"Real people are surprising. The process of getting to know the characters, of discovering the qualities and flaws that define them, and then discussing these discoveries with other viewers creates a simulation of community that most people don't find in their everyday lives. That may be a sad commentary on the way we're living, but it's not the fault of these shows, which unearth a heartfelt desire to make connections with other human beings." Heather Havrilesky "Three Cheers for Reality Television"

Of course, Heather is right. The real inside baseball issue here is...if we (media) do our job people will talk about us. Reminds me of something the legendary Gordon McLendon was fond of telling his managers "Get people to talk about your station" Great advice. What exactly is your station doing that has people talking?

They come to work to commit great radio, they come to play: The obvious answer to the question - Why do more people listen to 103.7 KISS FM than any other Milwaukee music station? Brian Kelly and his team are getting it done. Their latest online recap of the KISS $10,000 Fugitive promotion is right where it should be - on the main page - kudos & congrats to all involved. Now that is what getting people to talk about your station is all about. Check it out here

Media Person of 2006: The voting is closed, the totals are in. The I Want Media judges have made their decision. We are told Bonnie Fuller voted for Chad Hurley, Lou Dobbs got the Ken Auletta vote, and Scott Donaton picked IWM's very own Patrick Phillips but the honor (and any related hardware and swag) goes to....click here for the winner

Peter Morville writes about Information Architecture and Information Architects, excellent post with comments here (thanks to JoHo for the tip). btw, highly recommend Peter's book here, the perfect stocking stuffer for the hard to buy for media manager on your list.

Our pal Simon Cole has done it again - more game changing innovation. Starting early next year London radio listeners will be able to download tracks in real-time as they hear them. The tracks are delivered both to the listener's digital receiver and to their internet account. Brilliant! Bravo to Simon and the entire DMD team. More here

Bonus: Hugh MacLeod is posting manifestos over at his place and he invites yours, here's the beginning of one from Seth Godin...

"Does it take 500 words to change things?

Probably not. It probably takes less than a hundred, plus a secret ingredient.

The secret ingredient is your desire to actually do something about it. To take action, to believe that it’s worthwhile, to confront what feels like a risk but really isn’t. The secret ingredient is to ignore excuses, abandon procrastination and stop looking for proof." Good reading, check out Hugh's manifesto archive here.

Bonus2: Hear all about it: Dave Winer, Peter Rojas and Jason Calacanis discuss a cool, fresh rebooted future of podcasting enabled by a new podcasting client - the so-called RWC Player or the XPod. Bravo to Dave, Peter and Jason for sharing. Interesting ideas, especially for those serious about alternative audio distribution. Highly recommended (35:15, NSFW, language) - CalacanisCast Beta 7 via MP3 file here

My sense is Dave's suggestion that broadcasters would provide content feeds is spot-on. Moreover, the proposed device might make a perfect collaborative channel for one of the "local" initiatives (e.g., GoogleMaps, Yahoo! Local or the latest ASK venture). Jason's idea of a digg style vote up, vote down architecture could be made to work with one or more of the local initiatives and live in a geographically sensitive context via RSS and Wifi. Local is the killer app. Good stuff - Keep the audacity dialed up guys.