Category Archives: Personal History

“Telemarketing Wiz”

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This is a true story although I have changed the names to protect the innocent and the clueless.

A couple of months ago, a friend (I’ll call him Ishmael) started a blog called “Telemarketing Wiz” and began posting all kinds of interesting stuff about telemarketing. He started hearing from others in the telemarketing business and people started linking to his blog. He got a little buzz going. Not a raging wildfire, but a little brush fire. Google “telemarketing” and his blog is #3 in the results.

One day recently, Ishmael has a meeting with someone at a publication called “Telemarketing.” (Remember, all of the names have been changed. This has nothing to do with telemarketing) The Telemarketing executive tells Ishmael they are not happy with him using the name “telemarketing” and they’d really like for him to stop. They even offered him a few worthless incentives.

Ishmael was shocked and said he’d think about it but wasn’t inclined to change the name of his blog. There were dozens of companies using the term “telemarketing”… why was the Big Publication concerned about him? Could it be that Big Publication was getting tired of hearing about Telemarketing Wiz?

Legal issues aside, this is a nice example of cluelessness on the part of MSM. I suggested to Ishmael that he change the name of his blog to “TelemarketingSucks.com,” but he’s more of a grown-up than I.

Would it have made more sense for Big Publisher to say, “We’ve noticed what you’re doing and think it’s pretty exciting. We’d like to hire you to blog for our publication.”

I’m sure that Telemarketing is a very good publication. Maybe the best. With lots of talented writers and editors and advertisers and big building with a nice lobby. A great place to read about telemarketing. But not the only place.

If Ishmael was writing a little paper newletter and mailing to a few hundred people, Big Publisher probably wouldn’t care what he called it. But the web is national. It’s global. Anybody can play. It’s no longer about who can come up with a few hundred thousand (million?)dollars to start a magazine. One guy, with a computer, and a head full of good ideas can get in the game. It’s a new day.

Wire Service

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In 1972, radio station KBOA had a little closet in the newsroom that housed two teletype machines. One for the Associated Press and one for the National Weather Service. These typewriter-like printers spewed out line after line of news, sports, weather… everything a radio station might ever want to pass on to its audience. They were loud and smelly and mechanical and the ground through box after box of paper and ribbons. I remember a tractor trailer pulling up to the station every few months to drop off dozens of boxes of each. It was –for all practical purposes– the radio station’s only source for news outside the local community. If someone forgot to feed the beast a new box of paper… or the paper jammed overnight… or the printer ribbon broke… no news. And if the damned thing just broke, you were probably miles from a technician that knew how to fix it.

I was reminded of those primitive days by a visit from old friend David Gerstmann, founder of WireReady. I met David at an NAB meeting in Boston back in 1991 or ’92. David had just graduated from Tufts University and was exhibiting at the show. He had written an inexpensive software program that could run on the personal computers that were coming into use. Instead of grinding through all of that paper and ribbon, his software could capture and store the information and you just printed out the stories you wanted. Not just from one wire service, but from as many as you had. An amazing idea at the time.

WireReady could also do some word processing tricks that radio news guys found handy. It was affordable, easy to use, ran on the piece-of-shit computer that trickled down to the newsroom and David gave great customer support. He sold a boat-load of WireReady systems and –over the years– introduced new features (networking, digital audio editing, etc).

For a long time, Associated Press and United Press International (UPI) were pretty much the the only sources for world and national news. Not technically a monopoly but they had broadcasters by the balls and they squeezed hard and long. It was a tightly controlled information pipeline but –thanks to the Internet– those days are gone forever. RIP.

Disclosure: The company I work for operates a sort of “poor man’s wire service” (sorry, David) called Learfield Data. It exists today, in part, because broadcasters wanted alternatives to the Big Wire Services of yore.

Mel’s Country Cafe

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I eat breakfast two or three times a week at Mel’s Country Cafe. Nothing fancy about Mel’s and the menu never changes. It’s the kind of place where you can get mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and a piece of banana cream pie. (If you’re from Kennett, think Palace Cafe or McCormick’s)

And you can have a cigarette with your meal at Mel’s. And lots of folks do. They made the back room smoke-free a few years ago but you have to walk through a cloud of smoke to get there and back through it when you’re done.

