Howard Stern is obnoxious. He used to be charmingly so when he was on broadcast radio, but ever since he ruined his career by moving to satellite radio, his brand of humor has gone out of dire style — and the satellite radio industry is left quaking in his wake, poorer, broken, and wondering where it all went wrong — as Stern grew richer in their losses while also becoming less influential much more unpopular.
The nature of the producer is to provide money for a creative project and manage the schedule for getting things done. The best producers are invisible. The producer’s essence is felt, but their being fades into the background to support the vision of others.
I was raised on radio and — at 13-years-old — I worked on the radio over the next decade of my life.
One of the brightest lights of my radio upbringing happened late at night when I was on the verge of falling asleep and “The Mighty 1290 KOIL: Omaha’s Original Rocker!” would sing to me from a tiny transistor radio at my bedside.
KOIL Radio was a magnificent and under-appreciated jewel in the midst of the despair of the Omaha urban core and all around the dry flatlands surrounding the city.
Continue reading → The Mighty 1290 KOIL
What is the nature of a part time job?
It is to be a swing person that can work in a finger snap? Or is the nature of part time to be willing to work the shifts no one else wants?
As a youngster, I was involved in radio a lot and I loved the live medium.
I was a part timer that worked the weekends and the weekend overnights. If someone took ill during the week, I had to sit in the chair and take over with less than an hour’s notice.
Wherever I was in the city, when the radio called, I had to go. That dedication to work meant I missed a lot of weekend opportunities to spend time with friends and to have any sort of a social life.
Being on the radio raised no peer chits. In fact, there was a certain resentment among my friends and associates that I was “too young” to be on the radio, and that I should be working as a waiter in a restaurant like them.
The moment of clarity about working on the radio hit me an hour after I had four wisdom teeth removed. I was pumped up with codeine and not feeling good. I could not speak. I could barely open my swollen mouth.
The phone rang.
As a lad, I was raised on radio and later on I worked in radio.
Radio is the life of the imagination magnified by the heat of a hundred suns. Television and film do all the cold thinking for you as you merely sit there and allow the experience to wash over you. Radiophiles are the new active intellectuals of world.
I always admired the idea of the radio “Make Good” which is sort of related to the matter previously addressed here in — You Cannot Push a Shove — and a Make Good consisted of the re-airing of a commercial that was missed, had technical trouble, or was not fully played.
As the on-air announcer, you had total control over the Make Good. You’d fill out a sheet of paper explaining what happened to the spot and you’d re-air the commercial as soon as you could within the same day part in which the original spot was supposed to run.
The ability to own the error and to instantly “make up for” a mistake — that may or may not have been your fault — was a tremendous and appreciated power given to the individual for the greater goodness of the company.
Make Goods are the free bottle of wine when your dinner is late. The effort is appreciated, it adds value to your day, and a Make Good presumes the fault is not in the consumer, but in the business.
I suppose it was inevitable: Don Imus of “Rutgers Nappy Headed-Hos” fame is back on radio as of Monday and one can only begin to wonder about the why of his return.
Continue reading → Return of the Racist: Don Imus on ABC Radio
I heard an interesting discussion on the radio the other day that the problem with modern policing in the urban core today is not only the matter of Pretend Police replacing real officers, but also one of the police distrusting the general public by considering everyone a danger instead of innocent, ordinary, people.
Continue reading → Policing and Loving the Ordinary Enemy Civilian
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