Category Archives: Learfield

Website domain names

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Our company has registered a lot of domains since we first drank from the Big Web Pond, but two of my favorites are Legislature.com and SchoolViolenceHotline.com. And we registered these very late in the domain game. It is still amazing to me that they were still available. We’ve since transferred SchoolViolenceHotline.com to the client we aquired it for… but still have Legislature.com.

We jumped in early enough that we were able to register (not purchase) the names of most of our networks (RadioIowa, Missourinet, WRN, Learfield). On the other hand, I was reminded this week that 16 members of the National Association of State Radio Networks have NO public, online presence. Maybe they have good domains registered but if not, what are the chances of getting anything CLOSE to the name of your network.

Why are you chasing me? Why are you running?

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Our office in Des Moines saw some excitement yesterday. We have two traffic reporters who spend much of their long split-shift day listening to law enforcement officers on the police scanners, picking up information about wrecks and delays and passing details along to our local radio listeners.

Yesterday afternoon, JC Walker and Russ Johnson perked up when their scanners broadcast the voice of a huffing, puffing Des Moines police officer who was chasing (and losing) a suspect on foot  just a few blocks from our building. A block from our building. Outside our building. Then, the wheezing officer said  the man ran inside 2700 Grand, thats us! JC could no longer sit by, dashed to the lobby, easily spotted the suspect (based on the police description) who was stalking around the lobby like a caged animal and breathing hard himself. JC tried to converse with the man, who, in no mood for chat, darted back outside and took off running again. JC, seeing the cop still far off in the distance, thought quickly and decided to pursue the man himself, ran across a busy Grand Avenue, dodging cars, and tackled the guy in the grass!

JC kept the suspect face-down and subdued until the panting police officer jogged up and handcuffed the guy, who had already tried to surrender to JC. Another officer soon pulled up in a squad car and took the suspect away. We still dont know why the man was being chased. JC, meanwhile, came back inside and calmly did his next traffic report. [Thanks to Matt Kelley]

Radio Iowa interview with Laura Bush

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O. Kay Henderson’s exclusive interview with the First Lady continues to generate interest by other media outlets. She’s scheduled to appear on C-SPAN’s “Road to the White House” (a weekly look at the candidates, issues & events shaping the 2004 Presidential race). The program airs Sundays on C-SPAN at 6:30pm ET & 9:30pm ET.

Naked Cowboy

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“Before I start telling you about the protests, the Broadway show and my next door deli, I must tell you about the Naked Cowboy. He’s a nearly-naked guy who stands in the middle of Times Square (in the island in the midst of the street), plays his guitar and sings. He wears a cowboy hat, cowboy boots and white briefs with the words “naked cowboy” on the rear which kind of reminds me of the sorority girls at college who would have their sorority’s greek letters plastered to the back of their shorts or sweats. Not a good idea to call attention to that area. Unless you are the naked cowboy.” 

Radio Iowa News Director O. Kay Henderson blogging the convention in NY.

Edward R. Murrow Awards

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Warning: Self-serving shop talk follows. The Radio-Television News Directors Association announced the winners in their annual Edward R. Murrow Awards competition today. This is kind of a big deal in the radio and TV news business. This year they started out with 3,182 entries and gave 74 awards to 53 news organization. The regional winners were announced a few weeks ago and today they announced the national winners. And one of our network websites won.

Entries fall into one of three categories (Network/Syndication Service, Large Market and Small Market) for radio and the same three for TV. And this year they added a category called Websiste Non-Broadcast.

Our entry (Missourinet.com) won in the Radio Network/Syndication Service category. Pretty cool given that the competition was ABC, CBS, NBC, NPR, CNN and god only knows who else. You gotta figure there’s some “online journalists” in NY and Atlanta scratching their heads and asking each other, “What the hell is a Missourinet? Somebody get a map!”

For some reason the RTNDA website provide the urls of the Website winners but didn’t create links. That seems a little clueless to me.

*Radio Network/Syndication Service: Missourinet, Jefferson City, MO
*Television Network/Syndication Service: MSNBC

*Television Large-Market: News 14 Carolina, Charlotte, NC
*Television Small-Market: Capital News 9, Albany, NY
*Radio Large-Market: KSL-AM, Salt Lake City
*Radio Small-Market: WBLL-AM, Bellefontaine, OH
*Website Non-Broadcast: Washington Post, Washington; Belo Interactive, Dallas

I’ll probably never know what they judges liked about our site. And let’s face it, those big national network websites have some cool features our site does not. But I can name a few things we’ve got that are unique or cool or both:

Crash Reports: Missouri State Highway Patrol accident reports, updated 24/7.
Legislature.com: Live debate audio from the state legislature. Then we archive. We’ve got it back to 2002.

