I'm Going Green

Last week our dryer broke. We were in a bit of a panic. You can only imagine how much laundry accumulates when you live in a house with three women. The laundry was piling up as we were waiting for for the repairman to come out and fix it.

Then it dawned on me. We live in Arizona and it is HOT out side. What do we need a dryer for? We have our own Solar dryer in the backyard and it doesn't break down and it is extremely energy efficient.

I was reminded of the days when I was a little kid and used to visit my grandparents here in Cave Creek. My grandmother had a washer but no dryer. She would hang everything up on the clothes line behind her house. The warm breeze coming off the mountain would dry the clothes. Then there were the summer vacations on the lake in Wisconsin and my mother would hang up all of our clothes to dry. Most recently, we were in Italy and every where you went people hung their clothes up to dry.

If it was good enough for my mother, grandmother and the Italians, then it is good enough for me. We don't have a clothes line in the backyard but we do have a pool fence that goes the length of yard. It is a modern day clothes line.

Jordie and I did the laundry, took it out of the washer, threw it in the basket, walked out in the yard and started hanging up the laundry on the pool fence. All of the jeans and towels were neatly draped over the top of the fence, the shirts, blouses and t-shirts were put on hangers and looped over the top of the fence, underwear and socks were on top of the fence as well. The only problem I had was that the wind blew some underware and socks into the pool, I will have to get clothes pins next time!

Interestingly enough, it took about the same amount of time to dry as it would in the dryer. The clothes smelled fresh (no fabric softener) and since half of the clothes were already on hangers, time was saved in the long run because I did not have to take the shirts out of the dryer and hand them up.

Most importantly, I was doing my part in conserving energy!

If it were up to me, I'd forget about the dryer and not repair it. I'm sure I would get a bit of resistance from Fran and the girls.

Four hundred and seventy dollars later our four year old, state of the art, computerized, digital GE dryer has a new motor in it. Fran and the girls are happy. I've decided to go GREEN and let nature dry my clothes.

All kidding aside, I have become more energy contentious this past year. There is a great channel on cable called PlanetGreen started by the discovery network. Check them out and check out their website here. We all need to do our part to conserve.

I'm driving a Honda and hanging my laundry out to dry.... It's a start!

Marketing Lessons From Barack Obama

I'm sure as time goes on there are going to be a lot of articles, books, blogs etc. written about how Barack Obama won the election.

Today, Fred Jacobs had an insightful post titled "Taking It Personal" about how the Obama campaign embraced personality and warmth combined with digital technology including email and text messages to intimately reach out to his supporters.

If you were an email or text subscriber to the Obama campaign you periodically received personal messages from Barack Obama and other members of the campaign keeping you up-to-date.

Read Fred's post here:

I also read an article today in this weeks Ad Age by renowned marketing expert and author Al Reis detailing how Barack Obama and his campaign out positioned all of his opponents in this years election.

He says that .....

"Nov. 4, 2008, will go down in history as the biggest day ever in the history of marketing. Take a relatively unknown man. Younger than all of his opponents. Black. With a bad-sounding name. Consider his first opponent: the best-known woman in America, connected to one of the most successful politicians in history. Then consider his second opponent: a well-known war hero with a long, distinguished record as a U.S. senator. It didn't matter. Barack Obama had a better marketing strategy than either of them".

"Change"

Reis identifys key factors that he felt led to the marketing victory.

1. Develop the ultimate slogan and stick with it.
2. Simplicity - Keep it simple. Obama Chose "Change"
3. Consistency - Tell the voters over and over again what you are about. In Obama's case, "Change"
4. Relevance

Read the entire article here:

Obama's strategists and advisers would make great consultants for radio stations. They get it! They have taken basic customer service principals along with a strategic positioning statement, then integrated them into a viral, interactive marketing campaign. You know what the results are. Broadcasters, advertisers and marketers can learn from Obama's victory.

Old Technology vs. New Technology

At MEGA we brand ourselves as "Old School". It doesn't get any more Old School than this! You've got to watch this video. It is great. Thanks to Clayton for passing it on to me.

My Own Crisis

I'm a gadget guy. In my opinion one of the greatest inventions of our time is the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). We had to add a second one in our house because the girls would use the one in the living room and there was never enough space for Fran or I to record/watch our shows. Then for Valentines Day a couple of years ago Fran got me my own DVR for the bedroom so I could record my shows. Fran is so romantic!

This device is the best! The DVR allows us to watch what we want to. With our schedule, we never have the time to watch the television shows we enjoy when they originally air. We always "DVR" them. Then when we want, we play them back at our convenience. Simple, right? 99% of the time it is unless you are a pack rat like I am and forget to erase the shows that you have already watched. In fairness, there is a feature on the DVR that allows you to automatically erase shows, but I don't use it.

