"What counts can't always be counted; what can be counted doesn't always count." Albert Einstein

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." T.S. Elliot

"Life is good only when it is magical and musical, a perfect timing and consent, and when we do not anatomize it. You must treat the days respectfully...You must hear the bird's song without attempting to render it into nouns and verbs." Emerson


Photo: Wisconsin Road by chefranden. Great shot. Thank you! It is beautiful here, especially this time of year.

We all owe Lawrence Lessig. Just got an email from him about the upcoming five year anniversary of Creative Commons. WOW, five years! Seems like only yesterday that Lessig and others set into motion the copyright system we enjoy, and depend upon today. Now, Larry is announcing a new capital campaign - $500K to keep the effort moving forward for the next five years. Please do join me and give what you can. All the details are here. Thank you very much. And thanks, cheers to Larry for all of his great work!

Let's mark 30 and put another one to bed: In my salad days at WBZ the legendary Jim Yergin taught me..."Your audience is the inverse of your mail." All of us discovered, of course, that he was right. My sense always was those letters to the editor were doped. Today, your audience does not have to take writing instrument in hand and involve the federal government in delivery of a message - your audience is one click away. In the last several years another old school convention has become real again. At times in the last century we knew something was happening when the phones were hot even when nothing was coming in via uniformed federal employees. This, again, served to prove Yergin's thesis correct. Hot phones typically predicted a good book or in the least a hot show. One trip to the producer's station before a show began told you everything. During the newscast before a hot show all the lines lighted up.

Today, pvs, uniques and emails do much the same thing. It's wonderful. Listener/Viewer snail mail, as we once knew it, is dead and so too is Jim's once brilliant observation. We are getting closer to the ideal that the great genius Rosser Reeves first suggested - the fully connected always on feedback loop. What a great time it is to be working in measured media!

If, I owned, managed or programmed a rock station: No matter how certain I happened to be about how good my fall strategy was, I would invite Lee Arnold to give my team an opinion on what, exactly, we could be doing better. Excellent ROI. Highly recommended. He's one click away here. Ring this man up and win!

Contrarian, as ever: My wife and I have agreed. We are sending out dead tree holiday greetings this year. If for no other reason, no one else seems intent to play.

Post #501: What, hey, just a minute, really! Time does fly. Dear reader, my sincere thanks to you for your support of this humble blog. A great many have posted way into the four digits and I truly respect and appreciate them for showing the way.

Is your station guilty of spam?: Dan Kelley offers up an object lesson. Important stuff. Ensure your team is not a party to such bad behavior. Read all about it here. Kudos and thanks to Dan!

Bonus (2 poets, no waiting): Rives Derrick C. Brown

Congrats & cheers: Radiohead on their brilliant marketing move - putting price in the hands of fans. LA Times Op/Ed here.