Supreme Court Arguments: Oral agurments (live & archived). I think we have nearly 500 arguments online.
Missouri Death Row: Ours has become the “official” site for Missouri.

Last time I checked, there were no other websites featuring this content. On the planet. At least not the way we do. Of course, there’s a lot we can do to improve our site but, for now, it’s nice to know someone appreciates the effort. The big award show is October 4th in NY. Gomer Goes to Manhatten in a Rented Tux.

Clyde sells 40% of Learfield

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That sound you just heard was a meteor the size of Nova Scotia missing the Earth by about 5 miles. Today at a company-wide meeting (webcast on our intranet), our president and CEO announced that he had sold 40% of the company to four of our senior managers. This after turning down a gazillion dollars from a Big National Media Company. Two of the four have been with our company 20 years and they’re all good, smart guys that I –for one– like working with and for. Had The Big Guy sold the farm, I’d be lugging a cardboard box of desk toys up to my room and wondering what I’d be doing tomorrow. Long-time readers have heard me gush about Learfield Communications and –after 20 years– I’m hardly objective. I finished off my tub of Kool Aide a long time ago. And anything can happen down the road but, for now, I’m more convinced than ever that I work for one of the best companies in America.

20th Anniversary at Learfield

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shoesThis Friday, June 4th, will be my 20th anniversary of working for Learfield Communications. I was going to wait until Friday before posting a few thoughts but you never know what’s going to happen. I have to say I’m having more fun now than at any time since joining the company. I like most of the people I work with enough to endure the few I don’t. As I searched for some fitting metaphor or symbol for the past two decades, I spotted my Wright Arch-Preservers on the closet shelf. I bought them sometime during my first week or so with the company on the recommendation of Jim Lipsey. I paid more than a hundred bucks for them in 1984. I didn’t know you could pay that much for a pair of shoes. Jim assured me they would last a long time.

Ten or twelve years ago I went back to the store where I purchased the shoes. They carried the same line but even from across the room you could see the quality and workmanship was no longer there. If I had to guess I say the shoe company was more profitable than ever.

I don’t wear that pair of shoes much anymore because I don’t have to wear a suit much anymore. I’ve re-soled them countless times. They are not really fashionable any longer and look a little worn up close but I can’t bring myself to toss them. The days of buying shoes you keep and wear for 20 years are probably long gone.

Clyde’s 60th

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Friends, family and employees helped Clyde Lear celebrate his 60th birthday this week. Clyde used those years to make the world a better place (and continues to do so). A wonderful video clearly showed how much Clyde is loved and loves. I found myself wondering if such a video could be cobbled together for my 60th year (just four short years away). Might be tough. Note to self: try to make each day a highlight clip for the Final Video. I reminded Clyde that, in ancient times, Kings would grant pardons and make proclamations on their birthdays and asked if he cared to do so.

Celebrex, Nexium, Prevacid.

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Why are the big drug companies advertising on network television? In many instances, they don’t tell you what ailment the drug is supposed to help, and you can’t get it without a prescription anyway. One of the hosts on the new, “liberal” radio network, Air America, offered a theory last week (I think it was Randi Rhodes).

If Pfizer or Eli Lilly is spending millions with your network, you’ll be less likely to report negative stories about them. The purpose of the ads is not to move product, they’ve got that covered. It’s to keep a leash on the news departments. I’ve been thinking about that for days, asking myself if it could really work. Of course it could. It has. It does.

Then I asked myself if it could happen at our company. We operate several radio news networks and during my 20 years with the company, there have been several instances where a big advertiser threatened to pull business if we didn’t lay off or change a story. The owner of our company, who started as a reporter, didn’t hesitate. Advertisers don’t control editorial content. That happens in the newsroom. Period. Everybody back to work. It still gives me goose bumps to recall those very brief meetings in the corner office.

But the last few years have been a little tougher for our news networks and some of the players have changed. Would we take the same ethical/expensive stand today? Or would we try to find a way to “keep the business?” Search for a compromise. Would our news directors risk their jobs for this kind of journalistic principle? They’ve got house payments. What would I do?

It saddens me that I even wonder about these things. Ten years ago I could have said, with absolute certainty, we would tell the advertiser we would not, could not, be pressured. We’d stand by the story and live with the consequences. And it might still be true today. I hope so.