Enter my crisis. Boston Legal is one of my favorite shows on television. It is permanently programmed into the DVR to record every week. This past week, I started watching it on the DVR and it stopped sixteen minutes into the show. I was in a panic! How could this be? This has never happened before. I pressed all the buttons and see all the messages on the screen, then realize that I had run out of memory. A DVR stores everything on a giant hard drive (like a computer) and unfortunately, mine was full.

I then go through and erase everything that I don't think I will watch again and free up seventy-five percent of the hard drive in an effort to avert another disaster.

Problem solved? Not exactly. I was going through Boston Legal withdraw. In light of everything that has been going on in the world around us this was going to be my hour to escape, I felt deprived and had a bit of anxiety.

A couple of days later, I was talking about this with Fran and the girls. Sydney my youngest daughter, who I have mentioned before is our personal "IT" specialist, suggested that I go on line to ABC.com and watch the show over the internet. Good suggestion. I went on online and sure enough it was there.

Thank goodness, we have COX high speed broadband! I was sitting in my home office watching it on my thirteen-inch Macbook book over the internet without it buffering once. At last, I was getting my weekly fix of Boston Legal and escaping for an hour. Now, this is not as good as laying in bed and watching it on my big screen HDTV (although, It sure is a great alternative).

Crisis averted!

Makes Me Wonder

Back in the late sixties, I was the kid that would lay in bed at night and listen to top-40 stations around the country on my Panasonic, AM, transistor radio. One of the stations that I always enjoyed listening to was the legendary CKLW from Windsonr/Detroit. Not only was CKLW a great top-40 station, they were famous for their 20/20 news. These weren't just newscasts, they were expertly crafted, high-energy, sometimes shocking accounts of what was happening in the Detroit/Windsor metro right now!

The newscasts were as important as the music on the station. The news anchors always had that deep anchorman voice, they were Disc Jockey's without the music. It was fun to listen to, informative and the listeners were engaged, they never tuned out. These newscasts were radio's version of reality shows, and they were updated twice an hour.

I ran across this tribute to the CKLW 20/20 news and it made me wonder. Would this work today? We talk about how radio needs to be local. What's more local than local news? Reality shows are hot right now. This is reality at it's best.



I'm not suggesting that music radio stations today have a local news staff totaling twenty-four. That would be cost prohibitive in this environment. Although, with technology today, you could probably to the same work more efficiently with less than a quarter of the staff. What I am suggesting is that offering, live local, relevant content in a unique way is what is needed between the records today. It will only enhance the listening experience and create brand loyalty. What can be so wrong with that?

Commercial radio is reinventing itself as it has done throughout history. It might make sense to look at what others did before us, see what worked and made them successful. I've always believed that you can learn from the past.

Think about the re-purposing, podcasting, video and website opportunities CKLW could have had back in the day. They'd be sitting on a gold mine!

As Maroon5 says.... Makes Me Wonder......

I did It !

I did it! I finally broke down and bought an Apple MacBook. I justified it by telling my youngest daughter that we could share it. Big mistake! We fight over who is going to use it all of the time. I see another MacBook in my future.

Once again, everything about the Apple experience has been superb. The staff at the Apple store was more than friendly and helpful. They helped me chose the software that I would need and also suggested what software I did not need to buy.

When I got home, it was easy to set up. Although, I did make a few mistakes connecting and transferring my music over from my iPod, No problem. A quick call to Apple Care and it was all figured out. Within five minutes of my call, I received an email from them with my case number and a note suggesting that if I had any other problems I should call back and reference the number.

Went to Chicago last week and used the MacBook to watch movies and listen to music on the plane. I also updated the blog from the hotel connecting through the built in Wifi. While in Chicago, stopped in at the apple store, bought a few accessories and asked a lot of questions. Once again, the staff was friendly and helpful. I'm like a sponge with the Apple. Always asking questions and taking it all in.

Finally, I figured out how to use my Blackberry as a tethered modem through the bluetooth connection. Now, if Wifi is not available, I can access the internet through my phone.

I'm beginning to see why people who use apple computers are fanatics! It is a great experience all the way around.

I was talking with our friend Holly who is getting her MBA. She was telling me that they reviewed a case study on Apple and that Apple stores have the highest sales per square foot of any retail store. No surprise. Great product, Great Service!

Wallstrip.com featured Apple this week and detailed why they are successful.

What's up With Satellite Radio?

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from friends and clients is how is satellite radio impacting our business? I always tell people that while satellite is a competitor, that it really has not had any noticeable impact on what we do locally.

