Opened up the windows on the 4Runner…cranked up the XM Radio…and headed for Des Moines and Gnomedex 3. Hundreds of geeks (and one wannabe) from all over the country descend on Des Moines for two days. Much more fun than the big computer/technology shows. Dinner with O. Kay Henderson who has great new hair cut (yeah, I know that sounds gay but I can only admire, not do it, so…). She’s interviewing John Kerry today and asked if I had any questions she wanted her to ask him. I couldn’t think of any.
Category Archives: Personal History
Random thoughts
Tonight I backed up three of the (how many?) websites I’ve created. I find the very idea of “backing up” very… satisfying. The thing I liked least about what I used to do and most about what I do now is that at the end of the day (literally, not figuratively), something exists that didn’t before. Now, you might argue that web pages are a bit intangible by their very nature. But you can look at them and show them to others and…once you’ve burned them to a CD…hold them in your hand. A few hundred megabites that represents *hundreds* of hours of work and thought (and whatever creativity I could muster). My best efforts. Tomorrow I’ll stop by the bank and slide the CD’s into a safe deposit box. And if the servers at MyHosting.com or Learfield go up in smoke… I’ll upload my files to a new server and all those hours live on. KBOA: The Early Years, The Basement Diaries, Amberjack Landing, *this* blog… one day they didn’t exist, the next day they did. They do. They will.
My previous job was to persuade other people to do things they usually didn’t want to do. To talk them into it. To check to see if they did the things they were “supposed to do.” And agreed to do. Nothing new was created unless I was able to convince someone else that it should be. That’s why “managers” make more money than the people they manage. It’s a nearly impossible job that isn’t very satisfying, even if you do it really well. And –here’s the best part– the people you’re paid to manage resent you for trying to do it (as they should) and long for they day they get to be in charge and manage others. Talk about punishment fitting the crime. But I’ve escaped, like Tim Robbins in Shawshank Redemption. If there were a book, we might call it “Life After Management: Clawing My Way Back Down the Corporate Ladder.” A little long, maybe.
Dan Landrum
I heard from a couple of Kennett expatriates this week. Dan Landrum worked with me at KBOA back in the 70’s. He stayed in radio for a while but gave it up to pursue a career in music. On his website he describes himself as “a hammer dulcimer enthusiast and musician, based in Signal Mountain, Tennessee.” He must be pretty good because he’s rehearsing “for an upcoming world tour with Yanni.” That’s pretty cool. Or bizarre. Or both.
Stop stacking coins on the bills
If my change consist of bills and coins, please hand them to me separately. Don’t stack the coins on the flattened bills and pass them over the counter to me. You know they’re going to fall off and I’ll have to grub around on the floor or just leave them… Oh. Is that what’s going on here? You’re not simply stupid or rude. Well, hell… I feel better. And if my stupid reference offends you, show me you’re not by counting back my change just one time. If you don’t know what that means, you don’t know how to do it.
Relaunch Learfield.com
After months of planning and hundreds of hours of work, we re-launched the corporate website at 5:00 a.m. on November 1. On time and only a little over budget. The look and feel is the work of a very talented designer named Kory Johnson. Her style is very sleek and clean.
Everything beneath the hood was created by Gestalt, Inc. Chief Knowledge Architect Andy Waschick has spent so much time on our sites that he’s had no time for his own. He has a blog but it’s a sometimes dark and forbidding place that I dare not send you without his permission and note from your mother. Having Andy build your website is like… having Thomas A. Edison wire your home. It’s likely to take a little longer because he’s always creating and inventing and staying up all night in his workshop building a garage door opener before you have a car (or they’ve been invented). Somewhere along the way I stopped asking, “Would it be possible…?” because nothing is impossible for Andy.
The next phase for Learfield.com will be the development of a company-wide intranet. The thought of really connecting all of the employees in our company can be a scary one for some of our managers. Do we really want everyone to be able to communicate with everyone else? Do we really want them to be able to communicate with our customers and business partners?
Born, not made
I’ve been thinking about work place dynamics a lot lately. Managers, employees, bosses, leadership, morale. For most of the past 30 years I was part of “the management team.” A couple of years ago I worked my way back down the corporate ladder so that I have several bosses (instead of one) and nobody calls me boss. The two most significant results of this devolution are I don’t get invited to lunch as often as I used to and life is much sweeter.
During the peak of my Management Years I read books and attended workshops and seminars and took it all very seriously. Most of it was bull shit. I stopped all that after reading my first Dilbert book. Scott Adams describes The Boss this way:
“His top priorities are the bottom line and looking good in front of his subordinates and superiors (not necessarily in that order). Of absolutely no concern to him is the professional or personal well-being of his employees. The Boss is technologically challenged but he stays current on all the latest business trends, even though he rarely understands them.”
