"The conditions of conquest are always easy. We have but to toil awhile, endure awhile, believe always, and never turn back." Seneca

Chairman John Conyers, Jr will lead the House Judiciary hearing "Competition and the Future of Digital Music" beginning this afternoon at 3 eastern. This is the special Anti-Trust Taskforce created by the Judiciary Committee. Live streaming of the hearing here and here. C-SPAN3 will carry live. NAB CEO David Rehr and pay radio's Mel Karmazin are on the witness panel with others. The topic of discussion is the proposed XM-Sirius merger.

Campaign cash: Mel gave the Democratic Senatorial Committee $26,700 last June and $10,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee last March. Representative Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) was given $4,200 by Mel, $4,200 by Mel's wife Terry (Theresa) and $4,200 by Mel's son Craig, all in March of last year. Mr. Engel serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce (and the subcommittee on telecommunications and the internet). David Rehr gave $4,500 to the National Republican Congressional Committee last year. Gigi Sohn, another witness, gave Taskforce member representative Mr. Rick Boucher $250 in 2005. Not able to find any political contributions by witness Mark Cooper. Witness Charles E. Biggio does not appear to have made contributions to any national campaign committees nor to any house members or campaigns. These may or may not represent all contributions by witnesses.

Saving Radio in the Satellite Era: NYT Opinion piece by NYU prof Eric Klinenberg here. I'll opine on this writing tomorrow.

Got music? Two cool music sites, now in beta, recently bookmarked. Check out iLike here, and MOG here.

"Don't overlook the fact that you are working for a boss. Keep him or her informed. Whatever the boss wants, within the bounds of integrity, takes top priority." William Swanson

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

"The intent is not to encourage fawning behavior or narrowness of scope, but only to suggest that for the organization to achieve its goals, everyone must be on the same page. If you are going around your boss, you've left a key contributor out of the loop.

On the other hand, if you believe that your boss is not seeing the big picture or is headed in the wrong direction, you should speak up and be straightforward about your concerns. If you have a good boss, you candor will be appreciated and valued; in fact, it will improve your relationship.

When your boss gives you an assignment, make it a priority, even thought you may want to work on something else. Remember that you often don't know who gave your boss the assignment in the first place. It could have been the President or CEO."

Terry Heaton has written an very good essay Voyeurism: Journalism's 21st Centry Crisis...

"The traditional press has no choice but to continue its quest for a mass audience and serve the harsh taskmaster that ad revenue has become. This will not change, nor should it. Business is business, and it's vital that traditional media companies stay alive and financially healthy. A sudden collapse of the Media 1.0 hegemony would destroy our economy, so the mainstream MUST live on.

This means that the changes necessary to evolve won't—in fact, can't—come from the legacy brand, for it has no choice but to play in the world of Anna Nicole Smith. If they don't, they run the significant risk of alienating what's left of their audience, for people have come to expect — whether they'll admit it or not — that one of the roles of contemporary media is to satisfy their voyeuristic information needs."

Bravo Terry! Read the entire essay here. (Thanks to lostremote for the tip)

Mr Karmazin goes to Washington: Staff will brief members - this is the guy who was before us on that Super Bowl-Janet Jackson-half-time-TV mess. This is the guy who took C-SPAN off his service. This is the guy who wants us to help him to merge with his only competitor and create a pay radio monopoly. This is the guy the NAB and the broadcasters from back home have been telling us about. Yeah, this is that guy from New York. PS, he is also generous in supporting campaigns. This show is more about Main Street than Wall Street. It's potentially the time when one letter to a member from an unhappy ex-subscriber grandmother becomes an important issue of discussion because she's a consumer, a voter, a constituent. It's politics. Good luck Mel, you're going to need it.

It ain't either-or, it's and: Latest data from Arbitron indicates satellite users are heavy AM/FM listeners to wit: "Satellite listeners spent an average of 33 hours a week with radio compared with the typical listener who listened approximately 19 hours a week to radio. Also, people who listened to satellite spent more time with AM/FM radio (14 hours) than they did with satellite radio (10 hours 45 minutes) or Internet (8 hours 15 minutes)." But wait there's more..."Arbitron's recent analysis revealed that the highest share of quarter hours for an individual satellite radio channel was 0.2 percent. The average satellite radio channel had a .009 percent share of quarter hours, which would not be high enough to meet Arbitron’s minimum reporting standards." Ouch! Complete release via Arbitron here. As has been said here before, there's no there, there. To capture only 3.4% of all radio listening after investing billions of dollars is perhaps the most telling stat of all. The pay radio folk need a new business model, pronto. To be fair, Arbitron should remove all listening attributed to non-commercial channels. If they have included channels not accepting commercials the numbers would be artificially inflated. My sense is while the pay radio guys may not now pose any real threat to the first tribe of wireless they may yet prove to be a serious threat to those holding their equity and their debt. A serious threat, perhaps, even to those employed by them. Those without the protections of a golden parachute. Too early to tell, stay tuned. Inquiring minds wanna know: what channel is getting that top-rated 0.2? Is it Howard or is it Fox News? Columbia, please provide a top ten. Thank you.

Later: Thanks for all the emails on the Arbitron pay radio numbers. My point about reducing the estimates by those channels not accepting commercials is to reach a better apples to apples comparison with commercial radio. Given that Mel and his team have high hopes for advertising as a rev stream what kind of weight do they bring to the market is my question. No disrespect intended for the commercial-free music channels. Listening estimates providing both commercial and non-commercial channels separated could provide a better understanding of pay radio listening and the commercial potential of ad-friendly channels. Again, thanks for feedback.

Closed circuit to Michael Harrison: Thanks for sharing the Heavy Hundred.
p.s. you did a good job with Howie last Sunday, congrats.

