Illustration © 2009 by Bobby Ocean
One day in high school chorus (don’t laugh; great place to meet girls) the chorus teacher had a friend visit the class.
I still remember his name. And occasionally I consider tracking him down and slapping him around a little, because of what he said.
This guy lived in L.A., and he knowingly told us Florida high schoolers that Elvis Presley couldn’t sing a lick and it was “all done in the studios.”
Jerk.
I more or less believed him until the first time I saw Elvis in concert. (Then I got into radio and learned a lot more about what can and cannot be done “in the studio” to mask a non-singer’s voice.)
Here he is with Ann-Margret. The fact that she’s originally from Stockholm is just a bonus. (I love Stockholm.)
Lots of great musical numbers in this film. In this one, if you listen closely you’ll hear Ann-Margret’s harmonizing later in the song.
September 1995 (continued):
From Warsaw I flew to Hamburg, Germany, and then took a taxi to Ahrensburg…a 25-minute ride to the airport. (Actually, it’s a 45-minute ride, but my taxi driver was eager to get there.)
The next day I spoke with the department managers for Radio Hamburg, thanks to General Manager Wilfried Sorge and PD Rainer Cabanis. Like all of the German hotels I stayed at during this trip, this one (The Parkhotel) was quite nice and very modern. (Well, one of the hotels — in Kiel — was much smaller and more modest. But still nice.)
Some people always manage to spend a day or two of their travels sightseeing; I am lucky if I find an extra hour in which to wander around. This time I had one extra hour, so I used it to walk across the street and visit Ahrenburg Castle (Schloss Ahrensburg), which dates back to the 16th Century.
Schloss Ahrensburg
At this point I should have all sorts of fascinating details to share with you, but for some reason I didn’t make any notes…and the souvenir book I brought back with me is written in German (one of many languages in which I am illiterate).
A taxi took me back to Hamburg and an airplane took me to Nuremberg, where BCI’s Birgit Heinhöfer met me and, on the way to my hotel, took me to the very spot where Kaspar Hauser first appeared back in (if memory serves) 1838.
Kaspar Hauser
Although few North Americans have heard of Hauser, most Germans have. He was one of the most famous people in the world in the mid-19th Century, and his story has fascinated me for many years.
(I’ll tell you about it sometime if we ever have time to kill at some radio convention.)
The next day was spent with the air staff of Frankfurt’s FFH (they came to Nuremberg for the meeting). This was my third visit with them. We spent much of the time engaged in a pretty darn cool brainstorming technique that I teach radio programmers, jocks, and promotion people.
After the seminar I walked in the rain to Old Town, where they were holding their Alter Fest. As I was walking by one of the many merchant booths, a man waved me over and insisted I try a cup of their chicken soup. It worked. I bought a jar of the soup (comes in a paste-like mixture) to bring back to California.
Next: The perils of riding with a German disc jockey…and another unpleasant encounter with a German taxi driver.
It’s Thanksgiving in the U.S., and between the turkey and the football not many people will visit this blog today.
If I write about radio, six people will read this.
And I don’t want to write one of those “I’m thankful for…” essays.
But somehow it seems natural to share with you two powerful musical performances. There’s a good chance you’ve seen one or both of them, along with millions of others on YouTube.
Still….
I thought John Cale had the definitive version of this Leonard Cohen song until I witnessed kd Lang’s performance.
Not saying one is better. Just different.
Cale’s is mournful. Lang’s is anguished.
I will say, though, that I had a better understanding of what the song’s about after hearing Lang.
Anyway…Happy Thanksgiving, my radio brethren around the world.
LEAP OF FAITH RADIO PRODUCTION with Bobby Ocean
Suddenly gone from the web are The Bay Area Radio Hall Of Fame, along with the online version of our classic San Francisco Radio station, KYA. All those talented performers, that fabulous, colorful history with no place in the computer connected world? Many broadcasters and audiophiles scratch their heads and wonder.
Blogged questions included:
“If you had a business, would you ever consider advertising
on the museum or hall of fame websites?“Who EVEN looks at the HOF or museum websites?”
Fair questions. And there ARE legit answers:
Q: “…consider advertising?”
Answer – Absolutely, advertising is a great choice on the right web address. Next question.
Q: “…who visits them?
Answer: You, the very person asking looks in regularly. I do, too, along with so many others AND the possibilities of many more.
Go get a sharp knife and a magnifying glass. We’re gonna go CSI on these lazy bloggers.
Slice!
Immediately we see that a more appropriate question might have been: HOW can those who want to enjoy and honor radio programs and personalities put up a sustaining website, even one that turns a profit? That’s a query worthy of the pursuit.
Slice!
And just look. The answers, unseasoned and raw, are right there in the questions:
How many different ways can we express the beauty of the original idea?
What kind of skin do you put on this to make it something appetizing?
How about hybrids for texture and dimension.
How can you control this new media venture?
Is it easy and fun?
Is there something irresistable for all the senses?
Could it be better? – How?
How can we express the changes that have evolved alongside, around and through it as it grows?
Look again. Any answers in there?
It’s so obvious now. In the Radio Hall Of Fame example, a museum motif wasn’t powerful enough by itself, the user interfaces not inviting enough, the displays are not shown in their most inviting light. And that online radio station? In spite of excellent talent, it was unable to thrive because people were largely unaware of it and it wasn’t quite “fun” enough to pull people to the site and keep them there.
We now know they needed a more appealing lure (probably several). Websites that need a regular audience need to be involved WITH that audience and it has to be immediately apparent on the website. The site must be constantly maintained, freshly written and focused for that audience. Visitors can and should be made to increase — by the site’s values. The values needed to achieve this must be identified, procured, extrapolated and utilized.
As we have learned, answers by themselves are insufficient, so we keep in mind: it is giving the data DIMENSION that draws the crowds.
The amount of visitors, and length of their stay, act in much the same way that ratings do for broadcast facilities; the more hits, the better. So — we have learned to ask better questions. Like, how to make our shop more compelling? How to keep it fresh and make audience grow?
People in radio broadcasting have been asking themselves these very same questions for decades, and they kept coming up with winning ideas. Today – identical problems, different media, larger, more diverse landscape, entirely newer population involved in the question asking: “How can we get more people?” “How can we make them stay longer, come back tomorrow?” “How can we make money?”
The answers by themselves are not going to be enough. But that’s where we can shine. FLESHING OUT the answers to your questions, then giving them character as well as identity, is WHERE THE MONEY IS.
Maybe this is a way for broadcast survivors to bring home the groceries for the next few months – act as consultants to online entrepreneurs.
Stuck? Ask a radio pro. Not a cluster employee, they’re doing nine jobs at once. Ask someone with a little time on her hands.
