Photo: August Mendota Sunset by dawn perry. Beautiful. Thank you!

"Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak, and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks." Ben Jonson

"He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper." Burke

"Mirth is God's medicine; everybody ought to bathe in it. Grim care, moroseness, anxiety - all the rust of life - ought to be scoured off by the oil of mirth." Orison Swett Marden

Thank you very much: Dick Biondi, Fred Winston, Kipper McGee, Tom Teuber and Jimmy de Castro. Enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Chicago yesterday. Dick and Fred, two legendary and gifted talents, were each in their usual rare form. Kipper and Tom, renowned programming aces, offered interesting insights, valuable counsel. Jimmy, the inimitable and affable serial entrepreneur, stopped by our table to say hi and told us his new company, The Content Factory, is all about creating great radio. Jimmy's team lunching at the table next to ours.



Thanks too: Tom Teuber for sharing the remarkable story about Rose Bimler, a creation of the great Dan Sorkin. Dick Biondi kicked off the topic when he told us Sorkin's Bimler had been the inspiration for the Real Don's "Tina Delgado is alive, alive." Tom gave us the detail only a then local Sorkin P1 could provide. And now we know the rest of that story thanks to Dick and Tom. During that discussion Fred Winston shared some cogent observations on Sorkin and the power of talent driven, personality radio.

The brilliant Al Heacock: Harry Martin, Happy Hare, has written a tribute to Al Heacock. Al has always been one of my heroes. Harry also goes on to mention the genius Bill Kaland. During my watch at WBZ we were tasked with "clearing" file cabinets as part of a massive house cleaning and remodeling project. What we found were decades of paper dating back before the second world war. Several hundred pounds of documents ended up not in the dumpster but the trunk of my car. Many of those documents were written by Al Heacock. His memoranda to staff, to senior management, to his colleagues across the company.

Al writes a very good review of Dick Biondi in one of his "DJ Tours" memos indicating to his fellow Group W programmers his intention to hire Dick should the opportunity present itself (it never did). There were also notes and memos from corporate staff including those by the legendary group programming executive Bill Kaland. It was my good fortune to have A.B. "Bill" Hartman come into my life. Bill, a great general manager, gave me the back story on Al, shared lessons learned.

It was Jim Yergin and Roy Shapiro who first introduced me to Bill Kaland, a gentleman I came to know during and after my stay with Group W. Bill had a great mind, more wise than a tree full of owls. I commend Harry Martin for his remembrance and highly recommend his writing and his suggestion to get Al into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bravo Harry! Well done. Read Harry's writing here. The work, words and wisdom of Heacock and Kaland have continued to inspired me. These gifted gentlemen were both on my mind when I composed the monograph - A Great Program Director.

LATER: Enjoyed a fun conversation with Harry, thanks for the call! My thought is the gifted Dick Summer in his contribution to Harry's tribute to Al may have one small detail wrong. My recall is that Al went from WBZ to KDKA. Al was certainly involved in the brain trust that created 1010 WINS (along with Kaland and another genius Jimmy Lightfoot) however 1020 was Al's stop after 1030 rather than 1010.

BCWW: Staci D. Kramer files from Seoul via paidContent. The Arne Wessberg keynote...

"Traditional media as intermediary: Wessberg: “The traditional broadcasters do have an invaluable asset—the reputation. “ He sees a role for traditional media as guides when those used to less choice explore the new media.

You may sense a theme here, although I’m not sure it’s the one he meant to get across. Wessberg, like so many others, comes from a traditional media and entertainment world trying to keep a firm footing while standing on the digital equivalent of tectonic plates in the midst of a seismic event."

Kudos Staci, good job. Read Staci's entire item here.