Just finished reading the third (and final) volume of Neal Stephenson’s The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion and The System of the World). I don’t know what to say about almost 3,000 pages except it was a journey. Perhaps one for fans only. I didn’t care much for The Diamond Age but loved Cryptonomicon (1,168 pages) and Snow Crash. Some day I’ll be at a boring party and meet someone that read and enjoyed the story of Dr. Waterhouse, Eliza and Jack Shaftoe as much as I. And we’ll have a nice, long chat.
First trip to the beach
I believe this photo was taken at Hammonasset Beach in Connecticut. But Mother’s Day always brings this image to mind.
RTNDA’s Dan Shelley gets it
Dan Shelley is a long-time and valued friend. For a dozen years he ran one of best (probably THE best) radio newsrooms in Missouri. In 1995 he moved to Milwaukee to become the news director of WTMJ. A year ago he was elected chairman of the Radio-Television News Directors Association (RTNDA) and took over those duties a couple of weeks ago at the association’s annual meeting in Las Vegas.
In his first speech as chairman, he outlined five challenges or issues facing “electronic journalists.” We asked him about blogging, podcasting and satellite radio.
AUDIO: Interview with Dan Shelley 30 min MP3
I’m not sure Dan –or any other mere mortal– is capable of taking broadcast journalists where they need to go but he’s the right guy at the right time.
The Colbert Report
The new season of Reno 911 kicks of June 14th. … Stephen Colbert’s new show on Comedy Central —The Colbert Report— will be a satire of TV talk shows such as The O’Reilly Factor. You can hear the NPR interview here. I’m counting on the show being funnier than the interview.
Don’t worry, be happy
Thanks to John for pointing us to this iPod thread on a forum at MissouriRadio.net. Interesting look at how real radio folk view what’s happening:
“For Christ’s sake, QUIT WORRYING about all that other crap. Movies didn’t kill us, TV didn’t kill us, satellite won’t kill us, and iPods sure as hell won’t kill us. So why all the damn fuss over this crap? Let’s just do some good radio, and all the hype over “Podcasting” and all that other irrelevant (yes, irrelevant) crap will eventually die down.”
Execution journal: Donald Jones
In his capacity as news director for The Missourinet, Bob Priddy has witnessed 15 executions. The most recent was the April 27th execution of Donald Jones, for which Bob produced an “audio journal” that begins as he leaves his motel in Bonne Terre to go to the prison and ends as he prepares to leave the prison about two and a half hours later. Bob telescoped the audio down to about half an hour and some segments have been shifted for context purposes (the reading of the final statement of Donald Jones, for example).
Bob was not allowed to take his recorder to the execution witness area, so he summarizes the events that took place in that approximately 90-minute span. The main voices you will hear are those of Missourinet News Director Bob Priddy, Corrections Department spokesman John Fougere, and Corrections Director Larry Crawford. Voices of various other officers will be heard as part of the process.
Niketown sneakers
I love the idea of designing (okay, picking the colors for) my own sneakers. Niketown makes it very easy. If I guessed right on the size I’ll be stylin’. If I guessed wrong, I have a pair of hundred dollar chew toys.
Podcasting: New life form
“Podcasting is a whole new system, a whole new class of activity. It may be like radio, but we make a mistake if we understand it in terms of radio. Think of it instead as a new life form that’s native to the Net. That some of it can be leveraged, or harvested, for the radiosphere, fine. But understand that the pioneers here are blazing new trails, opening new frontiers. Not restoring old burned-out cities.”
— Doc Searls on podcasting and broadcasting
XM Radio Online
This is just a very different listening experience. The player displays the artist and title currently playing each of my preset channels. Listening can be as passive or interactive as mood dictates. And the audio quality (on my DSL connection) is pretty amazing. Radio good enough to pay for.
Learfield Sports Operations
Our company has the broadcast rights (football and basketball) for some of the top colleges in the country and most of the production happens here in Jefferson City, Missouri. A major expansion of our sports operations and engineering facilities is underway and I asked Chief Engineer Charlie Peters to give me a tour this week.