Every year I enjoy this more and more. Merry Christmas. Click here for happy holidays!!

How bout' that Opie.

Think of the career of Ron Howard. From Opie to this. Click here.

Required viewing

For those who have been in radio long enough, this will bring back some warm memories. For those too young, sorry you missed it. Click here.

Christmas Bells go "ch-ching"

Trevor Schellenberg our PD in Steinbach sent out a piece earlier today about how Christmas music increases a stations ratings. Check out these numbers.....

HOLIDAY BOOST: A sampling from 2010 of average shares as radio stations that temporarily switch to all-Christmas see ratings soar.

• New York: WLTW -- 6.0 | Christmas: 12.3
• San Diego: KYXY – 4.1 | 9.7
• Boston: WODS – 4.5 | 9.3
• L.A.: KOST – 4.6 | 9.2
• Dallas: KVIL – 4.1 | 7.2

Link to the full article here....and Ho-Ho-Ho!!

90's Rock

Excuse some of the language in this, but it's an interesting read.

Scratch and win....on this thing?!

This is pretty neat!!

---

New mobile marketing techniques and smartphone technologies are driving a unique 'virtual scratch-and-win' contest.

Smartphones users interact with the content through the touch screen capabilities of their device, while HTML5 coding and mobile connectivity are used to support customer interactions and document their contest entries.

Yellow Pages Group and Cossette are running the interactive contest under the theme 'Scratch and Win!' now through mid December.

Caroline Morin, Cossette's Director of Communications, told Mediacaster Magazine that the mobile application experience and programming were executed by the Cossette digital team, describing the contest interface as "a rich mobile banner that can be accessed within the app.

"What we tried to reproduce is an experience that comes as close to reality as possible to the physical scratch contest. So the touch screen sensitivity is key indeed. The faster you scratch the faster it appears!"

Users opt-in to the contest and agree to share certain data with contest operators through a basic sign-up form, Morin explained. Social media connections are also established with customers through the contest.

Participants have a chance to win a daily cash prize throughout the month-long contest. Users who also share the contest across their Facebook page become eligible for a $5,000-travel package grand prize.

What's the deal?

We continue to hear and read about the "occupy" movement. My view is (and this won't be a surprise) right wing. I wonder.....do they really have issues? If they do, and you asked ten random campers in the tent cities what those issues are, could they tell you? Or are they just sort of....there.

I found this comment interesting too. What do you think?

"The protesters, the demonstrators here in Calgary, have made a mistake. And the mistake they've made is they've let it become about the tents to the point we're no longer talking about the message, if any, the demonstrators have and I think that's a real shame because they had a beautiful opportunity and they have let it go away.

"I'm not saying it can't be saved. I'm not saying there is not an opportunity to continue the discussion on the important issues that matter, but here it's become about the tents and people pooping in the [Olympic] plaza and all sorts of exciting things like that instead of about issues of social justice in the community, and I think that's a real shame."

— Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi

If you're reading this, you already know it.

Vancouver, BC – If you want to learn how Canadians are communicating and interacting online, look no further than social networking sites. According to Ipsos’ most recent Canadian Interactive Reid Report special feature on Social Networking, one-half of all Canadians (50%) and the majority of online Canadians (60%) now have a social networking profile.

Social networking is no longer the exclusive domain of youth. While younger online Canadians aged 18 to 34 years (86%) are the most likely to have a social networking profile, other age groups are not getting left behind, as a majority (62%) of those aged 35 to 54 now have profiles and a good portion (43%) of those 55 years and older have one too.

What is more significant is the dramatic increase in the frequency in which they are using social networks. Nearly one-half of online Canadians (45%) are now visiting a social networking site at least once a week, and 30% visit daily, which compares to 35% who were visiting weekly, and 19% who were visiting daily this time last year. Momentum continues to grow as well, as 32% of those who have an online profile admit they are using it more than last year.

Snow!!

Snow and cold this weekend? No problem. Click here.

Pirate Radios "Meaning of Life"

Hard work - Smart work

My friend and co-worker Craig Hemingway passed this along. It's totally worth a read. When you're done, ask yourself which of the two groups you fall into. Click here.

Interaction....then and now.

I found this very interesting. Particularly the point about real time audience interaction. Remember when we used the phone for this? Heck, we still do. We just need to intelligently add new media.

The death of radio is greatly exaggerated, writes Michael Hedges in a piece adapted from his presentation to the Brave New Radio conference last week.

His look at the state of the medium across Europe comes up with some positive, and surprising, results.

