the Super Bowl or Time magazine or of profitable ads that are worth selling. These ads don't sell because they work. They sell because they are sold.

Let me be fair: they work if we define 'working' as: pleasing the client, pleasing the agency, increasing brand goodwill, and building, over time, a groundswell of awareness and brand respect that ultimately leads to profits."

Add flickr slideshow to your blog or website

Seems like every time I use flickr, I discover some nifty new feature. I really like the slide show feature and recently came across flickrslider, a handy tool that makes it easy to embed a slide show in a blog post (or any web page, for that matter).

Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

If this puts too much of a hit on my load-time, I'll kill the post. Move your cursor around a bit and you'll find controls to adjust speed and such. Clicking an image reveals more info. For larger images, check out the slide show on my flickr page.

I believe almost all of these photos were taken by John ("Johnny Mack") Reeder, one of the original employees of KBOA. When I began working on a website for KBOA in 1997, John sent me a shoe box filled with B/W negatives. John died on October 10, 2006. He was a great radio announcer and a very good photographer.

Learfield Sports Operations: Then and Now

The Learfield Sports Operations Center is a real thing of beauty. Great equipment, well designed. A really nice place to produce sports broadcasts. It wasn't always so. My recent photo spelunk turned up this shot taken in the basement [larger image] of Learfield's former headquarters, an old house on McCarty Street. Kim Steiner (the guy in the photo) was about 5' 7".

In 1984, we began producing the broadcasts for Iowa State, Oklahoma State and Kansas. We already had the rights to Missouri and were producing those broadcasts in a studio shared with The Missourinet. Because there was absolutely no more room for studios, the engineers jammed some small mixing consoles into a corner space in the basement (where the engineers also lived).

Cramped, dusty and... dangerous. You could always recognize the new guys by the contusions and lascerations on their foreheads.

Internet passes radio as "most essential" media

INSIDE RADIO: "Less than one of five Americans (17%) say radio is their most important medium for information and entertainment. That’s down from 26% in 2002. What’s changing is obvious – the Internet is quickly becoming a turn-to medium. One-third of Americans say it’s now the most important — compared to 36% who pick TV. A big jump from 2002 when just 20% said the Web. A new Edison Media Research report also shows the Internet and TV have swapped places as the “most cool and exciting” media with 38% now picking the Web versus 35% for TV. Edison’s report also finds newspapers are most-often picked as the “least essential” medium by 35% of consumers. It’s followed by the Internet with 24%. Both radio and TV had the fewest mentions at 18%."

Radio: As good as it gets?

In a recent interview with Mark Ramsey (Hear 2.0), marketing smart-guy Seth Godin talked about his new book, The Dip, and how some of the ideas therein apply to the future of radio. The full interview is worth a listen but these two snippets (3 min) grabbed me by the microphone.

Early reviews of the iPhone

Crunchgear has links to some of the first reviews of the new iPhone (NYTimes, WSJ, USA Today, Newsweek). I'm planning to hang out at the nearby AT&T store on Friday to see if I can catch an interview with someone waiting to buy one of these.

Blocked

I got nothing. Nothing that seems worth a post. Lots of interesting stuff going on in the world, but I can't think of a thing to add that I haven't written a hundred times before. This happens every so often and I'm doing what I tell our clients to do. Nothing. Just keep surfing and reading but don't force a post. If you strain too hard, you can hurt yourself.

More images from early years of KBOA

I scanned another 70 prints this weekend and added them to the KBOA flickr set. Most of the scanning work is done but I got a bunch of pages that need to to be copied and pasted to the new site. The Canon scanner and iPhoto are making the work image work so much easier.

And I never tire of looking at these images from a by-gone era of radio. I'd love to ID the announcer in the photo below but every year that goes by makes it less likely. And the guy in Studio B, performing live... priceless.

I have more than 700 images on flickr now and think I'm on track to hit 1,000 by the end of the year. I'm trying not to upload crap, just to hit the number.

There is something strangely satisfying about getting images out of the closet and out on the net. I remember worrying that someone might "steal" my photos. Now I see that the only way to "save" these images is to put them out here.

Blurring the lines between fan and sportswriter

Thanks to Edward for pointing to this story on the Kansas City Star website about sports blogging:

Meet the new American sports fan -- an Internet-induced mix of sportswriter, play-by-play announcer, talking head and regular guy. His name is Will McDonald and, from his one-bedroom apartment in Cleveland, the University of Iowa doctoral student, painstakingly records, on his blog, the comings and goings of each Kansas City Royals game.