"The road to happiness lies in two simple principles: find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and natural ability you have." John D. Rockefeller III

"Genius is only a superior power of seeing." John Ruskin

Tribune: Management said January revenues were down 5% from last year, mainly due to weakness in print advertising. Sarah Ellison writing for WSJ provides an update on the auction and Sam Zell here. My sense is they will spin the TV stations and WGN radio as part of their strategy, self-help or not. (Thanks to Romenesko for the tip). Staci Kramer has more coverage over at paidContent here.

Don Hewitt: "We don't need backers...If we get it going, and they start contributing, we can put it on Yahoo or Google or somewhere." The great Don with son, a former colleague and film students aim to launch a new enterprise. The story by The Village Voice's Keach Hagey here. Go Don, go!

Dave Winer: On podcasting, the ideal podcast player and more. Dave is spot-on that the ideal player should both play and record, should be based on "open" architecture and should provide wireless connectivity. Dave's talk (MP3) at last week's meet Public Media 2007 in Boston here. Highly recommended. Bravo Dave! Well said.

FYI: eMarketer's projection is podcast advertising is a nice little $400 mil business. This projection is likely based on the transactional ad models now in use and might turn out to be way less than the real potential for podcasting. Lots of innovation ahead.

Oscars: Fine job by Ellen last night. Award show crowds tend to be a hard room to play...as the night goes on the room fills with losers. Great that Marty finally got the hardware and formal recognition.

More from Jack Lechner's excellent writing on HBO...

What’s a good HBO project? Something new and different.

Isn’t our project new and different? Not enough for HBO.

So what’s new and different enough for HBO? We know it when we see it.

Read Jack's GOOD Magazine article here.

Bonus: Henry Jenkins

Chicago: Now working in or around the music biz in the second city? You did previously? You will not want to miss the biggest reunion in Chicago records and radio history. Paul Gallis, Clark Weber and Jim Scully invite you to be a part of the fun Tuesday May, 8. Details and RSVP info here. See you there!

Photo: Magical Morning by Mazda6 Beautiful shot, thank you.

"I think that when your sole goal is to be good, when everyone who's working there has that frame of reference, then, right away, you're dealing with something special. That may be a little bit different than when your goal is to sell ad time, or drive up ratings - not that ratings aren't important to us, they are important to us - but we live in a world that what we're selling is HBO." Carolyn Strauss (from the GOOD Magazine article Not TV by Jack Lechner. Bravo Jack, well done!)

"Things done well and with a care, exempt themselves from fear." Shakespeare

"One age cannot be completely understood if all the others are not understood. The song of history can only be sung as a whole." Jose Ortega y Gasset

As announced today via Robert Feder, Joel Denver and others, the legendary Paul Gallis will stage the biggest reunion of Chicago music industry professionals ever held. All folks from records, radio and other music related enterprises (e.g., concert promotion, retail, rack jobbers, et al) are invited to attend. Joining Paul in this project are his equally celebrated friends Clark Weber and Jim Scully. Save the date: Tuesday, May 8. Details and rsvp info here. See you there!

Claude Hall's last hurrah: Which reminds me, the great Paulie Gallis deserved and won the "Independent Promotion Executive of the Year" award at Claude's last Billboard International Radio Programming Forum. New Orleans, 1976. That storied meet was the model that later inspired the first NAB RPC (Radio Programming Conference).

Sherman, to the wayback machine: Courtesy of Bill Gavin. Gavin's "Men of the Year" Awards were the radio "Oscars" of their day. Since Paulie Gallis is bringing up names I have not heard in decades, let's make mention of some award winning Chicago pros from the past. Here are the Chicago pros and their top national honors in the prestigious Gavin awards...

• Dick Biondi, WLS, Disc Jockey, Top 40, 1961, 1962
  
• Ralph Beaudine, WLS, Radio Man of the Year (five-way tie), 1962
  
• Chris Lane, WJJD, Radio Man of the Year, 1965
• George Dubinetz, WJJD, General Manager, C&W, 1965, 1966, 1967
  
• Chris Lane, WJJD, Program Director, C&W, 1965, 1966, 1967
  
• Chris Lane, WJJD, Music Director, C&W, 1965, 1966
  
• John Trotter, WJJD, Disc Jockey, C&W, 1965, 1967
  
• E. Rodney Jones, WVON, Disc Jockey, R&B, 1965, 1967, 1968
  
• Gene Taylor, WLS, General Manager, Top 40, 1966
• Lucky Cordell, WVON, Program Director, R&B, 1966, 1967, 1970
  
• WLS, Radio Station of the Year, 1968
• Lucky Cordell, WVON, Station Manager, R&B, 1968, 1969
  
• John Rook, WLS, Program Director, Top 40, 1969
• Art Roberts, WLS, Music Director, Top 40, 1969
• Paul Christy, WCFL, Music Director, Top 40, 1970
• E. Rodney Jones, WVON, Music Director, R&B, 1970
• Wally Phillips, WGN, Disc Jockey, Rockless, 1970
• Jerry Cobb, WVON, Disc Jockey, R&B, 1970
• Larry Lujack, WLS, Disc Jockey, Top 40, 1971
• WVON, Distinguished Service Award, 1972

The 1962 Radio Man of the Year tie included Gordon McLendon (prexy McLendon stations), Jack Thayer (GM of WHK), Sam Holman (PD of WABC) and Harvey Glascock (GM of WIP). Amazing. Love that category Wally took - "Rockless" - WGN would have been "Full-service MOR" in those days.

Congrats & cheers: Ian Rogers named GM of Yahoo! Music. Michael Harrison has published his Heavy Hundred 2007. Billed as "the 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America" the annual list is always a subject of discussion. This year's top ten...

