Yearly Archives: 2009

Twitter coverage of execution

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Missourinet (a Learfield network) News Director Bob Priddy covered last night’s execution of Dennis Skillicorn. Reporters and witnesses can’t take cell phones past a certain point, but Bob was planning to use Twitter to file updates before and after the execution (he was a witness).

The wifi he expected wasn’t available so he took notes and posted to @missourinet when he got back on line (at the motel, I assume).

As I expected, Twitter was a very effective tool in the hands of good and experienced reporters. Here’s a screen shot from early this morning.

 

Had reporters been allowed to keep their Blackberrys and iPhones, this is probably as close to live coverage of an execution as we’re likely to get.

And in the hands of someone as responsible as Bob Priddy, I think this might be a good idea. As I understand it, the rationale behind having witnesses is to insure the people of Missouri “see” this ultimate punishment. Twitter might be the least sensational way to accomplish this on a mass scale.

I’ll make a prediciton here: If not in Missouri, some state will allow or provide this coverage.

Car radio now known as vehicle’s “entertainment center”

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Jerry Del Colliano on what lies ahead for your car’s “radio” …

“In nine to 12 months, Ford’s Sync will enable Internet capabilities on a smartphone and allow the Internet’s most popular radio station – Pandora — to play throughout the car’s sound system. Want Live 365 — you’ve got it.

It’s not just Ford, the other surviving automakers will also be adding the most anticipated consumer audio feature of all time — Internet streaming. Delphi and Autonet Mobile are calling for companies to create Internet connectivity devices as standard equipment for new cars.”

We’re gonna need more buttons on that dial.

More at CNET. “We’ll be able to link you to your Internet in the car. If you brought an iPhone into the vehicle, you could interact with that through voice. You could then read your e-mail by voice,” said Joe Berry, Ford business and product development director for Sync, referring to a future version of Sync.”

“Done what he had to do”

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There’s a lot of interest in the scheduled execution of Dennis Skillicorn, scheduled for one minute past midnight. I assume that’s because it’s been a few years since Missouri’s last execution.

In March of 2000, I witnessed the execution of James Hampton. Here’s an excerpt from the case facts on MissouriDeathRow.com (a site I maintain for our company):

“At some point during their drive Hampton learned from his police scanner that the authorities were searching for Ms. Keaton. According to his trial testimony, Hampton decided to kill Ms. Keaton after learning that the police were looking for him. Hampton drove Ms. Keaton to the farm of the real estate agent from whom he had learned about Ms. Keaton. Hampton blindfolded Ms. Keaton and took her into a wooded area about one-half mile from the real estate agent’s farm. He then killed Ms. Keaton by repeatedly striking her in the head with a hammer. He then buried her and burned all of her belongings.”

Note the similarity (to me) of the final minutes of Skillicorn’s victim:

“They (Dennis Skillicorn and Allen Nicklasson) directed Drummond to exit I-70 at the Highway T exit. They proceeded four miles on to County Road 202 to a secluded area where they ordered Drummond to stop his vehicle. As Nicklasson prepared to take Drummond through a field toward a wooded area, Skillicorn demanded Drummond’s wallet. Knowing Nicklasson had no rope or other means by which to restrain Drummond and that Nicklasson carried a loaded .22 caliber pistol, Skillicorn watched as Nicklasson lead Drummond toward a wooded area. There, Nicklasson shot Drummond twice in the head. Skillicorn acknowledged hearing two shots from the woods and that Nicklasson returned having “already done what he had to do.” Drummond’s remains were found eight days later.”

The controversy surrounding Missouri’s execution protocol notwithstanding, I’ll always remember Hampton’s final moments as seeming much less terrifying than that blindfolded walk into the woods.

TweetSpin: “set it and forget it”

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TweetSpin, a new Twitter application designed by a radio programmer named Rico Garcia. Among other info, TweetSpin can post "now playing" data from a station's website.

Here's a couple of snippets from a review in R&R, a radio trade publication:

From KHOP PD MoJo Roberts: "TweetSpin allows us to constantly have 'what's playing now' on our status and set appointment tweets to go out so we can set it and forget it."

In addition the "now playing" feature, Garcia is more excited about built-in scheduling that allows stations to set up hourly, daily or weekly messages to encourage listening appointments.

Hardly surprising that an industry in the process of automating itself out of existence would look for a way to automate social media, too. Of course, if there's really no one at the station…

“The Internet is a delivery system not the content”

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Jerry Del Colliano offers 8 ideas for life after radio. Number 5 is particularly relevant for our company, which has half a dozen news websites:

It’s not news websites — that’s no business model. It will be blogs — special information on something that attracts a valued audience. But instead of monetizing it by selling ads (something I think has peaked even when the recession ends), sell a subscription. That’s right, I am nuts. I believe people will pay a reasonable fee for that which they crave — remember I said crave not like. In the past, if you are an expert on gardening, you would have done a radio show, TV or newspaper column. Now, you’ll do a blog. And if it has passionate followers and you price it right, you’ll make money and build revenue with your audience. Keep in mind I’m projecting this trend — it’s coming because it has to come. The Internet is a delivery system not the content.”

