Mantan Moreland and the Irish Luck

"Irish Luck" (1939) is not a great film -- but very few movies from Monogram were. But many of the productions from this B-picture studio are still very entertaining -- especially those with Mantan Moreland. (I've talked about this under-rated African-American actor before.)

In the late 1930's he was teamed with Frankie Darro for a series of films where they, in essence, played the same characters. Darro was the enthusiastic kid, always getting the pair in trouble by impulsively plunging into trouble. Moreland played the most level-headed of the pair, who was always dragged into predicaments by Darrow against his better judgement.

What I find interesting about these films is that Moreland is treated pretty much as an equal. In "Irish Luck" for example, Moreland plays a janitor (Jefferson) to Darro's bellhop (Buzzy O'Brien) -- both employed in menial jobs. And Jefferson's reluctance to go along with Buzzy's hairbrained amateur sleuthing has nothing to do with racial stereotypes of the day. He simply wants to keep his job and out of trouble with the police. In fact, Jefferson's relationship to Buzzy is very much like that of Ethyl Mertz to Lucy Ricardo.

The difference is that Moreland, a gifted comedian, gets all the best lines (many of which he either wrote or ad-libbed for himself).

This opening scene gives an idea of the movie's pacing. It's fast, glib, and never meant to be taken very seriously.



When we meet Jefferson, he's (as usual) helping out Buzzy who's taken it upon himself to single-handedly capture some crooks in the hotel. Buzzy's plan? Have Jefferson use a dummy to fake a suicide attempt so the hotel would be surrounded by police and firemen! Detective Steve Lanahan (Dick Purcell) at first treats Jefferson as a madman (but without racial condescension). When he finds out that the son of his dead partner's at it again playing detective, sparks fly.



Here's Mantan Moreland in a typical scene with Frankie Darro.



Here are Moreland and Darro towards the end of the film, when Jefferson's just about had enough of Buzzy getting them both into trouble.



"Irish Luck" was never meant to be anything more than a Saturday afternoon diversion. This breezy little mystery is about as challenging and fraught with danger as an episode of "Murder She Wrote." But the chemistry between Darro and Moreland make this (in my opinion) much more fun to watch.

"Irish Luck" is in public domain, and is readily available from Archive.org. Not a great movie, but not a bad one to have on your iPod to while away an hour.

- Ralph

Day 8 of the WJMA Podwatch. They added the word "news" to the title. Still not helpful, still not getting it. The watch continues....

WJMA, DCD Records, and the transparent podcast

I've spent a lot of time talking about WJMA's podcasts, pointing out areas where I think they might more effectively do their job. So what makes me such an expert? Fair question.

Well, since February 2006 I've been writing, producing, and hosting the podcast for DCD Records (where I serve as president and chief bottle-washer). Like WJMA, we're distributing "The DCD Classical 'Cast" podcast for a reason.

I want to reach classical music listeners (and more importantly, classical music buyers) in a way that's both economical and efficient. The goal of our podcast is to showcase the classical releases from the independent labels we carry on our website, raise awareness of our brand, and spur sales. Has it worked? I think so.

Let me take you behind the scenes a little and you can judge for yourself.

Format: The podcast is approximately 30-40 minutes in length. We play complete movements, but almost never a complete work. The idea is to whet the appetite, not satiate it. (Listen to our current episode, and you'll see what I mean).

There's always an "ad" in the middle of the podcast. I simply reminds listeners that everything they hear is available from www.dcdrecords.com, and if they type a certain code into the coupon field, they'll receive a ten percent discount off their order -- even if other special offers or discounts have been applied (sorry, I'm not going to provide the code here -- you'll just have to listen).

I also ID the podcast after every piece of music. Why? Because repetition is the key to memory. Over the course of a podcast, the listener will hear our brand name mentioned at least four times. After a while, it will stick.

Metadata: I want each episode to be as effective as possible, so I pay attention to the metadata. I make sure the following are filled in:

Name: DCD [three digit show number] - [show title]
Artist: info@DCDRecords.com
Album: DCD Classical 'Cast
Year: [year of release]
Composer: [Me], host
Comments: This program we play: [composer - work]; [composer - work], etc.
Genre: Podcast

And yes, there's artwork attached.

Note the name. Even though we're only up to show #64, by using a three-digit number we ensure that the programs all line up properly in numerical order on media players and software. Without it, shows nos. 1,5, 10, 11, and 20 would line up as 1, 10, 11, 20, and 5.

And the choice of placing our e-mail address in the artist field was deliberate. If nothing else gets displayed, Name and Artist do. So I want the most important info front and center.