1. Rush Limbaugh
2. Sean Hannity
3. Michael Savage
4. Dr. Laura
5. Ed Schultz
6. Opie & Anthony
7. Laura Ingraham
8. Mike Gallagher
9. Neal Boortz
10. Glenn Beck

Mancow ranked #11, Howard Stern #12. The Heavy Hundred plus another 150 noted talkers, the complete Talkers' 250 here.

Inevitable by
Thomas Hawk

Cool shot, thank you.

"To contrive is nothing! To construct is something! To produce is everything! Edward Rickenbacker

"There is a calculated risk in everything. There has been a calculated risk in every stage of American development. The nation was built by men who took risks - pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, business men who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action." Brooks Atkinson

Save the date: Tuesday, May 8th. If you work or once worked in or around the Chicago music scene (radio, music promotion, distribution, label sales, et al) you will want to save this date. Details coming tomorrow.

This week marks the two-year anniversary of Hunter S. Thompson's suicide. Joel Renna writes about the good doctor here. The guru of gonzo said a great many profound things, some of my favorites: "It still hasn't gotten weird enough for me." "When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro." "The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." I miss Hunter, we need him at times like these, his is a voice missing in the conversation. What would he have thought about the freak show coverage of Anne Nicole's death.

Listening: If you have not heard the songs of Regina Spektor you probably should. Highly recommended. When interviewed by CBS for their Sunday Morning program the reporter asked about her hardscrabble childhood in Moscow and how she feels about now living in New York. Sensing the reporter's objective she replied "You can't make me cry. I'm a Bronx girl." She is that and can she sing. Jump to her site here.

Fred Winston is blogging about meat (with a very cool photo) here and tells us a story about a 65 pound tooth here.

Top 10 Gmail tips and hacks: Courtesy of David Chartier here. I love my Gmail, thanks David. (&thanks to Techmeme for the tip)

Talent, talent everywhere: There has never been a better time to find talented, gifted people to engage in your enterprise. One of the wonderful things about today's rich interactive environment is if we provide a way for talented people to contribute, they will. Case in point. A suburban Chicago high school student earns an internship on the NBC hit show The Office. Fred Jacobs has the story here. Provide a simple, easy way to participate, enable the sharing of your simple contribution process (e.g., "Come play with us and email a friend this cool invitation to play"- dial up the "fun factor" to eleven), offer up premiums that money can't buy (think: priceless, like The Office walk-on. Never underestimate the power of recognition, getting on-air name mention is not a big thing to us, it remains a very big thing to viewers/listeners), boldly extend the invitation - repeat with audacity, celebrate the contributors. McConnell and Huba write about the 1% that are active contributors. If you have not heard 80/20 is dead online. It's now 100/1. All you need do is engage your 1%. How are you getting their attention, capturing their interest, inspiring their imagination, getting them to take action and contribute? (Hint: Make them the stars of your show)

Exactly wrong: Banner on a station site "Bigger and Better Advertising Opportunities! Now Available @ XXXX Click here to find out more" When clicking you get a page with nothing more than one line of text and an email address link ("To advertise on the air contact our sales department - sales@xxxx.com"). No bigger and better opportunities, nothing more found out. This is a major missed opportunity: 1. A total waste of banner space 2. A wasted click. The landing page fails to payoff the banner. More important, 99%+ of the time you have lost a prospect unless you honestly feel the very few prospects that do click will also 1. click on the email link 2. allow their email client to load 3. write you an email asking for more information. Not going to happen. And yet you wonder why your site is not generating sales leads. There's a much better way. Please stop making it hard for me to spend my money. Think! Put yourself on the user side of the equation. Payoff all promises, all expectations created. Reward my click. Don't waste my time. Don't make me think. Tell me a story. Always keep in mind: "what's in it for me?"

Bonus: Seth on customer service here.

I would have made today's post shorter but didn't have the time.

Photo: Ron Fell
Beautiful shot, thank you!
(click on pic for larger image)









"In doing your project, don't wait for others; go after them and make sure it gets done." William Swanson

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

"This rule is about perseverance...Don't be passive, don't just react, and don't assume.

Decide and act. Make sure everybody is on the same page and moving out with you. Ask for help if you need it. Understand what it will take to keep the project moving.

Follow-up is essential and will help ensure success of the project. When done, be sure to share the credit."

They must have research (but so did New Coke): The National Association of Newspapers launches a literacy campaign, celebrity spokesperson included. Optimus Prime. You can't make this stuff up. (Thanks to Rex for the tip)

Early odds: Six to five against the XM Sirius hookup. Potentially the greatest single sale of Mel's career but can he close? This deal is pure politics. No matter the outcome it will be interesting to watch. Meanwhile, Doc opines...

"I don't care how diverse the programming becomes, it's still coming from too few companies. When the choice gets down to one, I guarantee that programming will have a homogenous quality to it. There's already a self-sameness to both Sirius and XM, and that's sure to be the case with Xirius or whatever they call the new company."

"Many listeners, which we used to call "consumers" are now also producers, for themselves and others. Where does satellite radio fit in that picture? I don't think even Mel Karmazin knows. Meanwhile, the whole system continues to leverage an understanding of How Radio Works that is, to say the least, not current — much less future-proof." Read Doc's entire post here.

Commercial radio has self-destructed: Howie Kurtz writes...

"In short, I think the appeal of satellite radio transcends Howard Stern, Oprah Winfrey, and baseball and football games. It's filling a void created by the utter sameness and existential lousiness of commercial radio. Just as the timidity of broadcast television gave rise to cable, the same thing is happening on the radio side." Read Howie's take, Satellite Synergy, here.

