Separating The Great From The Ordinary

Two questions that are often asked of me by people in radio.

What is missing form today’s radio?

And why is Rush Limbaugh so popular?

I heard the second of these asked of a station General Manager recently.  He said because Limbaugh knows how to entertain.

He’s right.

Rush knows how to use radio.  It is the medium he understands best and has the talent to use well.  Remember he tried TV and it didn’t work.

But on radio Limbaugh controls the game.  He’s a great story teller and most of all he knows how to connect with his audience on an emotional level.

That brings us back to the first question.  It’s the lack of connection with the audience on an emotional level that is missing from radio.

Think of the really great talents.   They are all able to connect. They engage the audience and that separates them from the typical ‘drive by’ DJ.

Larry Lujack, Bruce Morrow, and Howard Stern have that ability to connect.  They do it differently than Rush but  they make you have an emotional reaction.

Jean Shepherd was a master at this.  He could hold you in the palm of his hand, taking the listener up and down the twisted streets in his mind only to finish with a bang at the end of his story, which concluded the show.

Shepherd talked up to the very last note of his theme music.  He used the brilliant imagery of a novelist to paint the picture in your mind and take hold of your emotions.  He was masterful.

Rush takes the listener up to a break and holds them with a powerful tease.  He ebbs and flows in pace and emotion and brings you in whether you like what he says or not.

This doesn’t happen on Television because little is left to the imagination.

Great radio performers team with your mind and emotions to make you do part of the work.

Marshall McLuhan wrote about in his ‘Hot and Cold’ theory of communication.  Radio when used well is hot.  TV is cold because it doesn’t require your mind or emotions to engage.

Great radio performers paint pictures.  They tell stories.  They grab you and don’t let go.

Limbaugh learned much of his technique by talking up intros to teeny bopper songs in McKeesport, Pa.  He’s taken that lesson and used it differently to get even stronger impact.

Whether you love him or hate him you have a reaction to him.

That  is what separates great talent from the ordinary.

The Narrowcast Future

There was a point this summer when my keyboard got quiet.  I had simply tired of writing about the way things were in radio.

Memories of the great jocks,  fun stations and the way we used to do it.

Tired of the conversation from radio people that want it to go back like it was.

During that time I became heavily focused on digital media and specifically how we can use the tools to communicate.

Now my thinking is focused  on where things are going in all media.

It is going to be very different from the ‘good old days’.  These are likely to be better days. Way better.

The occasional story about a great station or jock will pop up here.  But the conversation within our industry must change.

Like it or not radio and all media are changing.  There is no choice.  Technology is the reason.

Technology is changing the way we live, how we use our time, and what is available to us.

We once thought of ourselves as ‘radio people’ or ‘TV people‘, now we are now simply in media.  The web changed how we do our jobs and more importantly what those jobs are today.

A person who concentrated on audio  must know about written content and video. Radio news reporters now produce video pieces for their websites.   The lines have blurred.

Here’s the big one.  Narrowcasting will replace broadcasting.

The day of programming to the masses is going fast.  Programming to highly focused niches  is already here.

Narrowcasting won’t kill off broadcasting this year, but the future will be more about highly targeted content than what appeals to the masses.

Some would argue that cable networks have started this trend.  Fox News serves a niche.  It is not intended to be the news channel for everybody. Those that like it, love it.

The History Channel, Cooking Channel and even ESPN are narrow in approach.  But they are almost ‘mass appeal’ narrow.

This is about being much more narrow.  Very narrow.  Instead of the History Channel, it might be Civil War Battles,  or Civil War Songs, but not covering everything about the war.

A transmitter is no longer needed to reach an audience.  And anyone can start a media outlet from their laptop using audio, video and written word.  This content can be distributed numerous ways on the web.

A pod cast created in your basement can have a larger audience than your local radio station with  interesting new sales opportunities.

Narrow your focus and program to people who are highly passionate about a subject.  This is about gathering  your own ‘community’ interested in what you have to say.

Topics that aren’t  found in mainstream media defined as radio, TV, newspapers and major websites.

A audience of dog lovers devoted to Pugs is probably small within your town.  But imagine the number of Pug fans nationally and worldwide.

Your listeners/viewers/readers are as likely to be in  Australia as in the town next to yours.

Browse I-Tunes and you’ll find hundreds of programs in a wide range of topics being produced.  This shouldn’t stop you from doing something too.

Find a subject that people are passionate about, and go for it.

The web is big. But keep your focus narrow.

The Trouble With Content

Radio was easy a few years ago.