For the sports world -- the fans, the players, the leagues and the teams -- the rise of the blogger has raised complicated questions about broadcasting rights, how to reach an audience, and where the sports fan stops and the journalist begins.

The lines have blurred so much, in fact, that the New York Islanders plan to give bloggers their own box next season. So much that the NCAA escorted a reporter out of the press box two weeks ago for blogging a live baseball game. So blurred that sports teams are holding meetings about how to handle the rise of the blogger, and no one seems to know what comes next.

I could be wrong, but I think the Islanders are on the right track.

Happy Birthday Joel

We celebrated Joel Clardy's 40th birthday yesterday. His Learfield co-workers did their best to make him feel ancient with black balloons and funny cards. Pam captured his arrival at work and a few shots from his (not-quite-a-surprise) party last night.

Couch Change 06.23.07

:: Wasted and Basted - BBQ contest in Kennett, MO [Photo by Charles Jolliff]
:: Texas Ed, WSLM, Salem, IN. Radio then and now. [Photo by Mike Cady]
:: Bingo Dauber. When I change my name...

So close... and yet so far

It's been fun watching Mr. and Mrs. Goose taking care of their new family. I've wondered how they avoid the dogs and assume everyone jumps in the pond if danger threatens. And an angry, hissing mother goose can be intimidating. [Larger image]

When old radio dogs learn to use pics

A radio reporter uses photos and the web to enhance his reporting and the result is three different stories to experience: a radio story, an online story and a third story, the audio slideshow -- radio with pictures closely matched to enhance the audio.[PoynterOnline]

When every car has WiFi

Speaking of disruptive technologies...Seth Godin asks (and answers) the question: What happens to radio when ever car is WiFi? Part of a longer interview with Mark Ramsey.

YouTube on AppleTV

I downloaded the YouTube update to AppleTV last night and watched some videos on the big (bigger) screen. Stupid videos are still stupid. Shitty quality videos still look shitty. And the good ones look pretty darned good. Watching "Internet video" on the big screen in the living room takes a little getting used to.

I had the sense that I was getting a peek at the future. Thousands of videos, downloaded from the Internet to my little AppleTV box. No idea what the business model will look like but this is disruptive technology. If I was the guy responsible for "scheduling" programs on a "TV network," I'd be nervous.

You'll find a real review at engadget.

YouTube is now live on Apple TV

"Apple today announced that YouTube is now live on Apple TV. Users can download the free software update using Apple TV’s built-in software update feature, and then navigate through YouTube’s familiar video browsing categories or search for specific videos. YouTube members can also log-in to their YouTube accounts on Apple TV to view and save their favorite videos." [Podcasting News]

Haven't tried this yet, but I will. Stay tuned. Related story.

"Do you know who I am?"

The woman smiled, waiting patiently. My mind is frantically processing data, running through thousands of images and names. I bullshit for time...

"Hey, I almost didn't recognize you! Man, how long has it been?"

But people can always tell.

"You have no idea who I am, do you?"

(Click!)

"Debbie! Debbie Elting!"

Debbie and I attended Southeast Missouri State University in the late 60's. Worked on college plays together, partied together. Haven't seen each other in 30 years. Turns out we've been going to the same dentist all these years. She drives down to Cape from St. Louis, I drive down from Jefferson City. The staff thought it would be nice to arrange a surprise reunion and scheduled our check-up's on the same day.

The next time a woman I don't recognize asks, "Do you know who I am?, I'm going to say --without hesitation-- "You're Jennifer Anniston. What are you doing here?"

Self-portrait

DeLoss asks: "Whatever happened to that picture of you staring at a monitor? The background was dark and you were quite close to the screen, as if trying to detect something. I always thought that was a good shot for your blog."

Me too. When I started blogging, I thought I should include a photo but didn't want to look like more of a dumb-ass than necessary. So I sat my camera (on timer) on a stack of books, turned off the lights and came up with this. Still pretty much how I see myself.

Missouri's Gaming Lab

Met up for coffee with old friend (and former Learfielder) LeAnn McCarthy last week. She's a PIO (Public Information Officer) for the Missouri Gaming Commission. I think I knew this is the governmental entity responsible for some kind of oversight of Missouri's casinos, but that's about it. As LeAnn explained some of the things the commission does, I became more interested and when she told me they have this room where they test and measure and check-out all of the gaming devices, I asked if I could get a look.

