Larry Bentson

N. L. Bentson started his storied career on the radio as a child actor. He was a bigger-than-life original, a gifted visionary, a true legend in the American media and communications industries. Larry pioneered FM radio, television, cable tv and mobile telephony.

A brilliant business leader, Larry was also a philanthropist.

He cared deeply about issues that mattered, his involvement in a project always ensured a positive and lasting difference was inevitable. Larry concerned himself with a great many charitable efforts including those focused on improving the lives of children, especially the quality of their health and education.

Larry was always preoccupied with the possible, the what if, the why not. His thoughts were often on the horizon, one he knew certain to be filled with unlimited promise and incredible opportunity. As of this year, there are 250 Bentson Scholars. Those college students and their graduated fellows are part of one of Larry's many dreams come true - the largest private scholarship program in America.

This great gentleman was my dear friend and mentor. He passed away last night. Larry Bentson, sui generis. Godspeed.

Related: Midcontinent Communications release, here.

"Mistakes are the portals of discovery." James Joyce

"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius." Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

"I'm forever raising the high bar and breaking my neck to clear it." John Kluge

Today's image: Surrealist Twist by AndyKapped. Awesome. Thanks for sharing.

What's the second most misunderstood word in the business lexicon? Innovation, so says branding and marketing ace Tom Asacker. Tom's right about that and right again in declaring the most misunderstood word to be brand. We can all learn something from Tom. Here's the first part of Tom's definition of innovation...

"Innovation is the successful introduction of a new idea that results in a more desirable customer experience, and..."

Complete that sentence and get Tom's insight on this much talked about (and too often misunderstood) subject, read his latest article The Enemy of Innovation, here's the jump. Highly recommended. Bravos, Tom!

"Nothing stops technology, nothing."

That's one important lesson learned from my dear friend, mentor and former partner the legendary Larry Bentson. The company that started in the motion picture exhibition business (you may know that as the movie theater or cinema trade) got into radio when radio was to kill the movies, then into TV when TV was to kill movies and radio, then Cable when Cable TV was to be the certain death of movies, radio and broadcast TV. The day I joined the firm they still owned every one of those businesses, had for decades and everything was successful or very successful.

Our mission was to stay ahead of the curve. The daily question being...What's next? The objective at hand...keep the plates we have spinning, add new plates.

We built a video retailing chain (remember, they were going to kill theaters, TV and Cable), got serious about building a telephony-communications firm (the phone is the future!), acquired the largest teleport in North America (sat delivery would soon be king), started a software development company (computers will be ubiquitous and they'll need software), launched a leisure services company (marinas could benefit from professional management including market research) and a bunch of other stuff. The point of this story is staying current is really important. Larry used to say when people asked why he got into so many competing and varied businesses "We're basically paranoid about losing everything and like to keep the portfolio diversified. We like to get into new things early."

As the partner responsible for marketing and sales let me say it was big fun. Over a dozen learning curves. Learned a bunch but the key take away comes back to Larry's one liner "Nothing stops technology, nothing." Getting a grasp of this, a deep understanding of what's happening around you is powerful. Early indications can be very important. The guy who is living on the leading edge of TV news, no...make that the future of video journalism is Michael Rosenblum. Please, come with me, see the future here. Thank you Michael, well done.

The real story: The one you won't read anywhere else. The back story on how the Clear Channel deal came around. Heidi N. Moore has done a fine job dishing the detail via WSJ.com, check it out here. Kudos to Heidi!

Bonus: Harve Alan

More future, more often: Eric Savitz provides excellent coverage of the week's single coolest event - The Churchill Club's Top Ten Tech Trends Dinner. Here are some headlines, complete post by Eric at the jump.

• "Demographics are destiny, creating opportunity"
• "The mobile phone will be a mainstream personal computer"
• "Water tech will replace global warming as a priority"
• "Evolution trumps design"
• "Within five years everything that matters to you will be available to you on a device that fits on your belt or in your purse"

Read At The Churchill Club: The Top Ten Tech Trends here.

They must be stopped: Gen X vs The Millennials. Robert Lanham fires the first shot via Radar here.

Astro buzz: Flash 10

Blogs you should know about (but probably never heard of): The Industry Standard's Top 25 B-to-Z List

Congrats & cheers: Les and Quincy on CBS acquiring CNET for 1.8 billion cash. Comcast bought Plaxo, deal closed today (thanks to Michael Arrington via FriendFeed).