At Pacifica programmer Ernesto Aguilar's blog, Rolas de Aztlan, he offers up 3 Reasons Why XM/Sirius News is Good for Radio here.

As only The Onion can: Onion XM/Sirius MOS here. Bravo!

"Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination." John Dewey

"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing." Alfred Einstein

"Every man stamps his value on himself. The price we challenge for ourselves is given us by others. Man is made great or little by his own will." Johann Schiller

Bonus: Crazytopics

Bonus 2: "You can't swing a poodle in business without hitting a tail-wagging-the-dog scenario, where some process, policy, procedure, or program controls user happiness. Where we become slaves to the needs and demands of the IT department, efficiency, accounting, PR, legal, marketing, next-quarter's results, Upper Management, etc. We've heard all of the justifications and excuses. Worst of all, these decisions are nearly always made by people with the least amount of contact with Actual Employees, let alone actual customers." Outstanding! Well said. Read more from Kathy Sierra

Image credit: Always On
Thanks Tony.

David Carlick has written a two-part piece on marketing and advertising. Part one, Messy Online Marketing here. Part two, The Future of Advertising here. Kudos David!

Fred Winston blogs about the beauty of Cleopatra here, and stamps that tastes like pork here. As original a blogger as he is a radio star.

For the first time in school history Wisconsin hoops are #1 in the AP Top 25 poll. Booyah! Congrats to Bo Ryan and team.

"Beautiful forms and compositions are not made by chance, nor can they ever in any material be made at small expense. A composition for cheapness, and not for excellence of workmanship, is the most frequent and certain cause for the rapid decay and entire destruction of arts and manufacture." John Ruskin

"The price of progress is trouble." Charles Kettering

"Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air." John Quincy Adams

Congrats & cheers: Jerry Schnacke promoted to Bonneville's Chicago market manager. Well deserved! Jerry is a gentleman, a mensch and a good broadcaster. Edward Sussman promoted to EVP of Mansueto Ventures and prexy of Mansueto Digital a new division.

Bruce Rave, maven of indie rock, offers up a new (2/13) Go Deep webcast here. Bravo Bruce! Enjoyed the tunes and your commentary too, thank you.

Thoughts on the business of music: Fred Wilson has written a thoughtful post on what's happening, and not happening, in the music business here. Fred also tips us to the Bob Lefsetz writing The End of Innocence here. Kudos to Fred and Bob. (Thanks Fred for sharing the new Modest Mouse track Fire It Up).

We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank: The moment I first heard the title of the new Modest Mouse project - thanks to Tom Teuber on WSUM - my sense was this was music worth waiting for and so far the early reviews are strong. Love that title.

Miles to go before they sleep: This morning's call with Karmazin & Parsons - Ryan Saghir live blogged it here. The first buzz, as Borat would say, is "not so much." Jimmy Guterman rounds up the early bidding, Thumbs Down, here. Nice work Jimmy!

QE2 + QM2: Ron Fell told us, via his blog, these two ships would be in Sydney harbor at the same time this week. An event their respective namesakes last experienced during the 1940s. Certainly someone at NRO, for security reasons alone, must have been asked to task a KH or other EIS platform to provide imagery cover of this historic 21st century event. Perhaps Ron has images to share? LATER: Related story here - QM2 has set sail leaving her smaller sister behind. LATER2: Ron checks in from Sydney to say it was a spectacular event replete with first-class fireworks but, sadly, he has no images to offer up. Thanks Ron!

What he forgot to say: My thanks to Lee Arnold for his very kind words. The simple facts are I was the one that worked for Lee, he was one of my bosses. It was an honor, a privilege and my pleasure to serve and support Lee. The job of corporate staff is to serve those in the field, to help them to make things happen, to assist and support them in producing results. Corporate is nothing more than a cost center. Everything that's important in the enterprise happens in the field period, paragraph. Staff's mission is to serve the field. It's all about servant leadership. My first staff job required me to leave behind a good company and a field job in Chicago, I had to move to the city. I'm reminded of the words Eisenhower wrote after a week at his new desk job in the War Dept "There are lots of amateur strategists on the job, and prima donnas everywhere. I'd give anything to be back in the field." Early on in my new corporate post came a meeting with a consultant to the firm. Commenting on one of our station people, the consultant said to me "he can't be any good, he works for us." Unable to get him to understand why that kind of thinking was plainly wrong I let him go. He was later rehired after I left the firm. The lesson here is subjective issues are too often nothing more than issues of politics. I remain proud of the fine work that Lee and his Detroit team achieved during and after my watch. I am blessed he is my long-time friend, Lee is one very remarkable and gifted professional.

Really good red wine <$10: My love affair with Spanish wine continues. One of the best reds for the money is the 2005 Casa Castillo, Monastrell Jumilla. This is a 100% Mourvedre varietal (the Spanish call it Monastrell). The second leading Spanish grape variety after Grenache.

Photo: Snowy Bike by DrStarbuck
Cool shot, thank you!


"Better three hours too soon, than one minute too late." Shakespeare

"Johnson well says, 'He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything.' Life is made up of little things. It is very rarely that an occasion is offered for doing a great deal at once. True greatness consists in being great in little things." Charles Simmons

Congrats & cheers: Brian Kelly, the way-dialed-in programmer who first turned me on to the Gym Class Heroes and Cupid's Chokehold last summer - yesterday it was Top Ten on Rhapsody's All Genres List. Brian Lamb, the C-SPAN CEO, and all-around good guy, who told Sirius to forget it - the pay radio guys wanted rights to preempt C-SPAN for sports (FYI - C-SPAN remains on XM). Bravo Brian! Mel and his subs would be better served retaining Lamb's excellent PA product and preempting one of the Sirius music channels. Not too late to fix (might need a friend or two on the hill someday, someday soon).

