REAL dangerous thinking: “Listeners tune-in to hear compelling hosts.”

[Holland Cooke]

"For the 6th time - List please."

Here comes #7.
Maybe "lucky 7."

Good morning from Las Vegas.
EARLY morning for y'all back-East.

Put this on your List:
Has it been a-decade-ago already that video game revenue topped Hollywood box office?

Thinking that -- TODAY -- "talk radio" can remain viable in we-talk-you-listen-mode is laughable.

CES notes to follow.
As for my presence behind-the-microphone last night at KDWN here: No comment...

You used the term "outside the box". That is one that have to be careful to not over work. In the Atlanta paper this morning there was prolific coverage about Griffin Bell who died yesterday. In describing Bell's influence on the life of our nation someone said: "He was thinking outside the box before the rest of us knew there was a box."

AMEN.
'Hadn't heard about Bell's passing, having-spent-an-entire-day-on-airplanes-yesterday.
He was a great man.

We lost another giant this past week in retired 6-term US Senator Claiborne Pell, eulogized by, among others, Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Joe Biden last week in Newport. Pell Grants helped 54 million get college-educated. He was prime mover in a treaty to keep nukes off the ocean floor. And he decried Viet Nam early. RIP.

 

[Holland Cooke]

Will THIS help?

Hello from-the-middle-of a CES session on Social Media in the Sands Expo in Vegas.

“Find the people who are like you and engage.”
New Marketing Labs’ Chris Brogan

Apropos tools like Facebook and Twitter, he urges “Let’s stop talking-about-talking. Let’s talk about DOING. That’s what we have the power to do” with social media. “Don’t ignore those who 'don’t get it.' Ignore THE LEADERSHIP who doesn’t get it.”

In radio, flawed leadership leveraged station-owning companies to-the-point-where too-much-of-what-airs is piped-in one-topic I-talk-you-listen programming. THEY take comfort in lists-of-what-everyone-else-is-already-doing, business-as-usual.

What I'm urging is change, to catch-up with changing consumer habits.
Observe the measurably diminishing returns for business-as-usual, WHILE new media adoption mushrooms.
Start a NEW list...while there's still time to exploit our ability to line-extend pre-existing on-air cume to new platforms.

Don't shoot the messenger.
Admittedly, change is threatening.
Lists-of-business-as-usual are a comfort zone.

But if-lists-you-must:

1. Let's play the hits: http://lyrics.webfitz.com/index.php?option=com_webfitzlyrics&Itemid=27&func=fullview&lyricsid=4626

2. Let's go to the newsroom: http://lyrics.webfitz.com/index.php?option=com_webfitzlyrics&Itemid=27&func=fullview&lyricsid=3838

HC
www.HollandCooke.com

 

[Holland Cooke]

Also at the Consumer Electronics Show in 'Vegas...

“People are looking for involved partnership in something different.”
David Katz, who leads Mobile Advertising @ Yahoo, speaking at CES

 

[Slant]

I guess the answer is to play better records. Walter Sabo would love that....Personalities win...always. Talk radio can not be boiled down to some format.

I once worked in an upper level position at a major market talk radio station that had small owners. One of the station owners asked me how much we paid our fill in talent. I told him 50 bucks an hour (I think thats what the amount was at the time). He wanted to drop the pay of the fill in talent to fifteen an hour because that's what they paid their fill in music jocks on a sister station. Someone at the station had a great line after they heard that...."Yeah, but we bring our own records."

Summed it up perfectly. Now that station plays hip hop.

 

[Holland Cooke]

"Personalities win...always."

BE CAREFUL about "always" (Conventional Wisdom), when there's a revolution underway.

I wince when I hear "content is king."
When distribution has been democratized, there is no king.

"Real people" are getting hundreds-of-thousands-of views on YouTube, emerging as stars there...and on-the-various on-the-go-devices their content now pops-up.

http://nab365.bdmetrics.com/NST-2-5...ewsletter&ocuid=NDEwOTM0OA==-vudiUpYTA+A=&r=t

 

[Slant]

correct...and "real" people create "real" content...no matter how silly. Curtis Sliwa was never a "real" broadcaster, but someone that had an unique take on the world and was compelling. His personality was what made him popular. My point is, when you boil a radio station down to NJ 101.5 where the personalities are interchangeable and the station is the "Star" (thank you Sabo), you end up missing the boat. Although in NJ 101.5's situation, the station is hugely popular and has some fantastic talent. Being positioned as a station specifically for Jersey and not philly or NY was brilliant..

 

[Holland Cooke]

Everyone has become their own "PD." iPod was just the beginning.

Still thinkin' people will continue to be satisfied with media content that treats them as passive "audience?"
FYI http://yoostar.com/, unveiled by CEA CEO Gary Shapiro, in this morning's Consumer Electronics Show opening keynote.
He then introduced Tom Hanks, after-whose side-splitting 20 minutes, Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer said it all:
"Embrace the fusion of industries."

Or just keep doing-what-we've-always-done.
(I note another thread here announces "Levin adds third hour.")

In-which-case your more-of-the-same, business-as-usual programming will soon be competing for attention with everything-else-coming-out-of the new (for-lack-of-a-better-way-to-describe-it) "clock radio" Stringer showed us. It sits there on your night stand, and has a screen. It's "always-on and connected-to-the-'Net:" and delivers "pre-selected" information and entertainment content that the user chooses.

HC
http://getonthenet.com/ceslogo.jpg

 

[Holland Cooke]

And, yes, she IS a babe...a MEGA-babe...

“Our challenge is figuring out the best ways to use these new platforms to stay relevant to the increasingly demanding and mobile lives of our viewers. Especially in this economy, consumers are turning to brands, services and devices that make their lives easier and allow them to do things they couldn’t do before.”
Anne Sweeney, co-chair, Disney Media Networks and President, Disney-ABC Television Group, keynoting CES yesterday
http://getonthenet.com/Sweeney-moreTV-lite.jpg

 

[Holland Cooke]

And after all, wasn't Talk Radio the ORIGINAL "Social Medium?"

“All media is or will be Social Media at some point.”
Shawn Gold, Partner, SocialApproach, Former CMO, MySpace, moderating the CES session "Social Media and the User-Generated Media Economy: The Content, Personalization, Lifestyle and Advertising Phenomenon"