The competition  was limited to what people could pull out of the air locally.

Now it comes from all sides, radio, the web, WIFI, IPODS, IPhones, and I’m probably forgetting some.

It is tough out there.

So what is a radio station to do?

Simple.  Focus on creating content.

A few years ago, the President of a large radio group boasted  that his company had lots of content.  They could take it an re-use it or re-purpose it on the web and it would generate additional income.

Not so fast there big guy.  Most radio stations don’t create much of their own content.

The music they play isn’t theirs.  Imaging between the songs isn’t content.  .

Most jocks have little to say other than to plug the website or what was already said in the imaging.

That big radio company hasn’t been all that successful on the web.

Talk radio is different but most talk stations are programmed from networks.  Most local stations create very little content of their own, and probably won’t have rights to re-use the network stuff on the web.

Local news is content.  Only a handful of stations  have anything resembling a local news room.

Most stations have very small  overworked staffs focused on  keeping the station on the air.  No one in the building has time to create more content.

Yet content is being cranked out at enormous rates on the internet by regular people.  Blogs like this one and hundreds of podcasts are examples.

The web is loaded with experts and  hobbyists  each with a passion for specific subject.  They are creating content that touches the real life interests of your listeners.

Radio is competing with the guy down the street for a share of the audience’s attention.  Soon WiFi will bring thousands of  radio stations from around the world to the car.

Content tells your story , builds the brand and most importantly adds value to the lives of your listeners/readers/viewers.

People already spend more time on line each week than they do listening to your radio station.

Facebook’s size is equal in population to the fourth largest country in the world.

The station website will be the primary channel from which your audience will access your stuff.

The thinking at radio must change.  Instead of being a radio station with website attached, it will be a website with radio station attached.

Your station either becomes an important part of their on-line experience or you go away.

This is not about putting the same old  stuff in a new package. This is about creating content that that is not heard on your  transmitter.

New day.  New time.  New rules.

Radio can‘t worry about the train leaving the station when the rocket ship is heading to Mars.

Let‘s hope it hasn‘t already left.

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Hearing Gordon McLendon Loud And Clear

Gordon McLendon is  a legendary name who dominated radio programming during the Golden Age of Top 40.

The McLendon Stations included power houses like KLIF Dallas and KILT Houston.  McLendon was also one of the first to try all news and bring Top 40 to FM.

He loved programming innovation.

I was reminded of a memo given to me by my late friend and mentor Larry Kent a former  PD for McLendon  at  KTSA San Antonio.

It’s called “Creating A Sparkling Station”.  In it, the “Old Scotsman” hammers on lazy Program Directors and lack of creativity at company stations.

The memo appears to have been written around 1970.

No one is mentioned by name, but we can assume they knew who was being singled out.  Those that didn’t “get it’ were probably gone pretty fast.

McLendon describes a ‘sparkling station’ as one that is: alive, exciting, animated, buoyant, vivid, spirited, fresh, topical, exuding on air and feeling of what’s going to happen next, and something continually going on.

He says “it takes work by the Program Director and all concerned — lots of work. And if that work is not a labor of love, rather than a labor of continuing effort, the chances are that the station will sparkle only briefly,”

He explains why Program Directors fail,  “the tendency not to want to hurt anyone’s feelings.”  In other words allowing bad copy, commercials and jocks on the air without speaking up.

McLendon is none too kind to the talk show hosts on his stations.

“The average stations talk man sounds like he is trying to conduct a church social and make as many friends as possible. They don’t clutter up their minds with a lot of confusing preparation, They plunge right in without a lot of information of the subject which might obscure their views.”

He finishes by saying “mostly our call in talk emcees are characterized by their extreme friendliness and courtesy, and also by the almost audible sound of radios being turned off by the thousands.”

Well you get the idea.  The memo takes just about everyone in programming to task.

McLendon was like many others of his era.  He demanded creativity and attention to detail .  Most of all he drove the point that topicality was key to a station’s ability to sparkle.

Times have changed.  Many of the elements he wrote about don’t fit today’s radio.

Many stations obsess over song rotations and spend too little time on creativity.

The McLendon  message still rings.  Stations must sparkle.  They need to be imaginative and kept fresh.  It’s not enough to just update the imaging once or twice a year.

It would be unthinkable that a McLendon station or others from that time would not be exciting.

Few stations today sound really excited about what they are doing.

Jocks are all too often left on their own getting no direction about their role on the air.

Everything  in McLendon’s memo referred to building great content.

Content is key to everything in today’s multi-media world. That means on-air, on the web, everywhere.

