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The biggest challenge of this post is that exposing the narcissism of this generation is kind of like describing to a fish the ocean in which it swims. So although some of my points may seem general and at times crotchety, try to bear with me as a reader here. I need to provoke you a bit to shake you into an awareness of the emotional matrix of these times.

In this world that is changing so rapidly, it is becoming commonplace to see conference rooms full of people riding the wave of technological novelty, because the attraction levels are quite high to be in on the latest and greatest. As the turnover rate increases for what ‘the latest and greatest’ actually is(hence the new term, ‘that is so 2007′), the race to lead gets more intense. Interestingly, much of today’s thought leadership has come from a more nuanced style. It is a counter to the top-down models of the past, for which we are thankful (see clue train manifesto), but this doesn’t change the fact that novelty still accounts for 90% of what is going on. People latch on to be significant by being in the know. The new social media leadership is generally determined by how many friends you have on Facebook, and how much traffic you are getting on your blog. Again, nothing inherently wrong with that, especially in contrast with the command and control models of the past. The problem occurs instead when you combine a novelty fascinated culture with an untested model for selecting wise leadership. Writing and reading is just a component of leadership. Writing, friending, and other forms of online networking, at best, create fame principally within a sub-culture that is self-fascinated. The online fame of various high-profile geeks seeking to inherit the earth does not make them experts in other areas (and to their credit, most would be the first to say it). There is in reality a great big world out there populated by very wise people doing wonderful and amazing things offline, but rather than interviewing these people and honoring their work and sacrifice, the technorati of today prefers to blog their own reports, from their own perspective and go before their online peers where the news is welcomed on the scale of them having discovered the new world. If you don’t get anything else said here, beware of this new elitism.

Adding to this, the post-boomer generations have been told in every Disney movie since 1980 that the most important value you can possess is believing in yourself, followed closely with the notion that all expressions of belief have equal value. Face it, there is just no valid counterargument to the fact that this is likely the most self infatuated generation in US history. Not that my generation of the 70’s was much better, but now that most of us who have survived are parents now, we at least have learned what it means to lay self aside for the sake of those coming next. What worries me is that the next generation just might not get started in that path until a much later time. Read on…

So where is the ‘perk’ I refer to wryly in the headline? It is in the fact that today’s technology has enabled us to indulge in self in ways previously unheard of, by minimizing exposure to criticism, and enabling self-congratulatory environments. If you need to find a community of people who agree with you, it has never been easier. Confirmation bias is the term we use for it, defined as seeking out media, friendships and information that confirms our own prejudices, rather than being challenged by hearing ideas from those with different experiences and opinions (parents included!). Today, people just don’t have to hear anything unpleasant to their ears. If you believe global warming is man-made and has doomed us unless we all turn agrarian, there are those who will console you if you are rebutted, and posit reassuring statistics. Of course it works in both ways and in any direction, conviction, opinion and prejudice. Certainly confirmation bias is not new to this generation, but what is new is our ability to isolate ourselves from our conventional neighborhoods where we would otherwise have to process varying viewpoints.

So I hope to do more here than just give you a moment of pause, but instead to give you a chance to reflect and think about how the world of technology affects you, and how you value all the people in your life, as well as the people throughout history, on which your life is indeed built, no matter how non-tech they are. If you don’t buy my assessment, then be in bliss. The narcissist community is growing rapidly.

Greetings. With the addition of our new art director, Elin McLain, and a new boost from our great visit to NY where new initiatives and partner announcements were warmly welcomed, we are proud to announce our new blog look and newsletter format change.

Instead of daily updates logging our ongoing conversation with the world about the emergence of the fourth speaker (audio media on mobile devices) we have found that a weekly newsletter style email update is much more digestible and relevant to our partners and subscribers. So going forward, if you are signed up here, you will receive this weekly digest and be kept abreast about all the relevant news relating to the future of cell phone radio. We’ll try to avoid just repeating general radio buzz and tech news that is not relevant to things you can take action on, and instead give you specifics on how you can leverage talk radio to reach 440 million phones in a profitable way.