My friends at Jocobs Media have a great post on their blog detailing the "Churn" factor with satellite radio. This is based on the results of their annual Tech Survey of rock listeners. In a nut-shell, they have discovered that if you have bought the satellite service on your own, you will most likely continue to subscribe. Although, if you were given the service as a gift, or it was part of the package when you bought a new car with satellite radio, you were not as likely to continue to subscribe.

Jacobs has detailed some interesting findings on the future of satellite. Read their blog here ==>

Fresh Trends for Audio and Digtal Plaforms

I had an opportunity this morning to view and listen to the webinar presentation of the The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Platforms. This is an annual research study conducted by Arbitron and Edison Research.

There were no great surprises in the study. Having two daugters ten and thirteen I could have told you that 73% of teens have an iPod/portable mp3 player.

The audio consumption habits of consumers is changing due to the lower cost of access to new technology and internet connectivity. With all the changes in the audio landscape, AM/FM terrestrial radio continues to have a BIG impact in people's lives.

The study also confirms what I had written in a previous post regarding the growth and future of social networking, finding that nearly one in four Americans have a personal profile on a social network like Myspace, Facebook, LinkedIn or other social networks.

If you are a research and tech junkie like I am, you should take a look at the study. Arbitron and Edison did a great job of outlining everything with easy to understand graphs.

Click Here to see the complete study.

Here are the Key findings from The Infinite Dial 2008: Radio’s Digital Platforms:

The weekly online radio audience increased in the past year to an estimated 33 million. Thirteen percent of the U.S. population age 12 and older have listened to online radio in the past week; up from eleven percent (approximately 29 million) in 2007. On a weekly basis, online radio reaches more than one in seven 25- to 54-year olds (15%).

AM/FM radio continues to have a big impact on people’s lives. The study asked consumers to rate the impact different digital audio platforms has on their lives. More than one in five (21 percent) consumers said radio has a big impact on their lives; ranking second only to mobile phones (33 percent) as the audio platform/device that has the biggest impact on people’s lives.

iPod/Portable MP3 player ownership continues dramatic growth. Nearly four in ten (37 percent) own an iPod or other brand of portable MP3 player; up from 30 percent in 2007 and more than two and a half times the number in 2005 (14 percent). Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of those ages 12-17 own a digital audio player.

Audio podcasting usage continues to increase along side the proliferation of iPod/MP3 player ownership. Eighteen percent have ever listened to an audio podcast; up from 13 percent in 2007. Nine percent have listened to an audio podcast in the past month (an estimated 23 million).

More than four in ten weekly online radio listeners have a profile on a social networking Web site. Those who regularly listen to online radio are much more likely to participate in social networks; 41 percent of weekly online radio listeners report having an online social networking profile (compared to 24 percent of the total 12+ population); more than one-third (37%) visit social networking sites nearly once per day or more.

The Internet is gaining on radio as the medium to learn about new music. In 2008, radio is mentioned as the medium “you turn to first to learn about new music” by about half of consumers (49 percent), with Internet at 25 percent. In 2002, radio was mentioned by nearly two-thirds of consumers (63 percent) for this perception, while only nine percent mentioned Internet.

The Kind of Advertising You Don't Want....Don't Piss an Old Man Off

In an Earlier post I talked about getting free advertising by having people become evangelists for your product or service. This can work against you too, if your service is bad. I experienced this first hand during a conversation I had with my father yesterday.

Here’s the story and the background on the conversation. My parents live in Chicago, we live in Arizona. We were on vacation last weekend and I took a lot of pictures of the kids. I loaded them up to my Flickr account and wanted to share them with my parents. All they had to do was log on to the internet and view them. The problem is that they only have a dial-up account and it takes forever to load the pictures.

I suggested to my father that he get a high speed internet connection and he told me that he was waiting for AT&T to have service in their neighborhood. I suggested that he call Comcast, his cable provider and bundle all his services together. I told him he probably would pay the same or less as he does now and get the high speed internet allowing him to see the pictures, look at his stocks and read the news effortlessly on his computer. Not the slow way that he does now.

His exact words to me were..... “I don’t want to give Comcast another dime. As a matter of fact, if it wasn’t for your mother, I’d cancel their service.” I guess my mother likes watching the movies.

Being married to someone who is in the cable business and prides herself on the customer service that she and her company provides, this disturbed me. I asked him why he felt that the way. He went on to tell me that there have been many service outages, the picture does not come in clear (I can attest to this, I’ve seen it when I visit) and whenever he calls them and asks for assistance and a credit, they always give him a hard time.

