He looks more like Ricky Ricardo in this picture, but it's actually Sammy Sosa at an event in Las Vegas.Do steroids bleach your skin too?
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Sammy is that really you?
He looks more like Ricky Ricardo in this picture, but it's actually Sammy Sosa at an event in Las Vegas.Do steroids bleach your skin too?
Chicago Radio Spotlight: Bill Gamble
I just posted my latest Chicago Radio Spotlight interview. This week I talk with long time Chicago program director Bill Gamble. He talks about the two radio stations he is programming now (US99 and Fresh FM) along with some of his previous stops on the Chicago radio dial.Read it here.
Friday, November 06, 2009
The 11/3 Project
This is unbelievably brilliant.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| ||||
Sesame Street is 40!
Their 40th season kicks off on Tuesday.
That's hard to believe.
Look at this picture. Big Bird is aging well, but Elmo apparently needs to be propped up.
Don't buy this car
This is a Honda Odyssey. Same color and model as mine.The transmission just went out. The bill is $5000.
You read that right: $5000.
Did some research on it after we got the most outrageous bill I've ever gotten in my life, and found out that the transmission is an issue with Honda Odysseys from 2002 and 2003 (we have a 2003), but that Honda has refused to issue a recall. Someone is trying to put together a class action lawsuit.
Just warning you.
He's baaaaaack
Looks like Mel Karmazin is coming out of his bomb shelter. From Tom Taylor's column this morning...
"Sirius XM to launch 'the most aggressive brand marketing campaign in our history.' It starts the week of Thanksgiving and Mel Karmazin teases it but won’t snitch on the marketing message. He says “the ads will be very noticed….you’ll see them a lot.” That should end a period when Karmazin’s troops were conserving their off-air marketing dollars, even as consumer confusion about the merger of the two rivals continued."
I worked for Mel's company for ten years (when he ran Infinity/CBS). During those years he spent exactly zero dollars on advertising. Didn't believe it worked. I always thought that was hilariously ironic. His whole business was based on selling advertising, and yet, he didn't think it worked. Instead, he didn't worry about ratings, he just kept cutting costs to make sure the bottom line was still attractive to Wall Street.
Guess he's finally cut all that he could cut (except himself, of course.)
"Sirius XM to launch 'the most aggressive brand marketing campaign in our history.' It starts the week of Thanksgiving and Mel Karmazin teases it but won’t snitch on the marketing message. He says “the ads will be very noticed….you’ll see them a lot.” That should end a period when Karmazin’s troops were conserving their off-air marketing dollars, even as consumer confusion about the merger of the two rivals continued."I worked for Mel's company for ten years (when he ran Infinity/CBS). During those years he spent exactly zero dollars on advertising. Didn't believe it worked. I always thought that was hilariously ironic. His whole business was based on selling advertising, and yet, he didn't think it worked. Instead, he didn't worry about ratings, he just kept cutting costs to make sure the bottom line was still attractive to Wall Street.
Guess he's finally cut all that he could cut (except himself, of course.)
Sights & Sounds
This week's Sights & Sounds at Just One Bad Century includes the sight of Mr. T singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and the sound of Willie Smith and Nate Oliver singing a song about the 1969 Cubs.
See it and hear it here.
Thursday, November 05, 2009
Weezer Snuggie
It's getting a little more difficult to market a new record. Got to hand it to the boys in Weezer for getting creative...
Glenn Beck attack
He wasn't attacked by those evil Americans that don't like him. He was attacked from within. From Tom Taylor's column at Radio-Info.com this morning...
"Glenn Beck is stricken with appendicitis during his radio show.This time Beck left his Premiere-syndicated radio show during the program itself, and was taken to a hospital for immediate medical attention. He missed his usual Fox News Channel gig yesterday (no surprise), and presumably won’t be back to his radio show for a couple of days."
Cross your fingers. Maybe we'll get another crazy hospital YouTube video...
"Glenn Beck is stricken with appendicitis during his radio show.This time Beck left his Premiere-syndicated radio show during the program itself, and was taken to a hospital for immediate medical attention. He missed his usual Fox News Channel gig yesterday (no surprise), and presumably won’t be back to his radio show for a couple of days."Cross your fingers. Maybe we'll get another crazy hospital YouTube video...
Getting mad at the right people
Are you mad about the economy?
Are you mad about the deficit?
Get mad at the right people. These guys.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
The Yankees
All I can say is, thank God the ten year streak of no championships is finally over for those long suffering Yankees fans.Nobody knows the trouble they've seen. Nobody knows their sorrow.
