Category Archives: Learfield

Long live King Bob!

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Friend and co-worker Bob Feldisch has been with our company about a year longer than I. He’s taking on new duties and the post on our corporate blog is note-worthy.

When King Bob started with Learfield:

  • Ronald Reagan was President
  • Lee Iacocca was pitching K-Cars
  • “The Terminator” was released
  • Michael Jackson’s hair caught on fire while filming a Pepsi commercial
  • Apple released the very first Macintosh

Since that time:

  • King Bob has logged about one million frequent flyer miles serving his clients
  • He’s driven over half a million miles across Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois and Oklahoma
  • He has generated nearly 30 million dollars in sales for the company

This makes a great blog post but you probably wouldn’t see this much imagination and fun in a corporate, inter-office news release. I love the fact that the blog was was the first and –as far as I know– only place this news was posted.

Shoestring video production

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My colleague David produced a 2 minute video for one of our clients recently. His post provides the background. I like the piece because a) it illustrates how easy and inexpensive it is to produce video and b) it effectively tells the story (public health program, in this instance).

David shot the video with a small, consumer-grade still camera (with video setting) and edited with iMovie 08. I should note this was David’s first try and he did it while watching a World Series game.

Any company that has “communication” in their name, better have some people capable of producing a video like this. I have a hunch we’ll wind up doing a lot of these for current and future clients.

Scott Brandon’s affiliate odyssey

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In the 17 years I did affiliate relations for our networks, I was on the road a lot. Typical trip would have started early Monday morning (sometimes Sunday evening) and ended late on Friday. I might have have extended a trip over a weekend once or twice but that was very rare.

The new Endurance Record for an affiliate trip has to go to Scott Brandon, the head of operations for Learfield’s news division. Scott has been on the road –continuously– since September 17th. He’s been in seven states; 45 towns (and counting); covered 4,500+ miles; eaten 13 Chinese buffets; stayed in 8 really bad motels; 4 really, really bad motels; consumed three bowls of beer cheese soup; two glasses of beer (Miller); attended one Packer’s game and lost one iPod. And saw some sights:

“A camel grazing on the side of the road in Fond Du Lac; a giant fish thing in Hayward; and two truckers sharing a one bedroom at the Super 8 in Park Falls. But, by far, the strangest and creepiest was just outside of Phillips, WI. You round a bend and see a field full of… well… concrete people and horses and deer and dogs. Very Adams Family-ish. I walked through the park just to make sure it was really as “chill down your spine” as I thought. It was.” [Photos]

Scott’s long journey comes to an end next week as his affiliate ghost ship comes back into harbor. He’s going to need a lot counseling and time to adjust. We assume he’s working on a book.

OK on XM

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Radio Iowa News Director O. Kay Henderson will be doing a weekly shot on XM Radio’s POTUS’08 channel (XM 130). Few details yet, but looks like her bit will be around 1:10 p.m. Central time. I’ll try to remember to record and share snippet here.

Update 8-Oct-07: And here’s the snippet. Kay gives the low down on the campaign in Iowa to XM host Rebecca Roberts. Runs about 10 min and my apologies for the audio quality. I recorded on the nano, holding the wee microphone up to the car speaker. But this clearly illustrates why the Big Kids can’t get enough of Her Kayness.

Learfield’s original business plan

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In his latest “History of Learfield” blog post, founder and CEO Clyde Lear shares the business plan (below) he put together 35 years ago, when he was starting the company. If you’ve ever started your own business, or think you might someday like to start your own business, you should download the PDF file and read Clyde’s plan (just 27 pages).

This a fascinating look at the very earliest beginnings of what has turned into a multi-million dollar company (Disclosure: the company I work for).

As a blogger, I love that Clyde chose to share this bit of history on his blog. It’s been sitting in his desk for 35 years and now he’s put it out there for employees, friends, family and the world.

Clyde’s First Business Plan (PDF)

iMac before and after

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Help Desk Eric installed my new iMac (24 inch) yesterday. Getting the iMac at work was one of Life’s Pleasant Little Surprises. Phil (our head IT guy) came me a few weeks ago to let me know I was up for a hardware refresh and gave me the option of an iMac. I almost said no.

Learfield COO Roger Gardner opted for an iMac and that –I suspect– paved the way for me. As far as I know, we’re the only two in the company with a Mac on the desktop.

