"To understand a new idea break an old habit." Jean Toomer

"Genius always consists of conceiving of the self-evident." Hermann Bahr

"Only entropy comes easy." Anton Chekhov

Image: shiny day, today by MartaRu. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Tony Quin has written a thoughtful piece offered up in the Feb issue of OMMA...

"So we find ourselves at one of those classic inflection points, where smart, nimble organizations can leapfrog their competition. The only barrier now is the executive will to take action. Whereas the disconnected nature of media in the last century separated sales, marketing and IT, the realities of 21st-century media must bring them together. It has to start within an organization. And with the digital channel acting as the touch point for almost every critical step in the sales process, it's time to unify not only the departments but also the tactics to create a customer-centric strategy that adapts to market conditions in close to real-time. Anything less will open the door to a faster, smarter, more flexible competitor."

Kudos, Tony. Well said.

Bonus: BuzzFeed (Hint: how many widgets do you now, today, have on offer? Are they really cool, totally amazing? What's your take rate? EXPORT!)

Dave Winer sez..."Losing teaches you that there's more to life than winning, and that's the best lesson possible and it's the one lesson you keep needing to learn over and over until you lose everything, which like it or not is what we all do in the end."

Hot: PMOG



Flickr users weigh in

Congrats & cheers: Legendary radio programming ace, the uber-cool Jhani Kaye signs again, stays with CBS.

"Method will teach you to win time." Goethe

"Show me the business man or institution not guided by sentiment and service; by the idea that 'he profits most who serves best' and I will show you a man or an outfit that is dead or dying." B.F. Harris

"The present is big with the future." Leibnitz

Today's image: Cone head by Fred Winston. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

To succeed sooner, learn to fail faster

Twyla Tharp writes about failure in her excellent book The Creative Habit (Amazon info). She says "To get the full benefit of failure you have to understand the reasons for it."

Failure of skill
Failure of concept
Failure of judgment
Failure of nerve (the worst kind)
Failure through repetition
Failure from denial

She writes "Change - changing the work and how we work - is the unpleasant task of dealing with that which we have been denying. It is probably the biggest test in the creative process, demanding not only an admission that you've made a mistake but that you know how to fix it. It requires you to challenge a status quo of your own making."

In the performing arts when we fail we fail in public, no dress rehearsals.

In broadcast we're reading each others mail (courtesy of Nielsen and Arbitron).

Everyone in the craft is aware of the failed breakfast show, the broken 11 show, the format that is not working.

In too many cases we are not failing fast enough. Management having developed an inexplicable acceptance, a tolerance, a dangerous denial of the obvious.

This is not a dress rehearsal, this is the big time, we are professionals.

Change

Change requires courage. The courage to admit failure. The courage to see reality as it is, not as it was nor as we wish it to be. The courage to challenge the status quo of our own making. The courage to stop doing what is not working, to learn from failure. Faster.

Management is responsible for results

Bonus: Frans Johansson

Bonus 2: GIF

Congrats & cheers: Doc filmmaker Ofra Bikel on winning the 2007 John Chancellor Award. Kevin Rose and team digg on their very cool new relationship with WSJ. Programming ace Jhani Kaye on a killer trend which is simply the most recent confirmation of his genius. The gifted Tammy Haddad on her new venture Haddad Media and her new gig as consulting EP for newsweek.com's soon to be announced political web video initiative.

"If you do what you've always done, you get what you've always gotten." Johnny Martin

"I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward." Thomas A. Edison

"Creating without claiming, Doing without taking credit, Guiding without interfering, This is primal virtue." Lau-tzu

Formats done right win. The play's the thing: The summer books are rolling out for radio. Kudos to the Z100 gang in the city. #1 12+, #1 18-34 and #2 25-54. Proof positive there is nothing wrong with the format. It's alive and well when done right. Vinnie & crew should be getting more credit, the little owner that could is getting it done - WBLS puts up a #1 25-54 (#3 AMD and #1 PMD). Same story with "oldies" - done right it's a winner. One year ago KRTH posted a 2.6, now, programming ace Jhani Kaye delivers a 3.6. Brian Thomas' WCBS-FM put up a 2.2 one year ago with Jack, now, he delivers a 3.7 with a solid CBS-FM reinvention.

