"If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough." Albert Einstein

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Aristotle

"If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." Henry Ford

Today's image: Moon For Masako by ~EvidencE~ Beautiful. Thank you for sharing.

The product is the marketing
Do things worth talking about

Gordon McLendon got it right. The Old Scotchman, one of the true wizards of 20th century wireless, gave his managers much wise counsel, including this precious gem: "Get people to talk about your radio station."

Long before business writers and marketing mavens first hit on the now vogue notion of "word of mouth" marketing, McLendon and company were holding multi-metro clinics on manufacturing buzz and taking it to the bank.

Today most broadcast managers are preoccupied (overwhelmed might be a more honest characterization) with the crush of daily affairs. The urgent is getting all the attention and in the process it's the important that is being neglected.

On the day job, in our work with radio, television and new media managers, we are witness to the production of outstanding results including some amazing, remarkable ROI. Without exception, those results are produced by starting with a single serious focus, an obsession with the product.

In our experience, these winning managers share attributes which set them apart from others, here now are four...

1. A mindset that encourages and rewards risk taking, appreciates failing faster as the secret sauce of innovation.

2. A respect for talent, a deep understanding that creativity is a renewable resource.

3. A daily dedication, a drive, which keeps them fresh, on fire and pathologically competitive.

4. They love and honor their craft. Accordingly, they have fun, consistently bring their A game, come to play and play to win. They do work that matters, things worth talking about.

Our best advice continues to be summarized in one simple declarative sentence...

"All that's important is what
comes out of the speakers
and on the screen(s),
everything else is a footnote."

Please allow me to again suggest that you read The Design of Business by Roger Martin [Amzn info]. Following are three paragraphs taken whole from that writing. My thanks to Roger Martin.

"Some contexts don't reward repetition, structuring, and planning that are the hallmarks of mastery. Those nonstandard contexts require the creation of a new approach or solution; they require originality. Originality demands a willingness to experiment, spontaneity in response to a novel situation, flexibility to change directions as information dictates, and responsiveness to opportunities as they present themselves, even if they're unexpected. Rooted as it is in experimentation, originality openly courts failure. It's important to become comfortable with the processes of trial and error and iterative prototyping, or you'll be tempted to focus on the less risky mode of mastery, to the exclusion of originality.

Mastery without originality becomes rote. The master who never tries to think in novel ways keeps seeing the same thing the same way. In this manner, mastery without originality becomes a cul-de-sac. By the same token, originality without mastery is flaky, if not entirely random. The power is in the combination."

Martin's thesis concerns combining proof-based analytical thinking with possibility-based abductive thinking (Charles Sanders Peirce's "third form of logic"). His writing makes the case for the advertising put forth in the subtitle of his book, "why design thinking is the next competitive advantage." At the end of his writing he offers this thought...

"As you grow more sure-footed and adept at maintaining the design thinker's balance, you will gain fluency in both the allusive poetry of intuitive discovery and the precise prose of analytical rigor."

Readers are leaders: Amazon.com - Best Books of 2009 - Top 10 Books: Business & Investing, here. AdAge - Book of Tens: 10 Books You Should Have Read in 2009 by Matt Kinsey, here.

Congrats & cheers: Uber-cool media entrepreneur Rob Barnett, Warren Chao and their hard-working, wicked sharp My Damn Channel gang, winners of the first ever New Media Minute Award of Excellence [more info]. Well deserved. (Stay tuned...these guys are just getting started.) Radio programming ace Scott Shannon named VP, Programming for group operator Citadel. If you're keeping score, that's day job number five for the exceptionally gifted Mr Shannon. His other gigs include hosting the highly rated WPLJ breakfast show where he also serves as PD. In his spare time Scott is the mid-day star of the True Oldies Channel where he again doubles up, serving with distinction as the net's chief creative officer and principal architect.

Bonus: Rethinking How Broadcast Media Uses Research by Tom Webster, here. Kudos, Tom. Seems to me we have a bunch of smart people preoccupied with study, comparative analysis, interpretation and serious discussion related to the old answers when they should, instead, bring intellectual rigor to a critical pursuit of discovery - finding the new questions. Roger Martin said something that relates here "...(the reliability-driven colleague) sees the future as the enemy and the past as a friend."

On Twitter? Love books? Please support FLWBooks, Twitter's champion of the book, more info > here

"If you speak the truth, have a foot in the stirrup." Turkish proverb

"A smile is the chosen vehicle for all ambiguities." Herman Melville

"Wit makes its own welcome, and levels all distinctions." Ralph Waldo Emerson

Today's image: cloudy by twentyeight. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Ongoing discussions about the leadership problem in media leads me to add one more quotation. Something more to think about, the bottleneck is at the top...

"Where are you likely to find people with the least diversity of experience, the largest investment in the past, and the greatest reverence for industry dogma: At the top."

Gary Hamel

Podcasting: Fad or trend? Kurt Hanson offers the pov of three bloggers and his take here.