This is an example of what a great IT department we have a Learfield. Instead of taking a we-only-do-Windows stance, they’re open to trying something new. In my case, it makes a lot of sense, because most of the stuff I do can be done a little easier/better on the Mac than the PC.

I still have Windows XP running (on VMware). This means I have to adapt to sliding back and forth between Windows and OSX. It’s gonna take some getting used to.

The iMac is a magnificent piece of hardware. Feels more like a piece of sculpture than a machine. But we won’t go there.

The Office-Cam is down for now. Maybe for good. I’ve got a PC in the office as well and once we get it back online, I might turn the Office-Cam back on.

I’m looking forward to doing some video chats with those of you who have the capability and interest. Email me and I’ll send my AIM name.

What else… Oh yeah, the new iMac keyboard. I love it. Didn’t think I would be it feels great and works well.

So there you have it. Two operating systems running on one sleek device. Best of both worlds. Stay tuned.

Multimedia getting big in collegiate sports marketing

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The company I work for has the marketing rights for the Oklahoma Sooners.  Last week the university announced a new new 10-year, $75 million extension of our deal. Here’s the part that caught my attention:

“Sooner Sports Properties (Learfield) will create a broadband channel to run content about Sooners athletics in addition to certain radio and television rights for events not covered under contracts through the Big 12 Conference. It also holds provisions for emerging technology.”

If I read the release correctly, multimedia content generated $2.65 million last year. Sounds like a whole new ball game doesn’t it?

History of Learfield: J-School Genesis

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Clyde Lear’s latest blog installment of the history of our company is the best yet.

“For two years I worked on my Masters in Journalism. I wrote my thesis on starting a state-wide radio network. Missouri –like a lot of states– had dismal radio coverage from the state capital. Every radio newsroom, big city and small town, depended instead on the two major wire services, the AP and UPI.  There wasn’t access to the voices of the news makers. There was a need for a state-wide news service for radio stations.”

The post includes some video of reports he did as part of final exam. These are priceless and make the post. You can’t miss the embedded clip but be sure to hit the text link to a series of his stand-ups. I’ve included my favorite here to give you a taste.

These started out on 16 mm film and Clyde eventually sent them off to be converted to VHS. And now they’re digital and on YouTube for the all the world to see.

Learfield is a pretty big company today and it’s fun to see the germ of the idea that started it all.

Help Wanted. Tedious work, low wages

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I’m looking for a young man or woman to help me do some web stuff at work. This would be a paid internship or part-time gig to start, but could turn into something more. I’m posting here because I do almost everything here first. And nobody knows me better than you who haunt the digital hallways of smays.com.

This person will be chained to an oar, deep in the bowels of our digital galley ship. I’m searching for someone to help me keep up with a whole bunch of websites (Learfield sites and client sites). Things like checking and updating links, processing images for use online (a little Photoshop savvy would be very helpful), and the like. Too numerous to list here.

If you know a little about blogging and flickr and YouTube and such… go to the head of the line. If your first questions are about hours and pay… never mind. You’d hate this job. The person I’m looking for spends more time online than off. They sometimes check their email before they brush their teeth in the morning. They watch TV while holding an open laptop.

This ain’t a resume kind of position. I’d much rather get a link to a blog or a “why-I’m-the-right-person-for- this-job” video on YouTube. Otherwise, tell me in an email (no attachments) why you would be good at this. 500 words or less. If the email isn’t good, you’ll never get an interview.

If you know someone like this, send them a link to this post.

A special shout out to Corey and Lauren K: You guys were great at this and I’d love to have you back. Or if you know someone half a good, send them my way.

Game Day 09.01.07

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One floor below my office is the Learfield Sports Operations Center. On Saturday, the place was hopping for the opening weekend of the college football season. Our guys produce 19 college sports broadcasts here (and some more off-site).

The play-by-play audio comes back to Jeff City where our producers and board operators mush it all together and send it back out –via satellite– to about 800 radio stations from coast to coast. Think shuttle launch but more people will be pissed if something goes wrong.

They start back in May and then work their asses off for the next four months. I won’t even try to mention everyone by name. And this short (6 min) video doesn’t begin to capture the energy (and sometimes tension) of “game day.” But Broadcast Operations Manager Tom Boman does a nice job of summarizing some of what it takes to get all these games out to stations.

Once again, shot with the Casio EX-S770 and edited in iMovie.