Distribution: We continue to seek out podcast directories to place our program with. You can find us on iTunes, InstantEncore, Feedburner, Mefeedia, Podcastblaster, Podcast Pickle, ZenCast, and many others. We also just recently set up a Twitter feed and a Facebook fan page to help generate interest in the podcast and our brand.

So what's been the result? Well, we started off with a monthly podcast and now produce an episode every two weeks because of a corresponding growth in audience. We've seen a definite link between product sold and product featured on the podcast. No, not everyone returns to our site to buy, but that's OK. Because we also have a store on Amazon, and we're the exclusive supplier of many of our labels to Arkivmusic.com -- so chances are, if you're purchasing something we carry, we'll see some money from the transaction regardless of the site you buy it on.

Subscription rates (it's free, by the way) continue to grow at a steady rate, especially over the past year. We've had over 34,000 downloads, and currently average a little over 500 an episode (although our more popular episodes run into the thousands). Now granted, this is small potatoes compared to say, "This Week in Tech" or a more general interest podcast.

But classical customers only make up about 7% of the music-buying market. And this market's small in other ways, too. Many classical titles -- even from the major labels -- only sell a few thousand copies. Add to that the fact that public radio stations airing classical music have an extremely slow rotation -- it's not uncommon to have six months pass before a track is played again. And most classical record review magazines seem to average a circulation of only around 10,000 readers.

So given all that, I'm very happy to have placed our audio calling card/sales catalog directly into the virtual hands of 34,000+ potential customers (even if they only listen to the podcast once, it's still better than the odds for radio). And outside of the recording gear, there's been almost no expense, save time.

I don't have to eat the cost of promo copies and the postage to ship them to 100+ radio stations where they'll sit and gather dust. I don't have to pay for ads in magazines where at a good response rate of 3% I'm looking at an outside total of 30 sales -- doesn't even cover the cost of the ad. I don't have to bother with the expense of trying to place the product in the shrinking racks of record retail stores (nor worry what happens to my inventory when they file Chapter 11).

We're talking directly to our potential customers, and they're responding either through purchases on our site or through one of the sites we supply.

So that's where I'm coming from when I say that WJMA's podcasts aren't living up to their full potential. Even at this stage of the game, their subscription and download numbers should leave us in the dust. If they're not, then something is seriously wrong. Which is kind of my point.

- Ralph


Day 3 of the WJMA Podwatch.

WJMA and the Online Opportunity

Stephen Baker's post "The Online Opportunity for Radio Stations" provides a lot of good information -- and not just for radio stations. Consider this:

Usability. Eliminate the clutter and focus on getting customers to relevant content quickly. I’m still amazed at the complexity and quantity of clicks required to get to target content.

It's making me take a hard look at our website. Can people quickly get to our content within a click or two? And ditto for our favorite subject case, WJMA. A lot of content is front and center on their homepage. And even their red-headed stepchildren (their podcasts) are only two clicks away. But wait -- there's more.

Aggregation. Success in the local market requires that publishers look beyond their own content for relevant stories and information in order to become a local online media hub.

Again, WJMA's site has a lot of potentials. The home page has a local news feed, community calendar, weather, etc. But let's look a little closer. Here's the "Local News" when I checked the site. "Obama in Baghdad" Huh? Is there a Baghdad, Virginia? That feed needs a little tighter focus.

Also, consider this:

Compelling content. Most news/talk radio stations produce extremely relevant content to our daily information needs - traffic, weather, sports scores, etc. - that drive our initial entry to the site and lead us to engage with additional content of interest.

OK, WJMA is technically a music station, but they do produce their own local news, so a lot of this still applies. There's enough of the above-mentioned content to get us to the WJMA site. But where's the additional content of interest? Take, for example, the community calendar. Click on the date, and the day's events pop up. Cool.

But there's no addition content and not a lot of information. For April 7, the event is simply:

"Spring Into Safety Health Fair"
Presented by Culpeper Regional Health System.

Two problems here. First, the link isn't in a different color. I discovered it lead to another page purely by accident. Second, there's no real information here. OK, there's something happening today somewhere in Culpeper. What's the location? What time? What's the theme? Details?

And the most important question, why do have I have to click through another page to get the information? (Remember Baker's recommendation for usability?).

So how does your site stack up? Compelling content, usability, aggregation. I don't have a radio station website, but Baker's post will make me take another look at our own site.

- Ralph

Day 2 of the WJMA Podwatch.

WJMA Podwatch -- Day One

Looks like it's time to start the WJMA Podwatch. Two weeks ago we offered up some suggestions to make the WJMA news podcasts more effective, both for the listeners and for the station. Simple fixes, really.