Radio doesn’t sell content.  Its sells advertising.

But without content, no one will have a reason to buy advertising.

Without advertising, it’s hard to say where radio goes from here.

Six Pixels Of Separation

A business book that is well targeted to the needs of radio and other media only comes around once in a great while.

Mitch Joel’s Six Pixels Of Separation is such a book.

Perhaps you read about Mitch last week in Mark Ramsey’s Blog, Hear 2.0.  Mark included an audio version of the interview which you can download from I-Tunes.

Mark’s site is at  http://www.hear2.com/

It was because of Mark’s writing that I bought Six Pixels.  Well actually two copies.  The hardcover and audio book.  Hey Mitch’s kids deserve a college fund.

Inside you’ll find  tons of highly actionable information for anyone in radio.  Whether your morning show blogs or you Twitter,  Six Pixels is a real ‘how to guide’ that will energize your on-line efforts.

Mitch does a couple of excellent Podcasts about on-line marketing and using social media.  He is forward thinking but most importantly has connected to many others of like mind to create an interesting program.

Mitch is found at http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

Six Pixels gave me some interesting ideas for a meeting I had this week with a Minor League Baseball Team to discuss their radio and media presence.  A few of those ideas are likely to go into action this fall.

Bloggers will learn new ways to increase traffic and build their influence.  The web is way more than a source for  gathering ears and eyes for the sales department.  This is one of the most powerful communication tools ever.

Radio, Television, Newspaper and Magazines need to re-think all of it.

Let’s stop looking at the corporate internet initiative as a cram down or just additional work for the staff.

This is the future.

And the future is already here.

Hank Spann On The Big 16

I keep asking my friends who book talk shows to connect me with Reverend Al Sharpton.

I don’t want to ask  about what he’s currently working on or stuff about Tawana Brawley.

Reverend Sharpton used to hang out and even preach on WWRL.  That’s what interests me.

He was there back in the day when WWRL was New York’s Soul Powerhouse.

I want to hear what it was like to be part of such a legend.

It had incredible jocks.  Better than many of those great Top 40 stations we remember.

I was a not so funky, rather clunky kid living in the New Jersey suburbs.  The kind whose best friend was a worn out Motorola transistor radio.

WWRL was located in Woodside Queens and during the day it put a good signal into my neighborhood.  It was gone with the pattern change at sundown.

So unless you grew up around New York City, WWRL probably never made it into your radio listening.

Great Top 40 jocks came out of RL.  Frankie Crocker, Al Gee and Chuck Leonard come to mind.

But the rest of the staff was special too.  Each a personality within a tight format.  This was Bill Drake meeting  Soul Radio, at least to an extent.

The line-up included Gregory, known as The Dixie Drifter, Jeff Troy, Jerry B, Gary Byrd with The GBE, and Hank Spann.

Spann was my all time favorite.

The ‘Soul Server’ as he was known could work the intro of a record like nobody’s business.  He was amazing.

Hank passed this week after battling a variety of health issues during the past year.

Sadly others like Gregory and Frankie Crocker are gone too.  Al Gee is said to have his own health troubles.

WWRL will always stand out to me as the best of the best.

Hank Spann was right on top.

I can still hear him ending a show….“Look out street, here I come….”

The streets will be a little quieter now.

And somewhere a big station just added a great jock to the line-up.

McLuhan Revisited In The Narrowcast World

Change is the most exciting part of media today.

A couple of years ago media was separated by delivery method.  You had radio, television, newspaper and magazines.  Today on the internet they all converge into well…media.

Newspapers are still hung up on delivery of a printed product and trying to increase dieing circulation.

Television is caught in a world where an outdated network concept is beginning to collapse.  The end of networks could bring the end of local over-air TV.

And in radio the ratings service is causing stations to broaden their approach at the very time the audience is demanding something more personal.

Big media companies must change how they view these franchises.

Radio stations, television stations, newspapers and the internet are simply pipeline.  A delivery method.

This pipe is no different from what transports crude oil, natural gas or water.

All that matters is the content running through the pipeline.  Not the pipe itself.

This should be an ‘ah’ moment for big media.  Instead they focus on the pipeline and fixing unfixable problems like newspaper circulation.

Newspapers must now think like radio or television stations by using video and audio programming to supplement their written content.

Television needs audio and radio needs video.

It is likely there will be no actual TV station or radio stations in the future. These will be replaced by a content portal  on the Web  using the best of all media to communicate.