"Are you having fun?" Larry Bentson

My friend and former partner would ask me that one question at some point during each and every occasion we talked or met. He still does to this day. Our successful privately held company did business in over 600 domestic communities. We started or acquired a number of companies. A great many deals were considered, some reaching the attention of the board. Those that did merit board attention were always interesting. At some point in our deliberations about funding a startup or a possible acquisition Larry, chairman of our board, would ask us "What's the fun factor here?" Larry's litmus test being...is it going to be fun for all involved?

The fun factor

In my experience, the fun factor usually plays an unheralded role in every great success. When people are having fun at work amazing things tend to happen. When people are truly engaged in a mission, excited about their work, committed to a cause rather than a job, their performance consistently rises to unexpected result. This happens when a team believes they are doing work that matters. They're emboldened, in part, because they're having fun.

Stars are born: Great to see Gym Class Heroes on Leno last night. Readers of this blog will recall it was last year when programming ace Brian Kelly (Entercom/Milwaukee) turned me on to those lads. Brian is the programmer and pop music evangelist who broke the band's first hit last May. In the coming weeks that track looks to top the charts. Brian Mansfield, writes the story, Gym Class Heroes put 'Chokehold' on charts, via USA Today here. Congrats and kudos to Brian Kelly on his well deserved national ink. Bravos to Gym Class Heroes on a good show last night!

Think Brian Kelly is having fun? He is and it shows, he's winning. His stations sound great, they jump out of the speakers and it sounds like his team is having fun. Ten to one they are. And bravos to Brian for being bold, for having the audacity to put a track on the radio just because it sounded good. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what Great Program Directors do - they lead, they make things happen.

Are you having fun?

400 year death spiral continues: 2006 Web ad spend beats dead tree guys in the UK. More via BBC here. Katharine Q. Seelye writes Drop in Ad Revenues Raises Tough Questions for Newspapers via NYT here. One of my favorite economists Mark Fratrik (BIA) gets quoted. Excellent job Katharine - bravo!

Please Google me some radio and TV ads: Miguel Helft writes Searching for Ads Offline via NYT here. Good writing Miguel. Great pic Rick! The race to crack the code continues. Microsoft, Yahoo and Google being the big players here and while all are sure to get there my sense is Google and Microsoft will lead Yahoo's fast follower. Detroit radio seems a perfect market to test prime avails. In February national was off 27%, local down 6%, about two million dollars missing from the market. My bet would be Google could make that $2 mil up with the right inventory. FYI - Fig's outfit gets a mention in the article. Hey Fig, turn around 2 large in Detroit and be named the winner.

This environment has created a special olympics mindset wherein Detroit stations can be said to be winning if they are only down 5% when the market is down 8%. Nonsense. Down is down. It has to stop being about beating the market and start being about growing your business. It has to stop being an intramural blood sport (i.e., radio v radio) and start being about radio v all others. Stop the self-destructive silo warfare and get into the big game. There's a bunch of money out there but you won't find it looking in exactly the same places where you found it before. You've fished out that part of the lake, leave one person on shore at that spot and move the boat! Start with this - how much does it cost you to create an avail?

My readers know that I'm a Google fan. I feel their pain in this initiative. The sales departments of broadcast shops have changed little since 1970. The majority of those changes would be tech related: better mission systems, fax machines, email, ppt, laptops, cell phones, pdas, pdf, voicemail, better non-spot and vendor, desktop publishing created better leave behinds/pitches, better training available (thanks RAB), better research and improved seller access to customized research, better competitive monitoring and station web inventory. The twx machine is gone. Most sellers still get messages from clients on little pink papers. Broadcast sales still involves relationships and face calls. The sales dept remains the last throw back in the enterprise. Albeit a better tech empowered throw back. Better tools does not equal better selling and the national shares of ad spend would seem to confirm this notion. We have a leadership problem. All Google needs is a broadcaster with nothing to lose. Earlier scribbling on broadcast sales here, here and here.

P.S. My former partners continue to own one of America's finest cable companies. It remains, in fact, the nation's largest privately held MSO. And, yes, I'm told they're having fun.

Bonus: Irrational Public Radio

Bonus 2: They're back, JibJab's latest What We Call The News Anchor crushed by graphics, now that's a killer line, one of many, check it out.

Congrats & cheers: Microsoft Live team debuts Deepfish mobile browsing, jump in here.