"There is only one success: To be able to spend your life in your own way." Christopher Morley

"Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority." Thomas Huxley

"Prudence is a presumption of the future, contracted from the experience of time past." Thomas Hobbes

Today's image: Mystery Morning In The Palouse by kevin mcneal. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Submitted for your consideration, a case study in real-time, to wit:

You have a major talent working for your company. The talent is a market legend of thirty years making, respected by the industry as an accomplished, innovative performer; he has consistently produced top five ratings in the diary. For the past year the performer has been assigned to a morning drive shift after years of success doing afternoon drive at another station in your cluster. Performance in morning drive, as measured by the new PPM methodology, is significantly different and less competitive than that exhibited in previous diary created data. Management decides to take the talent off the air while assuming the obligation to pay the talent for the next two and one-half years of the performer's contract.

Of course, the reference is to Chicago media star Steve Dahl. He did his last show for CBS this past Friday. While CBS has, to my knowledge, not made any comment on the decision (a wise move since most covering their equity only know what they read), we have the penchant for transparency of Steve Dahl himself to thank for a bit of back story. Steve made mention of the meter during his last show, suggesting music programming did better in the meter numbers and was less expensive programming.

We now come to the issues of this business case.

1. Did management make the right decision in assigning Steve Dahl from afternoons at its Free FM talk station to mornings on its music intensive Jack FM station?
2. Did management provide those resources necessary to ensure the probability of success in the highly competitive morning drive environment? (The counsel of a mentor, Paul Drew, comes to mind. Did Steve have a "better than even chance to win.")
   
3. Once PPM data was in hand what corrective measures did management take to improve performance? Was Steve provided the direction, dedication of resources, deemed requisite to move the needle and improve performance? Were sellers provided the direction, support needed to build revenues needed to generate an acceptable profit?
   
4. If we stipulate continuing to do mornings on WJMK was not an option, what other options were prospectively available to management without regard to the election to pay and not play? Is it not management's responsibility to explore any and all options to retain Steve Dahl including those beyond the conditions and scope of the existing agreement?

Clearly, management decided it was better to have Steve Dahl off the air and paying him than on the air in some other assignment.

Many have said the larger-than-life personality was not a good fit on Jack FM, the bold contrarian move of putting a high profile talent on a jockless station risky from day one. While it is perhaps convenient to argue that Dahl failed to improve the station's ratings performance, it should be kept in mind that Jack FM has failed to achieve, sustain ratings success of any significance where it counts. Recent meter numbers would have us believe the station's biggest win is outside of prime, 7p-12Mid. One has to at least consider the logic that Steve was released from breakfast duties as part of an effort to somehow "help" Jack FM. The single most credible, attractive attribute of any jockless station continues to be the low cost of operating which is not insignificant. Putting Dahl on Jack FM changed this jockless economic model.

My sense is the real failure here is one of leadership. No matter the numbers, sales should have found a way to generate revenues. It is hard to argue there exists a more sales friendly talent than Dahl.

Given the option of creating the next successful music intensive format or finding the next killer talent, one is best served by electing the former. The latter is a far more complex mission, one in which finding becomes the easiest part of things, however, the rewards of engaging killer talent are almost without equal. The play's the thing so said Shakespeare and in this case the play is a killer talent, Steve Dahl.

As a practical matter, CBS is making a wager. They are willing to bet Steve will gain employment elsewhere, ultimately releasing them from their financial obligation. They are suggesting it is the best decision for the company to continue paying Steve to not be on their air or to have him working across the street. The alternative which management should properly consider, it seems fair to offer, being to retain Steve Dahl, putting him to work in a productive and effective manner on one or more of their stations. This will require the hard work of thinking, of engaging the imagination and most of all, it will demand creative leadership.

Stay tuned.

Previously, on Steve Dahl and the diary versus the meter, here.

As always, your thoughts are welcome. Thank you for stopping by.

