61° - cloudy at 10:29pmTook the weekend off from the blog (not intentional) - hope it was good for you.
Around my blogosphere:
Dave Lange. Dave blogs about "Authenticity - The Key To Reviving Radio" here. Authenticity the backbone of progressive rock in the 60s and 70s - and AOR in the 70s and 80s. Part one of a great piece here. Coincidently - after reading Dave's post today, I overheard the syndicated Ryan Seacrest weekday program on an office radio..and I swear I heard a sweeper soliciting listener "phone calls". This on a recorded/recycled bits show from Ryan's Los Angeles AMD program. How does that work? I certainly didn't hear any "listener calls" on the air. I immediately thought of Dave's piece where he writes about "gimmicks, hype and illusion". Whatever.
More authenticity: Coincidently, consultant Alan Mason writes about voice-tracking on his blog today. With apologies to Alan for over-quoting:
"...now I’m seeing talent and on-air PD’s who voice track their shows because they’re too busy to be on the air. I’ve even heard of talent who didn’t like their shift, so they voice track instead of being live. I can’t help but wonder, when did being on the air stop being a priority for on-air talent?"
"Yes, I know all the arguments about how busy you are, but let me ask you a question: How do you explain that to the listeners? "Well, I’d like to be engaging and interactive instead of just announcing, but I’m just too busy?”
"Think they don’t notice the difference? In case you haven’t noticed yourself, listeners are becoming more interactive, and want more relevance. It’s a big challenge to do that in voice tracking. But there’s an even bigger question: With all the competition from other media, and life becoming so busy for the listener that they often feel overwhelmed, isn’t it important for us to be as good as possible? And do you really think you can do that through regular voice tracking?"
"Yes, I know all the arguments about how busy you are, but let me ask you a question: How do you explain that to the listeners? "Well, I’d like to be engaging and interactive instead of just announcing, but I’m just too busy?”
"Think they don’t notice the difference? In case you haven’t noticed yourself, listeners are becoming more interactive, and want more relevance. It’s a big challenge to do that in voice tracking. But there’s an even bigger question: With all the competition from other media, and life becoming so busy for the listener that they often feel overwhelmed, isn’t it important for us to be as good as possible? And do you really think you can do that through regular voice tracking?"
Alan's complete post here. Full disclosure: As a PD, I've been put in the position of voice-tracking my shift simply because I was too busy. Handling multiple stations, I should have not been on the air at all. Not my call. And I'm certain there's many other PDs in the same situation.
More PPM: 20 MORE Things explained - numbers 6 through 10. From Paragon Media Strategies here. Numbers 1 through 5 here. The complete list without narrative here. 
Mad Men. Must-see TV in my house, though not with me (yet). My wife and oldest son both addicted. Mark Ramsey blogs about AMC's smash hit and what it means to radio here.Help. Asked over the weekend via email to help spread the word. From Dave Martin's blog this morning:
"Deborah Chesher is a published photographer [Amazon info]. Her rock star gets include George Harrison, Jerry Garcia and Frank Zappa. Now, her daughter is having brain surgery and Deborah is selling prints to help pay the bills. Get the story, see the prints here. If you're not able to buy a print, please share the link."
I read Deborah's story last night; please do what you can (and her work is wonderful). More tomorrow including stuff I didn't have time for tonight. Thanks for stopping by.
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