Sheryl Crow: Clear and optimistic

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Sheryl Crow has posted an open letter to her fans on her website. It’s an update on her health as she begins a series (33) of radiation treatments.

I am doing really well. Strangely, I feel clear and optimistic…perhaps more than ever. I am on day 4 of my 33 radiation treatments and am feeling really good. As you know, my breast cancer was detected very early and I am completely blessed that it was removed and all I have to undergo in the way of treatment is radiation, strictly for preventative measures. I am told I will suffer fatigue starting about week 3 and some redness and some skin irritation in the final weeks. My great radiologist did tell me that my left breast would be firm and perky when I’ve completed the treatments and I asked if she could go ahead and radiate the other while she was at it. She said no.

She’s looking forward to a tour this summer which she describes as “… a celebration every night of how lucky I feel with this life I have been given.”

Does this lady have a good attitude, or what? [Thanks, Ann]

Sports highlights podcast

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Chuck gave me this one at lunch and I couldn’t wait to try it on a couple folks when I got back to the office.

Our company produces the play-by-play broadcasts for some of the top colleges in the country. We pull audio highlights from each game and end up with dozens by the end of a game day. Arguably, the very best moments of the game.

I’d put a couple of sports goofs in a studio with 30 or 40 of these little nuggets and just have them play them, one after other. Just a little set-up on the front end and maye a few seconds of react. Lay some funky music under the entire thing. No mind-numbing analysis or second-guessing. Just play the highlights. And then put it up as a weekly podcast. I think fans would eat this up with a spoon.

Reaction was mixed. I used to pitch ideas like this as though my life depended on them. These days, I toss them out like cheap beads from a Mardi Gras float. If you catch one, good for you. If not, they were only cheap beads.

RSS for network websites

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For sometime now, I’ve been embarrassed that our news network websites were not RSS enabled. Very lame. Big Andy worked a little magic so we could add this essential feature. If you’re interested in news about Missouri, Iowa or Wisconsin…you can now subscribe to our news and/or sports feeds. A necessary step to get some podcasts going, too.

I spent a good chunk of the past week trying to convince some of the Grownups at our company that a well executed blog might be a better way to communicate with employees than an eight-page memo that comes out three times a year (as an email attachment). Take some rusy pliars…get a good grip on one of my molars…twist slowly back and forth until the tooth comes free. But god bless ’em, they paid me for every minute I worked. Whoo wah!

Nice lunch with Chuck who is doing nothing less than redefining the agriculture marketing space. His company is two years old and is doing everything right (IMHO). Chuck’s a Viet Cong sapper running quietly through the jungle in a pair of rubber shower thongs…while big media and marketing companies are sipping mai tai’s in a Saigon bar.

Nielsen: 68% of active US Net users have broadband at home

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“Nielsen//NetRatings… announced today that the number of active broadband users from home increased 28% year-over-year, from 74.3 million in February 2005 to 95.5 million in February 2006. Broadband composition among the U.S. active online population has seen vigorous growth during the past three years, increasing at least ten percentage points annually and hitting an all-time high of 68% for active Internet users in February 2006.” [via RAIN]

Doing what radio does best

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Tornados hammered parts of the midwest Sunday night, including Springfield, Illinois. TV was off, cable down, power out, Internet out, newspaper 12 hours from publication…but radio station WMAY was on the air, doing what radio does best. GM Glen Gardner shares this sentiment from a caller that illustrates how to keep radio relevant. [AUDIO: 2 min MP3]

Notice that the person on the air who took the call didn’t interrupt. Didn’t feel the need to jump in and start yapping. That is so rare. If radio has a future –and I hope it does– it won’t be endlessly playing the same 400 songs or turning the signal over to Rush for 3 hours. It will be in on-the-ground, local relevance like this. Thanks, Glen.

Slow growth for HD radio

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Radio research firm Bridge Ratings projects HD receivers will be in the hands of 1.06 million consumers by the end of 2007, 2.0 million by the end of 2008 and 8.84 million by the end of 2010. Meanwhile, Bridge predicts that XM Satellite Radio will grow to 9.0 million subscribers by the end of 2006 as rival Sirius grows to about 6 million subscribers over the same period. (R&R via RAIN)

Too young to retire

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Barb says Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ new series (The New Adventures of Old Christine) sucks. As did Watching Ellie (2002). Same for The Michael Richards Show (2000) and both of Jason Alexander’s short-lived series: Bob Patterson and Listen up.

My first reaction to these sad efforts was, “Give it up.” But I’ve change my mind. These three actors gave us some of the best moments in television comedy. Yes, the writing on Seinfeld was great but the actors were damned good, too. If they want to do another series –or half a dozen– they’ve earned the right. Even if they suck. And a few stinkers won’t tarnish my memories of their Seinfeld performances. Those are in the vault.

Faster, cheaper net access

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In June of 2002 I finally got DSL service. For two years prior to that I paid $100 a month for an ISDN line (128kbps). That’s just Internet, mind you… local and long distance extra. Pricy, but the alternative was dial-up. I’m currently paying $65 a month for 3 meg DSL access.

Today a nice young man at Sprint upgraded me to 5 meg DSL service for $40 per month. In a perfect world, someone from Sprint would have called or emailed something along the lines of, “Mr. Mays, as a long-time Sprint customer, we wanted to let you know you can get improved services for less money. Shall we sign you up?” But I’m not complaining. I’m thrilled I lived to see this day.