I’ve always blogged with an awareness that the people I work with (and for) might be reading what I write. In fact, I know that some of them do pop in from time to time. Hi, guys.

While I post with some frequency on radio, media, blogging, journalism, podcasting and such… I rarely write about our company specifically. For lots of reasons. Today we’ll get close to the line and try not to step over.

Our company has gotten big. Not General Motors big or Microsoft big, but a lot bigger than when we started, 30 years ago. Back then, it was Clyde and Derry (and a few others) making it up as they went along, breaking all the rules, trying and doing all kinds of things that Big Companies said you couldn’t or shouldn’t do.

And, as the name suggests, the company has always beeen about communications. First as a wired (telco lines) network delivering farm news and markets to a handful of radio stations. Very few people were doing that back then because it was damned expensive and nobody really saw the need or the opportunity. Clyde and Derry did.

In the early 80’s, Clyde figured out having his own satellite uplink would allow him to reduce costs and control a powerful distribution channel. We could ‘communicate’ programming (content) to listeners (via the radio stations) in a way that others could not. More on the satellite/distribution thing in a minute.

So we have our own satellite uplink and channels and things start to take off. We build/acquire lots of radio networks. We’re scaling nicely and the company is growing. And it continues to grow. We still feel like and –in many ways– operate like a much smaller company. Handful of smart guys running the company from the top of a very flat org chart. But we’ve gotten big. And we have some big cash cows that we love very much.

You see where I’m headed with this, right? How do you get big (which has lots of advantages) without losing the Small Company “bag of rice and an AK47” flexibility and attitude? Because if the next Clyde and Derry are out there in the bushes (and you know they are), they have The Mother of All Networks at their fingertips and it doesn’t cost them the millions our Clyde paid for his first uplink. It’s virtually (get it?) free. And far more poweful because it’s global and two-way and blah, blah, blah, blah. You’ve heard it all.

Big is good. The Queen Mary is a very comfortable ride. And as long as we don’t have to make any sudden turns, we’ll be fine.

The official memo hit my in-box today. If I read it correctly, there will be no un-approved “stuff” on the walls of our offices. No John Wayne or Elvis life-size cardboard cutouts. No B. B. King posters. Nothing. Just plain, white (or beige) walls. I understand why this is necessary but can’t help feeling that something has been lost.

You might have noticed some construction in my office-cam photos. Big remodel underway at Learfield Intergalactic with lots of office reshuffle and this blogger is leaving his home of 15 years (something like that) and moving to a different office on the other side of the building. They’re letting me keep an office (only a little smaller) because I’ve been with the company for 21 years. And I appreciate the gesture. I’ll be closer to the IT Gods and that’s a good thing. Still have a window and a better view. Soon as we get moved in get the cam going going, we’ll point it that way.

Update: Photo above was taken nearly 20 years ago in the old Learfield offices located on McCarty Street here in Jefferson City. We wore suits and ties back then.

I started working for Learfield Communications on June 4, 1984. The company had one statewide news network (The Missourinet); one sports property (University of Missouri Tigers); and a farm network (The Brownfield Network). Blink.