"What the business thinks it produces is not of first importance. What the consumer thinks he is buying, what he considers 'value' is decisive." Peter Drucker

"Limiting one's pursuits to one lone avenue without benefit of change or diversion can result in a form of vapidity which sometimes deadens imagination." Edwin Uhl

"The virtue of imagination is its reaching, by intuition and intensity, a more essential truth than is seen at the surface of things." John Ruskin

Today's image: Ordinary magic by IrenaS. Beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

Good reads: Talent Is Overrated by Geoff Colvin [Amazon info]. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell [Amazon info]. Fiction, worth reading, again: The Road by Cormac McCarthy [Amazon info]

Live ammo: You have a talent working for you. A well known talent with a history of thirty years in the market. The talent has consistently delivered top ratings for decades under diary measurement. Since the introduction of PPM the talent has failed to show the same winning numbers. The most recent monthly numbers show the talent is ranked 20th in demo a year after being moved from afternoons on one station into a morning drive shift on another station. You have two and one-half years remaining on the talent's agreement, an obligation of approx three million dollars. You play or pay the talent? In the case of CBS they made the decision last week to pay the talent, Steve Dahl, rather than continue to play him. Your thoughts? Back to blog about this Monday.

"The idea seems absurd, but I can find no flaw in it." Johannes Kepler

"Between the idea and the reality. Between the motion and the act. Falls the shadow." T.S. Eliot

"If I don't know I know, I think I don't know." R.D. Laing

Today's image: Blowing in the wind by Zamm. Great shot! Thank you for sharing.

Last of my eight to watch in '08: Richard MacManus & Dan Mason.

Richard is editor of ReadWriteWeb and one of the brightest of today's thought leaders. When Richard says something is important you can bank it. From Richard's list of 2008 predictions..."The online advertising market will consolidate, after the spate of acquisitions in 2007. CPM will continue to dominate for media brands and CPC for niche sites, although there will be experimentation in VRM and other forms of highly specific targeting of ads. Privacy issues will prevent the latter from becoming mainstream though. The much-hyped CPA (Cost per Action) will continue to be a pipe dream, because publishers simply don't want it."

Dan is CEO of CBS Radio. 2008 will be his first full year leading the charge and it's fair to expect nothing less than amazing things. Dan Mason is the goods and this second tour at CBS is just what the company needed. (FD: I have served as a consultant to CBS and to Viacom. Have also worked for Dan. I would include him with the great bosses it has been my honor to serve including the legendary N.L. Bentson, the incredible A.B. Hartman and the great SGM George A. Warren)

Six of the eight previously mentioned - Rob Barnett, Thomas P.M. Barnett, Joseph Jaffe, Michael Rosenblum, Robert Scoble, Dave Winer. It is my suggestion we all can learn something from each of these guys. Please suggest your ones to watch via comments.

Movie of the year: Juno. Diablo Cody rocks! She just missed being on my eight to watch. A writer you will be hearing about (and reading), gifted.

Blogger of the year: Steve Dahl. The Chicago media rockstar is playing at the top of his game.

Blog to watch in '08: jacoBLOG. Fred Jacobs and crew are posting thoughtful stuff well worth your bandwidth (and it keeps getting better - add it to your reader today).

Asked & Answered: Which video ad format will become dominant? Liz Gannes polls the experts here.

Bhutto's assasination: Thomas P.M. Barnett weighs in here.

Congrats & cheers: Radio programming ace Harve Alan has joined the conversation. Check out his new blog here. Dave Winer debuts his latest product - FlickrFan.

"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.

"Let your life lightly dance on the edges of time like dew on the tip of a leaf." R. Tagore

"Creativity is a habit, and the best creativity is a result of good work habits." Twyla Tharp

"Let's engage the imagination, let's call it news you can dance to." Jo Interrante

Today's image: Dance With Me, Baby by persnicketydame. Wonderful. Thank you!

P L A Y

The play's the thing

We need to put more play into the everyday. Play will put the show back into show business. Broadcast has spent the better part of twenty years focused on the business at the expense of the show. Without the show, there is no business.

Play is an important part of the hard work that is the creative process.

Play enables, empowers, encourages the creative, the spark.

Play is what brings the real creatives to the gig, they come to play.

Play needs a positive environment, a stage.

Play requires an advocate and sometime defense attorney.

Comments: The gifted talent and legendary performer Tom Kent favors us with a comment. Check it out below. Here's a taste...

"The paradigm must shift from sales first to the show first and then we will witness how dramatically the bottom line will improve. When we put money first, money will elude us. When the greater mission is first and is driven by passion and talent, watch the money pour in."

Thanks Tom!

Bonus: ze is back, he came to play, and play again.

