Radio Daze

So is ignorance really bliss? Or is it self-destructive?

As I've commented before, the problem with the digital divide is that it's completely insular. The firestorms of controversy and criticism that sweep through the online community are completely unknown to those offline.

Commercial radio thrashes about desperately trying just about anything to hold on to a shrinking (and aging) audience. The frantic pushing of HD Radio shows that commercial broadcasters know that something's wrong -- and their approach shows they have not a clue about what audiences want, or how to provide it.

The answers are online -- and the answer is to move online. But the decision-makers at these stations live offline. And so they never see the solution -- or are even aware it's out there in (virtual) plain view.

Here're three examples of where we are:

1) Audiographics bids adieu
Ken Dardis, a radio professional who's been pushing and prodding the industry for years, has finally given up. In his final post he writes:

...the decision will be either to stop writing altogether (because it doesn't seem that radio is interested in how to step into the future), or to write about these new things I'm learning which are turning the advertising industry on its head (and which have been brought up in this column hundreds of times).

After writing, and documenting and analysing the path radio needs to take, Dardis is through trying to shout across the digital divide. He's moving on. And who could blame him?

2) Hear 2.0 turns up the heat
Mark Ramsey, another radio professional, has continually commented and pointed the way for radio. In a recent post, he took the gloves off (and not for the first time):

It's time for radio to stop imagining that success can be achieved by consolidating and cutting until one day your entire group is run from a PC in a locked room like W.O.P.R. in the 1983 movie Wargames. No need for PD's or air talent in that world. No need for marketing or research or promotion or staff. No need for anything but sales and - if you're lucky - an ever-diminishing number of listeners. It's Dabney Coleman and a big Central Brain that asks millions of listeners at once: "Want to play a game?"
Is that the kind of radio industry you want? Because if you mistake the current down market for a cycle rather than a trend, that's exactly the one you're going to get.

Looks like Ramsey is also getting a little tired of shouting across that divide.

3) At WJMA, nothing's changed
It's been a little while since I offered up an analysis of the ramshackle website of our local radio station WJMA. It's been a while, but the DJ's page is still "under construction," the job page still wants someone for "overseas programming" and the news page is still blank with a date of November 9.

Lots of people read those posts -- even some in the Orange area. And yet, no comment for any of the posts, and no change. Piedmont Communications remain incommunicado -- offline.

It's one thing for an individual to opt out of the online experience. But for a business in decline to steadfastly refuse to consider investigating the most important cultural tool of the 21st century? That kind of ignorance can be fatal.

- Ralph

Lessons from York - Points of View

My dad and I made our semi-annual trip to York, Pennsylvania for the largest toy train meet on the East Coast. But this post isn't about that -- it's about different points of view.

With the Pennsylvania Democratic primary coming up Tuesday, just about every other television commercial was a paid political announcement. The Clinton message was all about affordable healthcare, and Obama's was that American jobs needed to stop being sent overseas.



While we were there, the big story in the local paper was the layoffs at the Harley-Davidson plant, a major employer in the area. According to the paper, the down-sizing was a result of declining sales over the last quarter.

As we wandered the York Fairgrounds, we fell into conversation with a local resident who was checking out the show for the first time. We commensurated with him about the plant closing, but he had a different take on it. There had been a recent strike at the plant over the issue of health care. Harley-Davidson had been paying all of their union employees' health insurance premiums, and when it was suggested that the workers pay part of it, they struck.

It was interesting to go from the general to the specific.

The political message: Americans are losing jobs to foreign outsourcing.
The local reality: Harley-Davidson employees are losing jobs because of slow sales.

The political message: Working Americans are in a health care crises.
The local reality: Harley-Davidson workers have complete health care coverage (the ones with jobs, that is).

That's not to say that Clinton and Obama aren't talking about important issues. But from the perspective of the locals affected by this layoff, neither candidate's message quite hits the mark.

So who's right? Well, in a way, they all are. Check out the sources I've linked to. Each one has part of the story. Put it all together and draw your own conclusions.

If we hadn't been in Pennsylvania this weekend, I might have missed this lesson about viewpoints. Now I've got something to think about.

- Ralph

Pandora and the 70% Solution

Josh Tucker asked about my initial letter to Eric Cantor (R-Va) concerning the Internet Radio Equality Act, and I’m sorry to say I can’t find the original text. This time around, though, I’ll share the letter right here so I can’t lose it.

And, as a special added bonus, I’ll hold off sending it until the end of next week in case anyone has any additions or corrections (just leave a note in the comments field).