I should point out that we do not make any money from our websites. We are still very much in the radio network business (on the news side of our company). We sell 30 second commercials on affiliated radio stations. We have a few blogs and some Twitter accounts but –with a couple of exceptions– it’s more dabble than business. Exciting days ahead.

PS: My friend Jeff points us to a job opening at Chicago Public Radio. Under Experience/Skill Required:

Our ideal candidate will have five plus of relevant experience in radio or TV programming, broadcast media marketing or online community management.  Strong knowledge of online communities, blogs, user generated content is required.  Demonstrated team building and leadership skills.  Clear written, verbal communication skills, with solid group presentation skills.  The ability to merge organizational mission vision with strong creativity and tactical execution.  Strong project management skills with an acute attention to detail.  Should have a working knowledge of content management systems (CMS).”

Choosing what we don’t want to see

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“For the first time in our lives we were being exposed to more information than we could consume. In the age of newspapers we had to choose what we wanted to see. But in 2004 we had to choose what we didn’t want to see. This had a devastating effect on the traditional forms of information. In the past, you could get people’s attention simply by making something. People wanted more choices, so you simply had to give them another choice. But in 2004 this changed. People started to have enough, and now you actually had to make something better. It was not enough that it was different.”

From Thomas Baekdal’s Where Is Everyone? A brief tour of the history of information.

“Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.”

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One of our networks received an email from a listener/reader this week, objecting to our use of the adjective "elderly" to describe a 56 year old woman who was killed in a tornado. I'm sure I once considered 56 "elderly" (ancient?) but no longer.

The next day I received a phone call from an old friend of my father, Luther Pillow. He's 86 and still works ("when I want to"). Sounded very healthy and sharp. Assured me he'd get back online and check out my KBOA website.

In a little more than two weeks, I will have been working for our company for 25 years. Have you figured out the math yet?

Mr. Pillow is 25 years older than I. Which means –health and circumstances permitting– I might be nearing the halfway point in my current employment.

Think of it. 50 years with one company. And what changes will I see in the next quarter century?

No, I don't think 56 is elderly.

Headline is a quote by Stephen Hawking

Fists getting airplay on BBC

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A few months ago I received an email from a young man in the UK, asking permission to use a photo he found on my flickr for the cover art for his band’s new single (Cockatoo). I said sure and please keep in touch. And he did.

“The vinyl version of the single’s out now and is doing really well. The photo has certainly done it’s job and intrigued people. We’ve had lots of national airplay from the BBC and lots of new opportunities have been popping up all the time which is obviously very exciting.

We did a single launch in this big DIY arts space called The Arts Organisation in Nottingham. There was talk of doing a Steve Mays photo reel featuring a whole raft of the photo’s to be projected on walls and stuff but we didn’t have enough time in the end and felt that we’d be taking the piss a bit in terms of permission to use them.

Here’s 23 seconds of that show that somebody took on a phone (I’m the short guy wearing the black jacket and white T-shirt btw):

We’d love to send you some copies of the single in the post if you’d like. Posterity and all that. Let me know where to send them and we will. That said we certainly wouldn’t be offended if you’d rather we didn’t. Once again thanks for everything.”

James and all of Fists

Ah, to have my life become the backdrop for an edgy British pub band…

I’ve added the Fists blog to the sidebar for wonderful passages like this:

“…if you want to go on a slightly wrong night out then you should go to Wildside which is this once monthly cock/sleaze/glam rock revivalist night at Junktion 7 in Nottingham. It’s mostly filled wall-to-wall with dysfunctional hard rockers who get crazy drunk whilst getting emotional about it not being 1986 before dropping to their knees for an Eddie Van Halen solo and then disappearing into the toilets to have sex and drink Jack Daniel’s and fall out with each other due to fringe scene claustrophobia. It’s like going to a special zoo that houses dying musical sub-cultures and is one of my favourite nights out.”

Okay, but I like to be home no later than ten p.m.

11,000 channel “radio”

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“The VTech IS9181 is a Wi-Fi music streaming device, designed to make accessing the near-infinte variety of Internet radio as easy as traditional radio.”

 

“The IS9181 connects to any wireless network (802.11 b & g) and lets you access more than 11,000 free Internet radio stations worldwide. It also lets you access audio files (MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, Real) stored on you Wi-Fi-enabled computer (PC or Mac). The IS9181 also offers localized weather (based on zip code).” (via Podcasting News)

My first thought was, “If I’m running a radio station, it better be one of the 11,000.” My next thought was, “It better be one of the ‘best’ of the 11,000.”