Congrats & cheers: Steve Dahl on his big time wins in the trend. His last on WCKG was an exceptional performance. #2 12+ (to the Cubs #1 WGN), #1 25-54 pers, #1 25-54 men, #1 35-64 pers, #1 men 18+. Steve is a rock star playing at the top of his game. A certain unwritten rule applies here. The first ratings to be released after a station has been blown up (or a talent has been released) will invariably be good, exceed any expectation and defy all logic. WCKG posted a twelve month high, 1.7 12+ with a 281k cume. Steve's performance will provide the new format with a solid PMD lift in their fall book. AMD, 25-54, The Morning Fix beat the CKG O&A + GM combo. Middays with one hour of GM, S&T and one hour of Steve, posting a 2.5 25-54 which placed the daypart 16th and ahead of Love, 780 and WLUP. My sense is the 2pm hour was, likely, the primary driver.

"Don't be discouraged by a failure. It can be a positive experience. Failure is, in a sense, the highway to success, inasmuch as every discovery of what is false leads us to seek earnestly after what is true, and every fresh experience points out some form of error which we shall afterwards carefully avoid." John Keats

"The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments." Flaubert

"Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity." Albert Einstein

Today's image: Need for Speed by Amnemona. Fun shot. Thank you very much.

It's that time of year. Making the best of the days and weeks remaining before year end. Getting ready for the new year.

One of the most important questions to ask is "Who are we?" The question regards our highest aspirations. What exactly are those aspirations? How will we define success? What measures must we monitor? Business objectives should be stated in clear and simple terms. For example:

Top five, 25-54
Top five rev producer
20% of rev = non spot

55% bcf

Aspirations, indeed our highest aspirations, should be bigger than our business objectives. Aspirations should be the stuff of dramatic difference. Achievement of our business objectives allows us, enables us, to reach for our aspirations. The two largest retailers in the US are doing just that. Wal-Mart and Target are each funding community initiatives, initiatives that make real differences in their respective communities. Broadcast has the unique, powerful and game-changing ability to influence.

On a roll: Dr Dave is...

"Hyperlinks are the opposite of information. They enrich, rather than reduce. Open-ended, decentralized, messy… all the things databases of info are not. Most of all, they are social...

...They are done for someone by someone. Linking is a type of writing. We link for some anticipated set of readers.

So, the Web works against the regime of informationalization."

"It is ultimately language that is the unspoken between us. Language is driven by what matters to us. We have words, sentences, paragraphs, punctuation.... That’s the shared lumpiness of the the unsaid. And now we have links. Links that have presence and persistence.

Our brains discriminate edges, but we we also are fascinated by the transcendence of edges. The value is in the complex, the loose-edged, the potential, the unspoken, because that is what we share and how the world matter to us.

Defrag -- our generational project, not just this conference -- isn’t about reassembling pieces. It’s not about clarity and simplicity. It’s about how we are finding ways to let the world matter to us together. For that we need to enable, cherish, and protect the unspoken between us."

More here. Bravos, David!

Bonus: Michael Rosenblum...

"We are all pioneers in a new realm - the world of communicating and expressing yourself online - not necessarily to ‘the viewers’, but increasingly to ‘each other’.

It’s not broadcasting. And it’s not vlogging.

It is something else.

With its own rules, its own grammar and its own path to take.

We are really just getting started with this, but I think there is something here."

Outstanding! Michael's blog is a must-read, his thoughts well worth the bandwidth. MORE

Brian Williams held his own and turned in a fine performance with the SNL kids. Kudos to Howie for making it a topic on Reliable. I'm with Rachael on this one.

Where the hell is the Container API? Russell Beattie asks the important question here.

Pump up the volume: Who had more sponsored link impressions than eBay and IAC in September and August? From zero, that's zilch in July to growth at the rate of 209,950%...the answer here. My thanks to Alex Patriquin and the Compete crew for sharing the insights.

Web 2.0 - On The Ropes? You decide. Tom Foremski offers up his take here.

Who's zooming whom? Radio trade pub edition: Blue = R&R, Red = Radio-Info, Green= Inside Radio.



Jan Chipchase, Nokia researcher, delivered a great talk at TED earlier this year. Jan does human behavioral research, his talk is about connections and consequences. He is preoccupied with what we carry. "The street will take it and will figure out ways to innovate...and it will innovate in ways that we cannot anticipate." Kudos, Jan! Outstanding.

Owned > Considered > Carried > Used

Congrats & cheers: Steve Dahl on the debut of his new morning show. Dan Mason and Dr Kathleen Dillon on their marriage.

"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.

"My motto was always to keep swinging. Whether I was in a slump or feeling badly or having trouble off the field, the only thing to do was keep swinging." Hank Aaron

"You can't win until you learn how to lose." Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

"When you lose, you're more motivated. When you win, you fail to see your mistakes and probably no one can tell you anything." Venus Williams

Today's image: Late Fall Rose by Fred Winston. Great shot. Thanks for sharing.

