For months my wife has been talking about a radio program called This American Life (produced by WBEZ in Chicago). I finally heard the show last week and must say it was pretty damned good. It was about a group of inmates at a high-security prison outside St. Louis that has been performing Shakespeare’s Hamlet for fellow inmates and outside visitors. Due to prison logistics they can’t stage the whole four-hour play at once, so they’ve been performing it serially, one act every six months. In the show I heard, they follow the cast for half a year, as they rehearse and stage the last and bloodiest act: Act V. This is good radio and worth a contribution.
Road Trip
Reply
Spent about 18 hours behind the wheel last week (Jefferson City, MO…Des Moines, IA…Indianapols, IN…Jefferson City). Such a journey would once have been a butt-numbing drag. Having 100 channels of news, music, talk and comedy made the hours fly by. I can tell that folks are getting a little tired of hearing me rave about XM but it’s hard not to talk about this. Most common question is: How often do you lose the signal? Uh, never. Sure, if I stop under an overpass the signal goes away but that’s pretty easy to avoid. And the quality is just amazing. Like blogging, XM is just one of those things that has to be experienced. PS: The Indiana State Fair turned out to be all work and no play. PPS: Back to Des Moines on Thursday for Gnomedex.
Two-Lane Blacktop
“Two men live for only one thing: racing their car, which has been stripped down to its barest essentials in order to give it maximum speed. Things like heaters and rear seats have been removed… steel has been replaced with fiberglass. And as they have done with their car, they have stripped away all “extraneous” elements from their lives, and from their very selves.”
I’m not a car guy either but I loved this movie. And, as far as I can determine, the only movie with James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (playing characters other than themselves).
Dilbert: The cubicle
“Each of you will adopt an empty cubicle and decorate it to appear occupied.”
Indiana State Fair
Due to a staffing crises at one of our networks, I’ve been pressed into service to cover (?) the Indiana State Fair. Since ours is an ag network, I’ll be there for Farm Day, August 14th. It’s been a while since I’ve been entrusted with an asignment like this and I’m desperate not to screw it up. It promises to be a pretty exciting day:
Old-fashioned Pancake Breakfast (There must be contemporary pancake breakfasts)
Square Dancing Tractors and Antique Tractor Olympics (Square Dancing Tractors? I’m there!)
Celebrity Milking Competition (I didn’t know you could)
Rooster Crowing Contest (Good audio)
National Shropshire Show (I’m not sure I can say that)
Open Shetland Show (…or this)
Sheep Shearing Demonstrations (…or this!)
Clogging (Plumbers’ online journals?)
Country Western Dancing (couples) (I’m staying for the individual competition)
I’m sure there will be out-takes and I’ll try to share them here.
Doc Searls: Customers and Consumers
A-List blogger Doc Searls was once a radio guy and is not happy about the state of commercial radio. He makes a strong, clear point I’ve struggled with for 30 years.
“Commercial radio’s customers are its advertisers. It’s consumers are its listeners. Its business is selling air time to advertisers. It raises the value of that air time by attracting the largest possible number of listeners, in the most desirable demographics. How it does that is irrelevant to the business itself.”
He references a story by Jennifer Davies in the San Diego Union-Tribune (Corporate radio has pulled the plug on many a radio personality) that’s depressing –but hardly surprising– to this one-time DJ.
“The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be an almost 8 percent decline in need for broadcasting announcers in both radio and TV because of industry consolidation. In addition, pay for radio announcers is stagnating with the average hourly salary of around $9.”
And as for tomorrow’s listeners?
“Teen-agers no longer take their cues from radio, searching out new music online instead. Since 1998, teen-age males listen to the radio almost 7 percent less a week. Teen-age females’ weekly radio listening is down close to 9 percent. Teen-agers listen to the radio less than any other age group, according to Arbitron.”
The Disgruntled Housewife’s Dick List (Nikol Lohr)
I’ve been a fan and regular reader of The Disgruntled Housewife for years. One of the best sections of the site is The Dick List. Nikol Lohr explains:
“The Dick List began 7 years ago at the Pasadena house. It was a very girly house for a long time. It was also a very listy house. So in honor of both of those characteristics, we developed an oft-revised, publicly posted Dick List in our kitchen. It had a two-fold purpose: 1) promoting girly solidarity through bile-spewing; and 2) reminding us that certain guys were real dicks.”
Men, if you’re still “out there,” you should periodically check The Dick List.
Dan Arnall now in NYC
My little buddy Dan Arnall is now in New York, N.Y., attending Columbia University School of Journalism. One of the original Cyber-Twins, Dan is returning to the True Path of Journalism after a few years of Dot-Com’ing in Seattle. We hope he’s blogging the experience.
XM Radio adding a book channel
They’re calling it Sonic Theater and promising “Audio books and radio dramas for all tastes.” Can’t quite picture how this will work but it’s a free channel, so we’ll see. My newest favorite channel is The Loft. Acoustic rock, I think. Heard a James Taylor song today that (again) I’ve never heard before. Missed the title. One lyric caught my ear: “Wild with expectation, on the edge of being old.” That’s me in nine words. Tried to find the song but gave up.
Let’s go live.
I walked past a jewelry store in the mall this weekend and noticed a boom box sitting by the entrance. It seemed out of place. Then I noticed a young man talking on his cell phone but in a strangely animated way. He was doing what we used to call a “live remote” on a local radio station. “This is Bobby Steele and I’m live at Zales where they’re having a Sizzlin’ Summer Sooper Sale!” Many years ago I did my share of remote broadcasts but in those days it involved a lot equipment. Big speakers, antenna, transmitter, banners, cables, microphones, etc. Took a while to set up and take down. But there was –in our small town– a sense of something special happening. This guy before me is on…the…radio! How cool. The young man I walked past in the mall could have been any guy talking on the phone. To those listening on the radio he probably sounded just as dumb I I did with all the gear. But there was no magic happening there at the mall. Back to you.