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Text the Kids – It’s Time to Get Up!

Great piece in the NY TIMES about changing morning habits of the American Family. In my grandfather’s time, the first thing they grabbed in the morning was the newspaper.  My parents used to flip on the radio. For my generation, it was TV. My kids generation:  on-line. Frankly – that’s where I start may day too.  It can take me an hour to read all of the over-night blogs and tweets from those I chose to follow.  In other words, I am my own editor and program director. Now there are surly those who cringe at how much time is being spent on-line and with tech gadgets.  I am not here to argue whether it is good or bad.  As marketers … we are just here to argue it as the TRUTH. So if New Media is the next morning time dominant media choice … where do my radio friends go? How about RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE OF IT ALL.   Of the three traditional media outlets, radio has typically possessed the most defined brands.  Are those brands on-line? ** Not radio station websites – these are glorified billboards.  Same with radio station FB pages.  If your station is the rock brand in your market … how many rock micro sites do you operate that are tailored just to your market? Are you hosting chat rooms about rock in your area? Are you connecting consumers with everything rock in your market? Are you allowing them to buy rock stuff from you? Talk?  Country?  Oldies?  Rap?  All have unique brands. What about AC? More and more AC’s are learning to create brands away from their stations for their listeners.  The most popular theme seems to be mom sites. Your brand is your #1 asset. Not your license to broadcast … or 1000 foot tower. ** The bean-counters would not agree – after all, a steel tower cost about $100 a foot to put up! The future road map to success is to take your brand and ride the wave of distribution.  If you read the TIMES article and think that isn’t your family or none that you know, that doesn’t mean it isn’t already happening and about to take over. Ever seen a kid text the kid standing right next to him? I saw adults doing it in the airport last week. Think these adults are reading a newspaper or watching TV in the morning?

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Elected Irrelevancy

Posted by Bob | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on 28-06-2010

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Ahh the razzing.

You’d think I had said it.

My friends and family know that I lived for 10 years in SE Wisconsin … and boast about the area like I was born there (was not).

Then comes Peggy West – the Milwaukee County Supervisor who doesn’t know Arizona borders Mexico.

Okay … now the ignorant, “Cheesehead” stereotype seems harder to defend.

What troubles me isn’t West’s lack of Geography, it’s yet another example of …

Irrelevant government.

This fault I will lay on my beloved Wisconsin to excess.

Milwaukee County has serious issues … schools in disarray, infrastructure in decay, pension scandals, much of the tax base moving to Waukesha or Ozaukee Counties, etc.

Really … Nothing out of the ordinary for a rust-belt area in the throws of the great recession.  But still a lot to deal with.

Yet a county supervisor is again wasting government time talking about something that will in no way effect the lives and lively-hood of her constituents.

The shame is that the only reason this is national news is that she isn’t smarter than a 5th Grader.

So much of government’s time is irrelevant.

Yet WE pay for them to sit around a be irrelevant.

It’s not just Milwaukee county that is wasting it’s citizens tax dollar time.

Remember the California people who were all fired up to boycott Arizona … ’til someone reminded them that Arizona supplies a major portion of ther electricity ?

Whoops.

In New England:

A Woonsocket Rhode Island radio station that carries city meetings allowed citizens to call-in afterwords and comment on the day’s business.

The callers were almost numb in their dis-belief.

Paraphrased Comments:

  • Did the meeting ever start?  I didn’t hear any issues being discussed that effect me?
  • We have the highest unemployment in the nation … yet no discussion of how our city is helping citizens?  Do they even know?
  • At least I know which side of the street I will be able to buy sparklers during the 4th of July parade …

How about we only pay government officials for actual results they garner in bettering the lives of their constituents??

The transparency of the 140 Character World is opening the electorate’s eyes as to just how irrelevant their government can be.

In the old days (10 years ago), people would just tell their friends and neighbors about irrelevant government.

Today … through the majic of YouTube and podcasting, we can experience it all for ourselves.

Just don’t eat a big meal before viewing …

** I do not have an opinion on the Arizona issue. I have not read the law, and therefore wonder how I would pontificate on something I have not read … unlike most of your elected officials. **

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