The wayback machine: The last time Z100 posted #1 12+ was 1989. The last time WLTW was not #1 12+ was 2001.

In all of art, it's the singer not the song: The words of PJ are relevant here. It's not the format (song), it's the singer (the execution). Please allow me to disabuse you of another clearly stupid notion. Formats do not get stations into trouble, management get formats (and stations) into trouble. Cohort replacement is a very important variable. As Sheila O'Connor once said to me decades ago..."In 2010 Born To Run by Bruce will be elevator music." The notion that one could put on a format and then freeze dry the safe list, the approach, the strategy and tactics was, in point of fact, never valid. Yes, it could and did produce results for years. It is less than wise to expect the same results to continue forever. As Dwight Case said "Content is not programming." The winners mentioned in this post are programming their stations in real time. They are working in a living performance art. One of the oldest and last "live" performance arts. They understand. It's about going to work every single day totally obsessed with one goal - to commit great radio. All that's important is what comes out of the speakers, what's on the screens. Everything else is a footnote. Let me also remind you - as has been written here for some years now - it's not about radio, it's about audio. Period. Paragraph. The secret to success remains clear...you must create proprietary intangibles (innovation!).

Ask the one who knows they know: The rule of thumb for outdoor is "No more than seven words and two things to look at, clear reads and recall in 1.5 second exposures at 750 feet." That good counsel is the result of decades of research. Here's a free trade secret for those with the courage to act. Involved in an out of home campaign. In addition to all of the cool agency creative that played great in the conference room we added one other creative. The one we asked the art director of the outdoor company to create using two goals: 1) people will see it 2) people will remember it. The art director delivered a creative the station people, without exception, hated. The colors were all wrong, the design, the look totally sucked, they said. Not our image, they said. In the focus groups the art director's design won by a huge landslide. The lesson here is simple. The guy who does hundreds, maybe thousands, of outdoor executions a year knows what works and what does not. Ask her to assist. P.S. - the client green lighted (not with the research winner) the #2 focus group choice. The agency creative that played "ok"(#3) in the conference room won the day. They passed on the creative only the target voted best of show. The takeaway - compromise is the enemy of greatness. Ask the right people for help. Refuse to settle. Take the leap, go for greatness.

Congrats & cheers: Dave Van Dyke joins ABC Radio Networks as VP, Affiliate Relations.

Photo: Picnic07 Photo Booth by silvertje

Picnic 07 was a smash! Kudos to all involved in this great event.

Check out the Picnic07 photo booth.

Check out the video of the David Weinberger Picnic07 presentation here. The session ends with a discussion moderated by Walt Mossberg with Dr Dave and Andrew Keen. (1 hr 25 min)

Picnic 07, day 1 - video by Mindcaster here.

We join the conversation, already in progress: Martin Weller began the discussion on The Future of Content, part one here. Ray Corrigan contributes part two here. Patrick McAndrew takes up part three here. Will Woods offers up part four here. Martin explains the format of the conversation (structured, distributed blog article) here. In total the four writings are long, however, certainly worth your bandwidth. Highly recommended. Kudos to Martin, Ray, Patrick and Will for a good read and a job well done!

Congrats & cheers: Programming ace Jhani Kaye, my friend and former colleague, on KRTH winning the well deserved R&R award for Oldies/Classic Hits Station of The Year. Jhani's afternoon star Shotgun Tom Kelly wins Oldies/Classic Hits Personality of The Year. And to my pal Kevin Metheny on winning Oldies/Classic Hits Program Director of The Year. David Rehr, John David, George Hyde and Erica Farber on (as I'm hearing it in catching up) their outstanding shows.