I don’t have time to relate this story now but don’t want to forget it. I’m not sure about the origins but this is how I remember Jeff Salzman telling the story at a Learfield managers retreat in Colrorado 10 or 15 years ago. [to be continued]
I find this really amazing. Of the 30 member states in the National Association of State Radio Networks, only 14 have websites. The Web has been around for 10 years now and has revolutionized almost every aspect of daily life and business. I can’t think of many businesses that don’t have some kind of online presence.
Sometime in the late ’80s, at a managers conference in Colorado (Beaver Creek?), I suggested we all get Compuserve accounts so we could communicate by email. I was hooted from the room (you know who you are). Yesterday our company email server went down and people are roaming the halls (“Can you check email?”). Hey guys, you got phone and fax…what’s the problem?
I spent most of Saturday doing something I’ve wanted to do for years. I shot some video of “game day” at Learfield Communications.
Our company produces the radio broadcasts (some TV?) for many of the top colleges in the country. Play-by-play crews feed back the game broadcasts to Jefferson City where some very hard working folks mush it all together and send it (via satellite) to radio stations throughout the country. Mega-stress. Give me a few days to edit the video and I’ll post something here. My little project will fall far short of capturing what it’s really like on a Saturday. You gotta be there.
I started working for Learfield Communications on June 4th, 1984. When that rolls around again it will The Big 20. Annother one of those “ends in zero” anniversaries. I kept all of my pre-computer calendars (Day-At-A- Glance, Day Timers,etc). That first month it was one of those desk blotter/month calendars. Lots of memories. On my first day, my predecessor –Jeff Smith– presented me with a list of projects-in-progress. An interesting snap-shot of the regional, radio network business in 1984. We were trying to get programming cleared in Kansas City and St. Louis. We called them “custom casts” and they worked for a while. We organized a series of debates between the candidates for governor (we fucked up the broadcast). We cooked up a statewide public opinion poll that got us a lot of ink (not all good). But my favorite project was a series of daily, one-hour talk shows featuring shills for various associations. On Monday, somebody from the Missouri Chiropractors Association; on Tuesday an optomotrist; on Wednesday a podiatrist; etc. Station managers just laughed at me. Rule One: Don’t let commissioned sales reps cook up your programming. Looking back, I must say I’m surprised how little our networks have changed. For some reason, I’m reminded of something Charlie Warner said. Your method of distribution defines the nature of your business. That was true back in the days of land-lines and analog satellite distribution and it’s sill true as we move more and more content to the web. Maybe it’s all about band-width. Radio stations have a bunch and you can move a lot of data over those frequencies. Factor in that those frequencies are rare commodities, granted by the FCC. No competition. Fast forward to a world where any DJ/reporter/entertainer/you-name-it can reach an audience. New ball game?
I’ve spent most of my evenings for the past couple of weeks working on my first video project. The hardwarde (Sony) and software (Studio 8) have gotten so good and so affordable, I had to take the plunge. I decided I needed a practice project that would hold my interest while allowing me to make countless mistakes. The result is an 18 minute piece on The Derry Brownfield Show, a daily, one-hour talk show heard on 80+ radio stations. Documentary is too grand a word but my objective was to give listeners a peek into the studio. Lots of places to make mistakes: lighting, sound, composition. Once I get the basics in hand, I’ll try something a bit more creative. These buggers are too large for downloading but I’ve made a little 60 second trailer.
After months of planning and hundreds of hours of work, we re-launched the corporate website at 5:00 a.m. on November 1. On time and only a little over budget. The look and feel is the work of a very talented designer named Kory Johnson. Her style is very sleek and clean.
Everything beneath the hood was created by Gestalt, Inc. Chief Knowledge Architect Andy Waschick has spent so much time on our sites that he’s had no time for his own. He has a blog but it’s a sometimes dark and forbidding place that I dare not send you without his permission and note from your mother. Having Andy build your website is like… having Thomas A. Edison wire your home. It’s likely to take a little longer because he’s always creating and inventing and staying up all night in his workshop building a garage door opener before you have a car (or they’ve been invented). Somewhere along the way I stopped asking, “Would it be possible…?” because nothing is impossible for Andy.
The next phase for Learfield.com will be the development of a company-wide intranet. The thought of really connecting all of the employees in our company can be a scary one for some of our managers. Do we really want everyone to be able to communicate with everyone else? Do we really want them to be able to communicate with our customers and business partners?
I started working for Clyde Lear in May, 1984. My second job in 30 years. Clyde Lear and Bob Priddy are easily two of the nicest and most talented people I’ve ever met. I’m reminded of the character in Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 who played horseshoes all day. He hated the game and it made the day (and his life) seem longer. I’m having way too much fun and it’s going way too fast. One more movie reference comes to mind. In Broadcast News, William Hurt asks Albert Brooks, “What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?” Brooks: “Keep it to yourself.”
No big surprise, really. Almost everybody uses Google. But I was pleased to learn that even Miss America uses the same search engine I do. Katie Harman –Miss America 2002– was in town today promoting breast cancer awareness. I was on hand to record a public service announcement for one of our network advertisers. Miss America thought she was scheduled to record a TV PSA and seemed relieved to learn it was “just radio.” I mean, hell, she could have come down in her jammies with no make-up to do a radio spot. But she was as charming as you would expect Miss America to be.
According to the official Web site (“The World’s Leading Provider of Scholarships for Women”), 75 women have worn the Miss America crown in the Organization’s 82-year history (they explain the disparity). And it’s a tough gig. Katie told us she logs 20,000 miles a month, changing location every 18-36 hours. I asked if she takes a notebook computer with her on the road and she does. And she says she spends a lot of time online (she likes WebMD a lot).
Miss Harmon is 21 years old and hopes to “obtain an M.A. in Bioethics and ultimately work in health care management.” We did a little media thing and she answered some questions put by local reporters. All pretty serious, cancer-related stuff… so I kept quiet, except for the Google question. Here are the questions I really wanted to ask:
* During the Miss America Contest, did you call each other by your first names or by state?
* Do you keep in touch with the losers?
* How many squat-jumps can you do?
* Do you know where your senior ring is?
* When you go home for the holidays, do you get a lot of shit from your family? “Hey, Miss America! Get up here and clean up your room!” “Yo, Miss America! Bring me a ham sandwich.”
But I got caught up in the protocol of the thing. I mean, Jesus, she just voiced a PSA on breast cancer. I did suggest it would be funny if, at her next news conference, she waited until all the photogs got their cameras set up and then said, “Guys, I really don’t like having my picture taken.”