Legends and Heros

55° - drizzle and clouds at 7:25am

Legends and Heros. In the past few days, Lee Arnold has blogged about a topic close to my heart.

Lee asks - with relation to the various radio industry honors - "Where The Hell is Bill Drake and Tom Donahue" as well as some other known and not-so-well known names in our industry's past. Read here.

I agree with Lee that there's a lot of be learned from our past - we all need to be students "of our shared radio history". And regardless of format. Dave Martin (here) comments on Lee's piece and added some names of his own, all deserving of honor. Jim Schulke? You bet!

I'd still love to hear the stories, strategies and thinking from those legends who may have dropped out of the biz. A few of the legends do blog. Others just need to be tracked down and interviewed.

The name Buzz Bennett came up again in conversation this week. There's another name. Buzz apparently MIA.

Bonus: yesterday Lee printed a letter from the legendary Joe Kelly (another name!). Joe writes about the late Thom O'Hare. Read here.

Much thanks to Lee - plus the contributions of Dave and Joe for bringing up this topic in the blogosphere again.

More here on the blog tonight.

Sunday Morning Odds & Sods

37° - mostly cloudy at 10:45am

Good morning from Michigan.

Listening this morning: To Rock 'N Roll Roots on Chicago's WDRV. A time warp this morning to this week in 1968; 40 years ago.

I remember buying much of the music Bob is playing this morning at my hometown "Deerfield (Illinois) Record Shop"; most of it on 7-inch vinyl. Thanks for the memories.

Later: more Rock 'N Roll Roots...the Steve Palec version on Milwaukee's WKLH.

These guys get it: Syndicated country radio morning personalities Big D & Bubba are encouraging listeners to post show audio and content on sites like You Tube and MySpace. Jay Albright with more here.

Big D & Bubba are 180° from the TV networks and others who feel the need to stay in control of their content with C&Ds and take-down notices.

Just on Friday consultant Paul Jacobs (on JacoBLOG) quoted a Michigan State University Professor: "Buzz is created when people are talking about an event, or a message gets spread all over YouTube."

Don't follow the lead of the TV folks and discourage "the buzz". Encourage and give permission to listeners to post your content.

"What it all comes down to is that thing....the undefinable thing when somebody catches something from your music. What I'm talking about is....wait, what am I talking about?"

"The buzz"

"The buzz...and the chicks...the whatever...is an offshoot of the buzz. Like you saying you like Fever Dog...that is the f*cking buzz"."

-Dialogue between "Fever Dog" musician Jeff Bebe
and journalist William Miller in the 2000 film
"Almost Famous" (one of my all-time faves!)

This ties in: another quote on radio's future from blogger Doc Searls:

"Brands and reputations will matter more than ever. Familiar call letters, program names, personalities and institutions will have countless new ways to leverage their incumbent advantages, and to relate to their listeners and viewers, without both real and conceptual constraints imposed by transmitters and entailments such as "range".

What will matter most about those names and reputations, however, will not be limited to their familiarity. Instead they will be enriched or impoverished by the degrees to which they participate in a marketplace sustained by real relationships, and not just by marketing that goes by that name."

Complete post here. Doc Searls a reader and contributor to Bruce Elving's FMedia! newsletter years ago (as was I). Props to Mark Ramsey for the tip.

Cara Carriveau. Cara is back with another podcast from her basement. This time its legendary rock band Shooting Star.

Listen to that plus her interview with Rik Emmett of Triumph here.

Thanks for the kind words: from rock radio voice station voice guru Joe Kelly - who just stumbled across this blog. I'm honored to have you Joe!