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September 15, 2017
Yet Another Modest Proposal, or One For AllIt was inevitable that, as happens after or even during most disastrous major news stories, the hurricanes would be used for political purposes. Harvey and Irma were no different; the ground has yet to dry and Irma is being used to push a particular agenda...
Climate change? No, not that. I'm talking about FM tuner chips in cell phones.
An editorial in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel used the emergency to take smartphone manufacturers, and Apple in particular, to task for resisting calls to activate the chips. The paper's pique is understandable. Without the chips, you'd have had to get a battery-powered radio to receive anything, and to that, the paper wrote, "Even if you could find and afford one, good luck finding the batteries to run them," because radios are very expensive and AAA batteries are rare, I suppose. (Someone tell them about hand-cranked radios Amazon sells for less than 25 bucks. Their minds will be blown.) In any event, the editorial called on Apple to change its ways or for Congress to change it for them.
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September 8, 2017
Looking For ‘Upbeat'Even before the Radio Show 2017 wrapped up in Austin this week, I was hearing what I was told was the "consensus" about the show. "So," more than one person told me, "I hear it was 'upbeat.'" I heard that from people at the show, from people who weren't at the show... I ...
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September 1, 2017
The Movement AbidesConvention takeaways are an interesting thing. I try not to make lists of takeaways from conventions, because a) most radio conventions don't really generate that kind of reaction, b) everyone else is doing it, and c) what you take away from an event often depends on ...
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August 25, 2017
Live, Local, Late-BreakingThis week, I've been at Podcast Movement 2017 in Anaheim, which means that I'm naturally going to talk about something podcasts can't do. First, let's get this out of the way: I've started a podcast, it's called "The Evening Bulletin with Perry Michael Simon," it's a ...
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August 18, 2017
The Unavoidable TruthAnother media company has announced that it is executing the "pivot to video," and examining the explanations for why they've decided to dump the written (or posted) word is interesting, since what they're saying doesn't quite sync with reality. There's a lesson for talk ...
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August 11, 2017
Essentially YouWho's your target audience? You know who it is, right? Down to the smallest detail, I'll bet. Who is it, a 45-year-old middle-management white male living in the near-suburban ring, married, two kids, one in middle school and the other in high school, drives a Taurus, ...
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August 4, 2017
The New New Talk RadioRemember way back when everyone was saying that social media was the new talk radio? You can forget that. Now, YouTube is the new talk radio, anointed as such by The New York Times in this coming Sunday's magazine section, which focuses on how the alt-right -- the ...
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July 28, 2017
Career OpportunitiesThe idea of The Conclave, which is wrapping up as I write this Friday, is to help young aspirants get into the radio business, and that's something the industry needs more than ever. The paradigm has changed: When most of us got into this racket decades ago, radio didn't ...
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July 21, 2017
Specialization In A Jack-Of-All-Trades WorldDays like these throw a lot at you, and so it was that on Thursday, there was breaking news from Washington that was all over the news and talk stations and then, suddenly, everyone pivoted to O.J., and for the rest of the day listeners were bombarded with O.J. live ...
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July 14, 2017
The Pleasure Of Their CompanyThings change. You know that already. Let's keep that in mind when I raise once again the topic of talk radio guests. See, for years, I lived my radio life under the guiding principal that guests and interviews on radio shows kinda sucked. Too often, they were boring, ...