Most exciting is the ability to narrow the focus and provide very specific content to highly passionate audiences.  The day of one size fits all is over.

Audiences can be small locally yet huge on a world wide scale.

The New York Times should be a world wide brand for news content long after the last paper is printed.  But they have to stop thinking like a newspaper.

These information portals will offer multiple streams of rich content.  They’ll do it on the consumer’s schedule not that of some network.

It is a narrowcaster’s world.  We’re seeing the dawn of ultimate customer focus.

Big media take notice while those established brands still matter.

Marshall McLuhan’s theory no longer applies.

The medium is no longer the message.  It is simply a method of transportation.

The Future Of Local TV

Where does local television go from here?

NBC changed direction by cutting programming costs and adding Jay Leno’s less expensive show to their schedule at 10 PM. This is the hour traditionally used for big drama series and as lead in to late local news.

The critics seem to hate it. The audience is someone mixed. Leno has good nights and bad nights in Nielsen.

But how bad can it really be? NBC knows that network TV viewers tend to be older. So producing a show that attracts them might actually work, even if the audience numbers are a little lower.

Certainly they can’t beat the cost for producing Leno versus a major drama production. Leno wins that one hands down. The accounting department loves it and the margins are pretty good.

Local television operators must wonder what the future holds for them. They produce very little of their own content outside of local news.

Once all markets had locally produced kid’s shows and other programming, but that era is long gone. Shows like Sally Starr in Philly , Chuck McCann and Johnny Seven in New York. Locally produced Romper Rooms and Bozos were in almost every market.

The networks really don’t need local television stations anymore. Over air TV was the only way to reach an audience before cable and Direct TV. Today, fewer and fewer viewers actually pick up the station signal out of the air.

The internet further shifts the paradigm.

Now programs once only seen on over air TV are available on Hulu or other sites whenever the viewer wants them. My shows, on my time, my way.

So why do the networks continue to operate under the old model? Probably because Madison Avenue is still locked into buying advertising the old way.How do they quantify the on-line audience to an advertiser’s satisfaction?

One day some network executive is going to suggest doing an NBC Entertainment Channel, or CBS Programming Network and the old network with local affiliates will be toast.

Local TV will be too.

Experiencing 9-11 From Down Under

The air was cool and pleasant on the morning of 9-11-2001.  It was a nice change from the controlled air of the airline cabin I had just spent the last fourteen hours flying.

That morning I arrived in Sydney Australia returning to work as Group PD of The Australian Radio Network after attending company meetings in Atlanta.

Little did we know how the world would change in just a few hours.

Sydney is a day ahead of the US.  So my arrival was hours ahead of the events that would unfold in lower Manhattan that day.

I went to bed early that night in attempt to get my body back on ‘Sydney’ time.

The phone rang around 11pm.  It rang, and rang then stopped.  It started again.  In my stupor I finally went into the living room to answer it.

My wife Ann was calling from our home in Texas.  Her  first words were “turn on the television”.

I really didn’t comprehend what was happening at first.  But as we talked the second plane crashed into the Trade Center tower.  It was all so surreal.

As kids in New Jersey we watched as those towers climbed into the sky.  There was a spot on Route 10 near Morris Plains where you could see them just above the tree tops, maybe twenty miles away or so.

We felt the magnitude of the event even being on the other side of the world.  But for me it was probably different than those that were in the US.

I am still struck by the number of people that knew someone working at the Trade Center.  My assistant was from the UK.  Her aunt worked at the Trade Center.  We waited all day and into the next before getting word of her safety.

Amazingly she had left her office to smoke a cigarette outside one of the buildings just before the first plane hit.  She ran down the street to get away and eventually took a very long route home before her family knew she was ok.

We had dozens of stories like that from local Sydney residents looking for friends.  This was after all the WORLD Trade Center.  People were connected to it from all over the world.

People were nicer than usual, and they’re pretty nice in Australia.  That incident showed us all that we are one.

The strangest feeling though came in the next few days, when travel into the United States was prohibited.   There was as a strong realization just how important home really is to you.

New York is my home.  I grew up in the metro area.  But somehow I still feel a little disconnected from the event.  I was not in the country, and didn’t experience it like those that were here.

I don’t know if I’m happy about that or not.

Bringing Local Back To Radio

WLNG Sag Harbor is a real throwback.

Today’s radio programmers can learn a bunch by studying the past.

However, WLNG is not one of those once great Top 40 stations from the past many of us reminisce over.   Live and local 24 hours a day WLNG is the real deal.

There is nothing like it on the air anywhere that I can find.   They use hundreds of jingles, and a very, very deep music library.

