Jon Stewart … CNN … Bad Segment Idea
Jon Stewart is a national treasure. He has to continually ask CNN if they’ve run an idea through a human brain. As CNN grows more and more inane, I’m glad that young Americans are getting news from a place where people think.
Time Person of the Year: Radio lose the tease
Time Magazine Person of the Year for 2011 is The Protestor. Protests around the world have toppled dictatorial regimes, so the decision makes some sense, I guess. I was hoping for Steve Jobs, but oh well.
Terrestrial radio has done something my whole life that no longer makes sense in the age of the Extended Mind. It’s called a tease. News and talk hosts will use time to promote they’ll be telling me something I might want to know, but not yet. I’ll have to stay tuned if I want to know.
I was just listening to Mark Davis host of a morning talk show in Dallas on the Stitcher App for iPad. He did a tease. He said something like, “You may not like who Time chose as it’s person of the year. I’ll tell you who it is and we’ll talk about it after the break.”
By teasing rather than telling, Mark Davis sacrificed some of his value as an information source because I didn’t find out that Time’s Person of the Year from Mark. I Googled it and I’ve written this much of this blog post, saved a graphic to add to the post and Mark Davis still hasn’t revealed Time’s Person of the Year.
If you work in radio, loose the tease and just tell the audience what’s new as soon as the information is available.
I’m hitting publish and Mark is counting down from five. He’s on number two and I’ve published.
Read MoreCali Lewis and Neal Campbell Speaking at Gnomedex
This video isn’t in HD so it’s more fun to listen than to watch, but it’s our speech at Gnomedex in 2007. We kind of tell our New Media story and encourage anyone with an idea to “just start.”
Apple and iPod Underfire
Apple’s amazing success with the iPod is welcomed by most people who own an iPod, but the big media companies aren’t happy with Apple’s power. Universal reduced their musical offerings on iTunes, and now NBC is abandoning Apple completely. It’s almost as if the Old Media Giants (OMGs) are throwing their last tantrum before they lay down and die. The OMGs can’t figure out how to reach New Consumers who want power and choice. iTunes has been the closest common ground between Old Media and New Consumers, yet. The OMGs aren’t happy to live in a world where consumers have power to do much more than consume, consume, consume. OMGs are greedy at a time they should be humble, and it will be their downfall.
Tomorrow, Apple is announcing something. Most of us are expecting a new line of iPods. The excitement that I would otherwise feel is curtailed by my frustration with OMGs and their unwillingness to fully embrace a new medium that works (content+iTunes+iPod). I LOVE The Office, but if it’s not on iTunes, I can easily live without it. It’s just sad that I have to.
As OMGs throw their tantrums and abandon Apple’s distribution system, I hope Apple will fully embrace consumer empowerment. I’d love to see Steve Jobs somehow burn the OMGs by removing the road blocks to what we want, when we want and how we want entertainment.
I guess I should have gone to Burning Man.
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