Corey Deitz was on with us recently on Life is Show Prep. Deitz has done radio shows in some of the greatest markets including Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo, Richmond, Virginia Beach and Little Rock.

He and his partner now do mornings on KDJE-FM (100.3) in Little Rock and syndicate their show to several other Clear Channel radio stations. His first book about the inside world of Radio, “The Cash Cage” was published to rave reviews.

As we progress with the show, Corey and I started talking about the listeners… I thought that he had originally written the following story, but apparently not. I’m not sure who to attribute that to, however, I thought it was fitting to pass along.

Electric Dreams

It was a Monday morning just before 5 a.m. I’m getting ready to go on the air, waiting for the network show we’re running to end. It’s John Garabedian and the Open House Party.

As John is wrapping up, he tells us about a well known New England broadcaster who recently passed away… a man named Sonny Joe White. I wasn’t familiar with Sonny, but my news director hails from Maine and he had heard a lot about White’s work.

John ended the show by playing a song in Sonny’s memory… and he selected the song Electric Dreams, from the movie of the same name. Formatically, it fit the show perfectly because it’s a dancy tune… but more than that… the sentiment couldn’t have been clearer. “We’ll always be together in electric dreams.”

I found myself strangely moved… I didn’t know the deceased… but the idea of a broadcaster continuing to exist to his or her friends and fans in electric dreams appealed to my emotions. Moreover… I absolutely believe it’s true, and I’ll explain why.

As a broadcast professional, there’s a basic job you do each day: play the music, play the spots, read the weather, keep the station on the air. But what you really do goes way beyond those basics.

You make people laugh. You make people think. You make people happy. You provide companionship… perhaps even friendship. You may be a role model for a young person who has been bitten by the radio bug and wants to be just like you. You help make things happen in your community. You’re there when someone needs to talk.

Evidence of this? A listener you’ve never met before comes up to you at an appearance. Right away, the listener feels comfortable in your presence… not intimidated. Does that mean they don’t consider you a star? No. it means they consider you to be a part of their lives… and that’s the mark of a truly successful broadcaster. They’ve let you in!

It’s the listener who invites you to dinner. It’s the listener who comes up to you at a remote and throws their arms around you as if they’ve known you forever. It’s the listener who asks you to come to their daughter’s school play because it would mean so much to her. It’s the listener who did something nicer for you on your birthday than your friends did. It’s the listener who’s sad when you go on vacation, and is so thrilled when you’re finally back.

The bond between broadcaster and listener is a paradox. You’re broadcasting to thousands, yet it’s one of the most intimate forms of communication in the world. They care about you… and they want to believe you care about them. It’s a relationship that exists in an electric reality. And it lingers.

Every once in awhile I’ll get a call or a card from someone who used to listen to me in a different part of the state. They haven’t forgotten a thing! It’s amazing that the time we spent together on the phone or at an appearance made that big an impression on them. So perhaps during my absence, we were already sharing electric dreams.

In the electric dream, we’re always their favorite personality… they’re always our favorite listener. We live on somewhere in their memory whether we move, leave the business or in the saddest case, pass away.

Isn’t it a wonderful feeling to know that our life… our influence… doesn’t end the last time we open the mic? Isn’t it wonderful to know that the most positive part of our essence as a broadcaster… our personality… will live on?

Someday, somewhere, someone who used to listen to you will hear a song and it will spark inside them a pleasant memory of you. And there you’ll be… the listener and the personality… together in an electric dream.

http://www.broadcastmastery.com/podpress_trac/web/73/0/lifeisshowprep_002_031308.mp3

I’m not sure who wrote this, but it was passed along to me and I felt it was worth sharing…

“It would be a great loss if a man or woman who could conquer great mountains settled instead for conquering little anthills.” - Anonymous

This is a plea to everyone who reads these words: Do great things.

Far too many times, we settle for the mediocre. Our lives remain unexamined, unchallenged. We choose the easy way. Our life remains unfulfilled. Our limits remain un-stretched.

We choose to be less than we can become - only because we never try to become better.

We choose a lesser life - because either we never try to attain a greater one, or we are afraid we cannot achieve great results.

It’s easy to choose the lesser life. It’s easy to settle for mediocre results. It’s easy to never push ourselves, never challenge our beliefs, never struggle to learn the great truths and think the great thoughts.

But the easy path is rarely the correct path.

We were made for something better - we were made to become great.

It doesn’t matter where you are now, or where you come from. What matters is where you’re going, and how you’re going to get there.