Great Program Directors deliver numbers to the sales department: Kudos to programming ace Brian Kelly and his team on another exceptional performance. 103.7 KISS FM posted #1 Teens, #1 18-34 Women, #1 18-34 Men, and #1 18-34 Persons. The station delivered a 50.0 cume rating with Teens and a 40.5 cume rating with 18-34 Persons (so much for the continuing myth that the youth market ain't listening to any audio that's wireless). Moreover, Brian's two stations KISS and 99.1 WMYX were both in the top five 25-54 Women. CHR and Hot AC done right are winners, Brian and his team understand how to do just that (as too few others do). Brian Kelly delivers, again, he's the goods.

The unlimited (almost) bandwidth of youth is the answer: Doc writes about Facebook and time spent. My sense is this is a cohort issue. Doc goes on to suggest bringing down the wall. I agree. Further, as has been written here before, they need to get into the export business and out of the import business (as only access).

"The big challenge for Facebook, as it has been for AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo, Apple and everybody else who ever ran a walled garden, is to make their “platform” something that sits on the Net and the Web, not something that substitutes for it. Facebook’s mail, for example, is a substitute. If there’s a way I could get Facebook mail with my IMAP or POP client, I’d rather do that. (Can you, by the way? I doubt it, but I dunno.)" Read Doc's entire post here.

The play's the thing: Michael Rosenblum asks..."It's called The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. But it's not called The New York Times with Tom Friedman. Why is that?" My thought is to quote PJ "In all of art it's the singer not the song." This is especially true with the first tribe of wireless. Talent-driven radio programs (and stations), generally, tend to be more successful, consistently, than those that offer up some bland generic brand. Steve Dahl provides a good exhibit that makes this case. Steve continues to deliver great numbers book after book and does so on an otherwise dead radio station. The audience is tuning in for Steve, they are loyal to Steve not to the station. Years of numbers have proven this to be a fact. Steve is a star, an artiste, he has developed a following that has little (and one could make the case - nothing at all) to do with the radio station around him. He remains a success against all odds and that is one definition of rock star talent. The play's the thing. Moreover, Steve has proven the efficacy of the format, he has confirmed the validity of spoken word on commercial FM. The problem at WCKG is not the format, the problem is execution combined with a massive failure of imagination. It's about casting, providing direction, creating a positive creative environment, setting a stage for greatness. It's a leadership problem.

There is a significant delta between personalities and disc jockeys and yet another between disc jockeys and announcers. Voice actors v. announcers, a grand canyon of difference. The same holds true with TV talent. The reader v the rock star. Almost identical story line-ups (excepting soft), one show wins, one shows loses. Like you I have sat in focus group sessions and watched as one reader gets dialed up and another dialed down delivering the same story. One weather guy wins another loses. At the end of the day, all other things being equal, people listen to and watch those they like (and in some cases those they love to hate). There is no logic to any of these decisions, these preferences and behaviors. People are not rational, they don't do things for any reason but their own.

Personally, I prefer working with rock star talent, they dramatically improve your chances of winning. When I hear that a certain talent is "difficult" it's music to my ears. Typically, it means they care about their work. "The rocks go with the farm" as my friend Larry Bentson is fond of saying. Great talent is a pleasure to work for. They can't be managed, they demand to be led. Read Michael's post The "Talent" Trap here. Bravos Michael for continuing to offer up interesting subject matter of merit.

Almost related: on the day job we have done a number of perceptual studies on the media sales process. One of the most interesting findings is that the highest "rated" media sales professionals are consistently those that are "most liked" without regard to any other single attribute, skill set or variable. All things being equal or even unequal media buyers buy from the people they like. This finding is consistent in market after market. You could say the same about bloggers. There are bloggers and then there are Bloggers. While I might not always agree with Dave Winer his blog is, consistently, a good and smart read. Same with Dr Dave and Michael Rosenblum. Agree with them, or not, they provoke you to think! Bandwidth well spent. I must admit to being one that enjoys Michael's "Burn it to the ground" thesis because he dares to question practice too far past the best-used by date. The bonus is he offers up an intellectually honest and practical alternative.

Kudos: Jess Lee, Google Maps Project Manager offers up Southern California fire maps here.

Congrats & cheers: Salman Ullah the Google corp dev ace leaves to found a venture firm, Copper River Partners. Scott Herman named EVP, Operations and Michael Weiss hires on as President of Sales, both for CBS Radio.