With minor alterations, this letter will be going to my senators as well. I'll change the name of the bill from H.R.2060 to S. 1353 and other little things. While I’m at it, I might just write the folks that are holding these bills in committee and see if we can’t get a move on here.

Dear Representative Cantor:

I had recently written you asking for your support of H.R. 2060, the Internet Radio Equity Act. I understand that the resolution is still in committee, and I’m hoping you will do what you can to get it to the floor. Since our last correspondence, Tim Westerberg, the president of Pandora.com, has announced the company is about ready to close its doors. They will try to stay in business until Congress acts, but if there appears to be no serious effort, then they will stop broadcasting.

Why? Because the royalty rates SoundExchange requested and the Copyright Royalty Board approved without amendment take 70% of Pandora’s income. Now this is not unexpected.

Netcasters gave detailed testimony last year demonstrating that the new rates would have these results – it was simple math, and so far it’s been pretty darned accurate. Many small webcasters have already gone out of business. Pandora will be the first of the majors to fold, but most likely not the last.

There seemed to be a little bit of confusion in your kind response to my letter, so let me be as clear as possible about some points.

1) Everyone agrees that artists and copyright holders must be compensated for their work. And everyone agrees that there should be an increase over the previous rate to keep pace with the cost of living. What’s at issue is the 1200% jump in that rate.

2) No one’s asking for an industry bail-out. Passing the act will simply reduce the rates to a realistic level, and make them scalable. As a webcaster’s income increases, so will royalty payments.

3) The current system only harms the U.S. While American Internet broadcasters will be shut down by these rates, foreign netcasters will simply pick up the slack. Any advertising income that could have been generated by net radio will happen overseas. This industry will continue to grow outside of the United States and other countries will reap the benefits of it.

4) While the SoundExchange has represented themselves as advocates for the artists, their actions don’t support that claim. Their unrealistically high rates have already killed several sources of income. Forcing the large netcasters out of business will simply hasten the decline. It’s like a realtor who prices a client’s house several times higher than the market value. If they can get somebody to buy it, it’s great for the seller. But if it remains unsold, is the realtor’s actions really in the best interest of the client (who sees no money rather than some)?

The Copyright Board didn’t do their job and find a solution that was equitable to both parties. I’m afraid it’s time for the government to step in and do so.

Please vote for the passage of this bill when it comes before you.

Best Regards,

Ralph Graves
President, Digital Chips, Inc.

[I figure sending this on company stationary and using my officious official title might get Rep. Cantor's attention.]

Maybe now that McCain's selected his VP (Cantor was in the running, you know), we can get back to business here.

Recycling in postwar Japan

I recently purchased this brush fire jeep for one of my train layouts (see: An Accidental Addition). The style and color of the lithography suggests that it was manufactured in Japan in the mid to late 1950's. There's no brand on it, so I'm not sure which company made it.

When I was cleaning the toy, I saw what appeared to be two eyes staring up at me from the floorboard. I carefully removed the body from the chassis, and found a surprise -- and a mystery.

The chassis for this vehicle was stamped from a sheet of metal that have previously been lithographed. The pristine condition of the lithography and the lack of dimples or extraneous creases in the metal suggest to me that the toy was made not from a recycled finished product, but from a flat sheet of metal that had been decorated but not used.

Who's there?

And what was that decoration? A little research revealed that it was the design for a Burgermeister beer can. This San Francisco brewery updated its graphic regularly. This particular version is from 1953-54, which is in line with my assessment of the jeep's age.

Here's the mystery, though. Where did that sheet of Burgermeister cans come from? The brewery would have used an American cannery. Were unused sheets/factory seconds sold to a jobber for the overseas market?

It makes a certain amount of sense, as it ensures no unscrupulous domestic company could make the cans and pass off their own product as Burgermeister beer.

Container freight is economical now, but would it have been cost effective to ship used steel to Japan in the 1950's? I'm not sure. But if not, then where did this recycled sheet come from? It's unlikely Burgermeister had a brewery in Japan.

And there's one more mystery. Because there are no markings on the jeep, I don't know who made it. I'd like to -- because I'd like to see if they regularly used recycled metal for their toys, or if this was unusual.

The original can (L) and the jeep chassis superimposed over it (R)

The weakest link

My last post was all about the importance of connectivity. I inadvertently illustrated that by messing up two of the links (as bkr was so kind to point out in his comment to the post). So, as Anne Robinson would say,

"Ralph, you are the weakest link. Goodbye."

