Frequent visitors to smays.com know that my pop was a radio guy. He was an announcer, news guy, sales rep and station manager during his 33 years. That always seemed like a very long time. A few days ago it occurred to me that I have been in or around the radio business for that long. Not quite, if you count the year I spent in Albuquerque trying to get a radio job (I do count that year). It’s really harder to count the last 5 or 6 years doing web stuff (for a company that provides programming to radio stations). If dad were still with us, I belive I could take him into a radio station and he’d still recognize what was going on there as radio. I wonder how much longer that would be true.
Frozen Nano: Apple feet of clay
After gushing all over everyone about the superior design of my Apple Nano, the little bastard has locked up tighter than a drum. Frozen solid. Tried all the fixes suggested on the Apple website but to no avail. Even tried to run the “restore to factory pre-sets” app but couldn’t make the PC see the Nano. Hmm, just like any other computer device, it would seem.
Update: When the battery finally ran all of the way down, the Nano powered down. When I plugged it back in the the PC, it apparantly reset itself.
Brushes with Near Greatness: Assorted
This week’s BWNG is a…melange of brushes with near greatness. As a long-time radio guy, Jeff has met, interviewed or passed on the street…a lot of famous (or once-famous) people. He sat down in the BWNG studios armed with a long list of brushes and we didn’t get to them all.
AUDIO: BWNG #002
Richard Dreyfuss was in The Graduate
I have no idea how many times I’ve seen that movie (1967) but I never spotted Dreyfuss. He’s only on screen for a few seconds, peeking around Norman Fell, but that was enough for Barb. For those who have seen the movie or care, it’s the appartment house scene and it really looks like Dreyfuss pushes in front of the other extras to get his face front-and-center. And since we’re knee-deep in trivia, I have to wonder if this tiny part for Norman Fell (the apartment manager) contributed in any way to his casting as Mr. Roper in Three’s Company.
Photos Beyond the Wall
“Are you tired of seeing you and your family in dozens of photos taken in the Visiting Room over the years…all with the same old boring Visiting Room backdrops? Photos Beyond The Wall now offers what you’ve been waiting for. We take you out of the visiting room and place you “inside” the romantic or exotic location of your choice!”
I caught just a brief mention of this on NPR’s Morning Edition. Kind of a cool idea. I mean, you don’t want to put a photo of mom or dad “gripping the bars,” on your desk, so the folks at Beyond the Wall will alter that reality for you. Some of these are more distrubing than others.
Back stage with the Rolling Stones
XM Ben attended the Rolling Stones concert Monday night (DC) and managed to get backstage where he had his photo taken spooning Ron Wood. I think that qualifies as a Brush with Near Greatness.
It flashed me back to 1964 (my sophomore year in high school) when the Rolling Stones were all over the radio. We had never heard anything remotely like them. How can they possibly be touring 40 years later?
PS: That’s been peeping out from behind Ron Wood
Clear Channel wants more radio stations
Clear Channel Chief Executive Mark Mays, citing competition from satellite-delivered subscription radio, proposed that broadcast radio operators be able to own 10 stations instead of eight in markets where there are at least 60 stations and up to 12 stations in markets where at least 75 radio outlets operate.
“Free radio is struggling. The cost of competing with new technologies and increased listener choice is staggering and profits are down,” Mays said at a speech to the Progress and Freedom Foundation. Clear Channel, which owns about 1,200 radio stations, saw earnings decline 13 percent in the second quarter because of weak advertising revenues
“We are streaming the vast majority of our radio stations,” he said in response to a question. “From that perspective, we are cannibalizing ourselves and we feel like we have to be in that Internet space.” [Thanks to the Heater Man]
60 Minutes is podcasting
A few weeks ago I had lunch with some lads in the Missouri Senate information office and we talked about podcasting. They’d heard about it but didn’t think it was anything “the members” would be very interested in. They emailed me today to say that some of the members are eager start podcasting. Whoosh.
And all my MSM buds keep asking, “Are they making any money?” Uh, no. And they’re not paying us to distribute their programming either.
Delta Fair and Livestock Show
They dropped the livestock reference many years ago after a fire broke out and cooked up a lot of beef and pork. But “the fair” is a Kennett tradition and OMIK (Our Man in Kennett), Charles Jolliff, shares his excellent flickr set. These bring back memories of Minnie the Mermaid and riding the Scrambler with Melanie Price, high school hot in her Girl Scout uniform, her chest encrusted with merit badges. Sigh. Where was I? Oh yes, Charles’ photos.
Library Thing
Most folks have a couple of John Grisham novels on the the shelf but what would it be like to chat for a couple of hours with someone who has read all or most of the same books that you have? The Library Thing lets you browse the libraries of others that share your taste in books. It’s cooler than I can describe.
More than 6,000 users have signed up since August 29, 2005. And some of them have catalogued thousands of books. Mary Elizabeth Burstein –an associate professor of English at the State University of New York– has 3,424 titles in her library.
I’m not even at the half-way mark of my 500 titles but I’m getting there. Once I’m caught up, it’ll be time to give a holler to some of the folks that share my taste in fiction.