"In this world a man must either be anvil or hammer." Longfellow

"The beginning is the most important part of the work." Plato

"Expect problems and eat them for breakfast." A. Montapert

Today's image: Golden Gater by Thomas Hawk. Outstanding. Thank you.

Congrats & cheers: Steve Dahl for once again proving the concept "In all of art it's the singer not the song" Steve, as ever, delivered winning numbers for CBS radio in Chicago.

"The great composer does not set to work because he is inspired, but becomes inspired because he is working. Beethoven, Wagner, Bach and Mozart settled down day after day to the job in hand with as much regularity as an accountant settles down each day to his figures. They didn't waste time waiting for inspiration." Ernest Newman

"The value of compassion cannot be over-emphasized. Anyone can criticize. It takes a true believer to be compassionate. No greater burden can be born by an individual than to know no one cares or understands." Arthur Stainback

"Be not too presumptuously sure in any business; for things of this world depend on such a train of unseen chances that if it were in man's hands to set the tables, still he would not be certain to win the game." Herbert

Richard Perez-Pena writes How Solid Is the Deal for Tribune Company via NYT here.

I want my GMail: the email app drives Google campus products, details here.

My vote for best Cobb salad: The Grill On The Alley. Had a great lunch at the Chicago store.

The It's Only A Trend department: WCKG in Chicago is doing the right format the wrong way. Overall, 25-54, the station fails to place in the top 20 and has actually managed to fall behind some of the lesser signals in the market. The check engine light is now flashing - warning - the continuing cume slide has now put the station under 200k. The star of this show, Steve Dahl, continues to be the station's only solid ratings producer. O&A ain't making it. Middays weak. Nights took a hit, perhaps a bounce. It's Only A Trend is the odds on favorite excuse of the hour, in the on-deck circle It's Only The Summer Book. The 25-54 winners this round: WPPN, WOJO, WGCI, WVAZ, WDRV, WTMX, WUSN and WNUA. WKQX was ranked 27th in the demo, and to put this into context, stations ahead of them included WCKG, WSRB and WGRB. Ouch. WSRB beats WCKG in demo; WCKG ties WGRB in demo. Go figure.

Bonus: C. Max Magee is blogging lit at The Millions

Congrats & cheers: James Blunt. His latest title "1973" is fresh, poppy, catchy (nice hook), a tight track. Props too to the writer, producer, and all involved, sorry - not able to locate credits yet..."I would call you up every Saturday night and we'd both stay out 'til the morning light and we sang "Here we go again" And though time goes by I will always be in a club with you in 1973 singing, "Here we go again" My thanks to JB's fan forum for the confirmation of lyrics. Clever AC, A3 programmers will pair this track with a very cool '73 track. I would alternate best testing with rarely heard on the wireless, drive off the road staff favs of '73. Listener side of the radio objective: "WOW, Am I really hearing this on the radio!?" I'm most certain Teuber, and the other programming aces known by only one name, will have better ideas on staging..."what seemed so strong has been and gone"...do check out the tune. Also noted Hayley Williams, she might just be one of the most talented teenagers fronting a band this summer. Paramore's Misery Business track is cool.

Spanish red: Another good value under $10. Carchelo 2005 Monastrell.

"Only in show business could a guy with a C-minus average be considered an intellectual." Mort Sahl

"A critic is a man who knows the way but can't drive the car." Kenneth Tynan

"A bridge in America just shouldn't fall down." Sen Amy Klobuchar

Today's image by Hugh MacLeod.

We have liftoff: eBay Media Marketplace has enabled a six-figure order for Oxygen. It's a Q3 scatter deal for Intel including spots and a movie sponsorship. The agency is Universal McCann. This is the first order completed using the eBay platform. Kudos to Mary Jeanne Cavanagh, Oxygen's head of ad sales for getting the order without making a single phone call, buyer and seller communicated using the platform's messaging system. Second tier net, yes, but a smart move by the same guys who were smart enough to involve the brilliant Dale Pon in their branding. They deserve credit for doing something different in sales.

The E.A.R. Awards site opens with video. Where's the audio dudes? The copywriter vid is pretty cool but it's not too late to call Chuck Blore about creating an engaging audio opener.

