Sunday, May 4, 2008

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

57° - clear at 10:20am

Very cool:
KUFX/San Jose has put together some great packages that the station will be auctioning off to benefit local charities. What makes this special is that each package involves a member of the station's airstaff, including morning guy/musician Greg Kihn. Very cool. See here.

Listening:
This morning to Bob Stroud on Chicago's WDRV. Featuring three hours of this week in 1969.

Very tasty stuff. "Sweet Cherry Wine" by Tommy James playing right now. My evil twin also loved "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon" from Paul Revere and The Raiders. Thanks Bob.


Later:
Stroud played some Booker T & The MGs. Iinspired, I found myself at Amazon.Com to buy some Booker T downloads: "Time Is Tight" - plus a not-to-major hit titled "Melting Pot" - some great tracks I long forgot about.

Most of Booker T's work recorded at the sloped-floor (a former movie theater) studios of Stax Records in Memphis. But I digress.

Once again, this promotion thing the music industry uses (called "radio") works. Not the only downloads I purchased this morning either - thanks to radio. And my wife will remind me when she reviews our bank statement.

Last Sunday:
We noted the words of Bonneville New Media Director James Webb - stating that we ought to think of our cume as "users" rather than "listeners".

Dave Martin
blogged on the topic this past week and offered the words of one Chris Locke:

"we are not seats or eyeballs or end users or consumers. we are human beings - and our reach exceeds your grasp. deal with it."

My take:
With respect for all parties - whether you call them listeners or users - they're one of two sets of customers (the other being advertisers). Let's find ways to serve and engage both on the air and off. Its all about relationships.

How to ruin a relationship. Mark Ramsey points us to what I hope isn't a trend. As a program director, one of my primary duties was being an advocate for the listener and preventing things like this from happening. Please read.

Just a good read: Highlights from FMQB's Think-Tank Symposium. Here.

More radio stories.
Rick Kaempfer interviews WCBS afternoon news anchor Steve Scott here.

Added: Michael Mallace on "Big Ron" O'Brien - and WCFL - here.

1 comment:

David Martin said...

Dan,

My objection reflects the power of the ear. When we prefer user over listener we are discounting the significant and unique magic of audio. We bury our own lede in promoting a user primacy and in the process we become like everyone else. Should we employ the term user whatsoever my thought is we do so in a manner clearly subordinate to listener or other term that communicates the inherent advantages of audio. Enjoy your blog. All the best,