And there's a good chance many readers (especially first-time visitors) did when they clicked on links that didn't work -- they said goodbye.

But there's another little web lesson to be learned here, and it's one that's been an important part of my business ethos. Sometimes what you do when things go wrong is more important than what you do to ensure they go right.

I received notice of bkr's comment about fifteen minutes ago. I immediately went into the post and discovered the two problems that caused the links to fail. They're now fixed, and I've republished the post.

And that's the lesson. Mistakes create a negative impression, so it's important to correct them in a timely fashion. For the web, most errors can usually be fixed within minutes. Most people who do business on the Internet know this, and so the longer an error is allowed to stay, the more damage is done to the company's reputation.

This was the point I was trying to make to WJMA when I pointed out month after month that they used "overseas" instead of "oversee" in their job posting.

I'm not perfect -- which is why I welcome feedback. Thanks, bkr!

- Ralph

Ted Mack's Original Radio Website

I recently commented on WTYD's confessed inability to monetize their website. The concept's simple enough -- generate content that brings people in (and brings them back), and they place appropriate ads in front of them.

Just to give one example of how it could work for WTYD -- the Tide (WTYD) has a local band network. Why not make link sponsored by, say Guitar Center, and then have a banner ad on the band page? Why not a banner ad from Musician's Friend? Each of their specialized pages could have similar appropriate advertising (either brick-and-mortar or Internet).

The Tide's site has other similar opportunities, such as their concert calendar, lyrics page, and so on.

Of course, you have to have content to go to in order to get the traffic to justify the advertiser's investment.

Which brings us to WJMA's website. As near as I can tell, our local radio station only has a website because someone told them it was all the rage. The Tide could make money on their website. Not so with WJMA.

The home page is clean and uncluttered -- which is good. But things fall apart when you start clicking on links.

Their contest page just basically says "listen to win." So there's no real reason to visit this page. Why not have some clues or even some kind of online-only contest?

Want to meet the staff? Too bad -- that page is still under construction. Which is a real web design no-no? Keep the freakin' page offline until the content's finished. An "under construction" notice is like asking someone if they want a soda, and when they say yes, responding that you don't have any.

Headline news can be an easy way to generate fresh content (and possibly sell some banner ads from local newspapers). WJMA's Local Headline News is blank -- with a date of November 9! C'mon, guys, even this blog has better news coverage (check out our feed from Digg.com in the right column).

Community events can be another way to bring traffic. Post all the public service announcements that come into your station, and announce your website URL frequently ("for more information, visit WJMAFM.com"). Businesses that want to be seen supporting the community could sponsor said page. WJMA's Community Event page is blank. Ouch.

The local government and schools pages link to the various homepages of the area county governments and schools. That's fine, of course, but fairly static and not likely to generate much traffic.

The weather page links to Weather.com, which is fine -- that page should have some kind of ads supporting it, though. Isn't the weather sponsored on the radio? Perhaps a package deal would be in order to get the ball rolling.

The concert page is current, and this would be another page that should be generating traffic and should have some sponsorship.

As the experts have repeatedly pointed out, a station's website can be a valuable tool and revenue stream but too many station managers don't comprehend the role of this new media.

Two more examples of how much Piedmont Communications (the proud owner of WJMA) understands about this Interwebtubie thing. In their "About Us" page, they say

"With the installation of new state of the art IBOC transmitting equipment in 2006, WJMA and WOJL became the first two commercial FM stations of their market size in Virginia to begin broadcasting in full HD high definition, providing listeners with the best possible audio quality available anywhere in the U.S. Piedmont Communications, Inc. will continue to use the latest technological advances and listener responsive programming to deliver the best radio service in Virginia."

First off, the "HD high definition" link is dead. Secondly, HD Radio is misidentified as "HD high definition." So this station that uses "the latest technological advances" apparently doesn't know the name of said advance, nor how to create a link properly.

But my absolute favorite part of the site is the job opportunities. WJMA is looking for an operations manager and program director. The duties include the following:

"Responsible for Supervising all on-air, news, engineering and production staff. Overseas programming on all four PCI stations, and manages facilities and studios."

At first, I thought Piedmont Communications was looking for someone to manage the content they were receiving from Europe. But I soon realized that they had just misspelled "oversees."

'Nuff said.

- Ralph

(And for those under a certain age who are puzzled by the title reference, Ted Mack was a celebrated radio and TV host of an amateur talent show).