Dahl makes the difference, again: As mentioned here earlier, Steve Dahl, the legendary Chicago radio star, delivered another great book and continues to carry an entire radio station. Now the stats. 65% of the station's 25-54 men and almost 66% of the 25-54 adults are Dahl listeners. Steve's recycling metrics are excellent, of course, in the sixty percent range (compare with morning drive that posted less than thirty percent). Truly remarkable; Steve is producing an audience from scratch everyday. His ratings production serves as a strong practical example of real-world appointment listening behavior. Congrats Steve! Closed circuit to Drew: the station production values need to be much stronger, fresher, the "man in the can" sound is played out.

"Good advice is never cheap, cheap advice is never good." Johnny Martin

"The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day and hour with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure." Edward Gibbon

"To help the young soul, to add energy, inspire hope, and blow the coals into a useful flame; to redeem defeat by new thought and firm action, this, though not easy, is the work of divine men." Emerson

Today's photo: The legendary Steve Dahl. Congrats and cheers to Steve and crew on another #1 book (25-54M). Steve's show also posted a top five performance 25-54A. Hey, nice package. The ratings delivery of programming on before Steve continues to lag far behind Steve's winning performance. The anomaly moves forward unabated...an entire Chicago radio station kept alive, saved in fact, by one show, one star. Amazing. Some earlier posts on Steve here, here and here. Bravos Steve!

"There is no such thing as a good script, only a good film, and I'm conscious that my scripts often read better than they play." Alan Bennett

"The cinema is not a craft. It is an art. It does not mean team work. One is always alone; on the set as before the blank page." Jean-Luc Godard

"We are all actors now...Everyone in America now explains a moment in their lives by saying, 'It was like a scene out of...'" Peggy Noonan

Today's image: Thinker by Ron Fell. Thank you so much Ron!

With the books rolling out there is lots to think about. Kudos to Rick Martini and his Fresh 102.7 FM team on a fine showing. Back in the threes (and #8 25-54A, #7 25-54W) where those 7th Avenue guys belong. Joel Hollander greenlighted Fresh but will not be remembered for it. Cheers to WSKQ #1 25-54. Congrats to Z100 #2 12+ repeating that 4.6 Winter posting and to K-Rock #14 to #5 25-54 men. WAXQ #2 25-54 men.

Buzz: Hearst to acquire UGO.com for over $100 Mil. UGO.com is a collection of sites targeting young men.

He's back: Dave Winer offers up Why Feedburner is trouble, day 2. You decide.

Dems on CNN: For all the fuss about the game-changing YouTube questions, the answers were just more of the same. These are not debates but candidate press conferences. Too short on substance. Not enough interaction between candidates. C+ to MC Anderson.

Back to the future: WCKG, Chicago from Free FM back to the original Reid Reker branding The Package. Congrats to Steve Dahl, the evangelist of this move. (Stever's take on Tammy Faye here.)

Bonus: A Group Is Its Own Worst Enemy - Clay Shirky. Thanks to Hugh for the tip.

"This talk is in three parts. The best explanation I have found for the kinds of things that happen when groups of humans interact is psychological research that predates the Internet, so the first part is going to be about W.R. Bion's research, which I will talk about in a moment, research that I believe explains how and why a group is its own worst enemy.

The second part is: Why now? What's going on now that makes this worth thinking about? I think we're seeing a revolution in social software in the current environment that's really interesting.

And third, I want to identify some things, about half a dozen things, in fact, that I think are core to any software that supports larger, long-lived groups." The entire writing here.

Let us now praise editors: An excellent writing by Gary Kamiya via Salon. My thanks to programming ace Tom Teuber for the tip...

"The truth is, you have to learn how to be edited just as much as you have to learn how to edit. And learning how to be edited teaches you a lot about writing, about distance and objectivity and humility, and ultimately about yourself...The art of editing is running against the cultural tide. We are in an age of volume; editing is about refinement. It's about getting deeper into a piece, its ideas, its structure, its language. It's a handmade art, a craft. You don't learn it overnight. Editing aims at making a piece more like a Stradivarius and less like a microchip. And as the media universe becomes larger and more filled with microchips, we need the violin makers." Read the entire writing with letters (comments) here.

The Greatest Hits of The '60s, '70s ... And '80s? Sean Ross writes about WCBS-FM, the oldies format and that pesky question of eras here. Bravo Sean, well done! Cohort replacement is a beautiful thing.

Congrats & cheers: Jay Gould and Aaron Cohn on their now out of beta WikiYou. Farday Media on today's launch of their very cool new sidebar Particls.

"...stories about Obama have been attracting too many racist comments" Brian Montopoli

Today's quote from Brian's writing CBSNews.com Turns Off Comments on Obama Stories here.