Congrats & cheers: Radio programming ace Patty Martin & her team at The Drive in Chicago. Early pre-currency indications are, again, history making and please let me add, well deserved. A highly respected local tells me "...a consistently well-positioned, well-programmed and well-marketed station since day one." There you have it dear friends, the secrets to great success.

Internet radio rock star Kurt Hanson and crew at AccuRadio are launching 30 new channels in 30 days. Check it out here.

Making the hits: Web 2.0 impresario and video entertainment ace Rob Barnett is making things happen. Kudos to the My Damn Channel gang, they continue to amaze. In August the site delivered 2.8 million views. But wait, there's more...now they're adding Yahoo! as another distribution partner.

"What magic there is in a girl's smile. It is the raisin which, dropped in the yeast of male complacency, induces fermentation." P.G. Wodehouse

"Nothing succeeds like reputation." John Huston

"Television contracts the imagination and radio expands it." Terry Wogan

Today's image: Cool Hand Luke by NontrivialMatt. Great shot. Thank you for sharing.

Inside baseball: Radio sports ace Les Grobstein delivered a rant yesterday during The Big 89 Rewind on WLS. Les wondered why sports radio stations in Chicago were not offering fans anything worth listening to at night or overnight (pbp excepted). His suggestion being Chicago was not some backwater and fans deserved better than dated (i.e., delayed) syndicated programming. Les made a valid point. He said out loud what fans must be thinking, he was speaking as an advocate for the listener. Kudos, Les.

The quick, easy and wrong answer would accuse operators of being cheap, too cheap for their own good some would say. My sense is the more honest, pragmatic answer would involve sales making this an issue of risk management. 7pm - 5am inventory is perhaps the most undervalued asset in radio. The problems related to a lack of demand are exacerbated by management's benign neglect. One could make the case that the majority of stations (of every format) have decided that this 41% of their daily inventory is just not worth the effort, not worth the investment in programming nor the attention and focus of sellers. This serves as an excellent exhibit in self-fulfilling prophecy.

Operators are not willing to invest in product because they are convinced demand will not be there no matter the audience developed. Being #1 at night too often viewed as a Pyrrhic victory - "So what, we can't sell it!" This is the same logic frequently used in walking away from renewal of sports rights - "We can no longer make the math work." While it may indeed be easier to save a dollar than to bring a dollar in, that's no way to build or grow a business. This is another bad habit developed over the years become accepted practice. As Samuel Johnson reminded "The chains of habit are too weak to be felt until they are too strong to be broken."

The dirty little secret here is nobody likes live sports programming at night or overnight but the listeners. They never got the memo giving them the heads up that all the good stuff happens between 5a and 7p. The cost-benefit calculus ensures management remains averse to any 7pm - 5am investment. The elephant in this room is sales. We have a crisis of confidence when it comes to betting on 7pm - 5am programs because the conventional wisdom tells us that even if we do develop a strong following we won't be able to monetize it sufficiently. The result is a kind of prior restraint with respect to programming innovation and audience development. Moreover, a market for barter programming is created and sustained. My thought is this is the crucible of Les' finding, that time and place devoid of acceptable options. Not to disparage network or syndi offerings, there's an abundance of good properties out there. It seems to me, at the core of this argument, we're talking the quality of local execution.

Clearly, the solution set involves creating demand and teaching sellers how to be much more effective. Imagine a day as being one hour, would you throw away almost 25 minutes of that hour? 7pm - 5am, nothing but upside. No matter your format, give it a go. Make something happen. Why continue pushing to make 100% of your number depending on only some amount close to 59% of your inventory. You can and should be using it all. Forget getting better. Start getting different. Change the denominator. The words of Hunter S. Thompson come to mind "Buy the ticket, take the ride."

Here's the biggest single competitive advantage - should you get serious and try this - it's all yours, no one is likely to follow. 41% of radio's daily inventory seems a terrible thing to waste. Can I get a witness?

LATER: Sales rock star Sheila O'Connor and others weigh in via comments. Thank you very much.

Bonus: Soundflavor

Four criteria: Gap CEO Glenn Murphy suggests four criteria that justify marketing spending; The brands must have...

• Good product
• Well-run retail environments
• "Imaginative, creative" message for the target consumer
• Be able to answer the questions: "Is the consumer ready to respond to the marketing? What is the psyche of the consumer? How are they feeling at that moment?"

More, thanks to Natalie Zmuda writing TV Ads 'a Waste of Money' for Back-in-Black Gap, via AdAge.

Same cool night feed, different damn channel: Web 2.o impresario Rob Barnett has moved the flag, his blog is now here. Please make a note of it.

Congrats & cheers: Rob Curley joins the Las Vegas Sun. Les Moonves & CBS for agreeing to join the 4A/ANA task force on ad integration fees. Eddie McLaughlin and Bob Bruno on their induction into the New York Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame. Good to see NYBA is also honoring the great Roger King.

