Zena Burns, program director of Clear Channel’s New York radio station cluster: "We’re no longer stations that have websites. We’re brands that have radio promotion." [Inside Radio]
History of Learfield: J-School Genesis
Clyde Lear’s latest blog installment of the history of our company is the best yet.
“For two years I worked on my Masters in Journalism. I wrote my thesis on starting a state-wide radio network. Missouri –like a lot of states– had dismal radio coverage from the state capital. Every radio newsroom, big city and small town, depended instead on the two major wire services, the AP and UPI. There wasn’t access to the voices of the news makers. There was a need for a state-wide news service for radio stations.”
The post includes some video of reports he did as part of final exam. These are priceless and make the post. You can’t miss the embedded clip but be sure to hit the text link to a series of his stand-ups. I’ve included my favorite here to give you a taste.
These started out on 16 mm film and Clyde eventually sent them off to be converted to VHS. And now they’re digital and on YouTube for the all the world to see.
Learfield is a pretty big company today and it’s fun to see the germ of the idea that started it all.
nano upgrade: A+
The new iPod nano looked great at the product launch up on the big screen behind Steve Jobs. It looks great on the Apple website. And it looks great in the TV spot. But it looks/feels/smells even better in my hot, sweaty little hand.
How does video look on that wee screen? Amazing. I keep turning the nano over, tying to figure out how something that thin can play sharp, bright, crisp video.
I’m looking forward to watching more video podscasts and maybe a TV show or two.
In closing, a word about the iPod UI. I thought it was damn near perfect before but I must say they’ve improved it.
Protect and Serve (and maybe kick your ass)
A chilling hidden-camera video of an encounter with a St. George, MO (near St. Louis) cop. I hope some of the local media pick this up and ask some questions. Here’s my imaginary scene at this morning’s roll call at St. George PD:
First Cop: “Hey, Kenline! I watched you go ape shit on that kid out the commuter parking lot this weekend.”
Sgt. Kenline: “What are you talking about?”
First Cop: “The kid had a camera rolling and your voice came through lound and clear. You got any vacation time coming, you need to take it, dude. But look at the bright side… you made the home page of Digg!”
Sgt. Kenline: “Uh, what’s dig?
Update 9/11/07: St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig says his officers “are not trained and taught to act like that” …and Sgt. James Kuehnlein on unpaid suspension pending further investigation. [StLToday.com]
Update 9/12/07: Brett Darrow (the guy getting his ass chewed by the cop) met with St. George Police Chief Scott Uhrig for more than an hour Tuesday afternoon and also filed a formal complaint against the officer, Sgt. James Kuehnlein. During the meeting Darrow asked to see the videotape from Kuehnlein’s police car. But according to Uhrig, that footage, inexplicably, is nowhere to be found. [St. Louis Post-Dispatch] If the officer did nothing wrong, wouldn’t the patrol car video have cleared him? Hmmm?
Moral of the Story: Live each day like it’s gonna be on YouTube tomorrow.
All I need is one more ending
It’s the first day of anatomy class and the med students are being assigned cadavers. During the dissection process, one geeky but brilliant student discovers that his guy didn’t die from natural causes. He was, in fact, killed in a highly sophisticated manner that could only have been murder. The kind of high tech death that should have been undetectable.
We all know the next part. He takes his discovery to his professors, the cops, etc etc. Nobody listens.
The med student can’t find the dead guy’s name because the records have been erased. But his geeky-yet-adorable former girlfriend matches the face with images she finds online and discovers the guy was a blogger for the last ten or twelve years of his life.
The plot unfolds as our two protagonists dig back through the dead guy’s blog, looking for clues to who killed him and why.
Regular readers know this is as far as I get with my plots but, in a few days, Kay Henderson will come up with a thrilling conclusion.
If you can’t come up with a killer (snicker) ending, feel free to suggest a title.