Media Watch

click here to download On August 2, 2007, Gov. Romney did a radio interview at the WHO Radio studio in Des Moines. I videotaped the 20 minute visit and made it available to the station for its web site. A few hours later, Romney spokesman Tim Albrecht (Iowa communications director for the campaign) called me and insisted that the video be taken down immediately. His reasoning? At a point during a commercial break on the radio, the host uttered, "While we're off the air". Albrecht suggested what followed should have been treated as off-the-record and therefore the camcorder shouldn't have been recording or that portion shouldn't have been used. Hardly off the record The control room had men standing three abreast, plus the producer sitting at a console, who could all hear the off-air exchange. In the studio with the governor was at least two people with the campaign, plus the host and myself, again, listening to the conversation. No reasonable person could...

Click to Play Chris Bernheisel of Fremont, Nebraska entering the Ultimate Carrie Underwood Fan / American Idol contest. This version includes photos he submitted with his entry. Courtesy of kiss1075.com (Kiss 107 FM), Des Moines, Iowa.

A win for YouTube changes the political climate in Google's favor, meaning new legislation would probably follow public favor, which the lawsuit would promote for the sharing of public domain content. Furthermore, in simple terms, once aired, content is (or damn well ought to be) public domain. So it follows that YouTube's sharing model falls under fair use of such content. The Radio Commission (today's FCC) established two things that matter here. First, that the public owns the airwaves; and 2, that the phone company couldn't possibly be able to monitor (and be accountable for) the content that flowed through its privately owned copper (although it uses public rights of way). This is what I believe is the underpinning of Safe Harbor; that you can't hold a media company accountable for everything its pass through its network. Safe Harbor may only be possible because it permits copyright owners to object to content if it owns it, and subsequently get it removed ...

So I'm a suit, I guess, and I write form letters. That's what people expect when they write to me and complain that we're doing something different. They might try to find a friendly ear (like one of our radio personalities) to touch first, but plenty of the nasty-grams make it past my desk, so I have to either ignore them or try to compose coherent answers. This one deals with the username/password issue lots of sites are requiring. Is everybody as jaded as this? [Dear Radio Personality], I didn't want to receive a form letter from some [company] suit concerning the registration process required to listen to the online broadcast on [radio station], so I chose you to receive this message. Lucky you! I don't have to register to listen to [station] on my radio in my car or my home, so why do I have to do so [to] listen to it online? The service may still be financially free but it is no longer nuisance free. Don't we have enough nuisances in our daily lives...

Hello again! I'd fallen off the face of the blog-o-sphere (do they still call it that?) until now this moment. Seems like, after the initial blogging blitz, things died off. Now, even your brother-in-law is blogging (and could barely use his laptop at Christmas). I've been ambiguously refering to myself as the web guy for over a decade now, since the little stint at the copier place (which amounts to driving around town, flirting with the girls at offices). And now, for the second time, I'm leading the web initiative at a Clear Channel Radio plant in the midwest. Fun toys! Web 2007: Who knew they'd start sticking pictures with voices? I guess what comes around... I'd like to talk more about video on the web. Just a few years ago, I felt so strongly against plugging up the tubes with broadband content, especially video. But the quality of compressed media -- and the bandwidth that carries it -- is now only limited by where in the $50 to $100 range you want you...

Bridge Ratings, a California company that conducts radio-audience research, estimated last month that 4.8 million people have downloaded at least one podcast this year compared with 820,000 last year. About a fifth listen regularly. Though many are using computers to do it, the rapidly growing portable market also expands the potential podcast reach. About 35 million households have portable music devices such as the iPod, according to JupiterResearch, which analyzes Internet and new-technology trends. That's double the number last year, and it will double again by 2010, the company predicts.">Corporations go off a-podcasting - baltimoresun.com : "Bridge Ratings, a California company that conducts radio-audience research, estimated last month that 4.8 million people have downloaded at least one podcast this year compared with 820,000 last year. About a fifth listen regularly. Though many are using computers to do it, the rapidly growing portable market also expan...

In tonight's top story: Could you be arrested for having wireless networking in your home? Our crime beat team will cover this important development. Wireless networking, like knives, guns and explosives, can be used in the commission of a crime. Therefore, wi-fi...bad. Tech Dirt points out, "...there [are] a number of terrible things being done, and the use of open WiFi -- the least of the issues -- [gets] all the attention." "In this first case, we had someone arrested for: (1) driving the wrong way down a one way street (2) driving without any pants on (3) using a laptop while driving (4) using that laptop to download child porn (5) which he accessed via a free WiFi connection. "In another case, a scam was committed in Finland involving the financial firm GE Money: (1) the company's own head of data security (2) stole banking software from the company after which he (3) took confidential users passwords for its bank accounts. He then (4) st...