"You can fool all the people all of the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough." Joseph E. Levine

"To imagine is everything, to know is nothing at all." Anatole France

"If passion drives, let reason hold the reins." Benjamin Franklin

Today's image: Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) by nick russill. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Today, we welcome special guest blogger Kelly O'Keefe. Kelly writes about the Radio 2020 initiative and Radio Heard Here. My suggestion is Kelly's writings, including this one, are must-reads on this subject matter.

At the NAB convention in Las Vegas, an announcement was made about the first stage of a multifaceted campaign aimed at contributing to the vibrancy of the radio industry. A lofty goal, to be sure, but a worthy cause.

The radio industry is home to some of the most passionate professionals I’ve met in any industry. Radio is important to Americans and important to America. It provides the most convenient, portable and easy-to-use way to engage with fresh entertainment and information content of every description.

When I was approached to help with this effort, I was honored to play a role. The folks I’ve encountered in the radio industry are smart people. They see the opportunity to make radio better, and they recognize the need to communicate more frequently, with greater transparency. They are listening, acting and investing to ensure that radio’s future is just as storied as its past.

The recommendations we made to the NAB and RAB are more oriented to behavior than marketing. The plan entails four initiatives that have been published broadly:

• Accelerating technology integration
• Improving playlist diversity
• Educating the next generation of broadcasters and advertisers
• Engaging consumers through broader communications

Three out of four of the objectives involved tangible actions aimed at enhancing the brand. This won’t surprise any reader of my writings, or any of my clients or students. For over 15 years I’ve been writing, speaking and teaching about the fact that in terms of brands, actions speak louder than words.

There is a clear call for increased innovation in content and more support for new technology. I find it disconcerting that many of those who call for technology innovation from the industry also attack virtually any new technology introduced. Any technology investor will tell you that the road to adoption is full of bumps. There is a reason the books on this subject bear titles like Inside the Tornado.

The fact that it is difficult to develop and market new technology is no reason to stop developing it. Every effort that brings new thinking to the radio industry should be celebrated and every innovator supported. Standing still is not an acceptable strategy for this industry, and this brings me to my comments on the marketing campaign.

There are a number of goals for the marketing campaign; they include:

• Encouraging users to fully explore the variety of content available to them
• Stimulating usage in new ways and places
• Generating positive discussion about radio - particularly among young listeners
• Communicating progress in content, technology and education
• Developing and supporting a growing community of radio evangelists

The Radio Heard Here advertising is only one of the elements developed to help achieve these goals. We’ve launched blogs that report on industry innovation, online communities aimed at encouraging creatives who work in the radio medium, and influencer outreach efforts to ease communications across the spectrum of broadcasters and support companies.

We are also engaging people within the industry, by preparing electronic and physical mailings to provide tools to thousands of radio stations, and asking them to play a role in the campaign.

So far, we’ve heard far more praise than criticism from broadcasters. The campaign is being developed by some of the most talented people business, and with the rollout taking place over the summer and fall, there is much more to see and hear. As we move forward to contextualize the words “Radio Heard Here” I’m confident that the work will win over fair-minded observers. Of course we will continue to listen, learn and adapt.

One thing we shouldn’t listen to are the comments from those critics who believe the radio brand is irreparably damaged, and therefore any campaign that leverages past equity is doomed. One such commentator says, “Radio has become a negative word.” This is simply not true!

Both the research and the listening data suggest otherwise. The only group that thinks “radio has become a negative word” are people within the industry who read too much from these critics.

Like anything, radio can be better, and the industry should be tireless in its efforts to make it so, but there is a great pool of positive equity that should not be squandered based on the rantings of a few critics.

The risk of moving away from a trusted brand is significant. Just this year, NASCAR admitted that its attempt to move away from its core loyalists was a costly mistake. They are refocusing on their historic strengths. Sound familiar? We heard the same thing after Wal-Mart fired the marketing department that tried to take them away from their core focus. They believed (rightly) that the brand needed freshening, but their actions (wrongly) involved trying to move away from any familiar imagery. Even Coke once gave in to the cynics who thought the brand had no relevance to young people, only to launch New Coke with tragic consequences. They have now returned to the shapely logos and bottles that customers of all ages love.

No less respected brands than Starbucks, Budweiser and Apple have ventured away from their core equity, only to steer back to familiar imagery. (Yes, they all have their critical blogs, too.)

Rather than reinvent radio's brand, in the true spirit of radio, we are engaging in storytelling, through visuals, video and most importantly, the spoken word. And we’ll be inviting broadcasters and listeners to participate.

A simple example of the power of these stories can be found in words on Michael Castner’s blog. He comments on a video interview we produced about Dick Lewis and his work during Hurricane Katrina, saying: “It was an amazing education of what can happen when companies come together for the good of the community. It is a story that very few have heard.”

So I’ll close with one last thought inspired by Michael Castner’s words. Every day, radio stations come together to make great things happen for their communities; imagine what can happen if they come together to tell their own stories? If any of us can play a small role in making that happen, it’s worth the thick skin we will have to grow to get there.