1. Add contact and identifying info to the MP3's meta data.
2. Add the date to the title so the podcasts would sort properly.
3. Put in artwork for visual reference (and brand re-enforcement) and add an opener so we know who we're listening to and what they're talking about at the beginning of the podcast -- not at the end.

And after two weeks -- the podcasts are now dated. !?!?

Just doing the barest minimum doesn't help -- and this isn't really the barest minimum. So we'll start the clock and see how long it takes to make these MP3s useful to podcast listeners (who have different needs than radio listeners).

So why does this matter? Well, there are lessons to be learned here for any business with an online component (even those not considering podcasts). And a key one is credibility. Piedmont Communications (who own WJMA), addressing current and future advertisers in their blog said:

Using the web to market your business and sell your product can unquestionably be very effective…. Good web design and maintenance are pricey….we should know. We just completed a relaunch of the WJMA FM website. Once you’ve spent the money to gussy up your site, you’ve got to drive traffic to it in order for it to do you any good.

We feel like in our market, and with our listeners, we’ve got the franchise on emotive, engaging advertising that will make people want to visit your website, leveraging your ad dollars and web investment to create sales for you.

I totally agree. They got the concept.

But if I were a potential advertiser, I'd be looking at what Piedmont Communications is doing to drive traffic to their own website. It's the most effective way they can show their Interwebtube expertise -- and provide some hard numbers to their clients.

As Mark Ramsey said in a recent Hear 2.0 post:

The digital elements in [a station's] portfolio are not "non-traditional revenue," they are "new traditional revenue."... Every broadcaster should be restructuring from the ground up around digital opportunities, not simply tacking on digital strategies like so many strips of duct tape.

How well has WJMA incorporated the digital tools of their "gussied up" website into their product? Well, it took them 344 days to go from a placeholder to a functioning website again. Let's see how long it takes to bring their podcasts (which is just one part of their digital initiative) up to current practice. This is day one.

- Ralph

HD Radio Keeps Pushing the Rope Uphill

The HD Radio Alliance is at it again. They’re launching a new ad campaign to help education consumers. According to their press release,

“Research tells us that consumers think they are listening to HD Radio because the promos on the station say `broadcasting in HD Radio,’” a spokesperson said. The new ads “will continue educating consumers that they need a new receiver to enjoy the HD experience.” All ads therefore will incorporate the tag, “If you don’t have an HD, you’re not hearing HD. It’s time to upgrade.”

HD Radio technology was approved for use back in 2002. Let’s think on that a moment. Seven years later, people still don’t seem to know (or care) whether they're actually using this technology or not.

Bravely pressing on, the Alliance hopes to let radio listeners know that:

1. If they don't have an HD Radio tuner, they're not getting HD Radio.
2. They should get an HD Radio receiver because they're missing out on loads of fantabulous programming.
3. They should get an HD Radio receiver because, unlike certain other kinds of media (read: satellite radio), it's free -- there's no subscription.
4. They should get an HD Radio receiver because of the pure, digital sound.

So why is HD Radio still stuck at the starting gate after seven years? Well, primarily because of the stations. The networks weren't willing to invest in new programs until the receivers had reached market saturation. But why would you buy a special radio that only tunes in dead air?

For the past three and a half years the HD Radio Alliance has been beating the drum, hawking the charms of this exciting new technology. Live Text Updates! Audiophile digital sound! Fantastic new programming!

The reality has been far different. Few stations did any text at all. The digital signal is better than analog, but still highly compressed (and far from “audiophile”). And as for programming, most stations simply simulcast the same old sh*t they were spewing out of their FM channel.

Here’s the way it’s supposed to work. Identify a consumer need. Create a product that addresses that need. Make consumers aware that you have answer for their need (and it’s better than anyone else’s).

With HD Radio, the product came first, then the “need” was crafted to fit what it could do, and then the struggle began to educate the consumer that they really did have this need they weren’t aware of.

And radio’s been trying to push that rope uphill for the past seven years.

According to their press release,

“In this economic environment, being able to receive all these extra stations around the country for free is immensely appealing.”

Fair enough. If you’re strapped for cash, HD Radio’s better than satellite radio, because there are no subscription fees. But I can just stick with my beat-up old AM/FM radio that still works just fine and not buy anything at all -- and if you're talking saving money, that's even more appealing. Am I missing out on amazing programs? Perhaps. But it’s tough to miss programming you’ve never heard.

Rather than a campaign to educate the public about HD Radio, I think someone should launch a campaign to educate radio broadcasters about the increasingly apparent DOA nature of HD Radio. I’m not sure which would be more difficult, or less successful.

- Ralph