Holy Mackeral
It's great to have Robert Feder back.
Check out this blistering column about WGN program director Kevin Metheny (photo). Someone leaked his memos to Feder. The guy (Metheney) sounds like the fictional jerks I created in $everance.
Wow, just wow.
Wall Street Warns Against Regulation
These Wall Street guys are deserving of every bad thing that is written about them. This is a pretty good take on things from Bloomberg's Susan Antilla..."If you sift through position papers of financial trade groups, there’s a lot of noise about the need for regulation. But read far enough and you hit that paragraph that explains why the writer’s constituents don’t need to be overseen with serious diligence.
And then, inevitably, you will meet with that foreboding warning that regulation will threaten innovation. In a “Dear Senator” letter published by the Financial Services Roundtable on July 8, politicians were warned that a proposed agency to protect consumers would “jeopardize the safety and soundness of many firms and stifle innovation by requiring firms to offer ‘plain vanilla’ products.”
I, for one, am willing to take my chances. Bring it on with your threats to force plain-vanilla investments on consumers. Wall Street, if you really want to frighten us, you need to do better than that."
Not Dead Yet
This study has some rare good news for radio...
A Nielsen analysis of a media use study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) found that 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. This study, in which consumers were physically observed consuming media throughout the day, found that Web/Internet (excluding email) reached 64%, newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%.
In a deeper analysis of audio media titled “How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio,” Nielsen found that that 90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day. The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices. Broadcast radio also continues to play a major role to all ages, with almost 80 percent of those aged 18 to 34 listening to broadcast radio in an average day.
It's like a pep-talk for the entire industry. Thanks Nielsen.
A Nielsen analysis of a media use study conducted by the Council for Research Excellence (CRE) found that 77% of adults are reached by broadcast radio on a daily basis, second only to television at 95%. This study, in which consumers were physically observed consuming media throughout the day, found that Web/Internet (excluding email) reached 64%, newspaper 35%, and magazines 27%.In a deeper analysis of audio media titled “How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio,” Nielsen found that that 90% of consumers listen to some form of audio media per day. The 77% who listen to broadcast radio surpass the 37% who listen to CDs and tapes and the 12% who listen to portable audio devices. Broadcast radio also continues to play a major role to all ages, with almost 80 percent of those aged 18 to 34 listening to broadcast radio in an average day.
It's like a pep-talk for the entire industry. Thanks Nielsen.
Himes & MacPhail
Every Wednesday at JOBC we tell a Tale from a Bad Century.This week we tell two: the sordid tales of Larry Himes and Andy MacPhail.
One of them didn't think we needed Greg Maddux anymore. The other one lived up to his last name.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
5 years ago
5 years ago this week, John "Swany" Swanson and I were featured in Bill Zwecker's "5 Questions With" segment about our brand new book (still available, kids), The Radio Producer's Handbook.You can read Zwecker's piece here.
Newsroom fight
How tense are things in the Washington Post newsroom these days?Two reporters got into a fist fight yesterday.
Details are still sketchy, but here's what we know.
Trib experiment
Whoa. This is pretty gutsy.Tribune Co. is going to go a whole week without using the Associated Press just to see if it's viable to get rid of them forever.
The story is here.
Curse of the Mogul
You know me, I hate me my media moguls. That's why I love this quote in the current Time Magazine...
"In The Curse of the Mogul, Jonathan Knee, Bruce Greenwald and Ava Seave argue that the biggest problem with media companies is the moguls, who have been seduced into believing that content is king, bigger is always better and talent — especially their own — is irreplaceable. So blinded are they, they have mismanaged their companies and shareholders have suffered."
This is a Q&A with one of the authors. Worth reading if you want a good Sumner or Rupert smackdown, but it comes with a caveat. The author is basically mad at them for not being soulless enough. He's an investment banker that hates content.
"In The Curse of the Mogul, Jonathan Knee, Bruce Greenwald and Ava Seave argue that the biggest problem with media companies is the moguls, who have been seduced into believing that content is king, bigger is always better and talent — especially their own — is irreplaceable. So blinded are they, they have mismanaged their companies and shareholders have suffered."This is a Q&A with one of the authors. Worth reading if you want a good Sumner or Rupert smackdown, but it comes with a caveat. The author is basically mad at them for not being soulless enough. He's an investment banker that hates content.
Soup
The reason they called him Soup is pretty obvious.
It's still a Great Nickname, and it's this week's featured nickname at Just One Bad Century.
Read all about him here.
