Long-time friend Rudy Pylant is celebrating his 80th birthday (for the third time) with a big blow-out in Kennett this coming weekend. Lots of beer, BBQ and old friends. Event HQ is the Super 8 Motel. Back by popular demand is Willie P. Richardson. I’ve never heard him perform but his website appears to have all the info you need until I can post some video here. Previous Mr. Rudy Day’s featured the Red Neck Rhythm Rangers. One of those bands where the name is the best part of the experience.
Good ideas
“Good ideas are just there all of a sudden, like angels in the Bible.”
— Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon. (pg 878)
Tom Colvin
One of the things I enjoyed most about my days in small town radio was co-hosting a daily, one-hour talk show (Grapevine) with Tom Colvin. The station owner thought it would be a good place to talk about community issues and events (seems quaint today, doesn’t it?). I like to think that Tom and I had chemistry. I could say “refrigerator” and Tom would laugh hysterically. It was intoxicating for someone who thought he was a funny guy. I must say nobody since has found me as amusing.
We had guests some days, took calls every day (live, no delay). Our Trivia Bowl seemed tdo be a local favorite. The show lasted about twelve years, right up to the time Tom and I left in 1984. I came to Learfield and Tom went to KTTR, Rolla, Missouri. Fast-forward nineteen years. Tom is returning to Kennett next week to take over as operations manager at our old station. Sort of. Many years of call letter and frequency shuffling has left me completely confused, but Tom says he’ll be programming 6 radio stations. We wish him well. I know the listeners to those stations will be well served.
A word from our sponsor.
My last couple of posts got me thinking. I put my name on a no-call list so telemarketers would stop trying to sell me stuff I didn’t ask for; I set up my new Google toolbar to block pop-up ads; I’ve never seen a commercial on anything I watch with my Tivo; same for my 100 XM Radio channels.
I understand the content-for-attention value proposition of “free” media. But the fact remains that most people will skip the commercials if they can. Is that stealing? Have I broken some unspoken agreement when skip past the commercials? I don’t think that’s the important question for advertisers (and the people that sell the advertising). How effective is a commercial (TV, radio, print, online) if it’s only being seen/heard/read because there was no easy way to avoid it?
The growing glut of SPAM and telemarketing calls has made me think about this more. These people are universally hated. And they know it. But they are willing to endure this because they’ve calculated that some tiny percent of the calls/emails DO work. We never thought about this with “old” media because it was so one-way. All radio and TV have commercials so if you want to watch Perry Mason, you’ll by-god watch the commercials. Does it really do any good for me to see/hear your commercial if I have a bad feeling about your company/product at the end of those 30/60 seconds? I supect the answer is –in some twisted way– yes. Yes, it does.
RIAA is going after music pirates
So the RIAA is going after music pirates (they call them thieves). Our company produces original content and we get pissed when people rip us off. We’ve even gone to court a few times. What I don’t understand is why the tech world can’t beat this (forget right or wrong for a minute). When the CEO of one of the big record companies gets around to embezzling a few million bucks, he or she will have no problem tucking them away in some off-shore bank. Why doesn’t some Arab country set up secure severs for music swapping? I guess what I’m asking is, is this technically possible? I guess the RIAA would go after the ISP (and everyone else) that makes it possible us to connect to servers in other countries. I just don’t like thinking that Big Business can beat down the Internet.
Visions of the Prairie Garden
is a collection of photographs by Henry Domke featuring images celebrating the Prairie Garden Trust, a nature restoration project in central Missouri. I attended a reception for the exhibit today. I didn’t think I’d much care for “nature” photos but these jump right past that. Art might be as simple as showing us things we look at but never see.
You’re going to pay me?!
You’ve heard people say they love their jobs so much they can’t believe they get paid to do it. If you are fortunate enough to be one of those people –as I am– you understand. If not, it just sounds like bullshit. But here’s what I’m wondering… does enjoying your work to that degree change how you feel about money? I can’t remember ever saying to myself, “Hey, I worked too damned hard for that money to (fill in the blank).” I mean, if the money is less important than the satisfaction you get from the job, it’s just less…valuable. For a few weeks one college summer I worked on the assembly line of an auto plant in St. Louis. I think 62 cars an hour passed my station. Would I do that job for 5 years at $100K per? I don’t think so. There’d have to be child that needed an operation or something. I’m not really going anywhere with this. For me, it wouldn’t be enough to just “not hate” my job. If –like me– you love what you do, all of this makes perfect sense. If not, well, I’m not going to tell you to find a job you love. You’ve got a million reasons why you can’t and I don’t have one why you can.
Let’s leave it in
It’s probably been 30 years since I watched the original Frankenstein (1931). When a movie has been so often parodied, it’s easy to forget how good the original really was. I watched it tonight on TCM. If I could know only one thing about the making of that movie, it would be the story behind the scene (hell, it wasn’t a scene…it was just a moment), early in the film, when Fritz (played by Dwight Frye) went to see who was pounding on the castle door just before the creation of the monster. As he turned to go backup the stairs, he stops…to pull up his sock. It was…perfect.
WordPress adds audio playlists
Music Radio
The following thoughts on radio are by Bob Lefsetz. I searched –unsuccessfully– for the article or a website to which I could link.
“The only people who still believe in music radio are the conglomerates with monopolies and the major record labels. All the LISTENERS, the POTENTIAL listeners, think it’s a JOKE! If you’re listening to music radio, you’re the lowest common denominator. You don’t have a CD player in your car. Like everybody with any MONEY! And, unlike the sixties, almost NO ONE listens to music on the radio at home. Really. Pay attention. When do people listen to the radio at home. In the morning. It’s PERFECT. While you’re walking around the house, getting your shit together. And, is there any MUSIC in the morning? Almost none. Because the music being purveyed SUCKS! Music radio is a giant sinkhole. I can understand the majors wanting to reduce indie promo costs, but what I CAN’T understand is their reluctance to explore new avenues of exploitation. Look at the statistics. Music radio listenership keeps going DOWN! Kids especially don’t listen.”