The "Multi Media" Inauguration By the Numbers

I read with interest the "TV By the Numbers website" today and they announced according to Nielsen ratings that The Obama inauguration was watched by 37.8 million, second only to Reagan’s 41.8 million in 1981. The story went on to say that News websites at their peak had 5.4 million visitors at per minute at it's peak.

Personally, I took advantage of all the different mediums on Inauguration Day. In the morning on the way to work, I listened to the radio, in the office, I listened on the radio and I watched with great interest via the internet on my computer, back in the car on the way to an appointment, I was listening on the radio again. As a side note there was absolutely NO traffic on the roads as I drove from downtown Scottsdale to downtown Phoenix during President Obama's speech.

Throughout the day while not near a radio, TV or internet computer, I was checking the Inauguration news on various news websites through my Blackberry. When I got home in the evening, I watched the entire inauguration and subsequent festivities (six hours) on my DVR which I had recorded earlier in the day.

Furthermore, I have been to youtube numerous times to watch President Obama's speech, the flub on his swearing in and the featured music from the Inauguration.

According to the Washington Post, while the Regan Inauguration of 1981 might of had more television viewers than Obama's, there were actually more viewers when you aggregate television and internet viewing? Their math comes out to more than 49 million viewers. I don't know if that even includes DVR/TiVo viewing too.

Either way, It's official, we live in a multi-media world. Even our new President carries a Blackberry!

Here are the links to the stats:

Updated: Will Obama break 1981 Reagan record for inauguration Nielsen ratings? No.

From Nixon to Bush 43: Presidential Inauguration Ratings

Obama Inauguration 5th Most Watched Net Event Ever

With Right Math, Inauguration Is Second to None

Finally, I thought that the music during the Inauguration was extraordinary. Here are the links to Aretha Franklin singing "America' My Country Tis Of Thee" and "Air and Simple Gifts" arranged by John Williams for the Inauguration and preformed by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill & Gabriela Montero.

Click on the links below to watch and listen:

Aretha Franklin singing "America' My Country Tis Of Thee"




"Air and Simple Gifts" arranged by John Williams and preformed by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill & Gabriela Montero.

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!

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!

What You Can Learn From Your Kids Part 2

On August 13th I wrote a post about some interesting things I learned about cell phones, texting and social networking from my kids. Read that post here:

Yesterday I had another one of those seminal moments with my oldest daughter who is 14 (going on 22). It was just the two of us and we were running errands and then out to lunch at one of our favorite dives. Over hummus and Gyro sandwiches we started talking about politics, the candidates and current affairs. I was actually having and intelligent adult conversation with her, hearing about her political views and those of her friends. She had some interesting thoughts and ideas and asked some very bright questions. I was very proud of her. I have waited 14 years for this moment!

As a parent first, then a broadcaster and marketer I was very curious to know how and why she formed some of her opinions. To my surprise, she told me that she discusses this with her friends. I was impressed! We might have an activist or a politician in the making.

Then I realized, that with the advancement of digital media it has become increasingly easier for youth to find out what is going on in the world. I'm not suggesting that a 14 year old reads the drudgeReport, CNN.com or Foxnews.com. Although, when they log onto their myspace and FaceBook accounts there are links to RocktheVote.com and ads for all of the candidates both nationally and locally. On the home page of MTV.com there are news stories about the debates, the economy and they are also registering people to vote too. YouTube has section on the race as well called YouChoose where there is a wealth of information on all the candidates and videos of speaches, debates and more.

I can tell you that at 14 I was not as politically aware as kids are today. The information simply was not as easily available or even more importantly, targeted to me, either directly or indirectly as it is today.

Then, there are even more strategic websites like thegreatschlep.com. This is a website developed by the Jewish Council on Education and Research. The Great Schlep features a video by comedian Sarah Silverman that is targeted to Jewish youth and college students who have grandparents that reside in Florida. It encourages these kids to convince their grandparents to vote for Obama.

Watch the video here:



What ever your political leanings are, you have to agree that this is targeted marketing at its best.

