The American Red Cross and XM Satellite Radio have joined forces to launch Red Cross Radio, a 24-hour, nationwide XM channel to provide help and information for Hurricane Katrina victims, Red Cross staff and volunteers along the Gulf Coast, and other Red Cross workers across the country. Former Learfielder and Jeff City expat Ben Krech played a big role in getting the project airborne.
Category Archives: Media & Culture
Podcasting: It’s all about the links
“What’s special about podcasting, though, is how it makes it simple for individuals or companies to express themselves and, if what they have to say is interesting, enlightening, or clever, to earn attention. You can point someone to a worthy podcast through a link on your blog, or an e-mail to a friend, in a way you could never point them to a snippet of radio. That’s powerful.”
“Podcasting isn’t about to kill radio or take it over, but as blogs are doing to publishing, it will make the radio industry reevaluate its relationship with the audience and leverage its strength as a mass medium.”
— Boston.com via Dave Winer
Sheryl and Lance engaged?
That’s the rumor (unconfirmed but good source) from Kennett. Happened Wednesday at undisclosed location. I could find nary a word on the net. Could it be you heard it here first?
Webcast from Nebraska State Fair
Today our farm network did a live webcast from the Nebraska State Fair. It was a 90 minute panel discussion on technology in agriculture and it was great radio. Except I’m pretty sure it wasn’t on the radio. Just our website. In fact, the last eight or ten ag events we’ve covered have not even been put up on our satellite channel and offered to our affiliated radio stations. We’d love it it they would air these long-form programs but program directors are less and less willing to air more than a short ag report in the middle of the day. And I’m not sure they’re wrong.
Are we (the network) wrong to produce this programming? We’re pretty sure Nebraska corn farmers are interested in anything having to do with ethanol. But if you’re the program director of a radio station in the middle of Nebraska, you ask yourself what percentage of my listeners want to listen to someone talk about corn for an hour. Wouldn’t our listeners rather hear some good country music?
Probably. But, as a former small-town program director, I’m convinced there is a “cool factor” at work here, too. It just isn’t cool to air all that farm stuff. Country music is cool. And everybody likes country music, the people in town and the people on the farm. It’s the safe call.
This is where we encounter the long tail of ag programming. While there may be only a few hundred people that care about the future of ethanol in Nebraska, they care very much. And it’s getting harder and harder for them to find in-depth, real-time programming on their local radio station. Enter the web with streaming audio and podcasts all the rest. You want an hour on sugar beets in southern Indiana? No problem, click here.
Radio stations could have it both ways. Put the longer, in-depth programming on their web site and promote same on the air. But radio station owners do not perceive the need. And they no logner have the staff to do much of anything “extra.” At the same time, their listeners are just a Google search away from that they want. And they don’t care too much about where they get it.
Once upon a time, the only place a farmer in Ogallala could get farm news and prices was on his local radio station. Advertisers who wanted to sell stuff to those farmers only had to advertise on that station. It was the natural order of things. The good old days.
Godcasts
Kyle Lewis missed going to church one Sunday last month. But he did not miss the sermon. Mr. Lewis, who regularly attends services of the National Community Church in Alexandria, Va., listened to the sermon while he was at the gym, through a recording he had downloaded to his iPod. Instead of listening to the rock music his gym usually plays, he heard his pastor’s voice. [NYTimes.com]
This just makes so much sense to me. I can’t believe every church isn’t doing this. Back in my radio days, the local churches paid to get air time and had to fight for it at that. I look for lots of applications like this. Literally every meeting will be recorded and made available online. School board meetings, chamber of commerce meetings…whatever.
Steve Spurrier Podcast
New South Carolina Head Football Coach Steve Spurrier has the highest SEC winning percentage in history. And he is –I am told by those that know– something of rock star among big-name football coaches. Our company produces the Gamecock football broadcasts and the weekly call-in show, featuring Spurrier and the the play-by-play guy. Tomorrow night is the first show and in addition to airing on a bunch of SC radio stations…and streaming at Yahoo! Broadcast… we’ve set up a podcast feed. There has been almost zero publicity on this but I’ve got a feeling fans will find this quickly. Thursday nights from 7:05 – 8:00 p.m. EDT
Jeff Jarvis: Don’t own the content. Don’t own distribution
Another thought-provoking post by Jeff Jarvis on the “value” of owning content or distribution:
Owning the printing press, broadcast tower, cable plant, movie theater, or chain of stores is a cost burden when your competitors and customers can, without friction, effort or cost, bypass your distribution and even your marketing. So don’t own the content. Help people make and find and remake and recommend and save the content they want. Don’t own the distribution. Gain the trust of the people to help them use whatever distribution and medium they like to find what they want. It’s hard for somone raised on the value of owning content and owning distribution to let go of exclusivity and instead value openness and participation.
I’ve been blogging long enough to buy into the idea of the web as a conversation but it’s a damned hard concept to explain. Much easier to grasp the idea of producing programming (content)…pumping it over some kind of distribution channel (radio/TV signal, newspaper, etc)…mixing in some ads…and feeding it all to the consumer (audience).
Terrestrial radio still #1
Paragon Media has released the third and final part of its study on new media’s effects on radio. The company collected 400 respondents between the ages of 15 and 64 to complete the study about new media usage and its effect on broadcast radio listening. In the study, Paragon focused on new media including satellite radio, internet radio, MP3 players, podcasting and personalized CDs.
The latest findings show that terrestrial radio is the #1 source for listening to music. When asked “What is your primary source for listening to music?,” 51 percent of respondents said radio. Purchased CDs were next with 30 percent of the vote, and radio also beat out television, personalized CDs, music downloads, satellite radio and Internet radio.
Need more proof? The National Association of Broadcasters cites two additional studies in a recent newsletter:
Michigan State University found that few are giving up their traditional radio habits. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said they’ve spent as much or more time listening to local radio compared to last year. And, 95% expect to listen as much or more local radio in the coming year. A whopping 88% think their local station provides valuable service to community. And half of those surveyed with satellite radio reported reception problems while driving.
Eastlan study found more than four out of five Americans have no interest in subscribing to satellite radio. The findings were nearly identical to a 2001 Eastlan study. Only five percent of Eastlan study respondents were satellite radio subscribers.
Okay everybody… go back inside. The excitement’s over, nothing to see here. Let’s get back to work.
Profiles in Courage: Star Spangled Banner
I’m told it is quite common to forget the words to our national anthem when singing in public. A gold star for this young woman, singing at the Indiana State Fair last night [AUDIO]
Had I been there –and remembered the lyrics myself (“…were so gallantly streaming?” )– I’d like to think I would have leapt to my feet and led the crowd in singing along with her for the final few lines. Listen for at least 35 seconds.
Online salaries higher than in other media
Online publishing salaries of recent graduates are higher than broadcast or print media salaries, according to the 2004 Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Graduates (PDF) conducted by The University of Georgia’s James M. Cox Jr. Center for International Mass Communication Training and Research.
The survey found that the median online publishing salary in 2004 was $32,000. By comparison, the median salary for TV was $23,492; for cable TV was $30,000; for daily newspapers was $26,000; for weekly newspapers was $24,000; for radio was $23,000; and for consumer magazines was $27,000. [CyberJournalist.net]
Of all the challenges facing my beloved radio these days, that median salary of $23,000 might be the most frightening.