Lately my WIFI radio has been busy.  But most of the big city stations it plays are deadly dull.

The ‘Nine Format’ lives.

You may remember the classic spoof about consultants done in the 1970s to chronical the format history of fictional WVWA Pound Ridge, New York.  If not, it’s on the Reel Radio site.

How would we know the WVWA spoof would become reality?  Today’s radio is devoid of connection. Just like WVWA when it became  ‘Nine’!

Things were so streamlined on “Nine” the jocks, listeners and jingles only said  “nine’! on air.   After all it was created through ‘research’.

That’s not too far from what is happening in the streamlined PPM world.

PDs seem more concerned about what will turn listeners off, than what will keep them connected to the station and coming back.    Mark Ramsey makes this point in his blog this week.  He’s dead right.

WLNG is about community.  Oh sure they play music, lots of it around the heavy load of spots and PSAs voiced by local merchants and firemen.   WLNG connects.

Sag Harbor sounds like the most active town in the country thanks to WLNG.

Programmers dealing with talk stations made up of mostly network shows can take a lesson from WLNG.  Fill those spot breaks with local voices.   Get the sales staff to have the local business owner voice his spot.

There is probably no better way to endorse the local sales effort than to have local businessmen do their own spots.  The others at Rotary will notice.

WLNG has captured what made local weekly newspapers work.  Put the Cub Scouts picture in the paper.  Mom, Dad, Grandma and the Aunts will buy the paper.

Same is true for putting local voices on the radio.

Consider using local voices to image the station music and promotions.

This is not to say that everything on WLNG  fits into many of today’s formats.  But PDs should give them a listen with an ear to finding ideas that help them localize their own stations.

As the PSA tag says, “thanks WLNG for years of service”.

Getting Back To Fun, Again

Have you ever really given thought as to how you became interested in radio?

The first time many of us heard radio was a frantic man playing records between commercials and jingles.  Oh, the jingles.

Jack Sterling of WCBS was the first personality I remember.  He would have been well into his career at the time.  I was five.

Radio was music.  But for me it was much much more.

People ask me today about the fantastic record collection I must have at home.

Sorry.  I don’t have one CD or record at home.  No collection.

I don’t have a stereo system with big speakers and fancy components.   A small  portable radio preferably with AM and Shortwave is my choice.

The AOR 7030 is overkill for most radio users.  It is an outstanding radio and when coupled with the Quantum Loop Antenna built by Gerry Thomas it is a DX machine.

It’s DXing that helps me make that connection today.

XEB 1220 Mexico City is one of my favorite stations.

So is Radio Rebelde out of Cuba for their baseball coverage during the winter.

Radio has a way of connecting me to the outside world.  I still love listening to the trucking shows overnight and of course George Norry and the cast of thousands on Coast To Coast.

For me radio was and is personality, and connection.  Perhaps for you it’s the music.

Whatever got you into this business is what you should focus on now.

Why do you love radio?  What is it about radio that drew you in the first time?

Go back there.

Then try to use that memory to get that feeling back again.

Emails are coming from people I’ve never met this week. Their passion for radio, not necessarily the ‘radio business’ is impressive.

People who love radio really love it.

We belong to a special club.  I feel bad for the rest of the world that doesn’t hear the magic and feel the connection.

Use that passion and get back to finding something in radio that really makes it fun again.

The economy, owners, budgets and all can take the fun out of it.  But don’t let the magic you felt die.

Postcard From The Beach

A funny thing happened on my way to work one day.

Like so many others I found myself ‘on the beach’.

Getting the news was hard.  It came directly from a longtime friend who also happened to be CEO.

I think his day was worse than mine.

From the conversation it was clear my shortcomings are numerous.

Or maybe that’s the part I think I heard.  I find in those times what they say and what you hear might have different meanings.

Much of it was  a blur.

And so there it was.  Over.

One minute you’re part of a team.  The next you’re on waivers.

There was nothing else to do, but go.

I’m not sure whether I was more shaken or disappointed as I left.

Something changed though somewhere between that office on the 14th floor and turning my car on to sixth street.

I changed.

A great feeling came over me.  One minute I am engulfed by deep sadness and anger and then I’m at total peace the next.

I’ve heard others say the same thing.

A woman working for a large radio group described her hurt after her unexpected firing.  But then feeling extreme joy as her car left the parking lot.

This is not my first time through the car wash.

It never is easy to hear the news.  But I’ve found how you respond to it is the key to how you’ll land.