Cory Bergman has discussion with comments here.

Congrats & cheers: Steve Dahl again delivers the only competitive 25-54 numbers on WCKG (Winter book). Bravo Steve! But wait, there's more...CBS would be wise to make an arrangement with Steve to sell his web inventory. According to Alexa it seems Steve's site captures more page views than the WCKG station site. Steve does a great job with his site, whereas the WCKG site clearly needs some serious attention. Steve also appears to generate more uvs than the station site. Here's a Compete SnapShot:



Uber-mensch Dick Rakovan checks in to advise the great John Rook will be attending tomorrow's gathering in Chicago. See you there Rackets!

Robert E. Ingstad, Jr has passed. Bob was a second generation broadcaster and a good man. During my consulting days of the last century I advised stations that competed with Bob. In my experience his stations were always well run and strong competitors. He also had a gift for attracting smart and talented people. Many accomplished broadcasters began their careers or sharpened their saws at an Ingstad property. An original in every sense, Bob will be missed. Services have been set for May 10 in Valley City, North Dakota. Our thoughts are with Bob's wife Jan Marie and his children.

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.

Photo: Madison twilight by KAP'n Craig

Amazing image, thanks. To appreciate this image please click on the photo title above, on the flickr page select "all sizes" above the image, upper left and choose original size. Also keep in mind he shot this from a kite, probably standing on the lake (which is now frozen) and it was single digit cold when he shot it. Bravo KAP'n Craig! (Closed circuit to Madison media: hire this guy or at least license his images for a charity calendar, your website, et al)

Craig Wilson uses a "kite cam" to create his very cool pics. Check out and buy, via Amazon, his book Hanging by a Thread: A Kite's View of Wisconsin here.

"A talent can be cultivated in tranquility; a character only in the rushing stream of life." Goethe

Web 2.0 in less than five minutes: Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, has produced a killer video. Highly recommended. Check it out via YouTube here. Thanks to Dave for the tip.

Nobody liked it but the prospects: The Salesgenie.com Super Bowl ad, one of the ads rated poorly by the ad community, critics and citizens alike, seems to have been a good investment. The company says they signed up more than 10,000 new subscribers by Monday afternoon (they needed 700 new subs to break even on the ad). Salon's King Kaufman has more, Shockingly, the experts - that's all of us - got it wrong on that Salesgenie Super Bowl ad here. Reminds me of something the great David Ogilvy said about those infomercials run in the dead of night..."they work."

The sail to Sydney: Ron Fell posting from the Pacific here. Bravo Ron! Well done.

The Wizards of Buzz: Jamin Warren and John Jurgensen do a fine job reviewing the bidding that has become known as social bookmarking. From Digg.com to Reddit.com to Del.icio.us to StumbleUpon the gang's all here. Read their well-written WSJ piece here. Bravo Jamin and John!

Google will crack the code: Some folks are making a mistake by counting out the Google Audio initiative. Of course there are "hurdles" but none that can not be overcome. View this as a marathon rather than a sprint. It's way early on. Miguel Helft writes about Google via cnet/NYT here

Tribune "self-help" strategy: Sarah Ellison and Dennis K. Berman update the Tribune story writing in WSJ here. My thought is should they sell off broadcast TV they are not likely to retain WGN radio. Assuming a bcf of 40%, a modest 10 multiple would yield $193,600,000. My guess is the station could go for close to $200 mil. Of course several other factors would be in play. Cubs rights and real estate issues could have impact that might not be insignificant.

Wheredaguy?: Ron Jacobs' website, ronjacobsonline, is MIA. Any insight into what's up with the Big Kahuna? My hope is all is well with Ron.

Burger invented here: Was it CT, TX or WI? Fred Winston blogs on the birth of the burger here

W2W Anna Nicole: The freak show was off the chain last week. The characters in the Anna Nicole drama being way too rich to resist. The biopics, the tabs, the November sweeps, the books, the courts, the lawyers, this one is only beginning. Steve Dahl served up his usual, unvarnished, pov..."Friday morning on Today on NBC, they said that Anna Nicole was famous for being famous. It seems to me that she was famous for having really large breasts and an extremely messed up personal life." Read Steve's take here.

Thomas Szasz: "The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget."

"Manage by setting objectives and organizing, motivating, communicating with, measuring, and developing people, including yourself." Peter Drucker

Time to vote for the 2007 bloggies! Voting closes 10pm est this Friday. Congrats to all finalists. A really tight competition this year. Here's just a taste, three of the thirty categories...

