Photo by Ron Fell. Wonderful shot. Thank you very much!

"The power of imagination makes us infinite." John Muir

"Facts are the most important thing in business. Study facts and do more than is expected of you." Frederick Ecker

"An executive is a man who decides; sometimes he decides right, but always he decides." John H. Patterson

What can broadcast do today that no one else can? Make people special. Make heroes happen.

Recognition. Local. Forget name dropping Paris, again. People in your DMA have cause to celebrate, take notice, spread the word!

Those of us working in the trade forget how very, very cool it is to hear our name on the radio, see and hear our name on the screen.

The best part - it's not the person we mention that hears or sees it in real time, it's all of their friends, their family, the people important in their lives who tell them about it.

Names make news! Local, local, local!

Bonus: Tom Asacker - this is one you do not want to miss. Highly recommended. Bravo Tom!

Bonus 2: Leave it to ace programmer Lee Arnold to share stuff we need to be reading, here and here. Suggested with every pixel at my command. Each a good read - thank you very much, Lee.

Countdown to the sweeps: Want an edge in the sweeps? Invite an outsider in, a person without an agenda, someone who is not dialed-in to your situation. The professional who will ask the obvious questions, the questions you are no longer sensitive enough to note because you are too close to the action - too involved in the work to notice. It's about perspective.

If I owned, managed or programmed a rock radio station of any flavor, no matter how well positioned, without respect to how right we were for the upcoming sweep I would invite Lee Arnold in for a day. If you're #1 he could help you create a greater lead, if you're #2 he could help you to reach or close on #1, and if you're not #1 or #2 then you really need to get him into your discussions now. Reach him via his blog here.

One million dollars: That's how much Coca-Cola paid to have their logo on the MySpace home page for one day (8/17).

Buzz: Hearing a good deal of chatter about HeyNielsen. Stay tuned. It will probably go public this fall. In the meantime check out their blog here (do sign up for the beta).

"Culture is more important than technology"
"Transparency is viral... it's really fundamental"

Video: Google chief Eric Schmidt on net neutrality, free speech, universal access, advertising, ip and more via YouTube here. Related story by Timothy Karr via HP here. Eric says "Keep it free and open" and he is spot-on. Eric, thank you very much for getting out in front of these issues!

Video: Process Enacted by Jordan C. Greenhalgh. Amazing. Bravos! Watch Jordan's short here.

Video: CitizeNews - Michael Rosenblum has the back story here. Congrats & cheers Michael! What is so very cool about the work that Michael does is the work that Michael does. He's not just talking about doing something, he's out there making something happen. If you are not following his blog you are not watching the future happen and the future is happening right before our eyes. We are fortunate Michael favors us by sharing. Join the future, already in progress, just jump over to his blog here.

Please make a note of it: Doc is now blogging at Harvard. "Same old blog, brand new place" here.

Might as well start up a new blog: All about Arbitron's Portable People Meter (PPM). Day one of beta, your comments, suggestions and contributions invited. PPM News & Comment

Then you get the bill: iJustine gets her first iPhone bill from AT&T, in a box.