This is pretty cool!!

Hat's off to Glenn Rogers, Patrick Fisher and the gang down in Weyburn.

They were recently out of town doing a live morning show and made full use of new technology to make it shine. The audio was delivered back to the station via Skype and it sounded great. PCAnywhere was used to run the show off a lap top, allowing Glenn to hit his own spots, hotkeys, music bed, etc.

That's performance. Nice job!!

Next time someone says "the phones light up" think of this.

A really smart guy named Reg Johns (years in media in some big centers) told a story recently about the radio station KISS in Los Angeles. This station is one of the biggest in the country with a cume of about 4,000,000 people.

They have 6 or 8 lines that come into the control room for contests and they were always "ringing off the hook". But they wondered how many people were calling and getting a busy signal. They used some software to find out. The answer? 450. That's all. Out of a cume of 4,000,000 people, less then 500 were calling the station for giveaways.

Most of our stations have 2 or 3 lines coming into control. When your "phones light up" you may be engaging no more then a few people.

I draw three conclusions from this.....

• A large portion of your audience does not care what you are giving away on the radio. They want to be entertained and engaged and that does not come from prizing.
  
• NEVER assume phone activity is an indication of whether a bit is good or not.
  
• ALWAYS look for additional points of contact with the audience. Our local portals, Twitter, Facebook, etc., are becoming more important all the time.

And as Reg said, there is no busy signal on the Internet. Our audience can contact us at any time. When people reach out to us, let's make sure we reach back to them.

Neat little presentation. Go full screen and click through the slides. Good for anyone who presents anything. Like say.....radio. http://urlPass.com/4cvv

Welcome back to work after thanksgiving. In case you feel like being pretentious at work today...

A young businessman had just started his own firm. He rented a beautiful office and had it furnished with antiques. Sitting there, he saw a man come into the outer office. Wishing to appear the hot shot, the businessman picked up the phone and started to pretend he had a big deal working.

He threw huge figures around and made giant commitments. Finally he hung up and asked the visitor, "Can I help you?"

The man said, "Yeah, I've come to activate your phone lines."

This is Boomer the miniature wiener dog sleeping off his Thanksgiving meal. We have only had Boomer for a little over a month but he has taught us a few things....

• It's way easier to get what you want by wagging your tail than by growling.
• With a little effort you can learn new things.
• When you play, play hard. When you sleep, wake up quickly and get at er' again.
• Trust new people because if you're nice they will give you food.
• Don't be afraid to jump off the first step. It's a little intimidating, but you'll make it.
• Always know where the 7 year old kid is and keep one eye on him.
• If you make a mess on the floor someone else will clean it up. They will also make it clear you shouldn't do that again.

I've always enjoyed the wisdom of wiener dogs. They are some of my favorite people. Happy Thanksgiving.

Now go have a turkey sandwich.

Thanksgiving. 15 minutes before my belt exploded.

Had a fun session on the road this week talking to some young announcers about a variety of different radio things. As a springboard, I was using some very cool thoughts that were shared at our recent annual sales meeting.

As our conversation evolved it struck me that much of what we spoke about was not just about being successful in radio. It was about being successful in everything.

• THE POWER OF ONE. Take responsibility for the things you do and say, and understand that you do make a difference. Each one of us is very powerful. Your impact may be good or bad, but understand there will be impact.
• A GAME OF INCHES. Little things matter more then we can possibly imagine. Every big win is a series of hundreds of smaller accomplishments. Small brush strokes paint the big picture.
• ADDERS AND SUBTRACTERS. Each of us is one or the other. We decide every day which side we fall on. We either add value to the people around us, or we take it away. There is no such thing as neutral.

One last thing. Have a great Thanksgiving. I truly hope you cherish the things in your life that matter. Remember, they are gifts that are meant to be appreciated. Take care!!

Interesting comment on the latest news about David Letterman and his on-air confession....

So the darling, media savvy, talk show host is “brilliant” “courageous” “honest” etc…. while anyone else in a similar position is fodder for monologue material and fair game for vicious media attacks for months, ala Mark Sanford and others. I’ve come to believe that most media journalists are utterly biased and couldn't’ sniff out “fair treatment” of a story if they tried. It’s so transparent… if you like the guy with moral failings, well, it’s ok. If you don’t like him, he is to be gored. What a joke.

You have to concede that this guy makes a very valid point. Fair is fair. And too often our personal bias can get in the way.