Legend of legends: Gary LaPierre inducted into the WBZ Hall of Fame. Well deserved! Congrats Gary. Boston Herald item here.

Legend of legends 2: Marv Dyson is, arguably, the best dressed man in broadcasting, a mensch, and certainly A Great General Manager. CBS2 pays tribute to my pal Marv, the Chicago legend here.

Safe in Sydney: Ron Fell offers up the last post in his blog series - The Queen Mary 2 adventure here. Bravo Ron, well done! Hi to Kathy. Missed one or more of Ron's posts? You may find an index of Ron's posts from the Pacific here.

John Battelle: John posted a brief interview with Michael Wesch the KSU prof who did the killer Web 2.0 video. Video, via YouTube, here, interview, with comments, here. Kudos John, excellent post, thanks for sharing.

High-tech collides with low-tech: Elinor Mills of CNET News writes...

Google, which has a "significant sales force" that works with Fortune 500 advertisers on display and pay-per-click ads, has been hiring more sales staff and has account managers specifically allocated to radio stations, said Josh McFarland, a product manager for Google's Audio Ads business. The company has "a very high respect for what we call the direct (sales) side of the business," he said. "At the same time, we are committed to the self-service model."

Read Elinor's article, Google hears static on radio bid, here. Seems to me there have been seven changes in broadcast sales since 1965: fax, email, cell phones, traffic software, laptops, ppt and pdf, otherwise, just about everything else is pretty much the same. (Closed circuit to Josh: You don't need the major shops to get your product off the ground. Think "local" and "small retail." Consider "pairings" example: with coupons. One of the radio guys you should be talking to is Chuck Tweedle, he's in the bay area at KOIT)

Bonus: Infinite Thinking Machine, a blog devoted to teachers and students here. Which reminds me, perhaps because of the words thinking and machine, of a PBS series - The Great American Dream Machine. Killer satire on TV first brought to us by public television. If you want to know where the inspiration for SNL came from - look no further. Whatever did happen to Marshall Efron? (LATER - Marshall is doing just fine, still acting, more here. I love the internet!)

Video bonus: IT department "help desk" Middle Ages era. Great waste of bandwidth. Introducing "the book" via YouTube, here

Photo: Ron Fell and Captain Christopher Rynd
on the Queen Mary 2 bridge

Posting from the Pacific - Day Thirteen, Ron writes he spent time with the ship's Captain..."I was curious about how he divides his day between administrative chores and the craft of sailing the greatest ocean liner in the world. He said unfortunately about 95% of his workload is purely administrative, not unlike the president of a multi-million dollar company with nearly 1,500 employees and an average customer base of more than 2,500 demanding passengers."

Ron also gives us the inside on the ship's entertainers: "Entertainment on the Queen Mary 2 is a big deal and Ray Rouse, the ship's Cruise Director told me that during the 81-day round-the-world cruise there will be 70 different acts performing aboard. I wondered how this would all be possible and was told acts are constantly joining and disembarking at ports along the way." Ron's sail to Sydney continues. Bravo Ron and thanks! Read Ron Fell's latest post via his KGO radio blog here.

Photo: Cara Carriveau & Dobie Maxwell

Chicago radio personality Cara Carriveau debuts her podcast Cara's Basement with Dobie Maxwell is Damn Funny. Bravo Cara! Listen in here.

Dobie Maxwell is the popular Chicago standup who once did mornings on Chicago and Milwaukee radio. Dobie is blogging. Check out Dobie's Daily Road Diary here. Everything you wanted to know about Dobie may be found on his site here. (Closed circuit to CBS Radio: hire this guy, a talent blessed with both standup and radio skills, he's perfect for FreeFM. Note to The Conclave: Dobie would be a great addition to your "ears only" faculty, he loves to teach)

"We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect." Thoreau

"Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction." Goethe

"Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself." Faulkner

The first days of Nielsen data adding college student dorm viewing to the mix is interesting. The first indications show some big jumps including NBC's Office jumping from #20 to #8 18-24. Thanks to Steve Sternberg of Magna Global we have a first analysis - the average first two weeks of data with student viewing compared to last fall's season average data without student viewing. Adults 18-24 including college dorm students - Top Five: Grey's Anatomy 10.3/28, Idol - Tue 10.2/31, Idol - Wed 10.0/28, House 8.7/26, Lost 5.7/16 (Jan 29 - Feb 11, Nielsen). Some big jumps among 18-24s when comparing the new "with students" 18-24 numbers with the previous "without students" numbers. Grey's Anatomy up 67%, House up 89%, Ugly Betty up 87%. Kevin Downey has the details in Media Life Magazine, his article Revealed: Top shows for college kids here. So much for the myth that college students are not watching broadcast tv.

Ron Fell's Queen Mary 2 Adventure: The latest from Ron, his Day Twelve report, here. Heard Ron on KGO with John Hamilton this morning. Ron was literally phoning it in from the Pacific where it was 4:30am. Cheers to Ron and John, good segment. Kudos to Jack Swanson's web team. The KGO stream was up and sounding great with one click. My only suggestion is the breaks be filled consistently. When I first connected there was no audio, not a player problem, the break was not filled. Significant upside opportunity here. The less patient might discontinue their session failing to understand the break was simply not filled - they need to hear something that tells them everything is ok.

Gratuitous use of sound: Stayed with the KGO stream after Ron signed off and caught the ABC net toh news (8am pac). Michael Barr did his usual fine job of anchoring but the cast was cluttered with unwarranted sound, pure noise. The cast was a mess. Sound should be used to assist the story telling, to bring something to the cast that words alone can not. This trend of using sound just to use sound does not add to the cast it subtracts. Too clever by half. Under-produce the cast, tell me a story.

