In the mid-90’s (1996? 1995) I went searching for someone that could help our our company get online. Websites were a new thing and I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I called Mike McKean at the University of Missouri School of Journalism (not sure if he was a professor back then) and he said he had a student that was really sharp, had his own web page, and might be just what we were looking for.
I met with Dan who told me he and his best friend, Allen Hammock, had a company that could do just what we needed. I think the company was about 10 minutes old at that moment but we wound up hiring Dan and Allen (who became affectionately known as the Cyber Twins) to guide Learfield into the new digital age.
We got wet –like everybody else– when the Internet bubble burst and Dan and Allen moved on to pursue their careers. Dan, a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, kicked around in Seattle and San Francisco for a bit and then went back to to get his masters degree at Columbia University.
We chatted for half and hour earlier this evening, talking about his duties at ABC; the changing world of journalism and media; living in Manhatten and Brushes with Near Greatness (John Lithgow and Tony Danza). (AUDIO: 30 min, 10 meg MP3)
Technical Note: After screwing the pooch on a couple of Skype interviews, I’m proud to report this sounds pretty good. I was a tad hot but I didn’t lose the interview.
Todd Fuller and Gail McCray produce and co-host The Pulse, a weekly podcast for the Missouri State Teachers Association. The 25 podcasts they’ve produced since January, 2006, cover a wide variety of topics. When I listened to one of their podcasts last week, I was immediately struck by the quality and professionalism of the production. Not sure why I was surprised, since they’re both communications pros but it drove home one more time that anyone with something to say now has the means to be heard.
Near the end of the 30 minute chat (AUDIO), Todd mentions something I found very interesting. The association endorses political candidates and it’s a big deal (at least to the candidates). Typically those announcements would be made via news release to the big newspapers and media outlets. This year, MSTA plans to make the announcement on their podcast as well as putting the word out via blogs. I think that is brilliant I’ll bet they get a lot of play out of it.
Todd and Gail are making great use of podcasting and I have no doubt other associations will see the impact of what MSTA is doing and jump in the water.
PS: In addition to Todd and Gail, you’ll hear David Brazeal in a couple of places… but we lost him due to my lack of experience with Skype.
Small-town radio guy…studio musician in Nashville…bright lights of Broadway… Ben Brogdon has kept busy doing what he loves: playing music. He’s had his share of Brushes with Near Greatness and was kind enough to share a few of them.
The Missouri Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday (5/25/06) in the case of State of Missouri vs. Johnny A. Johnson (SC86689). Johnson is appealing a first-degre murder conviction and death sentence. From the court’s docket summary:
After Johnny Johnson stayed with friends one night in July 2002 at their home in Valley Park, the friends’ six-year-old daughter disappeared. A witness saw Johnson walking that morning, carrying a little girl on his back. Although Johnson initially told the girl’s mother that he did not know where the child was, he later surrendered himself to police and agreed to go to the police station. Later in the day, Johnson told police he had killed the girl by accident, that her body was in an old glass factory, and where she could be found. After police recovered the girl’s body, they told Johnson it did not look like an accident. He then told them that he had exposed himself to her, and when she refused his advances, he hit her in the head with a brick and threw a boulder onto her, killing her. He told police he then covered her body with rocks and debris. The state charged Johnson with one count each of first-degree murder, armed criminal action, kidnapping and attempted forcible rape. While he was in jail awaiting trial, doctors treated Johnson for anxiety, depression and symptoms of psychosis. Following trial, the jury found Johnson guilty of each count and recommended the death penalty. The court sentenced him to consecutive sentences of death for the murder conviction and life in prison for the remaining convictions. Johnson appeals.
We (Missourinet.com) stream the arguments live (to subscribers) so I wind up listening to a lot of these arguments. Arguments before the state supreme court are nothing like the arguments we see in the movies and on TV. Pretty dry stuff. But this question (AUDIO) (of Johnson’s attorney) by one of the judges caught my attention (Warning: His description of the murder is graphic).
In the interest of fairness, you can download and listen to the full argument (runs almost an hour) but it sounds like Johnson’s attorney is trying to explain how the murder could be “intentional” but not “deliberate.”
Tornados hammered parts of the midwest Sunday night, including Springfield, Illinois. TV was off, cable down, power out, Internet out, newspaper 12 hours from publication…but radio station WMAY was on the air, doing what radio does best. GM Glen Gardner shares this sement from a caller that illustates how to keep radio relevant. [AUDIO: 2 min MP3]
Notice that the person on the air who took the call didn’t interrupt. Didn’t feel the need to jump in and start yapping. That is so rare. If radio has a future –and I hope it does– it won’t be endlessly playing the same 400 songs or turning the signal over to Rush for 3 hours. It will be in on-the-ground, local relevance like this. Thanks, Glen.
City folks just don’t get it! That’s the tagline for FarmersOnly.com, the online dating service for “sincere, down-to-earth people who respect and chesrish the rural lifestyle.” It’s the brainchild of Jerry Miller and the site appears to be red-hot. Getting lots of MSM coverage.