Our newsletter audience is tiered based on access level, so posts relevant to only our content partners will be restricted from access by the general public. Just contact us to have your access level upgraded to get access to posts about new profitable marketing ideas and inside information about how our network is expanding.

We are here to create and to help you profitably navigate the future of talk radio.

Cheers,

Andrew Deal
CEO, CelleCast

We’re set to soft launch the social media side of CelleCast on Friday, April 18th. We could use your help in generating buzz. This is what we’d like for you to do, for the chance to win a pair of free movie tickets!

Go to http://cellecast.com. If you haven’t already registered, please do so and create a profile.

1. Make your profile complete, giving the CelleCast community a good taste of who you are with poll questions, an updated playlist and a photo. Please be sure to make it public.
2. Call the number 360-335-6000. Hit #, 1 for general program seek. Listen to a minimum of 5 shows for a minute or so each. Leave a talkback for one of the shows. Your talkback should be relevant to the show and topic, so it can be published on the program’s home page.
3. Give us some feedback! Complete the special poll questions starting with the word “SURVEY” (required), and post any comments about the experience, whether philosophical or technical, complimentary or critical(optional). Just post your comments here on the blog.

To qualify for the movie ticket drawing, each step above must be complete. Qualified entries will be in the running for a pair of Regal Cinema passes. 20 pairs are available. Winners will be notified via telephone or email on or around Friday, May 2nd.

When we announce the launch of our social media community to the world in early May, our goal is to have you in our system as an early adopter of the bridge we’re building between talk radio lovers and the social media world.

To be entered in the movie ticket drawing without going through the steps above, you may send a send us a postcard with your full name, mailing address, email and daytime phone number. Address your correspondence to: CelleCast Movie Ticket Drawing - 4209 NE 66th Ave - Vancouver, WA 98661

I had the honor to be on a panel at the Convergence Conference this week where the stated goal was to get down to the nitty gritty on ‘Revitalizing Stodgy Old Media’. Of course with any panel, there are many points to be made and moderator questions can create an unexpected context where the core issue loses some of it’s focus.

Mark Ramsey did a great job keeping things interesting, but surprised me a bit by defining the context of the session to identifying problems and solutions on the radio station and group level. No problem. We had a few minutes at the beginning to address the ’stodginess’ premise. I made the point that there is a droned narrative about radio’s backwards views on media that I don’t agree with at all. It is an unfair characterization, and as Mark also clarified, stodgy might just be another way of saying that radio is established and careful not to sacrifice it’s soul at the alter of ‘new’.

This brings me to the larger point I had hoped to bring across on the panel had we not moved on from the attitudinal to the practical. The point is that in my experience, new media types have issues of their own to deal with if we truly want to see convergence happen as it should to the benefit of all. New media has at times an unpleasant arrogance to it. There I said it. The idea that something new is categorically more valuable than something established makes as much sense as electing Barack Obama on the mere oratory of change alone. New media types expect to grow virally and replicate with impunity, but then come around to radio to exploit their mass reach.

Coming from the new media side, we have enjoyed much more success in convergence as we have sought to compliment radio and became students of the radio culture and mission. Not only has this been rewarding for me personally, but will reward us greatly as our partnerships continue to expand.

For all of our readers in the radio industry, the interest level is quite high regarding how our partnership with Westwood One is going to change with Gary Krantz no longer being at the helm on the digital side. After reading todays post on Thomas Beusse’s new leadership strategy at Westwood One, I am very encouraged. We can relate to some of the frustration expressed through his quotes in the article, and look forward to continuing to help them go “platform agnostic” as a key distribution partner. My favorite quote of his being, “We need to expand the focus of the business to become platform-agnostic. In the long term, my plan is to have Westwood One become a platform-agnostic content company.”.

It is clear to me that he understands, and it is already being reflected on WW1’s site now, that radio is being disassembled from being a package deal of content and distribution, to where content flourish’s best with multiple distribution methods, and distribution flourishes when it finds complementary, symbiotic new media partners. I’ll talk more about that in my next post, but I just wanted our friends at Westwood One (new and old) to know we are in their corner.

