Former Learfield and uber-blogger Chuck Zimmerman just purchased his first Mac. When was the last time you were so excited about something you bought that you immediately told the world about it?
Category Archives: Learfield
Another Mac Attack
My alternate headline was, “Gomer Does the Big Apple,” but the Jim Nabors reference would be either too dated or unflattering to Learfield President and Chief Operating Officer Roger Gardner, the latest Learfielder to break down and “Get A Mac.”
Like Phil and me, Roger has been flirting with the idea of buying a Mac for sometime. He’s been teetering at the precipice for weeks and finally went over the edge this week and purchased a 17″ MacBook Pro (with all the fixin’s)
In all fairness, Roger has two teenagers at home and they needed another computer and –like a lot of folks these days– couldn’t come up with a good reason not to try a Mac.
Radio Iowa Week in Review
Radio Iowa reporter Stella Shaffer produces “Radio Iowa: Week In Review” and it’s a nice toe-in-the-podcast-water for the network. She pulls together the top stories of the previous week:
“The old governor’s got a gig teaching law at Drake, the new governor wants a dollar-a-pack increase in the cigarette tax, and an economist tells us what that might cost. The new improved state minimum wage may also have unanticipated consequences, according to HeadStart heads. Bitter cold played a part in the apprehension of an auto-theft suspect, OSHA offered a helping hand to migrant workers while one mayor wants a fulltime cop to bust them, and we mourn two more Iowa soldiers lost.”
Another of our networks began repurposing feature programs as podcasts last year. But RIWIR is our first true podcast (by my definition).
We have some really good reporters working in our newsrooms. Historically, if they came up with a good idea for a new program, it could only fly if we could convince enough affiliate stations to “clear” it.
In the world of podcasts, they are only limited by their imaginations and the hours in the day. I’m hoping to hear some good stuff in the coming year.
Radio Iowa: The Blog, getting noticed
Allbritton Communications launched The Politico today. It’s a free tabloid with an estimated circulation of 25,000 aimed at political junkies and Beltway insiders, and its companion website.
The Politico has garnered attention by snagging high-profile journalists to run the paper. Two of The Washington Post’s top political journalists — editor John Harris and reporter Jim VandeHei — left to become The Politico’s editor-in-chief and executive editor, respectively. Reporters have been lured from Time, U.S. News and World Report and the New York Daily News, among others.
One of these superstars, Ben Smith, is blogging and includes our own Kay Henderson (Radio Iowa) in “Ben’s Favorite Blogs.” Just the latest high-profile link love for the Bloggerista.
In this 2003 post, I included Kay in my list of “Blogs I Would Read if They Existed.” And now it does. And I do.
More The Politico here and here.
Relaunching news websites
One of the first Learfield networks to have a website was Radio Iowa, our state news network in Iowa. That must have been around 1996 and it was created (using Frontpage) by Dan Arnall and Allen Hammock, a couple college guys we hired to help us figure out “this Internet thing.”
Dan and Allen went on to pursue new adventures a long time ago. And we’ve added lots of websites –for our company and for clients– since those early days.
This week we relaunched RadioIowa.com. We relaunched WRN.com a about a month back and we’ll be putting up the new Missourinet.com in a couple of weeks.
Our news networks are pretty narrow in focus. We cover the legislature, state government and –with the help of our affiliates– news from throughout our respective states.
Our websites reflect that focus. State news and sports, with an emphasis on the sounds of the news. We are, first and foremost, radio networks. Our websites are designed to complement them. They are not high-traffic, destination sites. Time will tell if this strategy is the correct one. The next couple of years should be interesting.
Our new sites are very blog-like. At WRN.com, we blog the sports and our news director maintains a blog. At Radio Iowa, News Director O. Kay Henderson is generating a real following for her political blog.
Time will tell if I have taken us in the right direction with these sites. If you like what you see, email me and I’ll put you in touch with Andy Waschick, the man behind all of Learfield’s websites. If you don’t… please don’t tell me.
Very fast thumb typing
Because I don’t own a Blackberry or “smart phone,” I have not done any “texting” and have no thumb typing skills (I’m not even sure it’s called that). But many people are very adept at this, including Learfield’s own Tyne Morgan. Tyne is majoring in ag journalism at the University of Missouri and working part-time for one of our networks.
This little clip does not do justice to her amazing skill. She was keying –with one thumb– as fast as many people type with all ten fingers. And she doesn’t have to look at the keys. This might be more useful than the ability to make yourself invisible.
Thirty years of election coverage
The first election covered by The Missourinet (a network owned by the company I work for) was in 1976. News Director Bob Priddy orchestrated that first election night and every one since. Prior to The Missourinet, radio stations throughout the state focused on local races and relied on the wire services for news and numbers from throughout the state.
The Missourinet brought the sounds of election night from the state capitol and campaign headquarters throughout Missouri to the hometown audiences of our affiliates.
The technology has changed… and is changing… but insight and understanding Missourinet reporters bring to their election night coverage remains the focus of their reporting. Bob reflects on the past 30 years in this 10 minute video.
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.
Google Juice: Blogs
Because of the way Google Page Rank works, blogs tend to rank higher than traditional websites (whatever that means in 2006). Most bloggers are well aware of this but it hit home for me this evening as I Googled “Learfield” …the company I work for. 105,000 search results. The corporate home page at the top, with the Learfield Sports “home” page (really a sub-page on the corporate site) at #2.
Coming in at #3 is the company blog, GrowLearfield.com. And it’s only been up for six months. Want more traffic for your business/association/organization? Make your home page a well-tended blog.
On a personal note, more and more of the people (from outside our company) with whom I come in contact, have found their way to smays.com. I confess that makes me a tad uncomfortable. If you drill down about three pages (nobody does) in that list of 105,000 “Learfield” results mentioned above, you’ll find smays.com.
Despite periodic disclaimers that this blog is in no way sanctioned by or officially connected to Learfield, I’m “out there” (just like George Costanza’s mother). Sort of like forgetting to remove your company windbreaker before getting the lap dance. You know nobody is looking at your jacket, but you’re aware you have it on.
PS: Yes, this post was prompted by the photograph of two (possibly) fornicating turtles.
Leveraging your customers (fans)
One of the ideas Seth Godin talks about (on his blog, in his speeches and in his new book) is turning your best customers into marketers. Make it easy for them to tell your story. One of the examples: The Beastie Boys gave digital cameras to fifty of their fans and invited them to film one of their concerts. They edited the best of these into a film.
I’m only remotely aware of who the Beastie Boys are but I love the idea. I’d love to try this with one of our sports properties. Some big rivalry might be fun (Missouri vs. Kansas?). The idea isn’t to get great play-by-play shots, but tail-gate fun, etc. I don’t know what you’d get but you announce that the resulting video will be on the Mizzou website (brought to you by Sponsor To Be Named?).
A lot of work? Sure. Big money maker? Maybe not. Lot of fun? Maybe.