Author Archives: Steve Mays

Bill Maher: “this is a stupid country.”

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Bill Maher (along with Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert) has the knack –and the balls– for saying things I believe but can’t quite put into words. Like, “this is a stupid country.”

“I’m the bad guy for saying it’s a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans don’t know what’s in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds don’t know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans don’t know that states have two senators and more than half can’t name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife’s name right on the first try.

Until we admit there are things we don’t know, we can’t even start asking the questions to find out. Until we admit that America can make a mistake, we can’t stop the next one.”

Whew. I feel SO much better.

Everything you need to know about Twitter, you learned in kindergarten

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I learned from @chadlivengood that the Missouri State Teachers Association is now on Twitter (@MSTA). I seem to recall them advertising on one of our radio networks a few years ago. I’ve been thinking about what they were getting for their money. Basically, distribution of their message to radio stations affiliated with our network. If someone was listening to one of these stations when an MSTA announcement aired, mission accomplished.

So what does the MSTA do with Twitter. In theory, everyone in the state could see their tweets. But only if they choose to “follow” @MSTA. The association must persuade people to pay attention to their Twitter feed? Most advertisers spend a lot of time or money or both on the messages they air on radio and TV. But even if the message is weak, someone hears it.

With Twitter, nobody sees the message unless it’s good (i.e. relevant, interesting). And being limited to 140 characters forces one to boil the message down to the essence. Distribution is free, but worthless unless you have something to say.

During my radio days I wrote and produced commercials and entered what I considered my best in competitions each year. I wonder if there are competitions for the best commercial tweet? I doubt it. Nobody wants to hear “commercials,” no matter how short they are.

From a traditional advertising perspective, Twitter’s only up side is it’s free. It can take a long time to grow the number of people who follow you. And more importantly, they have all the power, all the control. If a company is successful, it has something far more valuable than advertising. Something that money –literally– cannot buy.

Given enough time and money, even a bad product or service can see returns from advertising. Not so with social media. I’m not sure it’s possible to teach a company how to be open, honest, authentic and caring. They were supposed to have learned that in kindergarten.

Narvel Felts, the pride of Bernie, MO

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Just learned that Narvel Felts will be performing at the Missouri State Fair on August 19 (part of the Country Gold Tour). According to Wikipedia, Narvel is 70, so it’s good to know he’s still performing.

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Here’s a couple of photos from his younger days, taken in the studios of KBOA in Kennett, MO (circa 1950). L-R: JW Grubbs (Bass Guitar), Leon Barnett (Lead Guitar), Narvel Felts (Guitar & Vocals), Bob Taylor? (Drums), and Jerry Tuttle (Saxophone & Steel Guitar).

Wikipedia: “Narvel attended Bernie High School, Felts was discovered during a talent show at the school. He had been encouraged to participate in the show by some of his classmates, and it just so happened that a talent agent was attending the performance at the time.

Felts recorded his first single “Kiss-a Me Baby” at the age of 16, and his career skyrocketed with the help of Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. Narvel Felts enjoyed modest pop success in 1960 with a remake of the Drifters “Honey Love” which earned a low position on the Billboard Hot 100. He went on to release such songs as “Lonely Teardrops” and “Pink And Black Days”, but it wasn’t until the 1970s when he began enjoying success on a national level as a country singer.

His first major hit came in 1973, with a cover of Dobie Gray’s “Drift Away”. Felts’ version — No. 8 on the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles chart in September 1973 — was mid-tempo country compared to Gray’s blues version. The follow-up single, “All in the Name of Love,” just missed hitting the top 10 in December 1973.”

I’d been working at the radio station about a year when Drift Away got Narvel some notoriety and he came by the station to plug the record. It’s was a big deal for Kennett, Missouri. Narvel had beautiful hair.

Tim Robyn: Bringing consistency to state government websites

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I recently learned of an ambitious undertaking involving the websites of some of the divisions of state government here in Missouri. The objective is to bring some consistency of design and how the information is organized.

tim-robynFor example, why not put the search box in the same place on each site? Or, when deciding on names for different kinds of content areas, use the name most common to the public, rather than some acronym known only to those within the division or agency.

The man responsible for overseeing this sisyphean task is Tim Robyn, Deputy for Web Presence with the state’s IT services division. We had a cup of Rocket Fuel here at the Coffee Zone yesterday and he talked about the program.

AUDIO: Interview 15 min MP3

The state of Missouri has dozens of websites but ten have been selected for this UI make-over. I forgot to ask Tim which ten but when I have that list, I’ll grab some screenshots so we can see a before-and-after.

PS: Tim has what might be the coolest title I’ve heard in a while.

UPDATE: The official State of Missouri site (below) and the MO Dept. of Agriculture were among the first to get the make-over’s. The Dept. of Insurance is up next, and offers a good “before” example. On deck: Revenue, Office of Administration, Economic Development, Labor and Industrial Relations, Mental Health, Natural Resources, Health, Social Services

I could be wrong, but the design below sure looks like a WordPress them to me.

SOM-website