Since you are going to see the future, one way or the other, shouldn’t you choose to see a great future for yourself and your loved ones?

Greatness calls - and your future awaits.

Those people in the podcasting community have suggested for 3 years now that the death of radio is imminent. I’m here to tell you that you are wrong.

Local radio is NOT dead but certainly emerging. The traditional model for music distribution is not dead and there will be some level of co-existence with podcasting for a long time.

Internet radio is nothing more or less than the delivery of radio programms via TCP/IP. That delivery can be either live or on-demand. I listen to Virgin Music via Shoutcast live on my Treo phone and that’s Internet radio. I listen to downloaded Podcasts via iTunes and that’s Internet radio. I listen to my radio station live via a private consultant stream when I am travelling with Windows Media Player and that’s Internet radio.

In copyright terms, what’s different about how I listen is not the Internet versus free-to-air delivery, or the live versus on-demand aspect. It’s the packetized streaming versus download aspect. Once ‘radio’ content is downloaded, any notion of being able to collect royalties on the basis of number of ‘listeners’ is lost. With this loss of control, copyright owners are naturally reticent to release music for download. And in many cases, they have confused packetized streaming with genuine downloads.

Podcasting creates a commons for the exchange of music and content between producers and listeners. Radio is not dead, it is being reborn in a new distribution environment. And this distribution environment is vastly richer than the staid traditional one, with tremendous potential for personal, educational and even corporate broadcasting.

This is a call a young lad made to a Christian radio station in Texas. My aplogies if you have seen it. But it’s very moving.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCdZwitrNoY[/youtube]

Want a little more perspective?

We had a listener e-mail us about their youngest child…

“I went to my youngest’s classroom today for their “holiday” party. A little girl named Brittany from our neighborhood - a little ragamuffin type, their family is broke and it shows, there’s some MAJOR issues there, her older sister has a mouth that would make a drunken sailor blush and has told me where to go and what to stick in and where when I get there and she’s 7. yowza. Anyway, Brittany is in Emilie’s class. I saw her today. Her smile can light up the room. Even though I know she suffers by having to follow her only sibling around the neighborhood and encurring the wrath of the kids that make fun of her or yell at her and her sister or whatever. I see her today, smiling, with a patch over her eye. Not a dark one. A clear bandage type one. Not knowing what happened, I simply went straightforward (after she ran up to me to give me a hug - this poor child sees comfort within myself and Holly whenever they drive around the neighborhood, she always stops…) and said “What happened to your eye, sweetie?” “It got sick, and I had surgery. They’re looking for one to match my other one.” WHAT? How does this happen? WHY does this happen? She’s able to smile through it. And, from the teacher I hear that it was CANCER. They found it - and they’re not out of the woods yet. UGH. It’s VERY possible that she’ll ultimately lose the other one. I wanted to hug her and not let go. I wanted to try to figure out how to explain to her that no matter how difficult life is, to be sure to check out the colors in things, the sunsets, the way the christmas lights reflect around the neighborhood and light up the sky. I wanted to let her know that life is going to be “okay”. That she won’t be picked on (any more than normal…kids are awful creatures sometimes…). That it’ll all work out. Of course, all I could do was hug her and tell her Merry Christmas, between teary eyes. After reading “The Polar Express” to her and the rest of the class, I found out from the teacher (who is a wonderful woman - and actually had my wife in her very first class…) that another of their classmates’ mother died. Suicide. Last week. Guess who found her and tried to get her to wake up?”

Yeah. It’s the most wonderful time of the year and stuff. But, man, be extra nice to folks, pick up a tab for a stranger, give to the Salvation Army kettles, whatever… but try to keep this giving spirit with you ALL YEAR, not just at Christmas. And certainly, give your spouse, loved one, life partner, rock, whatever… an extra hug tonight.

It may have been a rough year for you, but seeing what these two wonderful children are going through, I realize that my life is peaches and cream in comparison.

Justin Kaiser
Creative Identity Group

I was just digging out every episode of WKRP on DVD. I’ve got every episode and the pilot. Yes, I’m a radio geek from way back… nonetheless, I found some old airchecks and the last 6 hours of WLOL before the flip to elevator music. Some day I’ll post it online. It’s a great blast from the past of Minneapolis radio with Gregg Swedberg, John Hines, Berglund, Sue, Wild, and the rest of the crew… Jamming 52 Minutes of Today’s Best Music EVERY HOUR… Oh, the memories… [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ2chSwVv4k[/youtube] And a whole lot more at… http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=WLOL&search=Search Have a Major League Day! Justin Kaiser Creative Identity Group