"Creativity is thinking new things. Innovation is doing new things." Theodore Levitt

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing more to take away." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it, nobody knows how. When it's finally done, there is surprise it's not better." Avinash Kaushick

Today's image: Think, Create, Experience by Amanda Mac. Very cool shot. Thanks for sharing.

Allow me to again suggest that in matters related to media and marketing we are living in times of dramatic fundamental change, incredible disruption, amazing opportunity.

Recently I picked up Understanding Me: Lectures and Interviews by Marshall McLuhan. Edited by Stephanie McLuhan and David Staines, with a forward by the gifted writer Tom Wolfe. It's a wonderful read. [Amzn info]

From a McLuhan lecture at Georgetown University in 1964...

"In moving from the neolithic age to the electronic age, we move from the mode of the wheel to the mode of the circuit, from the lineal single-plane organization of experience to the pattern of feedback and circuitry and involvement. During the many centuries of specialist technology, man cultivated habits of detachment and indifference to the social consequences of his new specialist technologies. In the age of circuitry, the consequences of any action occur at the same time as the action. Thus we now experience a growing need to build the very consequences of our programs into the original design and to put the consumer into the production process. By awakening to the significance of electronic feedback, we have become intensely aware of the meaning and effect of our actions after centuries of comparative heedlessness and non-involvement....Electricity made possible the extension of the human nervous system as a new social environment."

Which brings us to a fresh and much discussed batch of feedback deserving of your attention.

Tom Webster and Larry Rosen, cool kids in residence at Edison Media Research, have posted some writing with merit. Invest the bandwidth, thank me later. Radio's Looming Crisis Is Not Digital by Tom, here. Radio's Stimulus Package by Larry, here. Coming to a browser near you soon - the Tom Webster Conclave webinar, details available here. [FD: I serve on the Conclave board]

Recommended radio read: Turn It Up! American Radio Tales 1946 - 1996 by Bob Shannon. Fifty-eight chapters of fun. From Lee Abrams to Wolfman Jack with a cast of stars including Chuck Blore, Jerry Boulding, Dick Clark, Rick Dees, Tom Donahue, Bill Drake, Paul Drew, Bill Figenshu, Bob Henabery, Tom Joyner, Casey Kasem, Larry Lujack, Gordon McLendon, Bobby Rich, John Rook, Ed Salamon, Scott Shannon, Fred Winston and over thirty others. Check out Fred Winston's free podcast about the amazing Dick Biondi, get more info and order your copy of the book, here. [FD: I serve as an unpaid adviser to the author]

"Genius is the ability to put into effect what is on your mind." F. Scott Fitzgerald

"Silence remains, inescapably, a form of speech." Susan Sontag

"The ordinary man is involved in action, the hero acts. An immense difference." Henry Miller

Today's image: splash by nikond300. Very cool. Thank you for sharing.

Takes one to know one dept: Robert Feder calls radio legend Dick Biondi sui generis

Interesting conversations this week about the road ahead. Several client CEOs and COOs called to discuss revisiting their 2009 planning and budgets. Each year at this time we are involved in assisting clients with their planning. Concurrently we are deep into the process of developing our annual ad spend forecast. Because our firm also provides representation to talent we enjoy the advantages of a unique "both sides of the table" perspective. Recent events in the financial markets have caused us to rethink even our most conservative assumptions.

This morning, thanks to Fred Wilson, we viewed a slide show created by the folks at Sequoia Capital. On balance, we agree with many of the points made in the presentation and have emailed the slide show to our clients along with our suggestions with regard to next steps. This morning I would like to share selected content from four of the slides in the Sequoia presentation.

Our Take

• Manage what you can control. Spending. Growth assumptions. Earning assumptions.
• Focus on quality
• Lower risk
• Reduce debt
  

New Realities

1. Cuts are a must
2. Need to become cash flow positive

Increased Challenges

1. M&As will decrease
2. Prices will decrease
3. Acquiring entities will favor profitable companies
4. IPOs will continue to decrease and will take longer

The Solution

1. Perform situation analysis
2. Adapt quickly
3. Use a zero-based budgeting approach
4. Make cuts
5. Review salaries
6. Employ a heavily commissioned sales structure
7. Bolster balance sheets
8. Become cash flow positive as soon as possible
9. Spend every dollar as if it were your last

View the entire slide show via Fred Wilson's blog post here. My thanks to Fred and Sequoia for sharing.