Thanks, Kelly. Appreciate your efforts in continuing this important conversation. I encourage N=1 readers to share this writing via email or link. Your comments are welcome. Please, join the conversation. [Related: Radio Heard Here, Radio 2020, Radio Creative Land and Kelly's blog here. Also - My earlier post on Radio Heard Here]



Congrats & cheers: Kurt Hanson and team AccuTunes, winner of the Webby for Best Radio (People's Choice). BBC World Service also wins in the category. Rob Barnett and team My Damn Channel walk with three for You Suck At Photoshop. Others taking home hardware include Flickr (3), digg, PostSecret (4), Huffington Post, Chow, The Onion (7), Epicurious, TED (3), New York Times (8) and Flock. All the winners here. Star Googler Elliot Schrage joins Facebook as VP Communications & Public Affairs. Amanda Congdon returns, bows sometimesdaily in beta, natch.

"The most widespread beliefs draw their power from the fact that they cannot be verified." Alessandro Morandotti

"The world, like an accomplished hostess, pays most attention to those whom it will soonest forget." John Churton Collins

"Sometimes we praise the way things used to be in order to blame the present, and we esteem what is no longer in order to scorn what is." Madame De Sable

Today's image: Come on Pino, We're going Home by Mattijn. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Your future is free (some restrictions apply): Should you be a radio group exec or cluster manager working for one of the top thirty broadcasting firms Kurt Hanson will comp your entry into next Monday's big event the RAIN Las Vegas Summit: The Future of Radio. Use the magic words - please and thank you - more info here. See you there!

Howard never got the memo: The one that told us the dead tree guys were, uh, dead. So when Starbucks decided to spend some cash to get out the word on its new coffee they went dead tree. E&P writer Mark Fitzgerald has the story Starbucks Embraces Newspapers In Launching New Coffee here.

Bonus: Videogum

Midtown buzz: Let the Katie Couric countdown clock begin. She just ain't feelin the love @ 6:30. The popular wager seems to be sometime after the election. Same outfit but totally unrelated: Why did Les have to go negative and say 18-34 was a "BS demographic"?

Congrats & cheers: Rob Barnett, the energizer bunny studio head of web video, shoots and scores again. Webby noms including Wainy Days and You Suck at Photoshop (Comedy: Long form or series), You Suck at Photoshop (How-to and DIY), Harry Shearer - Waterboardin USA (Music). Read more here. Sue Naegle hires on at HBO as entertainment prexy. Hugh MacLeod, the man who put the FU back in fun (and official cartoon artiste of N=1) on his very cool book deal. Broadcast rock star Big John Wetherbee joins WTOC-TV full-time, solid gain for TV, a real loss for radio. PRX (Public Radio Exchange) on getting a well deserved MacArthur Foundation grant.

Bonus: someecards Love their tag line "ecards for when you care enough to hit send."

Video: Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch on Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams (76:26). Highly recommended. This is the video link we shared last New Years and the first link to get rave reviews from every single person, 100%. Well worth your bandwidth. Chock-full of take away including..."Fundamentals & Hard Work!"..."Wait long enough and people will surprise and impress you" - Jon Snoddy..."Brick walls are there for a reason: they let us prove how bad we want things, they let us show our dedication"..."Enabling the childhood dreams of others"..."You obviously don't know where the bar should be and you are only going to do them a disservice by putting it anywhere"..."Find someone better than you"..."Millions of kids having fun while learning something hard"..."You're such a good salesman, that any company who gets you is going to use you as a salesman, and you might as well be selling something worthwhile like education"..."All-time best head fake award - 'Yeah, but why is that fun?'"...FUN..."Decide if you're Tigger or Eeyore"..."Never lose the child-like wonder"..."Help others"..."Loyalty is a two-way street"..."Never give up"..."You can't get there alone and I believe in Karma"..."Tell the truth"..."Be earnest"..."Apologize when you screw up"..."Focus on others, not yourself"..."Don't bail; the best gold is at the bottom of barrels of crap"..."Get a feedback loop; and listen to it!"..."Show gratitude"..."Don't complain; just work harder"..."Be good at something: it makes you valuable"..."Work hard"..."Find the best in everybody"..."Be prepared"




The Heston mashup...

"Anyone who wishes to be cured of ignorance must first admit to it." Michel de Montaigne

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon him not understanding it." Upton Sinclair

"We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others." Blaise Pascal

Today's image: mille miglia by purelook. Wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

Golden: March 13, 1967. Radio programming ace Mel Phillips remembers the debut of RKO's WRKO here. Bravos, Mel! Well done. Boston and WRKO both hold special memories for me. Paul Drew suggested that I pitch the WRKO PD job and recommended me to the GM. After a fifteen minute meeting with the GM it was obvious I was not the person he wanted to hire. Not getting that job was a major disappointment but everything worked out. Months later I was recruited to program WBZ.