"In virtually every audience survey in Europe radio listening is up," he writes. "Not simply up, but at record levels." He continues:

"In the last 30 years we've seen an absolute explosion of radio channels and stations. Within the 44 countries in the UN definition of Europe... there are roughly 15,000 broadcast radio outlets, about one for every 50,000 people. Ten years ago there were half as many."

He also takes on board the rise of the internet and its beneficial effect.

Essentially, his message is that radio is a first-class example of participation between broadcaster and audience. One examples he cites is Italian radio:

"Italian broadcasters have integrated radio and social media in amazing ways. Entire programmes are constructed in real-time around listener interaction.

When Tracking Fails

The vt'd weather from five minutes ago said "40 percent chance of flurries". There is a 100 chance that's still the Halloween witch hanging there. And there is also a 100 chance I am voting for the Saskatchewan Party tomorrow. Maybe we should apply those same odds to snowfall.

Being Happy

A few thoughts from Andy Rooney on life, and being happy an successful....

• I've learned .... That when you're in love, it shows.
• I've learned .... That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
• I've learned .... That we should be glad God doesn't give us everything we ask for.
• I've learned .... That it's those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
• I've learned .... That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
• I've learned .... That the easiest way for me to grow as a person is to surround myself with people smarter than I am.
• I've learned .... That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it.
• I've learned .... That the less time I have to work with, the more things I get done.

A Dogs Halloween

If you like Halloween...and Dogs, you'll like this. Happy Halloween!!

In case we forgot....

I think success in life is likely a combination of talent, hard work, and timing. I read something today, something written for radio announcers, that reminded me of the "hard work" part of things. It's from Jaye Albrights blog. I can't recall the exact wording, but it was something like this.....

There is no way you can cheat your way to a successful radio show. I work with people who think they can learn how to do a better show just by talking about it. As if all they lacked was a little know-how. 90% of the time I'll tell them they need to work harder. Prep more, think more, do more research.

What Makes You Memorable?

From Jaye Albrights blog.

I believe we spend too much time begging people to remember us, and far too little in giving them some motivation for *wanting* to remember us.
In real life, we remember individuals because of the things they say, the unique ways they impress us; the way they impinge on our thoughts and feelings and make us think and feel in return.

Why should people remember your radio station? Hummmmm....

Worth Repeating

From Jack Layton's last letter....

To other Canadians who are on journeys to defeat cancer and to live their lives, I say this: please don’t be discouraged that my own journey hasn’t gone as well as I had hoped. You must not lose your own hope. Treatments and therapies have never been better in the face of this disease. You have every reason to be optimistic, determined, and focused on the future. My only other advice is to cherish every moment with those you love at every stage of your journey, as I have done this summer.

Amen.

The guys in Moose Jaw have jumped on an old idea. I think this may have come from Lyndon after a trip to New York where he went to see the Letterman show, but I'm not sure. Anyway, they have posted the survey below on their M2O site. I think we could make this work with any of our portals and regular old email links. This could lead to great bits for jocks, stories for news, features for online....etc...etc...

Everyone Has A Story Questionnaire

We are looking for people to participate in a FUTURE SEGMENT for the HEARTLAND AT NOON called “One Great Story”, in which audience members share a funny, unique story with Carns on the program.

The idea behind this segment is simple: Everyone has at least one great story! Maybe you have one hilarious, knock’em dead story that you love to tell at parties or family gatherings. Like for instance, do you have a great vacation/celebrity/family story? Perhaps something odd, wacky or unusual happened to you on your honeymoon…or on a family vacation …or in college or high school…or at home or at work. Please bear in mind that great stories have a beginning, middle and end, are loaded with juicy details and are compelling. Also, your story doesn’t necessarily have to be funny. It can be heartwarming and compassionate. The important thing is that it’s compelling.

If you have a terrific story and want to be a part of a FUTURE EDITION of the HEARTLAND AT NOON, please provide the following information:

YOUR NAME: ______________________________________________

HOMETOWN:_______________________________________________

OCCUPATION: _____________________________________________

YOUR STORY: _____________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

HOME PHONE: ___________________________________

EMAIL: __________________________________________

CELL PHONE: ____________________________________

Better images

Looking for better, more relevant online images? Here is an idea from Ryan in Swift Current.....

Just a suggestion for picture usage. When we have a story about a car accident, we use a picture of a police car. A fire? We use a pic of a fire engine. It's all very generic, and really which Emergency Service is called out to the scene isn't the most relevant part of the story.

A suggestion?

Lets use google technology and at least use google satellite or google earth to put a picture of where it happened.

Make sense?

Yes, it does.