Like so many others who are out of work from media positions, my job prospects look a little slim.

And yet so far at least several interesting projects have come my way.

So it occurs to me the journey to the next opportunity might not include a traditional ‘job’.  That is an interesting and exciting idea.

We’ll see how it plays out.

On to the future!

The Job Paradigm

I knew it would happen, just not as quickly as it did.

They asked me at a baseball gathering the other night, “what do you do?”

For a minute I didn’t have an answer.  I am no longer with my last employer and haven’t been out there long enough to feel separated from them.

It also felt weird saying I don’t have a job.  After all, don’t we generally define ourselves either by what we do or where we work?   At the moment I have neither.

But later after thinking it through it occurred to me I do have work.  In fact right now there appears to me lots of it.  The only difference is none of the work is attached to a permanent job.

So now my answer is simple, “I’m a Radio Programming, and Media Specialist”.

That’s far better than saying something about being unemployed.

It’s also the truth because most of what is coming to me so far is project work.  That stuff looks like it can be enough to sustain an income for a while.

Interestingly now when I tell people what I do, they seem more interested.   The questions about my work and interests are deeper and more engaged.

Best of all it has already led to additional project ideas.

We as workers must take a different view of ourselves and the workplace today.  An actual job might not be in your future.  But finding the right work to satisfy you and provide an income could be standing right in front of you.

Don’t get hung up on needing a job.  Think of the things you do well and like, then look around and see how you can help others by providing that type of work to them.

There’s a big shift taking place in the workplace, you gotta roll with it.

Helping Each Other

Being without work used to be like having ‘cooties’.

You thought young girls said only boys have them.  No, the unemployed are afflicted too.

A dramatic shift seems to have taken place.  People are actually nice to you when they know you don’t have a job.

Encouraging emails have come from people I’ve never met. I’m actually blown away with the helpfulness coming my way.

It seems most of my friends are looking for work.  You might think I have a bunch of loser friends.  But this group would make up a ‘who’s who’ of radio people.

One told me yesterday he’s been out for two years.  Please don’t tell my wife it will take that long to land.  She’s already going crazy with me in the house for a week.

The great thing is everyone is willing to help others.  It would be best if we could all find work, so it makes sense to be helpful.

This blog was originally set up as a way to talk about radio to program directors.  But now it really is about our collective journey to the next job.

So please feel free to add your comments and suggestions.  Not just for me, but for anyone who stops by and needs a little encouragement.

If you know of a position, any position leave it on the comment section.  Someone might read it and appreciate your help.

Where War Is Peace

The propagation for shortwave signals was very good during my morning walk this week.    At times it is difficult to pull out stations from Australia,  Korea and Japan during the early morning hours here.

The Voice Of Korea was loud and clear on 11710 KHZ  on the small hand radio I to use while walking.

Most days I opt for a little news from China, or the Voice Of America.

Recent activity on the Korean Peninsula had me trying  for the sometimes elusive signal of The Voice Of Korea.

Glenn Hauser is the world’s leading authority on shortwave radio and  gave me some tips via email as to the best frequencies to try.

Glenn’s World Of Radio is heard world wide and available on the internet. It is loaded with great information about programming and frequency changes.

Shortwave stations change frequency often.  It is difficult to keep up with the best place to hear a particular station.

Glenn knows more shortwave than any human alive.  He’s helped me more than he knows during the past twenty five years or so.

The Voice Of Korea is really only the voice of North Korea.  They tend to forget there is another country that also calls itself Korea.

The programming is textbook Communist and sounds like the stuff from propaganda films of the 1950s.   That is what is so frightening.

This week North Korea launched a couple of test missiles and two underground nuclear explosions.  Those were bigger than the blast that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

The programming from North Korea gives you get the idea how isolated their population is.   Language of revolution, American Imperialists, and the Great Leader is enough to make you take pause.

Their scripts read like pages of George Orwell’s 1984.  The book that included great lines like ‘War Is Peace’, and ‘Big Brother’s Watching’.

Listen to the radio in the United States and you find our population is isolated too.

The big stories on local radio that day had little to do with the nuclear threat.

Instead the concerns were a wreck on the interstate,  overfilled pet shelters and the death of Mike Tyson’s daughter.  Something  about the American Idol winner was included,too.

All legitimate stories, but like the Voice Of North Korean’s copy it was missing important details.

Nothing that I heard locally came close to mentioning the tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world.

There was nothing about the UN Security Council Meeting later that day.

We have many more resources to get our news than in North Korea.