It's called the "Gaming Lab" and it's filled with what I (a non-gambler) would call "electronic slot machines." As well as a crap table, a roulette table, and a couple of Black Jack tables. [flickr set]

LeAnn introduced me to Clarence Greeno, the Gaming Enforcement Manager for the commission who was kind enough to answer a few questions and explain some of the commissions many functions and responsibilities. The interview runs about 30 min (link below).

After I turned off the recorder, Clarence showed me another, smaller, room that was filled with surveillance monitors that displayed real-time images from above the gaming tables in the first room. This is exactly like the gear the casinos use (and you've seen in countless Las Vegas heist movies).

Several large metal cabinets were filled with chips, dice, playing cards and a variety of scientific-looking instruments for measuring and weighing it all.

Missouri has eleven casinos and the Missouri Gaming Commission is tasked with seeing that the games, the people run them and the people who play them are all on the up-and-up.

I regret not being more prepared but I had no idea of what's involved. Our chat lasted about half an hour but there was easily another half hour of interesting stuff I missed after turning off the recorder: RFID chips in larger denomination casino chips; ever more sophisticated games designed to appeal to younger players that have grown up with computer games; "Minority Report" games that recognize individual players and "market" to them based on their personal interests and history.

"Hello, Mr. Mays. Back for another run at the Black Jack table. We've got a couple of new games that we think you might enjoy. Shall I reconfigure my interface so you can take a look?"

My thanks to Clarence Greeno and LeAnn for their hospitality and a fascinating tour. Before I left, I urged them to consider a weekly podcast about gaming in Missouri and the commission's role in seeing that everyone plays fair.

Download MP3 file 28 min.

New scanner

Dave Winer bought a new scanner recently. He didn't say much about it... just that it had arrived. My scanner was two or three years old, so --with hardly a thought-- I clicked the link (to Amazon) Dave provided and purchased the same scanner.

I had a high level of confidence that Dave knows more about scanners than I do and I couldn't go wrong following his lead. And I was right.

The CanoScan is fast and produces sharp scans. My favorite feature, however, is the software that enables me to scan four or five photos at once and wind up with individual files. I hate to think of the hours I spent chopping out individual images in Photoshop. And I'm sure I'll discover many more wonderful features.

I'm sure Canon spends millions in marketing and advertising. But none of those efforts could ever be as effective (for me) as knowing it's the scanner Dave Winer is using. I have no way of knowing, but I'll bet he didn't get a nickel (or a free scanner) from Canon for mentioning their product on his blog. I guess my point has something to do with blogs and trust.

I've made a couple of imaging purchases in the last week or two. As I scan more (old) prints and take more digital photos, I need to be sure these images are as good as I can (practically) make them.

Let's say I took 1,000 photos over the next two years and they weren't quite as good as they might have been. There's no way to fix that. I can't re-take those photos.

At the same time, I'm willing to accept far less than "perfect" images. That's where Henry works and lives. I make some practical trade-offs.

But the scanning is going much faster now and iPhoto makes it easier to tweak the images and get them on flickr.

Meet Sadie

Barb and I love Golden Retrievers. So when Andrew Lear called to tell us they had a new pup, we jumped in the car and raced over for a look. Sadie is 7 weeks old and has a great new home with Ben, Jack, Maddison, Leigh and Andrew.

And here's proof positive that everyone looks better holding a puppy.

Tumblelogs

Wikipedia: "A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary."

If I were starting smays.com today, I might go with this format. I see the appeal, although I seldom have trouble "providing a commentary."

One of the more popular tumblelog services is tumblr.com. The format looked familiar. My pal Andy converted his blog (a couple of years ago?) to something very much like this when he grew weary of "providing a commentary.

I'd be tempted to play with tumblr but the Google Reader "share" feature accomplishes pretty much the same thing with a single click. If you've been thinking about blogging but worry that you might not have "enough" to say, you might like tumblr.

Control-Alt-Delete

If you were marooned in space and your life depended on getting the computers up and running again, who (whom?) would you want jammed in there with you? Let's make it more interesting by limiting your choices to people you personally know. In no particular order: Phil, Andy, George and Jim. And Charlie. Charlie isn't really a hardware/software guy... more of a MacGyver-type who doesn't get rattled and has a knack for finding and fixing problems.