Most managers don’t have any idea how they’re doing because they look to their boss for feedback instead of the people reporting to them. Looking back (and maybe a little ahead, too), I think the difference between good companies and great companies is that good companies have good leaders…and great companies have great leaders. Nothing wrong with being a good leader or working for a good company…but it’s a little harder if you’ve ever worked for a great leader at a great company. And don’t let anybody shit you…great leaders are born. They’re not made. And the men and women down in the trenches can tell the difference in an instant.
So, what do you want to talk about?
In Des Moines for the Radio Iowa 15th anniversary party. Kay’s caterer backed out when she learned pork would be served. And we’re not talking those little bacon wraps on the cocktail weenies. These were huge, Iowa pork chops. Oy vey.
When I arrived at the hotel I learned that my room would not have HBO. (“We got Show Time, isn’t that the same thing?”) No, it’s not. HBO is showing the season finale of Sex and the City and The Wire. HBO is the home of Six Feet Under. And The Sopranos. And Band of Brothers. And just about everything I think is worth watching on…well, it’s not TV, it’s HBO. I cancelled my reservation and scooted across the street to a Fairfield Inn. “Do you have HBO?” I asked. “For another month or so,” replied the young lady at the registration desk. “The chain is getting rid of HBO because we’re pretty much a ‘family hotel’ and we got a lot of complaints about the adult content.”
So, one of two things is happening here. The parents are leaving their children alone in the hotel room where they can (could) hear Dennis Miller say “fuck”… or the parents are in the room with the kids but are unable stop them from watching HBO. But, hey, I give a shit. I get to watch the great HBO programming and that’s really all I care about.
You know what really amazes me? Not just how many people don’t have HBO, but how many people have never seen any of these shows. Or have any interest in finding out what all the buzz is about. The Sopranos? (“Yeah, I think I heard someone talking about that show. It’s a mob thing, right?”)
And it’s not just HBO. It’s all kinds of things. I’ve quit talking about XM Satellite Radio. I can’t stand the puzzled looks. (“So, it’s radio from a satellite or something? Huh.”) Now, I don’t expect everybody to run out and plop down a couple of hundred bucks for one of these, but how could you not have even heard about it? Same thing for blogging. Articles in Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal… all over the Web. Never heard of it. (“So, it’s a web page…but different?”)
What are you people doing with your lives?
Radio Free Iowa.
They’re holding a little shindig in Des Moines on Sunday to mark the 15th anniversary of Radio Iowa. It’s one of the networks our company owns and operates and I’m going up for the party. Two of the original staff (O. Kay Henderson and Todd Kimm) are still with the network. That still seems amazing to me. I drove about 40,000 miles back and forth (up and down) across Iowa that first year, signing up radio stations for the network. But it was pretty easy. They all got idea and were eager to have such a service. I really believe I as the one –smartass that I am– that suggested Radio Free Iowa for the name. Once they threw out “Free,” the rest stuck.
Where are they now?
My first effort at a website dealt with the history of the radio station (KBOA) where my father (and later, I) worked for many years. A visitor to the site recently wrote:
“I have been trying to find Norman Shainberg who was a college classmate and friend. I last saw him in Halloran General Hospital when he arrived from Europe on the Swedish ship “Gripsholm” as a repatriated prisoner of war. Being 83 years myself I naturally wonder if he is still alive and if so how can I contact him.”
I’m trying to help him find his friend. This is one of the things I like best about the Net.
Why do maid make hotel beds as they do?
Number One: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels in the U. S. (the world?) have never stayed in a hotel or motel. Number Two: the house-keeping staff at all of the hotels and motels really hate their jobs and transfer that hatred to the people who sleep in the beds they make up each day.
In every hotel I have ever stayed, the beds are made in such a way that when you turn down the bed, the bottom sheet (never fitted) is pulled completely free, forcing you to remake the bed. This is because the maid (or house keeper or whatever the politically correct term) insists on tucking the blanket, the top sheet and the bottom sheet together. You can’t turn back the bed without unmaking it. Problem without a solution? Hardly. Tuck in the bottom sheet and let the top sheet and blanket hand loose (except at the foot of the bed, of course). You know, like you probably do at home. Which explanation is more likely? I hope it’s number two. I hope every maid gets to stay in a hotel/motel at least once every year. And when they turn back the bed, I imagine them dropping to their knees one more time to re-make the bed. Good night.