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Finally, Good News From DC

Randall Bloomquist — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:48:51 +0000

Two positive developments out of Washington DC. On Monday night, WTOP/Washington VP/Programming Jim Farley gave a fine speech at the RTDNA’s Murrow Awards dinner debunking reports of radio’s looming demise. It’s three-minutes that will lift your spirits and make you say, ‘Hell Yeah!’ This morning Citadel’s WMAL/Washington announced that local host Chris Plante has been rehired several months after being laid-off for budget reasons.

So, we got that goin’ for us…

New FCC Boss Names Media Activist to Top Slot

Randall Bloomquist — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 00:19:58 +0000

In yet another sign of the challenge commercial broadcasters now face in Washington, new FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski has chosen a well-known media activist to serve as his press secretary. Jen Lewis comes to Genachowski’s staff from Free Press, an advocacy group that opposes “Big Media” and would like to see government “intervention” ($) to save newspapers and boost public broadcasting. Of special concern to talk radio: Free Press is a big proponent of diversity of media ownership and “inclusiveness” in broadcast news and content. The group also believes that the media currently does not deliver quality news, but rather serves up “junk news” and “mindless commentary.”

Hmmm. Wonder if she supports the FCC’s pending “localism” rules?

New Social Media Strategy for Hosts

Randall Bloomquist — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 16:00:13 +0000

Steve Rubel

Steve Rubel is very much like a talk radio host; he’s smart, curious, opinionated and has lots to say. As SVP/Insights at Edelman Digital, Rubel’s job is to share his curiosity and opinions, using the latest and best technology.

Thus, Rubel recently launched a “Lifestream,” which allows him to post text, video, and audio quickly and easily from anywhere. Rubel is using a platform called Posterous. He will continue to write his popular blog, and use Twitter, but… Well, I’ll let Rubel explain:

Micro Persuasion:: My existing blog will become a place for “best of” essays (weekly or a few times a month). These will be longer think pieces and essays about emerging technology trends and their impact on media, culture and marketing. Basically, it’s what you get here now. Some will become AdAge columns and vice versa. (RSS feed)

The Steve Rubel Lifestream:: This site will have a lot more – and it will be daily. Content will include the full text of the essays published on my existing blog but also brief insights, observations, links, photos, videos and more about emerging technology. I may even do audio too since the Posterous feed by default is a podcast. I am inspired by the incredible flexibilityof the Posterous platform and I plan to use it to the full extent with my iPhone, especially for video. I recommend you join me over there since it’s going to be where I publish the most. (RSS feed)

Twitter :: I will continue to share links on Twitter (and not just links back to these sites), but begin to use it more for conversation around the links so that I get smarter.

This could be an excellent strategy for talk hosts. Keep the blog that the station requires you to maintain on its site, but set up a Lifestream that allows you to easily react and reflect on the day’s events. Let me know if you set up a Lifestream — I’ll give you a link.