Radical Idea For News Sites: Show What's New on Your Homepage

"Here’s the problem — if you visit the New York Times throughout the day, and no important news has broken, the homepage remains largely unchanged, static, like a print newspaper.

Organizing news by importance as the default makes sense when you’re only delivering the news once a day (and the “default” is all you get). But when news publishing is continuous, it’s not the best way to server frequent news consumers."

Read the entire post by Scott Karp here Thanks to Dave Winer for the tip (Dave offers an excellent post w/comments, How Internet news should work).

More music: "The level of ineptitude I've seen at the major labels is stunning. The people in charge of a lot of the digital technologies and the aspects that are decimating their business that I've seen are people that seem to not even be on the Internet." Reznor: Radiohead offering was insincere, industry is inept via ars technica

Congrats & cheers: The David Wain video series Wainy Days nominated for YouTube Video of The Year (series category). Propers due to My Damn Channel impresario Rob Barnett. Rob and team are doing work that matters and they're just getting started. Check out the noms and vote here.

Grapes: Alamos. Bonarda 2006. Another good bottle from Argentina. It happens that Bonarda is an Italian varietal brought to Argentina in the 19th century and now well known in that country. Who knew? My first encounter with this grape, not my last. A wonderful red for $10.

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it." Albert Einstein

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt

"Opportunities multiply as they are seized." Sun Tzu

Image: Room 7 by Lost America. Amazing. Thanks for sharing.

Interesting discussion of online advertising at last week's OnMedia NYC. Tolman Geffs, managing director at The Jordan Edmiston Group led the conversation. When will online advertising dollars catch up with online viewership? Session video here.

Tolman shared some stats - Ad spend per household (domestic US)...

Newspapers $446
Broadcast TV $383
Cable TV $187
Radio $164
Internet $152

While engagement remains one of most-used buzzwords in the ad game there is not yet agreement on what it means, no generally accepted definition, there are no standards of engagement at this point. It seems to me a more critical measure is attention of which engagement is a moving part, as is participation.

An excellent point was made during Tolman's session. The early internet measurement tools were created by engineers. Hits were the most common measure in the last century (essentially server calls for files). We've moved on to page views and unique visitors but we still have not reached a universal agreement on how those measures are defined.

Accountability is at the heart of this issue. It's what agency folks need to have confidence in the buy.

Congrats & cheers: Rob Barnett and his My Damn Channel team are off to a great '08 posting over one million unique visitors in January. New look/feel and all new features set to debut this Thursday, then next week three new shows join the fold. Check out the latest MDC viral smash You Suck at Photoshop #1

Spanish red: Abadia Retuerta Rivola 2003. A blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon. A really good value at $15 or less.

"Quiet minds cannot be perplexed or frightened, but go on in fortune or misfortune at their own private pace, like a clock in a thunderstorm." Robert Lewis Stevenson

"Nothing will tell you more about yourself than the way you act toward fools." Mark Twain

"A really good creative person is more interested in earnestness than in glibness and takes more satisfaction out of converting people than in 'wowing' them." Leo Burnett

Today's image: Sunrise at Illuru by Ron Fell. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing.

Congrats & cheers: Michael Hirschorn & Stella Stolper on the launch of their new production firm Ish Entertainment. Rob Barnett and his My Damn Channel gang on their Katie "get" - one million uniques. Must see video.

"The works must be conceived with fire in the soul but executed with clinical coolness." Joan Miro

"In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities. In the expert's mind there are few." Shunryu Susuki

"Talent without genius isn't much, but genius without talent is nothing whatever." Paul Valery

Today's image: Emotion No. 76 by michelleBlack. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing!

ZenithOptimedia released their global ad spend projections. Here are selected shares:

Media 2007 - 2008

TV 37.9 - 38.2
Newspapers 27.8 - 26.9
Magazines 12.5 - 12.2
Internet 7.5 - 8.7
Radio 8.1 - 7.9
Outdoor 5.7 - 5.8


SES Chicago Buzz: Where's Yahoo!?

Hearing the first estimates of spend for the 08 election cycle at about $4.5 billion. $3 billion in traditional media. $1.5 billion in direct mail, PR and other. This may be the first election cycle where direct mail reaches $1 billion in spend.

Nobel: Al Gore Acceptance Speech

Bonus: What's your Gmail story? Smart, very smart.

T E S T I N G

"A company with a strong message may get its story into the heads
of only a few people, and become rich. Conversely, a company with
a bad message may get its story into all the heads, and become bankrupt."
Rosser Reeves

Does your story work?
Does it pull people over to your product?

You have no doubt heard the radio commercials for HD Radio. Are those messages working? Before we can answer that question we need data. My thought is the best data set would be receiver sales. In the last 20 or so months member stations of the HD Radio Alliance have run about $450 million in radio ads. Given the assumption that 500,000 receivers have been sold over that same period would translate into $900 per set sold. Is that too expensive or the stuff of marketing genius? No real way of telling at this point. I'm making up these sales numbers because the actual receiver sales data is not at hand.