Airchecks

I got some aircheck notes from one of our PD's this morning. I loved this peice of advice she was sharing with an announcer she works with...

.the key, now that you have the break structure, is to smooth out the sound of your breaks. ums and ahs show you are thinking about what to say next, instead of knowing what you are going to say next. Although you are planning what you are going to talk about throughout the show...plan more on what each break is going to say. Then, take it a step further and practice that break before you go on air to do it for real. A once run through will really build your confidence in the break and makes it like second nature when it's "for real" (same goes for song intros)

Bravo!!

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were getting killed by media and fan criticism after an 0-3 start. Last night, about an hour after beating Montreal, receiver Jason Clermont posted this on Twitter....

“It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

President Theodore Roosevelt

First Impressions

Just overheard a funny conversation. My friend Wayne Lamb who does afternoons on Country 100 said he met a couple from Australia at the Craven Country Jamboree. These folks saw so many Pilsner Beer flags on the jamboree site they thought it was the provincial flag of Saskatchewan.

Ha!!

Mobile? You bet!!

Get this. According to a new survey the majority of smartphone/tablet users say their mobile device has replaced a traditional alarm clock (61.1%) and a GPS device (52.3%). 4 in 10 smartphone/tablet users say their mobile device has replaced a digital camera (44.3%), a personal planner (41.6%) and a landline phone (40.3%).

The old brick has come a long way hasn't it?

Good advice!!

I read this today on Mike O'Malley's blog. He is a radio consultant who works primarily with country stations, but this is good advice for all formats and all communicators.

This blog is intentionally under 500 characters; that's the threshold for the new messaging service Shortmail.

Its mission? Improve your relationship with email by eliminating time wasters.

Shortmail forces senders to acknowledge that attention spans are short and no one wants their time wasted. Emails are under 500 characters or they can't be sent.

Whether or not you subscribe to Shortmail, it's hard to argue against more concise, focused, and easily digestible communications on or off air.

Landmarking made easy

Here is one of the easiest ways there is to landmark on the air....

Find out where every caller is phoning from and say it on the air. Not just towns, but also areas of towns. South Hill in Moose Jaw....Bankview in Drumheller....the south side in Swift Current....etc.
Be as specific as you can. "Jane Smith is on the line from River Park in Moose Jaw...how high is the water there Jane?"

And always use full names. First and last.

Social media posts

Social media is about conversations. It's about sharing common interests, feelings, observations and stories. It's not about marketing. In fact, most social media users HATE being marketed to on Facebook or Twitter. They go there for a sense of belonging and community, not commerce or advertising.

Knowing this, craft your radio station posts very carefully.

My problem with the left

The picture on the front page of this online newspaper encapsulates my problem with left wing media in our country. Click the link to view it. www.canada.com.

Last night the Vancouver Canucks lost the Stanley Cup to Boston. A small percentage of booze fueled idiots decided to riot in the streets. Instead of showing images on the troublemakers beating up Bruins fans, or burning cars, or destroying property.....Canada is shown this image this morning.

Who is the genius editor that decided that's what the story was about?

Local News Coverage...now.

Here is an excellent example of same night local coverage of a big storm. Click here for the link.

Matching the Mood.

Music makes people feel things. When you're getting ready to back-sell a song, live or on a voice-track, ask yourself this. "What has the listener experienced in the last 3 minutes?" Your mood and tone should match that when you start to talk.

Here is a guy who really gets the marriage of new media and traditional media. Click here to learn more.

The Key

What's the key to new media? Consider this.....

New media is not about the latest gadget. It's culture. It's where people get information. Where they talk to each other. Where they make new friends. Where they turn for entertainment.

At the end of the day, it's still about content and presentation.

Hummmmm....

Mass vs. Matter

Consider this. Radio does not have a problem with the size of it's audience. It has all the audience it needs.

Radio falls short in creating content that matters to the audience it already has.

Matter means more than mass.

My friend Tom just sent me this. Toms an engineer, so he's obviously a deep thinker ;)

He's also quite right with the following.....

An average person on our modern economy spends ever more time on basic
tasks of managing information, and ever less time producing creative
ideas and truly useful knowledge.

Its something to consider when sending more information to the masses.

There is an article making the rounds right now saying the use and impact of Twitter is not as significant as we may have thought. In fact, the study referred to in the article shows that more than 50% of people who have Twitter accounts have never tweeted and follow no one.

So is Twitter worth investing time and effort in? I read two comments about that on a chat site this morning....