When I walked into Mel’s on Tuesday, one of the servers informed me that the smaller room in back is now the smoking room and the larger, front room is smoke free. Whoa. I took a seat and looked around and noticed most of the same faces, sitting in their usual places. All the smokers sitting in the smoke-free room.

I asked my server how the new policy was going over. “Not so good,” he admitted. “A couple of them have gone back to the smoking room long enough to have a cigarette, and then came back to their usual spot.”

I grew up in a smoking family. I understand smokers and the power of their addiction. I’ve known smokers that would get a divorce or quit a good job rather than give up the habit. Family members who no longer speak as a result of long-ago arguments about smoking. These are the same people that stand hunched in the freezing rain to get their fix. What force could make them stop smoking long enough to have some ham and eggs? And it hit me.

Routine. It would be more shocking to their nicotine-soaked nerve endings to sit in a different chair…at a different table…IN A DIFFERENT ROOM! I’m told this is a common phenomenon among regular church goers who have their regular pew. We dedicate this song to all the men and women jonesing through breakfast at Mel’s.

PrairieLinks.com

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Spent the morning visiting with Dwayne Leslie (5 min interview). He’s a farmer from Manitoba, Canada, who –five years ago– decided to build a web page to help pass the cold winter days when he couldn’t farm. He created PrairieLinks.com which is the #1 ag portal in Canada. When he couldn’t find any good farm auction sites, he started FarmAuctionGuide.com which attracts 10,000 unique visitors daily. Do not tell me that farmers are not plugged in.

57

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Another year, another birthday. Fifty-seven. (Shudder) Man, I can throw a rock and hit sixty from here. But I feel great. Shoot, I weigh exactly what I did when I graduated from college in 1970. Or do I? Surely a lifetime of experiences and memories must have some infinitesimal mass. All the good times must weigh something, even if you subtract a few bad moments. Of course the answer is right there in the mirror. I couldn’t find the quote but it’s something like at twenty you have the face god gave you and and sixty you have the face you earned. Damn. I just don’t think that’s accurate. Life’s been better than I look.

Flu shot

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This is my official warning to seniors, mothers with small children, the lame and infirm of any description. If there is a flu vaccine shortage next year, you’re gonna have to wrestle me for the last vial. This year Barb persuaded me we should not get the shots –assuming we could– so there would be “more for those who need it most.” Easy call when you’re feeling great. Well, we both got the flu and it has been a nasty, miserable three days (assuming the worst is over). So I won’t be holding the door for you down at the clinic, granny. Tell the OATS bus driver to floor it.

Three years blogging

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On Thursday, I will have been “…writing some of this down” for three years. More than 1,000 thoughts, notes, links, rants, reviews and random ravings. I couldn’t have imagined sticking with it this long and I can’t imagine ever stopping. I’ll be 57 next month so I could easily have another 25 years of blogging ahead.

I tell new bloggers that the first 48 hours will tell the tale. If you’re gonna get the bug, you’ll get it within those first couple of days. And if you’re not hooked by then, it’s probably not for you. M

Hustle & Flow

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A recent entry in the Sundance Film Festival, Hustle & Flow — written and directed by Memphis native Craig Brewer, and produced by John Singleton– has been purchased by Paramount.

“Djay is a pimp suffering a midlife crisis and although nominally successful, he yearns to record his flow and become a respected rapper. Galvanized by a gospel song, he sets his dream in motion–recruiting his motley crew and building a studio in his home. And though he succeeds in putting his rap, “It’s Hard for a Pimp,” onto tape, the barriers to fame and fortune are many, and getting there becomes an elusive goal.”

Kennett Senior Correspondent Viretta, proudly reports that her baby boy, Luke, worked on the soundtrack. She adds that she’s not bothered that the film is about “pimps & ho’s.”

Rollin’ my own.

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I never read local newspapers. I know, I know. I’m just not interested no matter how much I should be. As a result, I’ve been reading USA TODAY for years. I could barely get through breakfast without something to read and USA TODAY was my paper of choice. No longer. The bump to seventy-five cents is part of it but there are too many stories I don’t care about. (Yes, I know I should care about them, but I don’t) So I’m reading less of the paper and paying more.

But recently I’ve been surfing with my finger on the print key. In five or ten minutes I have more than enough stories to get me through my Malt-o-Meal. Sort editing my own newspaper. And this process will get more automated but I enjoy browsing and printing and will probable keep rolling my own daily. And I’m saving almost $200 a year.