"I Got a Crush On Obama" video

I just took a look at the latest political video to go viral. The young woman featured in the "I Got a Crush On Obama" video is Amber Lee Ettinger (an actress). The real Obama Girl, the one who came up with the idea of the video, the song and the lyrics is Leah Kauffman, a 21-year-old undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia. When I left YouTube, the video had been viewed more than half a million times.

My first thought was, no political campaign could create something like this. My next thought was, if a campaign could create it, they wouldn't want us to know they had. Much more effective. In this instance, I'll probably never know. [Thanks, Jackie]

Not for sale

I received the following email today:

"I can pay you $35 for a text ad on your (website). The ad --for a free personals web site-- would consist of a couple of lines of text with links to the web site. I can pay via PayPal, or send you a check. Would you be interested?"

The post on which he wanted to place an ad was about the anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The only possible connection I could see was "lonely hearts" and "personals" but that's a reach.

I thanked him for his interest but turned down the $35. But it got me thinking. Would I have taken $350? No. $3,500? I know it's ridiculous, but I don't think I would. This space just ain't for sale.

Cueing records

I love this photograph of my father. It was taken in the control room (Studio A) of KBOA in Kennett, Missouri, probably around 1950.

Anyone that has ever "cued" a record recognizes that sense of touch and the delicate balance of the heavy tone-arm on the oh-so-easy-to-scratch record.

A skill (if you could call it that) that hasn't been needed for many years. I'm glad I didn't miss those final years of high-touch, hands-on radio.

We had one of the early automation systems (for our FM station) but it felt like telling someone how to make love to your girl friend.

And the thrill of having the program director walk into the studio while you were on the air and put the hot new single into "current" box. Is it as much fun to see the new single come into the rotation on a computer monitor?

Before I get carried away, allow me to say --for the record-- I don't miss using a grease pencil and splicing blog to edit tape. If I had to choose, I'd be th digital boy I have become.

"Introducing the Missourinet"

A lot of our company's history is jammed into cardboard boxes and I stumbled upon a little piece this afternoon. This is a copy of an ad [larger image] that ran in Missouri Life Magazine, sometime in the early '70's.

Now Missourians from border to border know what their neighbors are doing.

They know what is going on in Jefferson City... in the major metropolitan areas... in the arts... in science... business.

They're listening to their local radio station... an affiliate of the Missourinet.

The Missourinet is a statewide news network... very similar in operation to the national news networks. Some 40 radio stations carry its hourly newscasts. It has the state Capitol's largest full-time news bureau. And each week its programs feature hundreds of on-the-scene reports from correspondents and newsmakers over the state.

Missouri + net? Get it? The official name of our company was "Missouri Network, Inc." back then.

Portable wifi hotspot

Avis has begun to offer a product called Autonet as an add-on to some car rentals, giving customers with a mobile device such as Treo or a laptop access to the net (and Internet radio stations, one assumes).

The service, called "AVIS Connect" allows customers to rent the router and service for $10.95/day, less than most hotels charge for daily WiFi access in a room. AVIS currently offers the service to rental car customers in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, with plans for service to seven additional cities expected soon. [RAIN]

Blogger removed from NCAA baseball game for blogging

A blogger from the Courier-Journal of Louisville, Ky., was expelled from a college playoff game for live-blogging.

According to the Courier-Journal, staff blogger Brian Bennett was approached by NCAA officials in the fifth inning of a game between the University of Lousville and Oklahoma State, told that blogging "from an NCAA championship event 'is against NCAA policies (and) we're revoking the (press) credential and need to ask you to leave the stadium.'" [News.com]

This hits close to home. The company I work for is one of half a dozen big players in collegiate sports marketing. We pay millions for exclusive broadcast and marketing rights for the sporting events at our partner schools. Does that extend to a reporter blogging int he stands? Does it extend to a fan blogging in the stands? I think our "company position" would be that it does. If and when it comes up, I think we have to handle it correctly but I'm not sure just that would be.

Study: Web will be top news source within 5 years

According to a new Harris Interactive study, more people say the Web will be their primary news source than network news or cable news. While today 25% of respondents in the U.S. say they rely on network TV
news, the Web comes in at number 2 with 18%. But when asked what source
they will turn to in the future, those numbers flip and the Web moves
ahead of network TV news by 4%. [Lost Remote]

Rent moves on iTunes, watch on Apple TV

Apple is in talks with the Hollywood studios to make new movies available for rental on iTunes, with titles
to rent for $2.99 for a set number of days before expiring. It is unclear which studios might participate. [WSJ.com]

I hope --and expect-- this to come together. Netflix is great but there's still some lag time. And I can't recall the last time I bought a PPV movie from DirecTV. Selection pretty much sucks. As Barb and I have less and less time (or so it seems), the convenience and choice of on-demand becomes more and more important.