My point here is once we have benchmark sales data we can begin to evaluate the effectiveness of the messaging. As it stands now receiver sales data have not yet been published (to my knowledge). This, in my opinion, is a major error in judgment. While the HD Radio Alliance has, arguably, done a good job of raising awareness, it's time to change up the game and get into driving demand, a new and improved focus on sell through at local retail. In 2008 the HD Radio Alliance should go to work with the goal of producing a meaningful sales result. My suggestion being receiver sales represent the only result of any significance. Until a radio receiver is sold the messaging is simply not working, there is no ROI.

With all respect, it's time for Peter Ferrara and his team to do the right thing. Collect and release the receiver sales data on a timely basis. Begin testing the pull of different creative approaches. Let's find out what's working and what's not working. Let's sell receivers. We need to be asking "How many receivers did we sell last week?" and we need to know the answer in no uncertain terms. We have an urgent need for transparency here. We know $450 million has been invested now we need to know what was sold. Going forward we need measures of effectiveness, performance metrics, a good start would be full and objective accounting on set sales. In 2008 let's agree the fair and proper definition of ROI = radios sold. (FD: iBiquity Digital was previously a client of my employer and I worked on the account)

Making a list, checking it thrice: Making the year end list of media folk (and other rock stars) that actually get it. My list of the eight to watch in '08. Let's start with Rob Barnett. Forget everything the guy has done before his current venture. He's just getting started. Barnett tops my list of ones to watch in 2008. You heard it here last. From his blog...

"I remembered the energy we conjured up to start My Damn Channel and the secret sauce that went into the brew. The key ingredients we left out were doubt and fear. We left those two in the kitchen cabinet - just in case anyone from old media needed to stop by and borrow some spice. We cooked with extra servings of badass and positive thinking - we threw in enough angst to keep us from ever going through the motions - because we know that breaking out of our low-rent kitchen and into profits was a mission worth fighting for."

Bravos, Rob! Keep the audacity dialed up to eleven. Check out Rob's blog here and do yourself a favor, add it to your reader.

Word: w00t named word of the year

Congrats & cheers: Sam Tanenhaus who does a great job as editor of the New York Times Book Review now takes charge of the Sunday section Week in Review. MediaVest and Starcom tie, both named Agency of the Year by Media Magazine. MEC Interaction picks up the OMMA Agency of the Year Gold. Microsoft signs CNBC.com, adCenter platform is in - DoubleClick is out. Neal Sabin, EVP Weigel Broadcasting and one of the smartest guys in television gets well deserved NATA&S Silver Circle honors. Radio programming ace Harve Alan on setting up shop, Harve Alan Media will produce solutions from scratch including interactive strategies. Jason Witt named SVP/GM of Digital Fusion, the new MTV Networks digital portfolio.

As close to stealing as you would ever want to get: Rubens 2005. One of those 100% Tempranillo bottles. A nice Spanish red priced at under ten bucks. Another Eric Solomon project. Get yours, while you can. Cheers!

"None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone." Emerson

"There is something that is much more scarce, something rarer than ability. It is the ability to recognize ability." Robert Half

"There are two rules for success: 1) Never tell everything you know." Roger Lincoln

Today's image: She Said She'd Take Me Anywhere by Matt Roe. Great shot. Thank you!

Tis the season, let the list making begin. Patrick Phillips has his annual Media Person of the Year poll on offer. Pick one of ten or write in your own. The usual suspects - Google, Murdoch and Zuckerberg - joined by Perez Hilton, Rosie, Imus and Joanne Lipman among others. Check out the big ten and add yours to the bold-faced names now voting (e.g., Frank Rich, Kurt Anderson, Craig Newmark and Tina Brown). IWM 2007 Media Person of the Year here. Kudos to Patrick, for offering what is always one of the most interesting posts of the year. Murdoch gets my vote, Goggle in second. Ones to watch next year? Microsoft and Diller will both make my great in 08 list.

Quality v Quantity: Rob Barnett argues an important point. Which is the more productive business model - offer consistent quality or offer consistent quantity? In my experience, talent wins in entertainment. Quality trumps quantity. The long tail serves to confirm this notion. The "hits" do matter, they always will. The difficult concept for some to grasp is the practical working definition of hit is changing. It's no longer strictly defined as exclusively being the head of the long tail. It's less only a game of pure volume and more a game of consistently delivering on expectations within some defined community. The head rules, as ever but the tail now matters. Cable TV is a reasonable proxy here. During my life as an MSO the "quality" niche channels were the real drivers of our basic sub growth. We see that even more pronounced today in the growth of digital tiers. Rob's also a former cable hand and he's got this one down cold. Here's what Rob has to say about quality..

"In our first 4 months of life, we’ve brought a small number of big talents into a tent where they deliver new webisodes every single week...Our thinking is that if the best talent delivers the best videos - consistently - then less can be more."