"Any dream you have in life you have to fight for it and go for it, this is how you achieve your destiny and deliver yourself from your fate, that initial life that was given to you but you did not choose it. To do that right you need to do it with heart, not greed."
Guillermo Del Toro


Saw Pan's Labyrinth (Laberinto del Fauno, El) yesterday. Amazing! Del Toro has created an epic motion picture, a rich combination of story, visuals and sound. The film's tag line is tight: "Innocence has a power evil cannot imagine." This is one film you must see in a proper theater, especially one with state-of-the-art sound. Made on a modest production budget of $19 mil, the project's ytd gross is $27.6 mil domestic and $25.9 mil foreign. Nominated for six Oscars. Highly recommended. Please, just go and see it.

"The best combination is a front runner who is certain, deep down, that he's losing, and acts accordingly. The second-best combination is to be ignored by those in search of a front runner as you quietly and aggressively take the risks a front runner would never take."
Seth Godin

Congrats & cheers: Beth Comstock, Jeff Gaspin and Marc Graboff - all have grown up to be presidents (at NBC Universal). Keith Olbermann signing on for four more years with MSNBC (and to think, it started as a three-day temp job). Patricia Smullin, Dean Sorenson, Bob Fox, Eric Rhoads, James Babb, and Gary Chapman all to be honored with the Pioneer Award from the Broadcasters Foundation of America. Michael Gartenberg joins Microsoft - smart, very smart.

The obvious is always the hardest to see: My pal Lee Arnold goes dial-up and it ain't pretty. "I recently spent five days without broadband service...this gave me an opportunity to see how media websites performed for those without access to high speed internet connections. The answer is: not very well." Read Lee's entire post here. Kudos Lee, thanks for the reality check. Get the download times, by connection speed, of your main page, at no charge, here.

Dan Kelley, the rock radio programmer, is now blogging here. Kudos Dan!

Photo: L'Etoile Madison, WI

"Delicious food starts with great ingredients which
are in abundant supply here in Wisconsin." Chef Tory Miller


Tory and Traci Miller are the co-owners of L'Etoile, a wonderful fine dining restaurant in Madison. Last year Gourmet Magazine named L'Etoile one of America's Top 50 Restaurants. Tory and Traci carry forward a tradition started by L'Etoile founder Odessa Piper: support local farmers and the sustainable agriculture movement.

For Valentine's Day we enjoyed their three course dinner with wine pairings. Food, wine, presentations, and service were simply outstanding. Bravo to Tory, Traci and staff on a truly great performance. Highly recommended. L'Etoile's home on the web is here.

"Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better." Emerson

Fred Jacobs: again suggesting that radio web sites integrate video, again he's right, here. Kudos Fred! Cory Bergman weighs in, his post Radio stations scramble to post video online with comments here. My sense is the video must be easy to find. No more than two clicks to find and play. The technology must be transparent. Make it easy for me to share the video. Don't make me download a custom player. Don't make me register. Don't make me think!

Congrats & cheers: Erica Farber, my former RKO colleague becomes my fellow honoree as she is to receive The Conclave's highest honor - the Rockwell Award. Well deserved!

The sail to Sydney - Day Eleven: Ron Fell, another Rockwell Award honoree, checks in aboard the Queen Mary 2 on his way to his charge of 20,000 words in two weeks. Read Ron's latest post from the Pacific here. (Closed circuit to Ron: roast would be the adjective in roast beef meaning roasted, my thought is your roast beefs is correct if somewhat awkward. Looking forward to your review on the Todd English room.)

MTVN layoffs: In her 2/12 memo to staff Judy McGrath writes: "Our industry is at an inflection point and many companies are going through the process of adapting their business models and organizations to the new realities." She said "approximately" 250 US-based staff would be terminated. Meanwhile back at the ranch Sumner says..."We will keep creating and changing the content. MTV is changing all the time. The consumer is king. We will continue to move with the taste of the consumer. We will continue to drive our product around the world. International expansion is one area, but organic growth the creation of channels and offshoots channels will continue to be a major source of growth for Viacom." Read Sumner's interview by Scott Roxborough via The Hollywood Reporter here. Bravo Scott, well done.

Frontline: news war. Part One was excellent. Congrats & cheers to all involved. Bonus: Series producer Raney Aronson online chat, transcript via WaPo here. Aronson: "I do think that many people were aggravated with Judy Miller's defensiveness that her sources were wrong, so then so was she."

"A Great Program Director understands that radio is a ratings driven business and delivers winning numbers to the sales department." A Great Program Director

The PD job description can be reduced to six words: deliver numbers to the sales department. When all is said and done the PD either delivers the numbers or they don't. If they don't deliver they need to move on. Too often time is wasted in discussions that are nothing more than the rationalization of failure, what amounts to graduate level "dog ate my homework." Management is responsible for producing results not excuses. The PD that fails to deliver the numbers puts the entire enterprise in harms way. The GM that accepts ratings failure puts the future of the entire enterprise in jeopardy and limits the creation of wealth for the dictum of teaching holds true: "what we allow, we encourage." Go for greatness, nothing less.

The sail to Sydney: Ron Fell updates his KGO Radio blog here and here. Thanks for the mention Ron.

Photo: hereiskaty

Good shot, thank you.







"Everyone is interested in two businesses. Their own business and show business." David Mamet

The great genius Mamet was on Charley Rose last night. A shame Charley was fighting a cold and not into the interview. Mamet's new book is out. Bambi vs Godzilla. Amazon info here. The Mamet quote, while certainly true, reminds me of something Buzz Bennett was fond of saying, equally true, to wit: "Everyone has the right to program."

The great Fred Winston is doing the John Landecker show this afternoon. While John is away Fred will play. Should be fun, don't miss it if you can. 3-7pm today. Check out the stream here. In the meantime Fred blogs about donuts here.