Portable reel-to-reel tape recorder

I love this photo [larger]. Johnny "Mack" Reeder conducting one of his popular "Man on the Farm" interviews on his "portable" reel-to-reel tape recorder. This was probably state of the art at the time and being able to get out of the studio to record news and interviews "in the wild" had to seem pretty cool at the time.

I've started rescanning some of my old KBOA prints and this image caught my eye because it contrasts so dramatically with great new gear in the renovated Missourinet newsroom.

I think I might have posted this image previously, but this is a better scan, so...

Tony will live. Completely alone.

It seems The Big Question of the last few days is: Will Tony Soprano be alive or dead at the end of the season/series finale this evening? So, for the record, here's my prediction:

He survives. But he will be completely, existentially alone. No friends. No family. No one. I have no idea how this happens plot-wise, but that's my guess.

This series --and I was a fan-- should have ended a season or two ago. I hope Mr. Chase and the writers can find a way to end it with the same class it began.

Update: I was wrong. Not about Tony being alive at the end, but about being alone. The family was all together, eating onion rings. So what's David Chase telling us? You can be a self-centered, lying, murdering son of a bitch and live out your life without retribution? Who knows. And it's his call. He gave us all those great stories for eight years... if he wants to leave it hanging at the end, he's earned the right.

Building your personal brand through your blogging

Darren Rowse (Pro Blogger) offers tips on how to build your personal brand:

• Build trust. Talk both about your successes and failures.
• Be personal. Show something of who you are. This doesn’t mean blogging about your personal life, but show you’re human.
• Use story. Stories of my own experience, stories of other clients (shared with permission as case studies) etc.
• Establish expertise. Show what you know, show how you apply it and be a thought leader in your niche.
• Establish relationships in your niche.
• Be consistent. Every time you post you have the opportunity to add to or take from your reputation and brand

While reading Darren's tips, I mentally scrolled through the last five years of posts here at smays.com, and --more by luck than design-- I think hit most of these. And a week doesn't go by that my blog doesn't come up in conversation with current or prospective clients (from them, not me). I'm not sure how valuable smays.com is as a brand, but it's out there.

Start building your brand. Your company is not and cannot do it for you. [via LexBlog]

NYT: Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine

This story appeared last week in the New York Times and is one of the best I've seen in a while on Google. Posted here for future reference.

"Google does more than simply build an outsized, digital table of contents for the Web. Instead, it actually makes a copy of the entire Internet — every word on every page — that it stores in each of its huge customized data centers so it can comb through the information faster.

As Google compiles its index, it calculates a number it calls PageRank for each page it finds. This was the key invention of Google’s founders, Mr. Page and Sergey Brin. PageRank tallies how many times other sites link to a given page. Sites that are more popular, especially with sites that have high PageRanks themselves, are considered likely to be of higher quality."

Missed opportunity

Please tell me I'm not the first person to see this mural (radio station in Chillicothe, Missouri) and not want to go inside, sneak upstairs, remove my shirt and lean out the window (closest to the street) and scream "Help! Help!"

Passion

  Daniel "Slick" Ballinger 
  Originally uploaded by smays

This is another of those posts where I'm trying something new. In this case, posting an image from flickr directly to this blog. I've never used this tool but I'm not sure why. Just never took the time to play with it. Now I am.

The young man with the guitar is Daniel "Slick" Ballinger, the amazing blues artist I first saw --and posted on-- a couple of years ago [video - audio].

I'm also playing with iPhoto here. For years, I've run every image through Photoshop before posting. At George's suggestion, I've been using the optimization tools in iPhoto and they do just about everything I need to do with an image for posting online in a fraction of the time.

As for the headline above, I'm always encouraging young people to find something they can be passion about. For example, the look on Slick's face tells you he is passionate about playing the blues.

The Soup: "festering petri dish of celeb culture"

Talk Soup was a television show on E! from 1991-2002, featuring selected clips of the previous day's daily talk shows, surrounded by humorous commentary delivered by the host. This is where I first saw Greg Kinnear, who hosted the show from '91-95.

