"Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors." Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations." Jean Paul Richter

"The wrong way is endless." Bert Hellinger

Today's image: The Land of Ghosts by peter bowers. Fabulous. Thanks for sharing.

Welcome to the first quarter we were all warned about. Earlier this week the Association of National Advertisers released findings from a recent study indicating 77% of marketers plan to reduce their advertising media budgets. 72% said they plan to reduce advertising-campaign production budgets. Marissa Miley provides more detail via Ad Age - Most Marketers Cutting Budgets, Renegotiating With Agencies - here.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, media consumption remains in good shape. The Grammys pulled in 19 mil viewers, up 14% from last year. Not Idol numbers but respectable. The continuing economic problems with broadcast are related to leadership, a massive failure of imagination and, as has been said many times in this space, sales issues that have turned into a full blown sales crisis. While the state of the nation's economy provides a good cover story for media CEOs, the weak economy has simply exacerbated ongoing fundamental business problems. The real task at hand is getting serious about industry reinvention, especially sales, and making something happen. Execution not excuses.

My sense is the wacky crazy death meme will continue cause it's so much fun (e.g., newspapers are dead, radio is dead, TV is dead, agencies are dead, advertising is dead). Seems to me the media darlings of 2009 will be social media led by Facebook. The most recent valuations for FB alone pegs it at $3.7B. The buzz on Twitter has those boys clocking in around $250mil. Stay tuned. Let me add that mobile will remain near the top of every media CEO's agenda this year and it deserves to be. Local, local, local. One other thought for media CEOs - How large is your developer community? Each property should establish, nurture, support, encourage, recognize and reward a developer community. Seems to be working out well for Google.

Bravos: WSUM General Manager Dave Black leads the Madtown student radio station to a new home. Deborah Ziff has the story via Wisconsin State Journal - New digs for University of Wisconsin-Madison's student radio station - here. [Thanks to Tom Teuber for the tip]

Congrats & cheers: Carrie Bugbee (for her exceptional ongoing performance as that incredible doll we've come to know as @PeggyOlson) and all the winners of The Shorty Awards. Related: Check out the Supporting Characters gang that supported the Mad Men Twitter campaign, here.

Bonus: Bill Figenshu writes If There Was Ever a Time via RBR, here. Kudos, Fig. Well said.

"It's time to take our audience back. We have great brands, let's invest in them again. The age of cutting is over. Consolidation 2.0 is on. And it's all about the operators. I love that!" Bill Figenshu

Fig checked in; today's quotation is from his email. Bravos Fig! A good broadcaster and a gentleman. The outfit lucky enough to sign him may reasonably expect nothing less than great things to happen.

A bunch of emails about the Eric Zorn writing on Chicago things gone but not forgotten. Mel Markon's was on Lincoln Park West just south of Fullerton. America's #1 morning radio anchor, Lee Harris, pings and reminds me...another Chicago late nite hang was close by - the Medina on Clark. Programming ace Tom Teuber weighs in with his Chicago list...The Little Corporal, The Brief Encounter, Punchinellos, Riccardo's, The Bergoff, Eli's, and Medici on Surf. The Little Corporal was a Lyle Dean and Fred Winston favorite, as "the kid" on staff they would send me off on early morning "breakfast runs" - the help at the joint well knew the preferences of Mr Dean and Mr Winston. Tom goes on to add some Madtown favs...Holy Mackeral, Big Mama and Uncle Fats, the original Ella's on State Street.

My first days in Madison, way back when, I recall The Brat House on State being an incredible value, not so today. Living at Langdon Hall I enjoyed walking around the corner to eat at the "counter" of the Rennebohm Drug store. Trips to the Twin Cities in those days always included dinner at the Nankin Cafe.

Method in Mel's madness: Getting $250 mil in senior from Morgan Stanley buys Mel more time and creates the war chest needed for his coming renewed battle with XM. My sense is the merger is dead and Mel knows it. The FCC opened their formal inquiry into the merger today. My odds remain 6 to 5 against.

Reading Mel's mail: David Rehr writes Mel a three page letter requesting the merger application be withdrawn. The letter, in pdf format, here.

The big four: Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL captured 85% of the gross online ad dollars in 2006. The top ten online sites, the big four included, captured 99% of all gross ad dollars in 2006. Jeffrey F. Rayport writing at MarketWatch says Advertising's death is greatly exaggerated, a good read here.

Hot fun in the summertime: Sean Ross bows his annual handicapping - The Summer Song of 2007. Read his nominees and jump into the conversation with your own pick here.

Summer reads: NPR's Susan Stamberg favors us with Booksellers' Picks for the Beach - or the Backyard.

Spanish grapes: Another fine Tempranillo. My quest to find good red wines for $10 or less continues. Montecillo Crianza 2002, Bodegas Montecillo. Noteworthy bottle since the 2002 grapes were not exceptional. Cheers!

Bonus: A favorite waste of bandwidth - cykam airtos online game. Warning: addictive. Enable audio, click on new game and enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend.