Little Snapper worth a thousand words

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I take a lot screen shots. Every day. In the bad old PC days, it involved hitting the prnscrn key, pasting into Word or Photoshop, etc etc. When I moved to the Mac it got easier, with some short-cut keys. But I still had to do the Photoshop thing if I wanted to annotate or add arrows or such.

Yesterday Bradley pointed me to Little Snapper, a new (?) app for the Mac. I won't event try to list or describe the features in LittleSnapper, there are just too many. But if you're a designer, developer, researcher or writer, you'll want this on your utility belt.

At $39, this is probably not a tool that everyone needs. But if you use screen grabs as much as I do, it's a must.

Ghost Studios

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When I got my first (and only) radio job in 1972, our FM station was mostly automated but the AM station was live from sign-on to sign-off. An "announcer" (or DJ if you prefer) was sitting at a control board, cuing up and "spinning" records, talking live into the microphone. It was the most fun I ever had and I'm grateful I didn't miss the opportunity.

This morning I'm wondering if there are still radio stations that operate this way. With 13,000+ stations, you'd think there would be at least one. Some hard-headed eccentric that just refuses to automate and cut staff.

If you know of such a station, leave us a comment.

eMarketer: Blogs now mainstream media

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In 2009, 96.6 million people are blog readers, representing 48.5 percent of the Internet population. By 2013, 128.2 million people — or 58 percent of all U.S. Internet users — will read a blog at least once per month. – eMarketer via ADWEEK And we're not wearing pants.

Radio Rapture

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Jerry Del Colliano (Inside Music Media) on yesterday’s firing of 590 people by Clear Channel Communications and why radio “consolidation” turned into such a bad thing:

“I’m sorry that these virtual monopolies didn’t work, but the reason they failed is because their arrogant CEOs ran up the debt to buy stations at prices that were, frankly, never really worth what sellers pumped them up to. Now they can’t service that debt and even though they could probably survive an economic downturn (radio always used to in past recessions), the debt they ran up during the consolidation years is killing them.”

I think I might have run out of anything more to say about the challenges facing radio.

In my radio fantasy, everyone working in radio today is raptured up to heaven, leaving thousands of empty stations with the transmitters still on and records “chick” “chick” “chick’ing” on the still spinning-turntables. (Okay, I know they don’t use turntables anymore but it’s my fantasy.)

Listeners tip toe down deserted hallways, peeking into empty studios, wondering where Rush went.

Eventually, someone sits down at the microphone and figures out how to turn it on. What do they say? What would radio become? Would they hastily call a sales meeting and begin selling ads? Would they assemble a focus group and put together a tight playlist?

I have no idea. Maybe they’d just stick their ear buds in slip out quietly, locking the door behind them.

“The world in my pocket”

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That’s how Mindy McAdams describes her iPhone:

“If someone has all the videos and quality radio news she could ever find time to listen to (or watch) right in her pocket, how can anything even remotely like the newspaper compete with that? The newspaper as it was, in the heyday of the 30 percent profit margins, had something for everyone. Now the Internet-enabled phone provides that.”

I’ve had that “iPhone = world in my pocket” thought while sitting at the counter of the Towne Grill, waiting form my biscuits and gravy. First the email, then the Twitter, then Google Reader.

Once upon a time, I bought a copy of USA Today to read with my grub. But eventually 75 cents for the few stories of interest seemed pricey. Then I started printing out stories the night before and making my own little newspaper. And then I got an iPhone.

I think Ms. McAdams really asks the good question:

“Will traditional print news organization come up with programming, instead of random and disconnected stories? I don’t mean it has to be audio and video, but it would be something with an identity, like a show or a series. The closest thing I can think of that’s not radio is David Pogue — a brand unto himself.”

“Random and disconnected stories.” Hmm. I need to think about this. More in the morning.

Next morning: I’m now wondering if our news networks have been too focused on “random and disconnected stories?” We’ve worked hard to put our news stories online with less thought and energy given to building identity. Well, that’s not entirely true. We’ve put a lot of our existing radio programs and features on our websites. But would we be better served to focus more podcasts?

“Homeless American”

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adv4foodOn the way home from the airport yesterday I gave some money to a man sitting at an intersection. I don’t usually do that and I’m not sure why I did this time. But I think it was something about the sign he was holding. It read simply: “Homeless American.”

Now, I don’t know if he was homeless (he looked the part) or American, but something about the sign spoke to me. The simplicity? Maybe. For the rest of my trip I thought about the signs used by… beggars? Too Third World. Panhandlers? Let’s go with that.

How important is the sign? Without it, I might have thought he was just looking for a ride, so I think the sign is a must. Usually brown cardboard and almost always lettered with black marker.

But most important of all would seem to be what your sign says. Haven’t seen “will work for food” for a while (Sounds a little too much like a negotiation.) Can’t be too long if you’re working an intersection or even busy pedestrians.

Is there some secret list of Great Signs That Work Every Time? I’m thinking it ain’t on line so they must move it from hand to hand.

Some would insist the guy I saw —and those like him— are lazy and could get a job if they wanted one. I’m not so sure.