Mobile Media Simplified. Accessible. Relevant.

Cruising home from the mountain this weekend, on my way back from a spring skiing adventure, I found myself getting extremely frustrated with the lack of good stuff available on the radio while I was trapped in the car. Each time I scanned through my presets, it seemed all I found were commercials or something I didn’t want to listen to. I endured this for a while until I had a realization that should have occured to me much sooner.

I can get dozens of streaming stations of all genres right from my phone. Feeling both relieved at the new options, and sheepish at my delayed realization, I pulled up some good roadtrip music and set the phone next to me, content at last. What freedom comes from listening to what I want, when I want, and without commercials!

As I was listening, it occured to me that to make my experience truly complete, I would like to be able to skip through things I didn’t want to hear - a feature not usually available with streaming radio. So the ultimate would be listening to what I chose, with full file control. If only someone would amass lots of great radio and audio content, make it accessible on demand, and allow me to jump around within the audio, they’d really be on to something.

Hey…

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

A big thanks to our friends at The After Party podcast, who wrote a nice entry about us in their blog yesterday. You can check it out here.

I could stand on rooftops all day long and shout about how easy it is to access shows via CelleCast. Sometimes it seems all I’d get are stares from onlookers, a sore throat, and limited success in convincing people that yes, you can get great radio shows and podcasts (like The After Party) simply by dialing a phone number.

Sometimes it’s best to let others do the talking for you. From The After Party post:

Of course, the name CelleCast implies cell phones, the service is also available to any telephone … cell or landline.

If there’s a dial tone, then you can hear a CelleCast.

All you have to do is dial and listen … IT’S AS SIMPLE AS THAT!

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

By the way, if it sounds interesting to be a fly on the wall and hear the conversations of two comedians and their two entertaining podcasting partners, check out The After Party on CelleCast. It is available any time by calling 206-315-4833.

Here is some wisdom I can bring back from my visit to Hawaii. It is a snippet from Bob Harrison’s newsletter, whose conference I just attended in Maui. Starting a bit off-topic, it relates to what can happen to any of us who resist change or remain in close proximity to others that resist it.

An overzealous zookeeper who was trying to overcome an elephant’s constipation problem fed the animal 22 doses of laxative plus several pounds of berries, figs and prunes. When that didn’t seem to be working, he proceeded to give the ailing elephant an olive-oil enema. Unexpectedly, the relieved beast unloaded on him like a dump truck full of mud.

According to the article the sheer force of the elephant’s unexpected defecation knocked the keeper to the ground, where he struck his head on the pavement. The elephant evacuated approximately 200 pounds of dung on top of him.

I know what it feels like to have someone “dump their dung” on me. This situation has happened in my life on more than one occasion. It has occurred when someone was misinformed or had allowed an accumulation of negative feelings about a proposed change to persist in their thinking. As a result, some event or announcement triggered them to overreact emotionally and respond in a negative manner. At the same time, there have been times in my life where I have misinterpreted change and therefore have reacted negatively.

In his classic book Peak Performance author John Noe states… “The greatest challenge that people committed to going to the next level will face is disagreement from those closest to them. The reason is, most of the people close to you are more interested in you not getting hurt than they are in seeing you succeed.”

“Peak performers can not allow the possible negative reactions of these people to paralyze them from making correct decisions.” Noe goes on to state…

“High achievers must be willing to risk rejection by their peers.”

Over the years I have observed that the possibility of rejection by others is a key challenge that leaders must be willing to face. This is particularly true when they attempt to remove blockages to productivity, launch new products, change operating strategies, and/or when they introduce a new person to a position of authority or influence.

Thanks for the imagery Bob. I am sure we will all think twice before forcing change on those not ready to digest it.

Stay regular!

Most people cringe at the idea of receiving ads on the most personal of media devices - their mobile phone. It’s invasive and annoying, many would argue.

Add in some free goodies in exchange and you’ll find a slightly warmer reception to the idea. A recent study posted in eMarketer found that almost half of those surveyed would even pass along ads to others for perks such as free music downloads and SMS messaging.

In other words, give me something cool, and I might tolerate your ads.

What about free, unlimited, on-demand access to dozens of great radio programs? And what if the value delivered was not only in the content received, but in the ad itself? That’s right - ads that present offers in which listeners would actually be interested. What if those ads were presented in an inobtrusive way that allowed listeners to respond instantly, but only if they were interested?

Sound impossible? It’s not. It’s a reality.

A headline in eMarketer today states “Radio Finds New Life In Mobile.” The article, citing a study by TNS Global Technology, found that in 2007, listening to the radio on mobile phones “grew by 140%.” While the study was specifically measuring the use of mobile music applications, the trend in general can be extrapolated to apply to the use of any genre of radio, especially talk radio.

With today’s announcement that The Dr. Laura Program, a permanent fixture on talk radio’s top 10 list, is now delivering the program via cellecast, it’s only a matter of time before others follow suit and see the wisdom of on-demand distribution via phone.