I spoke briefly with Jerry this afternoon. Andrew McCrea did an interview with Jerry (AUDIO: 4 min MP3) and he wanted to take a listen. How good is his idea? He’s been contacted by the producers of American Idol in connection with a new reality show they’re developing that sounds like “Who Wants to Marry A Farmer?” They want to tap Jerry’s database. I do NOT doubt the folks behind American Idol.
This is what I love about the web. There are lots of online dating services and match-makers but Jerry saw an unfilled niche and ran with it.
I listened to my first Ricky Gervais podcast (Episode 7). I thought it was hysterical. But then I think anything said with a real British accent is hilarious. Nothing fancy going on here. Mr. Gervais and a couple of his mates (Karl Pilkington and Steven Merchant) chatting it up. Sounds like they’re only going to do 10 or 12 episodes in this first flight and (hopefully) do another batch later.
I was particularly delighted with their discussion of prostate examinations. It runs about a minute and is one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a long time. The perfect follow-up to last week’s Living Healthy Podcast.
The big “PR technology” panel went off reasonably well today. Not my best showing but it’s been a while since I did one of these. [AUDIO: 5o min] I got a little distracted when my nano (which I was using for a timer) shut off. But it could have been worse. And the room was packed.
Tony Calandro did a nice overview of blogs, RSS, podcasting, etc. I added a few thoughts on podcasting. and Richard Callow (www.mayorslay.com) did convinced me that a smart politician with good people advising him/her can get a lot of mileage from blogging and podcasting. I was very impressed.
You can listen to the discussion if you care to download this 23 meg MP3 file. Questions from the audience were not mic’d so I left those off.
I came away with the sense that the PR community sort of knows what blogs and podcasts are… and want to know more. But they have miles to go. Controlling the message is hard-coded into their DNA and the idea of open, unfiltered, uncontrolled communication will make many of them –and their clients– uncomfortable for a long time.
I’ve been reading Douglas Rushkoff’s latest book (Get Back In theBox: Innovation from the Inside Out) and was delighted to come across an interview with Rushkoff at Radio Marketing Nexus. Mark Ramsey talked with Rushkoff about “how to make radio relevant again.” Ruskoff misses the same things about radio that I do. AUDIO
“Because of my book tours I’ve been in a lot of radio stations, and even from 1995 to 2005 the amount of change I’ve seen has been shocking. There used to be this kind of quality to an FM radio station – I hate to be stereotypical, but there was a certain kind of chick who would be the receptionist at an FM radio station. There was a certain kind of guy that worked in the album room organizing the albums. There was a certain kind of geek figuring out the emphasis rack.
But FM stations are not really like that anymore. They feel much more like almost any other office, and if you didn’t see the control room you wouldn’t know you were in a radio station at all. They don’t ooze their culture anymore.
There was a smell and a quality and a texture to everything radio that I think was the fun of the industry. There was something so real about it. In the early days when I was a kid, you had Ron Lundy and Cousin Brucie – you just somehow knew those guys were there even though they were playing top 40 stuff. You knew it was a world of guys with records and personalities. And there’s so little of that on the radio today.
There’s almost nothing in mainstream radio that has that sense of this as a club of people in a cool place having a great time sharing some of their ecstasy with those of us driving to work or sitting in our bedrooms who wanted to have a taste of what it’s like to be an adult who understands music, who reads “Rolling Stone,” who understands why we’re fighting the Gulf War, or whatever it is. And I want to piece of that.
When I turn on the radio now I don’t feel that these folks have a piece of anything that I can’t get a piece of by going into Allstate to work in the morning. It’s just another working stiff with some computer telling them what to play and when to play it and when to read the ads.
I don’t trust the voice behind the music anymore because I don’t know that he’s really an expert or that he really cares. He’s not part of a living, breathing, fertile culture whereas if I go online and look at these Podcasts I know these people have done it not for the money but for the love of it. And radio is going to have to go a long way now to convince me that there’s somebody there who cares about what they’re doing for some reason other than the cash.
Finally, I would say the purpose of radio is to keep people company. And in order to keep people company there’s got to be a human being on the other side of it. The more truly human your radio station is the better it is at keeping people company. And the more computerized and business-like it is the farther outside the box you’ll find yourself.”
So there you have it. The pure, distilled essence of what’s wrong with radio today. And it seems like it would be very easy to fix. To get back in the box. But I fear we don’t even remember where we put the box.
Some of Dr. Domke’s “sleep hygiene techniques”: 1) Get up at same time every day 2) Don’t take naps 3) Don’t go to bed until you feel sleepy 4) Your body will tell you how much sleep you need 5) Exercise best predictor of a good night’s sleep. Recorded December 21, 2005
In the mid-90’s (1996? 1995) I went searching for someone that could help our our company get online. Websites were a new thing and I didn’t have a clue where to start, so I called Mike McKean at the University of Missouri School of Journalism (not sure if he was a professor back then) and he said he had a student that was really sharp, had his own web page, and might be just what we were looking for.
Todd Fuller and Gail McCray produce and co-host The Pulse, a weekly podcast for the 
City folks just don’t get it! That’s the tagline for 