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Showing posts from June 12, 2011

Are Podcasts bad for Radio?

WTEM announced it would begin embargoing their Podcasts for 24-hours after the corresponding shows air -- essentially erecting a pay wall, according to the story on NTS. If you follow this thread, you begin to realize there's a huge under-appreciation for compelling local digital content amid fears of a declining traditional audience. And that seems to be the mentality.  Indy radio notable Jerry Lee ended WBEB's streaming because he sees it as a bad business model.  While I agree with the revenue challenges in digital, I think Lee misses the boat and is doing a disservice to his industry by rationalizing an inability to articulate a successful sales pitch to sell a valuable product.   My response: Jerry presumes it's not possible to sell enough advertising to support the platform, and I would have to ask, "why not?" There's a real and growing audience in streaming, so to feign failure in digital is to fail in sales. Radio is a culture that refuses to g...

CF City Council to residents: Hand over the keys!

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The city council of Cefar Falls, Iowa is on its second of three readings before it casts a final vote on a law that requires commercial properties to supply keys to the city government.  It's my understanding that the revised ordinance may also require owners of residential rental property to also provide access. Not having the ordinance in front of me and not being a constitutional scholar, it's hard for me to pass judgment, but I was stunned watching council meeting highlights.  It leaves me wondering from where they think they get the power to control the citizens, for whom it works. Handing over your keys seems like giving wholesale compulsory consent, implied forfeiture of liberty.  It's CF residents'  & business owners' job to call BS on this. One of the council members said, "The merits of an idea do not depend on the number of people who hold that idea".  I agree with this, which is why our founders decided against a democracy where we...

Maddow on Santorum on Weiner

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I can appreciate MSNBC's Rachel Maddow when she articulates a subject and can call BS when it's due, but she loses me when she predicates an entire segment on a false premise. Here she is telling us that Sen. Rick Santorum said Rep. Anthony Weiner should resign. But that's not what the former PA Senator said -- if you can recognize the difference between saying what you would do and telling someone else what they should do. In fact, Mr. Santorum has been pretty explicit about the distinction -- and made it when he visited Des Moines Friday.