But do we leave ourselves vulnerable by choosing only the stories we want to hear, that might research well rather than what we might need to know?

Which group is more prepared for the future?  The one where the government gives them the news, or the one that ignores it all together?

A Little Twit Calls Out A Tyrant

The way the world uses media can change on a dime.

The events around the election in Iran is a startling example of just how things have changed.

Most of the the world’s major networks have been tossed out of the country.

Reporters have been arrested, their cameras confiscated.   Yet word of riots and unrest continue to get out of the country.

Twitter is the reason.

Iran has closed down most all of the social networking sites.  Somehow, Twitter continues to operate.

Much of the news reports are not from the networks but from bloggers and apparently Iran has many of them.

Network reporters still in the country are shooting scenes with their cellphones.

Twitter is the ultimate weapon in creating democracy.  No wonder North Korea keeps cellphones and the internet out.

The Voice Of The Iranian Revolution can be heard in the US at 1:30-2:30 GMT on 7235 and 9495 shortwave.

The BBC World Service available on XM/Sirius and via the web will likely have the best coverage from overseas.

There is no telling how things will play out in Iran.  But every indication is the Revolution is back on and this time the people are in charge.

Texting Is Mightier Than The Sword

The remarkable events occurring in Iran continue to demonstrate the power of social networks.

Twitter has rescheduled a major maintenance session set for tonight in order to allow the flow of information to continue from Iran.  They made the decision because of requests from inside the country.

Iranian citizens would have been silenced only a few short months ago.  But now with Twitter they continue to communicate to the world.

Despite their best efforts the Iranian Government is unable to stop the flow of information.

Can any rogue government last long once the people have cell phones and internet access?   Dictators around the world certainly must be taking notice.

Accuracy is certainly one concern with so much material coming out.  Misinformation and rumor is another.   But news organizations seem able to sift through the material to give a balanced picture of things.

Perhaps instead of using bombs and bullets to bring democracy to these countries we should drop millions of cell phones.   There appears to be no stopping the momentum once the people can communicate with each other.

The pen, or text message is mightier than the sword.

Check the blogs on Huffington Post and The Atlantic for minute by minute updates.

My Summer Vacation; The Old And New

The temperatures are topping 100 degrees.

I’ve had to stay inside away from the other kids after having sinus surgery.

It was ok.  Not how you’d prefer to spend your time off but,  not the worst way either.  At least my breathing is already improved.

The doctor says my voice might even change finally.  I’ve been waiting for that since age 13.  It’s tough to get good radio work when you sound like me.

So I’ve been catching up on the news using WIFI and shortwave.

The North Koreans are threatening to destroy all of the US.   I wonder if they know how big a place this really is and have calculated enough bombs to do the job?   Their one warhead might not cut it.

Voice Of Korea is an interesting station that begins each day’s news with the latest doings of ‘Dear Leader’.   After all of the announcements of state dinners, and the latest revolutionary accomplishments they get down to the hard news.  The stuff where they talk about how they’ll blow us apart.   Nice guys.

They are a complete throwback to Soviet sounding radio of the 1960s.  There must be a special manual they used to get the language just right.

Meanwhile across the other side of the planet another tyrant is struggling to keep the lid on against modern technology.

They’re not having such an easy time.

The two styles are fascinating to watch as both North Korea and Iran try to stay out of the 21st Century.  How they will do is anyone’s guess.  Mine is they won’t stop progress.

‘Dear Leader’ has a better chance in Korea than the Clerics do in Iran.   Once the social networking revolution takes hold, the old revolution is in serious trouble.

If those ‘tech’ savvy South Koreans ever figure out how to wire North Korea, it will be game over for the old guard.

Another Day When The Music Died

We were having dinner with friends when word came of  Elvis Presley’s death.

‘Beyond stunned’ was our reaction.

This was after all ‘The King’.  People like that don’t just up and die.

As I recall we quickly finished dinner and did what all radio geeks do in times of trouble.   We headed to the radio station.

The air staff was already gathering and beginning to get a handle on the enormity of the story.  Elvis dead.

Listeners jammed the phone lines.  Many were crying.  Age didn’t matter.   It covered the entire spectrum from young to old.

This was at 14FEC Harrisburg.  We had a pretty good staff and  a good PD in Dene Hallam.

The team worked throughout the night finding special Elvis songs, audio cuts and anything that would help tell the story.

The same was happening at WHN where Ed Salamon flew into action.  They provided us with a ton of material that night.

Elvis was passed his prime.   But he still had huge appeal with the country audience.