Everything here is my personal pov and does not reflect the views nor the opinions of my employer. This has always been the case. Please use comments when you have a different opinion to share.

RIP: Financial engineering

The days of the financial engineer are, as a practical matter, over and that is a good thing. We are in this mess today no thanks to the leger de main practiced by too many self proclaimed financial engineers.

In my next post I'll share my thoughts on what must be done by media CEOs to prevail in 2009.

Have a great weekend. See you next week in a brand new show.

"Perfection has one grave defect, it is apt to be dull." Somerset Maugham

"In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing." Oscar Wilde

"Music is noise submitted to order by wisdom." Puccini

Today's image: Felicidad by jose87. Fine shot. Thank you very much.

All kinds of year end stuff...

The best books of 2007 - Slate

2007 Year-End Zeitgeist - Google

The Year in Advertising - Business Week - Great lead quotation "Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking" Robert Stephens

Best website by a radio performer - 2007: On the day job we counsel broadcasters and others on the critical importance of being alive, always on, on the net. While there are an increasing number of really good station sites (and a few excellent endeavors), good sites by performers or talent continue to be rare. Again this year we find the site of Chicago media star Steve Dahl to be the best of class. Steve and his team have created a truly excellent site. Blog, photos, show logs, podcast, soundboard, video, merch, rss implemented, it's all there. Kudos to Steve for a job well done and bravos for continuing to set the standard. Check out his site here.

The true spirit of Christmas - White Envelope Project

Dick Biondi's 2007 Holiday Toy Drive kicks off this morning. Details here.

Doing the right thing, right now: Fred Jacobs blogs here about Toys for Tots needing an assist from media this year. This is a cry for help that deserves the attention of every broadcaster. Not only does it make good television and good radio, it makes a difference in your community. More info here. My thanks to uber-mensch Fred & his Jacobs Media gang for the heads up.

We all need a coach. Should you be a radio talent ready to improve your act allow me to suggest you check out Jay Mitchell blogging here.

Bonus: Bill Gates on the skills you need to succeed...

"Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.

I also place a high value on having a passion for ongoing learning. When I was pretty young, I picked up the habit of reading lots of books."

Read the entire article via BBC here.



On the money: My notion is Les Moonves is one of the smartest execs working in the entertainment TV game today. Here are details on his new contract. While his base drops from the $5.6 mil of 2006 to $3.5 mil, his total package is richer. A target bonus of three times his salary ($10.5 mil), an option covering 5 millions shares (est. $35 mil in value using the Black-Scholes model), an annual grant of free shares worth $7.6 mil on each of four grant dates during his contract. He also gets a "make-whole" provision not having to face the higher New York state income tax (Les is a California resident). If he does not get renewed at the end of his deal, which terms Oct 2011, he may elect to become a senior adviser to the firm for $2 mil per year for three years (required to work no more than five days a month, eight hours a day) and a one-time grant of 300,000 shares (worth around $8 mil this month). Using a total package value of $30 mil per year, working 60 hours a week, 48 weeks per year his hourly rate would be $10,500. More detail on this data plus commentary by Graef Crystal here.

Congrats & cheers: Kevin Murphy named SVP/MM for CBS Radio, Detroit. BigThink, off and running in beta.

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.

"Take me wandering through these streets where bright lights and angels meet" Paolo Nutini

We're in luck.

Bob Shannon (left) the brilliant creative and affable author has decided to grace us with a book. The estimable and inimitable Mr Shannon is working on a writing about radio in the second half of the 20th century. He's inked a deal with Southern Sky Publishing.