With so many consumers using their cell phones more and more for replacements to traditional (non-mobile) radio, TV, and even internet, it makes perfect sense for radio broadcasters to put their content where the ears and eyes of the consumers, as well as the dollars of the advertisers, are going.

The cell carriers are right on schedule, following our predictions almost like a script.

Just last night I was dining with a fellow pioneer in new media and I shared with him that the big mega trend that is going to change the face of mobile media is the flat-rating of cellular minutes. We are not only banking on it, but hold it to be self-evident. Then today, Verizon announced it is launching $99/mo and up fixed-rate plans for unlimited minutes in the great 48. Not to be left out, AT&T did a “me too” announcement within a mere 5 hours, always ready to react in their sophisticated market-share retention mindset.

I hate to brag, but as they say, “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up”.

Back in Oct 07, I had the privilege to opine in Talkers Magazine that the wireless media adoption trends would first hinge on airtime becoming an open commodity, forever changing our attitudes about the conservation of minutes. I see this first step to have hit the tipping point today with this announcement. My first two predictions: 1) the commoditization of airtime and; 2) consumer adoption of fixed pricing are the major keys to the opening of the voice channel media portion of the overall wireless media revolution, making today an industry holiday. Mark Feb 20th on your 2009 calendar now and we’ll throw a party. We are now 31% through the overall revolution, and you should reconsider the other 4 points on my list with a new level of interest. Radio as we know it is about to change.

Now that The Dr. Laura Program is coming to CelleCast, many of her listeners that happen to be 9-to-5ers will no doubt seize upon this opportunity to listen during the morning and evening commute, when they have time but she’s not broadcasting.

To make such an opportunity worthwhile and safe, the Fourth Speaker gang has been researching products that provide easy, affordable hands free solutions for listening anywhere. One of the most accessible we’ve found is the Southwing SF505 Bluetooth Hands free device. It can be used at home, work or in the car. It slips into a pocket without being bulky or clips onto a car visor as well. There’s no installation required; just pair it with your phone and go!

There are quite a few other products out there that also make life easier for the cellecast listener on the go. Quality, multi-setting use, affordability and ease of use are the standards we judge product reviews against. If you know of other great products that will improve the ability to listen to cellecasts hands free anywhere, feel free to leave a comment with more information.

This forum is a place where we often share new research and insights into the world of cell phone radio and its development. I won’t throw a bunch of numbers or statistics at you this time, but rather share a few thoughts on how we’ve shaped our product development in this unprecedented realm. This has been discussed in several previous posts, but it merits additional discussion.

It’s important to note that since this type of service, marrying traditional radio and audio media with new, on-demand delivery on a new interface has never really been done before. Being trailblazers in this area we have sought to carefully craft a user experience that is as easy as possible, bearing in mind the inherent complexities of serving up the radio experience over a cell phone.

The principles we’ve guided our process with are as follows:

• Radio listening for many is a passive experience. A big portion of the audience simply wants to tune in and listen not actively engage the content. The extent to which the listener “plays DJ” is when they choose to switch channels.
• Most do prefer to set up their channels in advance via preset program buttons on the home or car radio, for easy navigating.
• Folks rely on radio for up-to-the-minute information such as news, traffic, weather and sports.

The CelleCast model echoes these principles to the closest extent possible. When you call a cellecast, after a brief message, you’ll quickly hear the latest episode of that program. You can create a “preset” in the form of a playlist, and line up your favorite programs to play in the order you like. And cellecasting’s immediacy creates an environment that is ideal for the latest updates in news, traffic, weather and sports. You’ll soon see these services filling the pages of our programming catalog.

We encourage you to jump on the CelleCast bandwagon and let us know what you think. Is it easy to use? Is it serviceable as a next generation radio application? We’re here to listen and make our product better based on what we hear from our users. Call 360-335-6000 for our main number, or go to our Browse Programs page to get a direct dial number for your preferred program.

Vancouver, WA – January 23, 2008 – CelleCast, Inc. announced today that its newest program, Presidential Cellect 08 Town Hall Debate, is a one-stop audio source for the latest news on the campaign trail. By aggregating the most credible sources of election coverage into one program, it allows callers to hear the most recent news on demand with their cell phones.

What sets this program apart from other content sources is its interactive capabilities. Designed to be an audio forum, callers are able to Talkback to the shows, simply by pressing three to record their thoughts and opinions on the candidates and topics. Talkbacks can be sent immediately to CelleCast, and upon screening, the audio will be posted to their website for public access.

“The presidential race is dominating the news, and will be for the next 11 months,” said Andrew Deal, CelleCast’s founder and CEO. “This tool empowers the average person to sound off with their opinions about the candidates and issues. It gives a voice to anyone with a phone.”

Callers can leave a message, then log on to http://cellecast.com/cellect08 to hear their comments and those made by others – in true Town Hall style. This brings the ever-popular blog commenting culture to the mobile, on demand audio realm.