The sail to Sydney - Day Nine: Ron Fell checks in from the Pacific aboard the Queen Mary 2 here. 2,600 passengers, 1,300 crew; we learn the largest suite is 2,250 square feet, the smallest cabin (known as "Superman's changing booth") is 87 square feet. Good stuff Ron!

Dante Chinni: "...if your concern is being trapped by the worldview of the MSM editors, how is the worldview of the crowd on one website really better?" Dante writes about social-networking and Digg via CSM here.

400 year death spiral continues - video edition: dead tree guys $81 mil, FM with pictures guys $32 mil. That's how Borrell Associates closed the book on 2006 local video advertising. The local print folks beat the local TV folks. Borrell suggests video advertising will be one-third of all local online ad dollars by 2012 (second behind paid search). More from Borrell here. (Thanks to Cory at LR for the tip)

Find music you never knew you liked: Listening to The Hype Machine today. Kudos to Anthony Volodkin! (My thanks to Michael Hirschorn for the tip)

Jimmy Guterman: "...this year’s Grammy Awards show—frequently hyped as a showcase for new performers—kicked off with the reunited Police playing 'Roxanne,' a song they first recorded when Jimmy Carter was president. That’s before the core pop-music audience was even born." Read Jimmy's observations on the Grammy Awards, music sales and the music biz via paidContent here.

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."

Photo: Thomas Hawk
Falling in Love

Outstanding shot, thanks

"Today is not yesterday. We ourselves change. How can our works and thoughts, if they are always to be the fittest, continue always the same? Change, indeed, is painful, yet ever needful, and if memory has its force and worth, so also has hope." Carlyle

Word is Chad and Ryan Steelberg, the founders of dMarc, have left Google. Good luck guys. The downtown buzz...is Judy Barry leaving WSJ?

Congrats & Cheers: David Kennedy joins Interep as CEO.

Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy: The Greatest Generation Gap Since Rock and Roll. Emily Nussbaum offers up an interesting read. She would have us believe "The future belongs to the uninhibited" and..."In essence, every young person in America has become, in the literal sense, a public figure. And so they have adopted the skills that celebrities learn in order not to go crazy: enjoying the attention instead of fighting it—and doing their own publicity before somebody does it for them." Bravo Emily! The piece rocks. Read her New York Magazine article here. (Thanks to Rex for the tip)

The sail to Sydney: Ron Fell checks in from the Pacific on board the Queen Mary 2, here and here. (Closed circuit to Ron: please ask your mathematician pal about the "P versus NP" problem, his take on Stephen Cook and Leonid Levin. And what of the Hodge Conjecture? My sense is these qualify as math porn.)

Photo: terrace closed for winter
by IHP

Love that shot, thank you!

Ron Fell's Queen Mary 2 adventure, the sail to Sydney, continues, read his "Day Two" post here.

Never did I believe that Ron would fail to exchange his adult beverages for Coca Cola product; No contest - Ron is blessed with the social skills of a world-class diplomat - the ocean liner's staff never had a chance.

Timing issue: "...there's no question that a Fox Business Channel is coming" That's the word from Georg Szalai and Paul J. Gough writing in The Hollywood Reporter. Best guess is a Q4 debut. The story via Reuters here. (Thanks to Romenesko for the tip)

A Great Program Director: Not a week goes by without someone contacting me about the Great PD monograph. Usually folks are wanting a copy to replace an older or misplaced one. Sometimes they have seen a copy and want one of their own. My friend, the media research maven, Roger Wimmer has the text posted at his site here. I have decided to do two new printings of the monograph. One 8.5 x 11 similar to the ones printed earlier and another poster size printing, perhaps numbered, framed and signed with a dedication. My thought is the poster size prints would be available for sale with proceeds benefiting a good cause or two. Should you want a free 8.5 x 11 print just use the contact me feature in the left column of this page and provide me with your mailing address. Printing and mailing sometime in March. (My thanks to the CBS manager who suggested a new printing).

Photo: Ron Fell
Great shot, thanks Ron

My friend Ron Fell has set off from San Francisco on the Queen Mary 2. His 15 day cruise will take him west to Honolulu, Pago Pago, and Auckland. Read all about his voyage via his KGO blog. His first post, the scene setting entry, is here and his first day on board post is here.

Enjoy the cruise Ron and thanks for sharing.

Photo: The UW Arb, Madison
by mjlmadison
Cool pic, thanks

via The Isthmus Pool


"Advertising is the art of getting a unique selling proposition into the heads of the most people at the lowest possible cost." Rosser Reeves

The Super Bowl numbers are out. CBS posted a 42 rating, 63 share, about 93 million viewers. In Chicago WBBM-TV put up a 50 rating, 77 share (lagging the '86 season record 63 rating, 87 share). In Indy WISH-TV had a 55 rating, 79 share. At $2.6mil that's national delivery of a little under 3 cents a head. A cpm of $27.95 is remarkable. The key is the right message. It's a shame most national ads were so very poor this year. CBS posted some killer 18-49 numbers, a 57 share 7-10p. FYI - second-best total bowl numbers of all time and the third highest rated program of any kind in TV history.

Congrats & Cheers: Bant Breen named prexy of Interpublic Group's Futures Marketing Group. Smart guy, smart move.

Some of the news, most of the time: 23/6 is the working title of the original video program slated to debut next month on Barry Diller's CollegeHumor.com, IAC's Michael Jackson at the helm, editing by Daley Haggar. Well-written story by Jessica E. Vascellaro in today's WSJ here.

Reading: Citizen Marketers by Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba. Interesting take on what's happening in CGM. Visit their blog, Church of the Customer, here, their main site here, Amazon info here.