For those who know his writing, either his current work residing on Joel Denver's AllAccess or his earlier Radio & Records "Legends" column, no encomium is needed here. Expect nothing less than a panegyric on the best, the brightest, the greatest. Bob will take us wandering through streets of the past where bright lights and angels we'll meet, and we will all learn, each of us better for the reading. Congrats and cheers to my long-time friend, the uber-mensch Bob Shannon.

The freak show: Thanks to them internets we are able to enjoy a wide variety of povs. In the past week several folks have shared items posted on blogs and message boards. The items have one thing in common - they lack perspective. "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change" so said Darwin. Some folks are mad about change, angry at the march of technology, bitter that the rules have changed and they never got their at bat. Others are members of the old guard, the party of the past, those with an irradicable reverence for industry dogma. My thought is the writers of these items are not looking at the forest nor the trees instead they are seeing nothing but the bark. To see reality as it is, not as it was or as one wishes it to be is important but it's difficult, hard work. Having a sense of history is critical, it provides one with context. I love Robert Kaplan's writing for that reason. He walks into another country knowing that to understand what's happening now one must be aware, informed of what happened before. A grasp of how we got here provides richer meaning.

The Monday morning quarterbacks abound. Someone who has never owned or even managed a single station certainly has every right to their opinion. But what is that opinion worth? As Buzz Bennett famously said "Everyone has the right to program" but does everyone have the right to head a major market group (in the least suggesting or pretending they're up to the challenge)? Of course, but keep in mind it is what it is and nothing more. How does one value the gravity, the intellectual honesty of a pov? It would seem fair to ask - is the writer qualified and how? Are they smart enough to actually lead a major group? Have they done it? Are they now or have they ever been on a short list to head a major group? Forget heading the group, are they even qualified to serve on the board? Let the reader beware. Disc jockeys, present and former, second guessing the suits at the top, trash talking the captains of industry and the owners is nothing new. Those wacky jocks, they've got all the answers - just ask them. Delusional hacks? Perhaps not. The truth may be they don't know what they don't know. They do know how to run their mouth. Consider the source and remember the adage that begins: Those who can, do.

P.S. Bob's current AllAccess writing is a multi-part piece on the great radio star Dick Biondi. Highly recommended.

P.S.2 Please check out the Paolo Nutini "New Shoes" vid via YouTube: US version here UK version (better) here Live version (best) here. He did a great job on Leno last night. "Short on money but long on time." A fresh, tight track from last summer. This kid is a star. Suddenly - what a killer word to use in a lyric. That word always reminds me of the Mankiewicz tour de force Suddenly, Last Summer. If you have not seen it - please do rent it this weekend, if you have seen it this mention might just make you want to see it again - go ahead, you know how good it is.

Next time: Thanks to a writing provided me by that clever programming ace Tom Teuber I'm inspired and a rant is the result.

Photo: New American Landscape, Plate 2 by Thomas Hawk. Beautiful shot. Thank you!

"In the field of observation chance only favors minds which are prepared." Louis Pasteur

"All the daddy figures are gone...If we do the program right, the viewers will come." so says Rick Kaplan the new EP of CBS Evening News. Sean McManus made the right call in hiring the storied producer. Congrats to Rick and Katie. Best of luck to Rome Hartman. More by Bill Carter in CBS Producer Goes Around, Comes Around via NYT here.

Moving and shaking: Congrats to Spotplex. #1 on the Alexa Movers & Shakers ranker. Up 9,000% from 247,451 to 5,969. To put this in perspective, #2 was Mega Millions up 188%. Congrats to John Gehron and the Harpo Radio folks, on being honored with two AWRT Gracies.

Dreaming out loud: Fred Winston in his soon to be live interview via the blog of Rick Kaempfer reveals his station dream team. Included are Dick Biondi, Dan Sorkin, Ken Nordine, Larry Lujack and Steve Dahl. What a killer lineup. Fred is kind enough to name this humble writer as PD. Now working for those guys would be one fun gig. Thanks Fred, love ya man. Rick's blog is here, the Winston interview goes live Sunday. (Thanks to Robert Feder for the tip)

Stream saving: Kurt Hanson has done an excellent job updating the CRB ruling here. Get involved! Thanks Kurt.