It occurred to me that everyone loses in this deal. My parents lose because they can’t enjoy the benefits of a fast internet connection; Comcast loses because they are losing out on the long term value of a customer, a very vocal customer at that, who is an evangelist for how bad their service is. Not that the collateral damage from my father is going to make a big difference, but if this is happening to a lot of customers it could have a huge adverse impact on their business and make them vulnerable to new competition. Finally, I am losing out because I wanted to put a webcam and microphone on their computer in Chicago so the kids and I can teleconference with them. This is very difficult and not practical with a dial-up service.

The moral of the story is, bad customer service is bad for business. You just don’t know how and who it is going to hurt!

The Internet is Better than a Chamber Mixer

A nice thing happened to me the other day. I received an email in my FaceBook account from Jan, a woman I worked with more than 20 years ago at KNIX. The note said "Mikey", do you remember me? Attached to her email was a picture of herself (I swear it was a picture from when we worked together because she hasn't aged). I was excited to get the note and we traded emails with each other bringing each other up to date on our careers, family and what we have been doing since we last saw each other.

Today, received a note from another friend Melissa. She was one of the first national buyers to place commercials on MEGA more than five years ago. She asked me to join her network on LinkedIn and also asked me to write a recommendation for her that will stay in her LinkedIn Profile. I gladly obliged. This sequence of events has repeated itself many times over the past year or so.

Over the last few years I have reconnected with many old friends, from people I went to camp with, old teachers, people I've worked with and kids I went to school with. All this was done through the internet using search engines like Google, Yahoo and/or social networks.

The implications for social networking are tremendous. Social networks bring people together, by region, school, industry, musical preference and any interest, issue or cause you can think of. LinkedIn, a business professionals site has more than 20 million subscribers across 120 different industries. There are more than 200 social networking sites from the small boutique/niche social networks to the large sites like MySpace which is one of the most viewed websites in North America. Social networking is so big the Rupert Murdoch's Fox paid $580 million for MySpace in 2005.

I subscribe to FaceBook, LinkedIn and Flickr. I also subscribe to a few groups on Yahoo and read a bunch of Blogs and forums on topics ranging from travel to pianos, photography, broadcasting, gadgets and much more. Technology allows me to network from anywhere with people anywhere anytime of the day. For me, this is nothing more than a modern day network mixer on steroids.

Social networking is fun, practical and will play a big role in our future!

Apple Service Extraordinaire!

I have always been a geeky computer guy. I bought my first computer while I was in college in 1980. It was an old CPM based computer called a REX built in a wooden case. Through the years I’ve had Northstar, Timex, Osborn, Corona, IBM, HP, Compaq and Dell computers. I’ve even built a couple of my own, but I have never had an Apple!

Fast forward to the present......

In May, my oldest daughter Jordie got an Apple MacBook. She loves this computer and takes it everywhere. With the built in WiFi, she can surf, IM and download from anywhere in the house or the world (and she does).

When it comes to Apple, I’m out of my comfort zone and I don’t always know how to operate it. So I decided to go to the Apple Store at the "Biltmore" to see if they could answer some questions.


This is a great store if you love computers, gadgets and music (which I do). I was greeted at the door by a cheerful young woman. She asked if she could help me. I told her I had a few questions. She directed me to Doug and said he would answer all my questions.

Doug was incredible! Not only did he take the time to answer the questions I had when I walked in, but he patiently answered all of the questions I thought of while I was there too. We talked about hardware, software, compatibility issues, iPhones and the internet. He went as far as taking a MacBook apart in front of me to show me how to put additional memory sticks in the computer. He then said, if I wanted, I could just bring the notebook in and they would install it for me.

When I finally asked my last question, Doug reached out shook my hand, thanked me for coming in and gave me his business card. He said; call him direct if I have any more questions.

I have always heard how helpful the staff is at the Apple Store. They should win a J.D. Powers award for their service. Sure beats the old days when I had to go to a warehouse in an industrial park to have my computer questions answered. Or even worse today, when I'm on the phone with someone in a foreign country that I can't understand.

In the radio business, all of the software that we use is PC/Windows based. Doug showed my how I can seamlessly load that software on a MAC. I might just do that some day…

The Future is Here.... Almost

Brian Cooley of CNET TV reports in from the 2008 Geneva Auto Show on the new unrestricted, built in access to the internet that BMW will be launching on select models in Europe. BMW is the first automaker to launch this service. They are using the EDGE technology to connect to the internet. This is the same technology used by many mobile phones, including Apple's iPhone.

BMW is also partnering with Google to download maps for navigation too.

Think about it. I can be driving through Europe in my new BMW and listening to my favorite "Old School" songs on MEGA from Phoenix. You know the other manufacturers can not be far behind. This is the future and the implications are tremendous across all electronic media.

I love technology.........