Finally, another source of information to youth is television and on-line video clips. Last night, Saturday Night Live did a hysterical parody of the Vice Presidential Debate, featuring Tina Fey and Queen Latifah.

Watch it here:



Talk to your kids. If you don't have kids talk to your friends kids. It's fascinating and you just might learn something. My friend Darice Putterman said it best.

"The world thru eyes of your own child, your teenager, your young adult daughter or son....ALWAYS enlightening to me, refreshingly so..."

Bad Father of the Year Award... Maybe....Maybe Not

I might win the Bad Father of the Year Award. My fourteen year old asked me to take her and her friend to see George Lopez in concert at the Dodge Theater. I was able to get tickets and we went to the show last Wednesday night.

Wow! This wasn't Disney on Ice or the circus. This certainly was not the same George Lopez that is on Nick at Night. Clearly, the show was inappropriate for a fourteen year old. Or was it?

Lopez was hysterical, foul and raunchy. At first I was embarrassed, then I said to myself that these kids see and hear this stuff every day at school, Television, the internet, Myspace and text messaging. While I don't condone the language or the the behavior, I actually felt good that I could share this show with my daughter. She was not embarrassed, so why should I be. We all were laughing the entire time. It really was a great show and a lot of fun. What concerned me was that she got all the jokes. I'm still a little troubled by that.

It was actually a bit inspirational at the end when Lopez thanked everyone for coming and that he appreciated the fans support. He went on to say that you should follow your dreams and that he had dreamed of being a comedian since he was eleven years old, living in the hood, being raised by his grandmother. He added that he had eleven sold out shows in Phoenix, one of the highest rated syndicated TV shows in the country and he was on Forbes list behind Jerry Seinfeld. What a great success story and an inspiration for kids today.

After the show, we went to dinner at FEZ to support Body Positive's Dining Out For Life. All the proceeds from dinner that night went to help fight and treat AID's. We talked about that, we talked about the show and a lot of other things.

My point is, we live in a diverse society. All kinds of people all kinds of situations. I think it is important for kids to be exposed to everything (even an inappropriate concert) and not shelter them from reality. I was happy that I could be at the show with her. We laughed, we talked, we ate at a hip restaurant, we supported a charity, and we hung out together and had fun. It was some good father daughter bonding Wednesday night. When your daughter is fourteen you take it when you can get it.

You be the judge...

To Syndicate or Not to Syndicate.. That is the Question?

“Roy Williams from the Wizard of Ads writes in his April 7th “Monday Morning Memo” that syndicated morning shows are the way of the future for local radio stations. An interesting thought with a lot of merit.

William says….

Syndication came to television 50 years ago. Networks like ABC, CBS and NBC offered local TV stations better shows than they were able to produce themselves. And these better shows were cheaper than local productions. The viewers won. The stations won. Television became much more profitable. National advertisers loved placing ads in hot, national shows.

In the past, national shows have been the exception in radio, rather than the rule.

They’re about to be the rule.

I predict that half of America’s morning drive jocks will soon be replaced by 10 or 12 syndicated morning shows beamed in from somewhere else. This will happen in other dayparts as well.

Frankly, I’m in favor of it.

Wait! I hear the voices of broadcasters clamoring, “But radio is local. Our listeners want local. Syndication is anti-radio.”

I respond, "Listen to the people of your town. Are they saying, 'We don’t want Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy, American Idol, and Lost! We want the local TV shows?'

"Are they saying, 'We don’t want Spiderman, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Lord of the Rings in our theaters! We want the local movies?'”

"Are they saying, 'We don’t want Rush Limbaugh and Howard Stern, we want a local political pundit and a local shock jock?"

Read Williams Memo….

Before joining MEGA five years ago, I was running The Edge in Phoenix. We carried Howard Stern. We simulcasted his show on two bad signals. I can tell you now, it was a pain in the ass to listen to, especially if you were driving across town and the signal would fade away and then you would have to change frequencies to pick up the station again. Guess what? People listened!!!! Howard was consistently #1 in key demos. Why? Because his content was compelling, relevant and entertaining to the listeners. We also did a good job localizing the show with “Pistol Pete” interacting with listeners on the street each morning and doing call-ins during local breaks.