In a wee bit over 100 days Rob and his gang have established a venue of weekly entertainment. My sense is they are one viral hit, one Leno clip away from achieving escape velocity. The cool thing is, they're just getting started. G.B. McLendon comes to mind here, to wit: "People don't know what they like but they like what they know." Rob & company have opened a place where people can come to know and expect entertainment. The 08 election cycle and Rob has Shearer in the tent, that alone is chock full of possibility and fun. Read Rob's post Can Less Be More? here.

"Wisdom begins in wonder." Socrates

"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." Goethe

"Ideas are a capital that bears interest only in the hands of talent." Rivarol

Today's image: Kona by Ron Fell. Awesome! Thanks for sharing.

The revolution will be televised (you just have to know where to look): Rob Barnett, refugee and chief of My Damn Channel is feeding, again, into that good night...

Old Media needs writers. But writers don’t need old media.

Old Media is about to be written out of its own show. They’re writing themselves off the island without even knowing it.

Old Media thinks this strike is about keeping a few more pennies of every dollar, when it’s actually about life and death.

Life happens when you embrace change. Death happens when you know you’re sick and you refuse to heal your wounds.

Old Media is crawling all over the railroad tracks - looking for lose change - and they don’t see the train coming.

We’ve all seen this movie before. It’s called, The Sixth Sense. And we know how it’s going to end. All of a sudden, Old Media realizes their old rules are actually dead.

Reminds me of that great line by Gary Hamel..."The future is not proprietary." Check out Rob's very cool new blog here.

But wait, there's more. The revolution is live. We need only read Michael Rosenblum...

"What we have done is to create, for all practical purposes, a population that is illiterate in the lingua franca of its own time - video.

We have placed the ‘ability’ to create in this now very fundamental medium, in the hands of a select and elite few.

This is a mistake."

Read Michael's post here.

So what's new(s)? Dave Winer says...

"This way of doing news is a remnant, it's anachronistic, a relic of the way news used to work, when guys like Bezos and Jobs would go on a press tour, seed Pogue, Markoff, Levy and Mossberg, they would write their pieces and the rest of us would settle for the very limited and highly spun information they provided. It's not that way anymore."

"The press still reflects what the press cares about, competing with other press. But the blogs, who aren't trying to climb the top 100 lists, are doing something else. We're just trying to share information with each other so we can learn, so we can use stuff better, make better choices, improve the products, and eventually create new products."

Conversation writ large. Thanks, Dave. The entire post here.


Fred Winston, celebrated radio star and part-time gentleman farmer, pings me to share a wine and a cheese suggestion. Best to listen up, this guy knows his wine and cheese (to say nothing of his exceptional chili, food and overall kitchen chops). Please join me and check these out. Wine: Ponzi Williamette Valley Pinot Noir 2002. Cheese: d'Affinois (a Brie-like cow's milk cheese). Thanks, Fred.

The last bastion of analog - books

Jeff Bezos on Charlie Rose

kindle

992 pages downloaded in less than a minute

Content more important than distribution channel

Consumers ever more empowered

Great services shine through - Meritocracy

Balance of power shifts away from companies

Amazon customer experience drivers 1) Lowest price 2) Vast selection - choice 3) Get products to customers fast

Bonus: Great talent is out there, more often than you might think that talent may be found in the most unlikely of places. Prepare to be moved. Take a deep breath. Invest a wee bit over 4 minutes and witness a star being born. Amazing! Via YouTube here. My thanks to Tom Asacker for the tip (Agree with Tom, if you can watch the vid and not be moved, please do get yourself some medical attention).

So much to be thankful for this year. Thank you for stopping by. Happy Thanksgiving.

"There are only three kinds of people: bus drivers, bus riders and pedestrian targets. Who do you want to be?" John Wall

"Life is too short to be little." Disraeli

"It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable." Moliere

Rob Barnett is blogging the good stuff...

"The old business has been hanging on, hoping that somehow the digital genie would dissipate. Bad move. New distribution pipes opened up everywhere taking away one of the last reasons inspired musicians needed major record companies. Little Steven tried to tell me in 2000 that the new digital pipeline recreated the old ‘single’ mentality and shoved the ‘album’ idea to the back of the bus. I didn’t want to believe him, but he was right. He always is."

Kudos, Rob! Check out Rob's blog The Night Feed - here. Highly recommended.

The brand promise of Apple: Scobleizer

The Twenty (Intentionally) Funniest Web Videos of 2007. New York Magazine Plus The New Online Star System

Bonus: Video of a Michael Rosenblum talk, including his famous "serf to monk" story. Thanks to Foreign Correspondence Network, posted here. Bravos to Michael, very well done! Closed circuit to NAB staff: Book this guy to do a keynote in Vegas.

Congrats & cheers: Peter Rojas and company on RCRD LBL

Do schools kill creativity?

Wonderful video. Sir Ken, you are amazing. Bravos! Highly recommended. His book, Out of Our Minds: Learning to be Creative - Amazon info here. Intelligence...Diverse, Dynamic, Distinct.