Photo: Rose by
Fred Winston
Beautiful image,
thanks Fred!

"Baby boomers and members of Generation X were like dogs - treat them right and they will be loyal. But members of this latest generation, Generation Y, are more like cats. They just go where the money is." Linsey Perry

Congrats & Cheers: Jeff Zucker to be named chief executive of NBC Universal. The boy wonder deserves the promotion. LA Times story by Meg James here. Yahoo takes the lid off of Panama this week. Randy Thomas was the voice actor heard during last night's halftime show - she goes into the record books as the first woman to vo the half (she has also been the voice of six Academy Awards shows).

CBS SportsLine has put all the Super Bowl ads in one location here. Congrats to Phil Duncan his great voice gave him away in his one line on-camera role as the boss (Pierce come in here) in the Salesgenie.com spot. Lewis Lazare reviews the bidding and declares Bud & Coke the ad bowl winners. Could not agree more Lew, bravo! Read his take here. The Letterman with Oprah bumper was brilliant!

Fred Winston is blogging here. Kudos Fred!

Wise words of the week: Tom Peters...

"You are in a losing battle unless you are totally, perpetually, viciously and vigorously at war with the tendencies toward control, stifling, bureaucracy, over planning, over systems, too many metrics, etc."

Tony Perkins writes Part II of his "confession", Avoiding the Bubble Blues...

1. Keep your eye on the money because cash is king.
2. Focus your venture money on overcoming risks.
3. Stay away from snappy people and Web 2.0 frat rats.
4. Customers (and prospects) are everything.
5. Bring in the design experts.
6. Base your PR strategy on the principle of attraction rather than promotion.
7. Do it for the passion. Not the money.

Tony's counsel comes from his diary about running two startups in the newly fashionable dotcom times. More here.

"ABC put up what we call a 'lower third' with my name and identity. It has been a longstanding newsroom joke of mine that you are defined by whatever you were doing at the time of a news story. Hence, if you are hit by a car, you are a 'pedestrian'...Well, sure enough, I was listed as 'Steve Safran: Blogger.' There it is. The summary of my life in one word. 'Blogger.' I want to stress that, as a former TV news producer, I had this coming." Steve Safran

Congrats to Steve for being the first to crack the code, break and (with Cory) own the story on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim-Mooninites stunt. Read Steve's 15 hours of fame: my day as a media whore here. Steve's LR colleague Cory Bergman asks the right "after-action" question Any publicity is good publicity, right? Cory's post with comments here. Congrats & Bravo to Steve and Cory! Outstanding coverage. Related: Jaffe tags the "Boston mass-a-scare" as "ugly stuff" and invites your comments here. My sense is Boston, unlike the other DMAs involved, failed to put this stunt into proper perspective, crisis management thin on good judgment calls. Further, the tone of Boston's "response" leads this former reporter to question...did 819, or others involved, "spike" the stunt, after days without notice? A "concerned citizen" call to the police or some other "look at me" stuff, the kind of thing that would demand police attention? A coup de theatre gone wrong? btw, Boston Mooninites is #1 on Technorati as I post this. CNN's Boston storyline here. Boston Globe's Michael Levenson, Maria Cramer and staff write Marketing gambit exposes a wide generation gap here. UPDATE: Turner accepts blame, agrees to pay $1 million via Boston Globe's Michael Levenson, Raja Mishra and staff here

Seth Godin writes on Creativity...

"99% of the time, in my experience, the hard part about creativity isn't coming up with something no one has ever thought of before. The hard part is actually executing the thing you've thought of. The devil doesn't need an advocate. The brave need supporters, not critics."

Agree with Seth, however, getting "the thing" green lighted is increasingly difficult. While Virgil and Seth are correct - fortune favors the daring ("audentes fortuna iuvat") - the mediocre, the safe, not the daring, gets the majority of green lighting. It was ever thus. The dirty little secret is we are too often working harder to get better at executing ideas of lesser consequence. The "big idea" as defined by the legendary George Lois might be a scary, dangerous experiment. Years ago I engaged George to create a campaign for one of our New York city properties. His "big idea" was brilliant (it reached that certain threshold the great Scot Ogilvy once established: "it takes your breath away"). Knowing George had created the perfect creative solution we set the pitch meeting. As I watched George pitch his amazing idea it became evident, the suits were scared. We later went with another idea. Our boring, safe, researched creative, the one everyone agreed was "fine" and "on message" was executed perfectly...without any meaningful result. My suggestion is we added to the clutter on that one, we helped to raise the noise floor. We have all walked out of a movie theater, seen a billboard, a TV commercial, a POP and said "what were they thinking?" The average executed to perfection is, well, average. Wasn't it also Ogilvy that said you can't bore the customer into buying?

Execution is certainly critical and Seth might well be right that it's the last 99% of the job (Edison arrived at a similar finding "success being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration"). However, leadership with the courage to green light the big idea, that 1%, is priceless. The right 1% remains elusive because it has risk and a measure of fight baked into it. The big ideas are out there and they win big. Perhaps the greatest recent success in wealth creation, YouTube, happened only when two young dudes all but said "copyright badges, we don't need no stinking copyright badges"...their execution was daring, messy, users posting copyrighted material created extreme exposure. Lawyers, and other grown ups would have killed their idea at any company of size on the ip issues alone. More than one critic said, before the sale, "these guys are not making money, their gonna get sued, when the copyrighted material comes down their traffic will vanish, their platform is shaky, two kids with a case of red bull could create what they have created over a weekend but it's still not a business." They were right. Nobody liked it but the users. The big idea will out!

LATER: Breaking...Viacom demands that Google pull more than 100K clips from YouTube. Staci is on the story via paidContent here