Today at Mega, we have seen great success airing the Art Laboe Killer Oldies request and dedication show syndicated every Sunday night from Hollywood. When it became available during the week, we sat on the sidelines for a while to see what happened in other markets. Interestingly enough it did quite well in the key female demos in markets that we watched. In mid February, we added the show to our weekday line-up from 8p – 12m. Not surprising, our phones lit up with callers excited about the change. The preliminary research that we have seen indicates that we made the right decision to add this syndicated show.

Through the years radio has always had to adapt to the changing environment. Radio has and will change with the times. For years I have been a strong proponent of live local radio shows and I still believe that today. Although, I do feel that there can be a place on local radio stations for syndicated programs. The key is, it has to be relevant to the listeners.

Mark Ramsey of Mercury Radio Research and “Hear 2.0” blogger has an interesting perspective…“Goodbye local talent (unless it really is "talent"), hello syndicated talent (which will really have to be "talent"). Broadcasters will increasingly distinguish between providing local service and having a jock in the local studio, which are certainly not the same thing.”

Reality is Reality and it Works

I’m a simple guy and I admit that I love reality television shows. I first got hooked on them years ago when the Biography Channel was launched. In recent years I have been a big fan of the celebrity reality shows like The Osborne’s, Breaking Bonaduce, Run’s House, Rob and Big, Little People Big World, Growing up Gotti, MTV Cribs, Hogan Knows Best, Snoop Dog’s Fatherhood, Dog the Bounty Hunter, The Anna Nicole Show, Scott Baio is 45 and Single, Celebrity Rehab and my favorite, Gene Simmons Family Jewels.

Of the professional reality shows, I like Dr. 90210, Miami Ink, American Chopper, The Deadliest Catch, Ice Road Truckers and Dirty Jobs.

Reality is huge. Just look at YouTube!

The one thing that all of these shows have in common for me is that in some way, shape or form, I can relate to almost each and every one of these people. We all have issues! They have the same issues, problems, joys and challenges that we have.

On a recent episode of Gene Simmons Family Jewels, the Simmon's dog Skippy runs away and the family is in a panic. Who can't relate to this? When you cut through it all, are these people really that different than us?

They might be rich and/or famous but other than that, they are just like us. Viewers can relate to that and I contend that is why these shows are popular. People, by nature are nosy too and they have a voyeuristic side to them. We like to peer into other peoples lives. Also, the shows are produced just like a soap opera. You get hooked and can’t wait until the next episode to see what happens. All of this is why I enjoy watching them.

In our business of radio, we are seeing an increase in testimonial commercials, or in today’s vernacular, “Reality” ads. A Reality ad is when you craft a commercial around interviews with customers and they speak about the GREAT experience that they had at a particular business. These ads work for the same reason that people enjoy watching reality shows. The listener can relate to the person giving the testimonial because it is a regular person just like them.

My friend Michael Crawford the General Manager/Partner of Peoria KIA is a master at this. He gets testimonials all the time from his customers. He puts the customers in his radio ads, TV ads and even includes them in his infomercials. Why? Because it works, and Michael can sell more cars because of it!

This is how it works.....

Suzy from Glendale hears the Peoria KIA ad on the radio with Tina in Tempe talking about how even with her bad credit Michael Crawford and Peoria KIA figured out how to get her into a new car and how nice the whole buying experience was. Suzy could relate to what she was hearing Tina say in the commercial, because she too has bad credit and furthermore, she was not treated so nice at another dealership because of that. So what does Suzy from Glendale do? She heads down to Peoria KIA to see if they can help her out of her credit jam and get her into a new car.

Reality/testimonial ads can work for any type of business, not just the automotive category. The one key to a reality ad is that it must be real and not contrived. The listener or viewer is to smart for that and can sniff out BS a mile a way.

So get real, It works!