#1
I'm working in tv and our whole newsroom uses it. I delayed getting on Twitter but now that I have, I love it! So much actual information goes up, news, sports, weather. I can't even go on facebook for more than 5 minutes at a time because of the annoying statues, but with twitter you get something out of it. I highly recommend it.

#2
almost no one uses it. BUT the people that do, use it a lot.

Here is a thought. If we follow the right people and groups on Twitter we will get information and insights we might otherwise miss. If we tweet the right information to our Twitter followers we super serve our uber-fans, the ones looking for a deeper relationship with us.

What do you think?

In the world of communications there is constant talk of content. We create it, we manage it, we present it, we recycle it - and on it goes - and even if we do all of those things exceptionally well, we will still fail if we are presenting the wrong content.

Here's my spin. The right content is information the audience cares about, presented to them on their schedule. It's relevant and it fits their agenda.

Consider this. Today's audience lives in a world of enormous choice, and out of this vast jungle of information, they will grab on to only the things they care about. The sheer volume and diversity of media streams allows them to be very critical of what they experience so they only consume content that engages them in some way.

If it doesn't matter to them, it doesn't matter. Period.

So our job is not to decide what to talk about. It's to figure out what they want to hear. What do they want, that we can provide, and they can't get anywhere else? What makes us special to them?

Any ideas?

Could this be Iggys "Howard Dean Moment"? The whole thing is a little creepy. And desperate. Click here to see the show. FYI, watch the older folks in the audience. I'm pretty sure some of them aren't sure why they are applauding or why someone is asking them to stand up.

Reminders

Last weekend I was lucky enough to spend some time at the RTNDA Professional Development weekend up in Saskatoon. It's always a great chance to chat with people who are real pros in the news game and to come away with good ideas.

Richard Brown was one of the featured presenters. Richard has worked in some of the largest broadcast newsrooms in North America, and has anchored major market television newscasts in New York, Toronto, San Fransisco and several other metros. He was also an overseas correspondent for a time, and among his away winning stories was coverage of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that saw some 800,000 killed.

Richards career has come full circle. He's back in radio in his home province of Saskatchewan and enjoying every minute of it. He shared some wonderful reminders of what makes news work on the radio, online, and in the lives of our listeners and viewers.

Some of them, in no particular order....

• Respect yourself. Dress well, take care of your health, educate yourself constantly and be a professional 24/7.
• Practice. Delivering news online and the on air is a craft. Strive to be a better writer and presenter every day.
  
• Tell stories, don't read them.
• The best stories connect to people on an emotional level. A flood is not just about rising water levels and road closures. . It's about people fighting back against the water....it's about the spirit of volunteerism...it's about the expectant mother who takes a 45 minutes detour to get to the hospital to deliver her baby....you get the idea.
• Raw sound is powerful in radio news. Rushing water, planes roaring overhead or the laughter of children all add to their particular stories.
• It's about the audience.
• Click here for an inside look at a reporter who works hard at the craft of telling stories.

Separated at Birth...again.

A little too similar for my liking.

Jake got the new 3DS when it came out last weekend. Today I printed AR cards from online on a regular home printer to see if they would work. They do. I'm always blown away by this kind of stuff.

Here is an online video to give you a look at how it works.

CBC is bias?!? Come on!!

I love this. Click here for the latest CBC gaff.

Shedding more light on the broken compass

A little more fuel for discussion on the CBC's left leaning "voters compass" Click here for some interesting opinion/information.

Media Bias

The CBC has been accused before of a Liberal bias. Have they taken it to a new level? Click here to check out the story and thank your lucky stars that we have Sun Media coming on line to provide a little balance in national television news.

Our job is to stay out of this sort of partisan posturing.

Why?

This was in my email this morning. Pretty darned simple. And interesting. And challenging. Click here and watch the video.

Here is a note that was passed on to me by Warren Neufeld our center manager in Portage. The video he refers to generated significant traffic to their website and demonstrates the power of images. It highlights why it's important all of us begin to think in terms of video and not just sound. Check it out by clicking on this video link. Here is how Warren set up the piece for me....

Our local hockey team - the Ptg Terriers are in the mist of a playoff push. We were doing the play-by-play on Sat night and just happened to be also doing video at the same time. As luck would have it we captured a very controversial ending to the game.
Check out the enclosed link to see the video.
It certainly underlines the importance and impact we can have.

Hope this never happens to you.....

Our Director of Engineering Laverne Siemens sent this to me. (By the way, the photo above is NOT Laverne) Wild!! Check out the video.