For many of us it felt somewhat like the day JFK died.  The response was that big.

The phones rang though out the night.  I did overnights then and that night was busier any morning drive show I ever did.

We put callers on the air to talk about Elvis and generally grieve.   We grieved  right along with them.

That was one of the toughest nights I’ve ever encountered on radio.  But it showed just how much radio means to the audience.

Radio has a unique ability to comfort while informing and entertaining.

There were other days in recent years  where people needed radio’s shoulder.  The Space Shuttle explosion, the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan, and of course 911.

This time when the ‘King Of Pop’ died the dial seemed rather quiet.  A few great stations went right into action like CBS FM and KRTH.   But so many others seemed caught at the end of the work day without anything of substance to offer.

People first got the news from Twitter or on line.  Much of their interaction was not with a local dj but instead others of like mind in the social networks.

The news happens so fast and word is around the world in an instant.  Radio can’t wait hours or days to decide its response.

It needs to be the medium of ‘right now’ otherwise it has no purpose anymore.

Missing In Action

Memorial services generally make for boring radio.

Michael Jackson’s is more entertainment than memorial service.

The program handed to guests cleverly omitted the typical listing of speakers and guests.   The audience had to watch to see who would perform.

The drama made for great television.   But where was radio?

It was Jackson that almost single handedly revived Top 40 as it morphed to CHR.   Would stations like KIIS and WHTZ exist today had Michael  not come along at the right moment?

KRTH and KFI were among the stations with full coverage.  Los Angeles stations should be expected to broadcast what is so far the biggest event of the year in LA.  Sorry Lakers.

WCBS FM appeared to be in regular format.  So were WOGL,  and even WOMG Detroit home of Motown Records.

Television owned the event.

Brian Williams is anchoring for NBC in full wall to wall coverage that once would have been reserved for a space launch.

It’s hard to envision Walter Cronkite doing the same.  CBS Evening News didn’t even lead with Elvis the night he died.

Every cable channel broadcast their version of the service as did the lettered networks.

Radio, the medium that first pounded Jackson Five songs into our collective heads, and later provided a platform for Micheal’s reinvention was no where to be found.

Capitol Gold in London announced they’d play Jackson requests.  But there was no coverage of the Memorial Service.

4QK Brisbane rolled into their regular Breakfast Show.

KFI was the only News Talk station doing any sort of coverage.  But again anything at Staple Center is a local story.

Jackson whether you loved him for the music or despised him for the pedophile accusations was a giant.

Radio helped make that giant only to let Television, Twitter, You Tube and others own the story at the end.

It’s radio’s role to play the hits, whether music or cultural hits.

Michael Jackson was both.

Radio missed the party.

Mi Profesor Jaime Jarrin

Job hunting is a slow process.    This year is slower than ever.

We dream of having lots of time on our hands during times we’re working only to suddenly find we have too much.

The job search might take me a while, but I can assure you my ability to speak Spanish is going to be greatly improved.

I’ve tried for years to become fluent.    Little kids do it all the time, so why not me?

Baseball is my summer (fall, spring and winter too) passion.  So I decided to combine the two, baseball and Spanish to   see if it helps.

My teacher is Jaime Jarrin.

He is a Hall Of Famer yet most baseball fans outside of Los Angeles have never heard of him.

Many Los Angeles Fans don’t know him either.  Jaime broadcasts the Dodgers in Spanish.  It’s something he’s done since 1959.

The Dodger broadcast booth must be a great place to work. Vin Scully started when they were still  the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Learning Spanish should be simple.   I’m using Rosetta Stone, Learn Spanish Like Crazy and Spanish broadcasts of LA Dodger games.

Each night I record the game then listen later in evening.  Jaime, Pepe Yniguez and Fernando Valenzuela make up the broadcast team.

It helps when the game is televised.   I can see the action and listen to the commentary.

Little by little I can tell the improvement.   Now it is easy to understand almost all of the play by play.   Occasionally the comments are difficult to get but I can always stop the ‘tape’ and listen again.

Jarrin is good.  Real good.  No wonder he’s is a Baseball Hall Of Famer.

The Dodgers should consider using him on the English broadcasts too, certainly on television.  He knows the game and tells interesting stories.

Adding him to television would help the Dodgers broaden the appeal for the telecasts and bring a new audience to their games.

Most of all, it would allow Dodger fans to hear a great broadcaster.

Pepe and Fernando deserve a shot at TV too.  The whole team is that good.

Gracias Jaime.

Oh, and my scouting report on the Dodgers?  Watch out.  This team can play.