With all the talk about how high tech the candidates are, here is the truth about the pathetic showing in keeping their podcasts up and running:

The three candidates that have “official” podcasts are all Democratic.

John Edwards
http://johnedwards.com/podcast.xml
- no dates given, but not updated since the summer

Barack Obama
http://obama.senate.gov/podcast/index.xml
- not updated since April

Hillary Clinton
http://clinton.senate.gov/news/audio/hrc.xml - updated in December — podcasts from Senate floor

The other candidates are not directly represented. Either they have a podcast being done by a supporter, as is the case with Ron Paul, or they have no presence in the podsphere apart from interviews, etc by podcasters or broadcasters who also podcast.

We are going to set up an interactive candidate round-up on CelleCast very soon, using alternate sources since the candidates themselves have little to show.

The Christmas season has many traditions of course, not the least of which in business circles is the warm and heartfelt well wishing to clients, partners, vendors, co-workers, and even blog readers. In today’s world where face to face interaction grows more scarce each year, it is conveyed in emails, Christmas cards, newsletter headers, and as a key highlight in our phone conversations. Especially on the phone, there are times when you can tell how sensitive the other party is about whether to say Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays, as well as whether it is said out of the obligation of tradition, or it overflows from our personal joy of the season.

Inherent within this happy tradition is a curious subtext. I can best describe it as a memory flash of the year’s value points. A repeated assessment of how we have arranged our priorities and treated those we are fostering relationship with. For me, whenever I wish another a very merry Christmas, my memory flash highlights a summary of all my interactions we have had together over the year. My mind multi-tasks between my relationship checklist and the engagement of the conversation itself.

If you are like me, here is how it might sound in your head. “Have I honored his/her expectations of the relationship this year?”, “Have I kept all my promises and been on time?”, “Have I conveyed appreciation in proportion to the degree I have been blessed by this person?”, “Does he/she fully appreciate the value of the vision I am casting to them?”, “How well have I imparted the value of my vision/passion to them, and how can I reinforce that in this conversation?”, “Is there any deficit of mercy or generosity between us in either direction?”

The epitome of this checklist can in many ways come down to this…
Is my Christmas well wishing an extention of the ‘peace on earth, goodwill to men’ message that should be part of what my life and character speaks on a daily basis, or is it just a seasonal tradition where time is set aside to be just a little more people oriented than is my natural state?

The philosophical answer is that both are true. The tradition forces the introspection and inspires us (at least those of us who give a flip) to endeavor for positive change all year round. And, our character is what enables our confidence and credibility when these greetings are passed between us every holiday season.

I love it all, and truly feel that although this year has been an amazing formidable challenge, that the sincere peace I feel right now is sufficient to keep me aligned and in good stead with all of you as well.

Be generous to one another with abundant love, and strive for mercy. That is ultimately how all this will be scored in the end.

Andrew

The wisdom displayed by Seth Godin in his recent post goes beyond the mere pointing out how the media world is changing. I have seen too many posts along those lines and can create them myself practically in my sleep. Yes, the rate of change is remarkable and many established media structures will not survive the revolution as on-demand tools like CelleCast, Slingbox, and others emerge into mainstream usage.

What is more interesting to me, and something we are very keen about here is the fact that being new is also no guarantor of success. Consumers are not flocking anywhere in particular, but are responding well to companies that truly empower them with not only their technology, but also their personalized attention and concern. Look at how OnStar treats their subscribers. Beyond their radio commercials, their marketing centers around their excellence.

Thanks again Seth for bringing the right things to bear, namely the concept of permission marketing. Readers will have delve further into the post and beyond to capture what that means. To close, I will just quote Seth’s blog closer.

The new monopoly of the future is permission. Permission to talk to your customers directly about new stuff. Permission to teach, permission to ask, permission to learn. If you have that monopoly, you profit over and over and over again.
…

The power is certainly moving. It’s moving from five oligopolistic status quo gatekeepers that controlled money and promotion and retail to a much messier, faster-moving, more interesting amalgamation of database keepers, musicians and fans. Today, there’s a chance to co-op parts of that system. Tomorrow, that chance will be gone.