Push vs. Pull

Here is a little chunk of a conversation between Media guys Mark Ramsay and Guy Kawasaki. Ramsay runs a media consulting company and Kawasaki is author of a new book called "Enchantment - The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions". Both are industry leaders in the area of new media. Ramsay was questioning Kawasaki about "push" and "pull" technology.

After you read this, think of how we engage our audiences.

You advise on the best ways to use “push” and “pull” technology. Can you define what those are?

“Push” marketing is when you are controlling the mechanism, the timing, and the quantity of what you’re sending to people. You push out email; you push out your tweets.

“Pull” marketing is when you have to convince people to return to your website, return to your Facebook page, and so you have to attract them continuously.

Both have a place in enchantment. Twitter is a very useful tool for enchanting people as is a great Facebook fan page.

Let’s talk about each of them. In terms of “push,” you mentioned Twitter. What are a couple of great Twitter “push” tactics to promote enchantment?

With Twitter, I think the key is that you tweet out interesting links and that you are seen as the source of stories and pictures and video that other people would not have found in your particular area of expertise.

So, if you’re an expert in radio, you should be tweeting out the great interview about the future of radio and what it means in a world with Pandora, for example.

The second thing is something many people do not agree with. I think you need to repeat your tweets to make them effective. You’re in radio. You can’t assume that the person who listens to your station at 7 a.m. is also going to be listening at 7 p.m. So if you push out something interesting at 7 p.m. through Twitter it’s unlikely that the same the person who uses Twitter at 7 a.m. will see it.

You need to repeat it.

Very often the radio station with the most repeats is among those with the highest ratings.

Yeah, I rest my case.

What about great tactics for “pull”?

For “pull” marketing, it’s all about generating great content that you have a real reason for people to come back for – there’s new stuff available all the time.

There’s value, there’s information, and the common thread of “push” and “pull” is that “content is king.” it really is.

And new content is king. It could be photos, it could be video, or it could be the interaction of the community. It’s not necessarily true that you have to provide all the content; because you can have very, very interesting forums, but ultimately “content is king.”

Separated at Birth.

From the Brier. Manitoba third Jon Mead. The Dr. Evil of curling.

What we want to say vs. what they need to hear.

One of the age old challenges of doing radio (or any media) well, is selecting content. It's the process of understanding what sort of message to craft for maximum impact and relevance with the audience. Put another way, it's the job of making yourself matter. If your content is interesting and engaging to your audience, you'll matter. If it isn't, you won't. It doesn't matter how "good" you are. It's matters how relevant you are.

The key is knowing who is listening. It's finding out about the people on the other side of the radio and thinking about them all the time. Who are they? What do they care about? What do they not care about? What do they like to do? What are they likely not to do? If you can get the answers to these questions, creating on target content get's a lot easier.

Make it about the audience, make it local, and make it matter. Have fun!!

Then and now.

I felt a little nostalgic today. Here is the result. Big 8 and K-Tel. And for those of you under 40 here's some Howard.

Morning!! Here is a recent entry from Mark Ramseys daily blog. It speaks to standing out, rather than just standing up. The points he makes are excellent and I wonder how we measure up against them?

Why doesn’t radio get more love given (as we’re always reminded) that almost everybody listens to it almost all the time in almost every place?

This is one of the industry’s greatest frustrations, and it’s particularly frustrating when advertisers and others in the know echo themes popular in the cultural ether. Themes like “Pandora is really cannibalizing radio” and “Sirius XM is really eating your lunch.”

This is a problem I discussed at length with marketing blogger extraordinaire and best-selling author Seth Godin in a conversation that will post to this blog soon.

Usage, Seth told me, is not the issue. Attention is the issue. And attention is shifting and shifting fast in large part because attention follows novelty, as anyone who has ever listened to or programmed a Top 40 station knows.

Attention follows novelty. Consumers hunger for what’s new even if their habits have yet to catch up with their attention.

The problem is that “habit” is about history while “attention” is about the future. Attention points the way for future habits just as a car’s future is where it’s heading, not where it has been, no matter how long it has spent there.

Attention is what we see reflected on the lips of agencies who profess the myth that Pandora is more important than radio. Attention is what we see reflected in stories on CNN and in the Wall Street Journal. Attention, powered by novelty, is what consumers spread amongst themselves, it’s what they talk about with each other.

Radio’s vast usage is at risk as long as its attention deficit persists. And its attention deficit will persist as long as radio clings to vast usage as its best story.

It will persist as long as radio surrenders novelty to startups and streaming pure-plays and innovators whose primary concerns are the passions of consumers rather than the demands of an industry which takes those consumers for granted.

If you want to fix radio’s attention deficit, forget about vast usage. Instead, open to novelty.