Mobile Radio Simplified. Accessible. Relevant.

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.