Somewhere along the way, E! changed the name from Talk Soup to The Soup and the current host is Joel McHale, who looks like a cross between a young Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Seacrest.

And he's damned funny. Funny in the way David Spade wants to be. Funny in the way Dennis Miller was before he went right-wing nuts. Funny like Jon Stewart with a dash of Matt Frewer.

Podcast Audience Continues To Grow

The Diffusion Group reports that, based on their latest research, 11% of adult broadband users (some 12 million US consumers) listen to podcasts at least once per month. They also predict that the podcast audience will more than double in the next five years, to 24% of broadband users (38.5 million Americans) by 2012. [Podcasting News]

How important is local news on the radio?

Mark Ramsey says (Hear 2.0) his research repeatedly shows that once you get beyond traffic and local sports headlines and weather, "local news" per se is one of the things (radio) listeners - even information listeners - want least.   

And that's fundamentally because information fans tend to be interested in one of two things: What fascinates or entertains them and what impacts them personally. And neither of these things are explicitly "local."

Is this true? Hmm. I've lived in Jefferson City for more than 20 years and I don't know the name of the mayor and have very little interest in what's going on "locally." Until, of course, something doesn't work.

I listen to our state news reports on our local affiliate but can't remember the last time I listened to the "local" newscast. But I've always suspected --and hoped-- I was the exception.

Would you watch a thirty-second commercial online?

The title above has nothing to do with this post. I'm showing a friend how to post a video clip on YouTube, and then embed the player on a website.

And, yes, I would watch "a TV spot" online. I frequently drop in at the Apple site to watch the latest Get A Mac ads. And I can never get enough of the "I'm Working with Monkees" spots at Career Builder.

But what does it take to keep our thumbs off the Tivo FFW button? How do we create commercial messages that people will choose to watch?

Corner office (Well, office in the corner)

While browsing images last night, I came across this photo of my little corner of the office I shared with Jim Lipsey when Learfield HQ was on McCarty Street in downtown Jefferson City. The photo --probably taken around '86-- reminded me of how much things have changed. Check out the "Notes" on flickr image.

Bidding for Bargains

eBay is ready to begin auctioning advertising airtime on 2,300 participating U.S. radio stations. The venture --which puts eBay into competition with Google-- includes both conventional terrestrial radio and Internet radio advertising. Stations in all of the 300 top-ranked radio markets are covered. Advertising inventory includes primetime spots with 90 percent in morning drive, midday or evening commute hours from Monday through Friday.

How (if at all) will this impact companies like ours that barter our services for radio station commercials? When you finish the quiz, close your Blue Book and raise your hand.

Internet’s ad share surpasses radio for the first time

Internet’s ad share surpasses radio for the first time. Radio’s share of advertising revenues held flat in the first quarter -- taking 6.6% of spending. But for the first time the Internet has a bigger share. It took 7.7%. TNS Media says radio is now fifth -- behind TV, magazines, newspapers and the Web. [Inside Radio]

Interview with Dave Shepherd

Fifty years ago, Jerrell Shepherd mastered a form of broadcasting alchemy that turned small town radio lead into gold. It wasn't much of a secret, however, since he readily shared it with countless radio station owners and managers who made the pilgrimage to Moberly, Missouri, in hopes of bringing some of Shepherd's sales and programming magic back to their stations.

While most small market broadcasters were content to get "their fair share" of local advertising budgets (the bulk went to the local newspaper), Shepherd's sales reps were trained to ask for it all and believed in their hearts they deserved it.

Mr. Shepherd's approach to programming his stations was deceptively simple: report anything and everything that happened in each of the communities covered by his stations' signals. The KWIX and KRES "Red Rovers" showed up just about every high school football game, junior high choral concert and chamber of commerce ribbon-cutting. And the Shepherd stations put it all on the air. Always with local sponsors. Lots of local sponsors.

Dave Shepherd grew up in the radio business and built on his father's success, growing The Shepherd Group to 16 stations before selling them to a Florida-based company called GoodRadio.TV, for $30 million earlier this year.

I got Dave on the phone for a little chat and he talked about where small market radio has been... and where it's going. He shared some thoughts on the Internet, iPods, HD, satellite and Google Radio.

He says he decided to sell because it just wasn't as much fun as it used to be. And, in the next breath, he wondered if some of his father's small town magic might work in The Big City.

Download MP3 (25 min)