"From the flow of enthusiasm I let the melody escape. I pursue it. Breathless I catch up with it. It flies again, it disappears, it plunges into a chaos of diverse emotions. I catch it again, I seize it, I embrace it with delight...I multiply it by modulations, and at last I triumph in the first theme. There is the whole symphony." Beethoven

"When you cannot make pure goods and full weight, go to something else that is honest, even if it is breaking stone." James Gamble

"In modern business it is not the crook who is to be feared most, it is the honest man who doesn't know what he is doing." Owen Young

Today's image: Autumn In Technicolor by Celine. Awesome. Thank you!

Congrats & cheers: Rob Barnett chief exec and impresario at My Damn Channel on his outfits new blog, The Night Feed and on the debut of Harry Shearer's latest effort Waterboardin' USA - check it out here.

"The shortest distance between two comedians is a straight line." Ron Fell

"Nothing travels faster than the speed of light with the possible exception of bad news, which obeys its own special laws." Douglas Adams

"Strive for brevity and clarity in oral and written reports." William Swanson

Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management: unwritten rule number fourteen...

"It takes longer to write cleanly and crisply. It shows respect for the time of others when you do.

Learn to type with your thumbs on a Blackberry-like device. That will really discipline you to use shorter sentences and shorter words.

As you grow in position and assume roles of increasing responsibility and complexity, you truly appreciate those who communicate with brevity and clarity. Their emails, notes and reports will get read! Conversely, and sadly, good ideas in hard-to-open packages wrapped with complicated bows may be overlooked."

Going mobile: Empowering People through Mobile Technologies in Developing Regions, A presentation by Nokia's Joe McCarthy via slideshare here.

Radar Quiz: Fox Business Anchor or Porn Star? Take the quiz here. Kudos to Neel Shah. I scored 7 correct out of 10.

Steve Dahl delivered the mail. Changes at CBS Radio in Chicago. Steve to mornings on WJMK (JackFM), Monday, November 5.

Congrats & cheers: Rob Barnett and his My Damn Channel crew on their two nominations in the TV Guide Online Video Awards competition. Jacki Kelley joins Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia as sales chief and Yahoo! loses another player. Newser principals Patrick Spain and Michael Wolff on their formal debut tomorrow.

"One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important." Bertrand Russell

"From birth to age 18, a girl needs good parents; from 18 to 35 she needs good looks; from 35 to 55 she needs a good personality; and from 55 on she needs cash." Sophie Tucker

"Tradition is what you resort to when you don't have the time or the money to do it right." Kurt H. Adler

From the open letter to Dow Jones shareholders by Brad Greenspan...
"Every company and individual makes strategic mistakes over a long career. It always happens. But the big winners historically are the companies/individuals that learn from these mistakes, make changes, and have the courage to make another bet on themselves, their employees, and their portfolio of assets." The entire text here (WSJ sub). Over at CNBC, The Brain (aka David Faber), says the deal with Murdoch will be signed tonight.

400 year death spiral continues: Dead tree guys keep selling those ads. September fashion books are setting record high ad pages. Harper's - 360, W - 477, Elle - 598, Vogue - 727 (incl Fashion Rocks supplement in both Vogue and W estimates).

Mixing metaphors: Tom Asacker offers up a good post on brands, marketing and metaphors...

"It is compelling, and much simpler, to view a brand as a fixed and valuable asset, like a piece of real estate. One that simply requires protection and promotion. Instead, today's brands should be thought of as perishable assets, like salad bars. They are marketplace offerings, which need to be constantly reinvented and refreshed to remain relevant. Make no mistake about it. That's the metaphor change that will turn marketers into leaders." Read Tom's entire post here. Kudos Tom, well said. Brands are alive in the moment and related within the context of a dynamic marketplace. Winning brands are not static. The best brands are much more like fashion than architecture, soft v hard, alive v dead, moving picture v snap shot.

The Sumner show - Les is more: Q2 CBS earnings call this morning. Sumner set the stage, introducing Les as the "best executive in the media industry." Les said "technology is our friend" going on to chat up the last.fm acquisition ("a community around content") and other interactive initiatives. In his division by division review Les praised Dan Mason for his "swift and decisive changes" related to the radio group's New York portfolio saying that Dan was a "programmer at heart." Les indicated the NFL cpms are up double digits. Scatter up consistently. Same TV station sales down Q2 (taking out NCAA - flat). Les on Google radio and TV inventory sharing: "We're in discussion with everybody over everything, all the time." On the balance sheet - $2.8Bil in cash. My sense is Les is doing a great job. Thanks to Dan Mason, CBS Radio should enjoy a great 08.

Bonus: searchCrystal. Compare, remix, share. Very cool.

Congrats & cheers: Rob Barnett launches his new venture My Damn Channel. But wait, there's more - throwing down with Rob are Harry Shearer, David Wain, Paul Reiser and Don Was. Okapi Venture Capital is backing. CBS Radio's Mark Edwards, delivers good books for KEZK and KYKY. Elizabeth Guider named top editor at The Hollywood Reporter.