Monday, November 02, 2009
World Series press
I don't think this is a sign of the times for baseball, it's more a sign of the times for newspapers...Twenty-nine of the 60 newspapers that cover major league teams during the season on the road as well as at home are not at this year’s World Series.
The story is here.
Jay Leno
Whoa.A great, great interview with Jay Leno at Broadcasting & Cable.
You have to read it if this whole story interests you at tall.
Feder's first blog post
He's officially up and running at Vocalo.org. His first blog post is about former Fox 32 morning anchor Mike Barz.
The Chicago News Cooperative
Crain's Chicago has a piece about the brand new "Chicago News Operative", and it certainly sounds like they aren't exactly predicting success..."With newspapers seeing ad revenue plunge and circulation dive, journalism's business model is in need of reinvention. But with print ads selling for many times more than online ads — and readers gravitating to free online content — the economics for an online news organization simply aren't there, contends Geoff Dougherty, a former Tribune reporter who founded and ran the online Chitown Daily News for four years. Mr. Dougherty should know: He laid off his staff of four this year when grant funding ran dry. After raising more money from private investors, he hired them back in October to staff a printed monthly tabloid focused on Chicago politics.
"I think they have a deeply flawed business model," Mr. Dougherty says of the cooperative. "For new news organizations that are not doing highly specialized content, Internet pay walls are a disaster."
I hate to say it, but I agree.
November Birthdays
23 great stories about November birthday boys, courtesy of Just One Bad Century...
Larry French (Nov 1)
Johnny Vander Meer (Nov 2)
Cub Fan Warren G. Harding (Nov 2)
Great Mustache Dwight Smith (Nov 8)
Cubs curser--Martin Luther (Nov 10)
Great Mustache Mike Vail (Nov 10)
Cub Fan J. Ogden Armour (Nov 11)
Rabbit Maranville (Nov 11)
Sammy Sosa (Nov 12)
Cub Fan Joe Mantegna (Nov 13)
Great Mustache Willie Hernandez (Nov 14)
Bunions Zeider (Nov 16)
Gene Mauch (Nov 18)
Dickie Noles (Nov 19)
Billy Sunday (Nov 19)
Rick Monday (Nov 20)
Cub Fan Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (Nov 20)
Dick Bartell (Nov 22)
Cub Killers Joe DiMaggio (Nov 25) and Stan Musial (Nov 21)
The Gravedigger; Richie Hebner (Nov 26)
Johnny "Bear Tracks" Schmitz (Nov 27)
Howard HoJo Johnson (Nov 29)
Larry French (Nov 1)Johnny Vander Meer (Nov 2)
Cub Fan Warren G. Harding (Nov 2)
Great Mustache Dwight Smith (Nov 8)
Cubs curser--Martin Luther (Nov 10)
Great Mustache Mike Vail (Nov 10)
Cub Fan J. Ogden Armour (Nov 11)
Rabbit Maranville (Nov 11)Sammy Sosa (Nov 12)
Cub Fan Joe Mantegna (Nov 13)
Great Mustache Willie Hernandez (Nov 14)
Bunions Zeider (Nov 16)
Gene Mauch (Nov 18)
Dickie Noles (Nov 19)
Billy Sunday (Nov 19)
Rick Monday (Nov 20)
Cub Fan Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (Nov 20)Dick Bartell (Nov 22)
Cub Killers Joe DiMaggio (Nov 25) and Stan Musial (Nov 21)
The Gravedigger; Richie Hebner (Nov 26)
Johnny "Bear Tracks" Schmitz (Nov 27)
Howard HoJo Johnson (Nov 29)
Not that there's anything wrong with that
Laura Ricketts, one of the new owners of the Chicago Cubs, is an "out" lesbian. This quote was in the Windy City Times this weekend..."I came out to my family I would say early to mid 30's. I think for a long time I wasn't really out to myself growing up in Omaha, Neb., to a Catholic conservative family. It took me a while to come out to myself and not long after that I came out to them. I think that it really couldn't of been a better experience. They were all immediately supportive. ... I have been really really fortunate in that regard."
They're Catholic and conservative, yet they're also tolerant.
My love affair with the Ricketts family continues.
The Kennedy Expressway
Cubs through History is Just One Bad Century's attempt to put Cubs history into perspective by intersecting it with Chicago history.This week we tell the tale of the Kennedy Expressway.
Read all about it here.
Sunday, November 01, 2009
Father Knows Nothing
I just posted my latest Father Knows Nothing column at NWI Parent. It's called "In the blink of an eye" and it's about a terrifying moment from this past week.You can read it here.
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