Best weblog about music: Pitchfork, Stereogum, You Ain't No Picasso, Yank Blog, 3Hive

Best entertainment weblog: Defamer, Blogging Project Runway, Pink Is the New Blog, PerezHilton, Go Fug Yourself

Weblog of the year: Go Fug Yourself, PostSecret, Gizmodo, Dooce, Boing Boing, Lifehacker

Check out all of the finalists and vote, early and often, here.

The hookup: XM hangin with Mr Softy. As suggested, encouraged for some years now, the first tribe of wireless (and those FM with pictures guys) need a Redmond strategy. XM has one. Vista ships with XM on board. The story here. (p.s. it's not too late, the ultimate destination is local, perhaps an ad hoc group should make the trip and spend some time with Mr Groove himself, Ozzie. This is the part where you get extra points for those live and local investments). Perspective: Ray looking back and looking forward in Dec 2005 here

Lovin that Tempranillo: Do yourself a favor and please pick up some of this good Spanish grape. The Vina Sardasol 2005 (Navarra - 100% Tempranillo) is available for under $10; highly recommended. As close to stealing as one should ever get.

Lovin that chili: Fred Winston updates his classic chili recipe. Check it out here.

Not appreciated: The folks at WBBM Channel 2, Chicago, decided to put up a little blue-and-orange countdown clock on the screen to count down the days, hours and minutes until the Bears play in the big game. "It wasn't appreciated by people watching the Hallmark movie of the week" said Carol Fowler, ND at the CBS O&O. Pulled outta prime. Phil Rosenthal has the story in the Trib here. Meanwhile Chicago radio star Steve Dahl blogs the bowl here as only he can. Bravo Steve, well done!

Congrats & Cheers: Arbitron gets MRC seal of approval, onward! Reggie Rouse named VP Urban for CBS Radio.

The readers will see you now: Gary Kamiya writing in Salon, The readers strike back...

"There's an old New Yorker cartoon in which a Führer-like figure, standing onstage in front of a huge "Triumph of the Will" crowd, says, "I think I may say, without fear of contradiction..." That pretty much sums up the elite media's relation with its audience before the Internet. We all need to be contradicted when we're wrong -- and we're all wrong a lot. The Führer is dead -- long live the people!

And yet, it's too easy simply to celebrate the downfall of the elite media and glory in the toppling of the gatekeepers. Yes, they -- we -- could and can be smug and arrogant. Yes, we should be summoned to account when we screw up. And yes, the online revolution has made it easier to do that. But to be part of an elite doesn't mean you're divinely anointed. It simply means you have some aptitude for what you do and have spent years learning to do it, and so you're probably better at it than most people. Not smarter, not a better human being -- just better at your craft. This is true of football players, surgeons, chefs and auto mechanics -- why shouldn't it be true of journalists as well? Forget the word "elite": In our laudable all-American haste to trash bogus royalty, let's not forget there's a completely different category. It's called professionalism."

"But the pell-mell rush of information flooding across a million screens has made it too easy for readers to forget that the info-byte they just swallowed was a handcrafted object.

Pro athletes have a saying: "Respect the game." It may be too much to expect the mouse-wielding masses to embrace that credo. But a little respect would go a long way to restoring the heft of the written word, its shape and dignity. And in an age of weightless information, that would be good for readers and writers alike."

Read the entire piece here. Kudos Gary! Well reasoned, well written. Thanks to Romenesko for the tip. I certainly respect and appreciate Gary's thoughts on unfiltered forums. Comments here are moderated not to avoid conversation including alternative povs but to avoid lawyers. Trade forums are populated, in the majority, with posts by noms de plume. While I understand most firms prohibit open participation by employees the result is too often the freak show of rants and drive by bashings keystroked by persons unknown. The ability to hide behind one (or more) identities seems to bring out a kind of bad behavior clearly absent when one is required to properly sign the writing. 21st century graffiti, the kilroys are here, online, social grace and decency be damned. Still, the conversation goes on, good thoughtful comments are being heard above the noise made by the fools, idiots and the occasional playful, if snarky, wit of pranksters.

The right pov from the Wright guy: B&C writer John Eggerton tells us...

"NBC Universal Chairman Bob Wright tells B&C that this is the last business cycle where an old-line media company can afford not to have at least 20%-30% of its business in digital. But he also says the digital component is not yet sufficient to boost the bottom line of companies with only "average" performance in traditional businesses."

Read the entire article here. Thanks to LR ace Steve Safran for the tip.