The highly-promoted debut of author and comedian Al Franken’s talk show, “The O’Franken Factor,” on the new “Air America” radio network apparently set a record. Air America’s VP/Marketing Leon Colaco says the network’s website handled nearly 500,000 unique visitors in the 22-hour period between 7PM Wednesday and 5PM Thursday. (final numbers from Air America streaming provider RealNetworks will not be available until next week.) This might be the largest number of simultaneous listeners that Real had handled since ABC News’s coverage of the 9/11 attacks on September 12, 2001, which hit 86,700 concurrent listeners. [More at RAIN]
Air Left
I listened to Air America several times –for a few minutes at time– today. Not enough to form much of an opinion. Initial impressions: Sort of spooky hearing a talk show host wailing on the Republicans. After all these years of Rush, it just felt strange to hear someone so openly bashing the Republicans and Bush. (I know, I know, the liberal media blah, blah, blah). But I can’t say I was much impressed with the execution. But, it’s early. Sounds like Jeff listened more, and more thoughtfully, than I. (By my count, Jeff is on his third name for his weblog. I like this one.) Politics aside, Rush does radio very well. I suspect that has as much to do with his success as his views. I’ll be surprised if the Air America folks can measure up. We’ll see (hear).
The web is a conversation
David Wineberger says the Web is not a medium but, rather, a conversation. “Small Pieces, Loosely Joined.” I am endlessly fascinated by how the Web connects us. Last year Dan Arnall completed his master’s degree at Columbia University and is still living and working (part-time?) at CNN and MSNBC (or one of those cable channels). If anyone can be held responsible for my pathetic addiction to the Web, it’s Dan. We are loosely joined.
“Just the other day I read your blog entry (Cozy) and noticed that the model home you mentioned was just a few blocks away in Tribeca. I hopped the train after work, saw the damn thing and talked to the architect. I even went so far as to pass it along to CNNfns Housing/Real Estate reporter. She went out and shot a segment that will air in the next few weeks.
I don’t think blogging is about random voyeuristic pleasure. It’s an acknowledgement that there is value in almost every thought and experience of the everyman not just self-appointed pundits or editors. You may not know it, but someone might just find something they need in what you blog: a CNN segment, a moment of laughter, sometimes even a sense of connection with someone they’ve never met.”
Halley Suitt: Life in a box
“…about how we all spend so much time having a life that seems to be the kind of life other people have — get up, get breakfast, get dressed, go to work, get there at 9:00, leave there at 5:00 or 6:00 or whatever, come home, eat dinner, watch TV — and I suddenly found this really sad. That we come to this earth and that’s all we can come up with for a life. I don’t want to be the fire-eating woman in the circus or something, but I think I want more of a life than a person who lives in a box, leaves their box in the morning, gets in their box-with-wheels, drives to another office box, sits in that box for 8 hours, their butt spreading a little wider every day from just sitting there, goes home to their box, sits in front of the box, eats a frozen dinner out of a box, goes to sleep on their mattress and box spring.”
The Grown-Up at Google.
Reply
That’s the title of a very interesting article (WSJ, March 29, 2004) about how Google is managed. One of my favorite parts: “…decisions are made in front of people. We don’t like people to go off and make a decision. We try to make decisions in as large a group as possible by as few people as possible.”
US broadband penetration
US broadband penetration Jumps to 45.2% – US Internet penetration nearly 75%.
22% of Americans 65 and older use the Internet
From the Pew Internet Project: ” 22% of Americans 65 and older use the Internet. The percent of seniors who go online has jumped by 47% between 2000 and 2004. In a February 2004 survey, 22% of Americans age 65 or older reported having access to the Internet, up from 15% in 2000. That translates to about 8 million Americans age 65 or older who use the Internet. By contrast, 58% of Americans age 50-64, 75% of 30-49 year-olds, and 77% of 18-29 year-olds currently go online.” That last one is interesting. Would love to know what % of 18-29 year-olds listen to the radio.
Slick Ballinger
I’m not ready to give up on the video from Slick Ballinger’s recent Kennett appearance. In the meantime, you can download and listen to the audio. The first four songs are from the first set and (I think) the sound is better. The last five are from the second set and it sounds like the PA was little hot. This was recorded on my video camera so it basically sucks. But if you’ve never heard His Slickness… you might not even notice. I’d like to think they were recording this out of the sound system but have no way of knowing.
Sorry I can’t provide the names of the songs but I’m hoping one of Slick’s Rangers will ID them and I’ll update this post. Mother Sexton insists there are not a lot of good recordings of Slick online, which is difficult to imagine, but she would know. One more thing… it was difficult to cut the End Zone sets into individual songs. Reverend Slick and the Soul Blues Boyz slid seamlessly from one tune to the next. If I guessed wrong, let me know and I’ll repost.
Song# 1 [6 meg – 14 min]
Song #2 [7 meg – 17 min]
Song #3 [6 meg – 16 min]
Song #4 [5 meg – 11 min]
Song #5 [2 meg – 6 min]
Song #6 [4 meg – 10 min]
Song #7 [4 meg – 10 min]
Song #8 [4 meg – 10 min]
Song #9 [3 meg – 7 min]
Bill Maher on stopping terrorism
“If we really want to stop terrorism, we have to get Muslim men laid.”
Andy Rooney on gay marriage
“No one can get a drivers license or fly an airplane without taking a test. Why should marriage be any different? If you want to make marriage more stable, make divorce illegal. If people knew they couldn’t get out of it, they’d be more careful getting into it.”