Adam does.

This morning for example he wondered why she persists in pronouncing ‘film’ as ‘filum’ and mis pronouncing Bonneville.

What do you find irritating about Ms Hill?

Her self righteous smugness?

This morning whilst driving into Wellington, Adam heard Sean Plunket interview Bill English over the Auditor-General’s report on his ministerial housing allowance. Mr Plunket opened with a question asking Mr English whether he regarded himself as vindicated. Now Bill English did not respond saying Yes or No, nor did he use the word vindicated. Instead he responded as to what the report said.

Yet in a news bullettin a little later, there was a headline saying Bill English regarded the report as vindication. At the least sloppy reporting, but someone more prone to paranoia and conspiracy theory might infer that RNZ was attempting to link the Auditor-General outcome with that of the Ingram inquiry where from memory Philip Field supposedly regarded himself as vindicated. That of course cannot be the case, as noted only a paranoid conspiracist would think that.

Radio NZ ran a very interesting BBC Radio programme this morning, as an Insight episode, Peter Day looking into the changes underway in the media.

Well worth listening to. The link above is to the BBC website

Julian Robins, senior political reporter for Radio New Zealand, is Adam’s Winner of the Week. Mr Robins was the man who was lucky enough to be walking along The Terrace at the time and place to find the notebook  inadvertently mislaid by a Treasury staffer. O Lucky Man!

Baffling remark of the day,  in today’s “My media”  questionnaire in The Guardian -

“Newspapers?

The Guardian and Telegraph online.  I can’t handle physical papers – having a toddler around makes them a hazard.”

I have had a toddler around the house, and I can honestly say that at no point did it occur to me that a physical paper would be a hazard.  Hot irons – yes, kettles – yes, newspapers – no.  Perhaps she’s worried that she’ll be tempted to roll the paper up and whack the infant over the head with it, or possibly that – if the child is precocious enough to read – it’ll risk brain damage by reading some of the drivel the Grauniad publishes these days.  No doubt she has her reasons, but otherwise I’m lost.

Mind you, she also says -

“Television?

I’m obsessed with Top Gear, although I’ve no interest in cars – the humour, the storytelling and the cinematography are all brilliant.”

The humour is subjective, but storytelling? – cinematography?  Perhaps she’s confusing it with Top Gun, or, indeed, Top Cat?

Top Cat

Gian Fulgoni, Chairman comScore on Internet Advertising..

“Why should the Internet be different from print or TV or radio in the ability to create a branding value versus direct response?”

Why should the Internet be different from print or TV or radio in the ability to create a branding value versus direct response? There’s no inherent reason why the Internet shouldn’t be used for branding in addition to direct response.

Here’s a provocative theory: Is the preoccupation with direct response partly a result of so many young people being involved in Internet advertising? DR is immediate gratification. Maybe they don’t understand branding. They don’t have a long-term perspective and they don’t have patience. They gravitate towards direct response.

“There’s no question that search works, but it is the last step in the purchase funnel.”

I think search has just exacerbated the issue. There’s no question that search works, but it is the last step in the purchase funnel. If we attribute all of the value or accountability to somebody buying something by that last click on a search ad, that would be shortsighted and would ignore all of the other influences that come into play with branding.

eMarketer: But isn’t search often the beginning point for many consumers?

Mr. Fulgoni: It can be a beginning, but that assumes that all of the other media that impact a person’s psyche have no effect. There’s an image, a perception, a value that consumers already have at the point that they conduct the search. It’s not like they are sitting there with no impression of a brand until they conduct a search. I don’t believe it.

eMarketer: Is all audience measurement inherently flawed?

Mr. Fulgoni: No. You need to know how many people are exposed to a particular medium. That’s why you have TV ratings. You have radio. You have Internet. GRPs [gross rating points] are the common element.

Advertisers want to know how many people saw or read the message and how many times. That’s basically GRPs.

“Let’s just accept that the click is just not telling the whole story.”

Let’s just accept that the click is just not telling the whole story. We don’t hold traditional media to the same standard of accountability. Why should the Internet be measured by this immediate-response method called a click?

I wrote a white paper for the Journal of Advertising called “Whither the Click” that basically shows that people who are exposed to a display ad, whether or not they click on it, have an increased likelihood of visiting the Website of the brand in the ad, an increased likelihood of conducting a search query, of buying online and buying offline.

There is compelling evidence that an ad impression on the Internet works just like an ad impression in traditional media.

via Click! So What? – eMarketer .

A lengthy and interesting piece at The Economist on the news media; not just the dead tree press. It considers possible future business models and gives relevant background.

Read the whole article, Adam thinks that it is worth doing so.

Tell Adam whether you agree or disagree and why.

Do you think Google and Yahoo amongst others are contributing to the decline in media?

Listened in to TMS at lunchtime today – thanks to my trusty Roberts sports radio – in a little park near work in the City of London.  Having helped me through many a long dark night it’s now helped me through a long dark  lunchtime of the soul.  OK,  a slight exaggeration, but the sound of CMJ and Tony Cozier is apparently so timeless and so wonderfully unrelated to anything going on in my immediate suroundings that it never fails to transport me far away, when sometimes that is exactly what’s required.

Good knock by Bopara today, by all accounts, by the way.

Let me make it short and sweet: could radio do better? There’s so much other media to contend with now. Radio is not the only store on the block.

So if you want people to come to your store you better have something to sell. Radio flunks out on all counts.

Turn the radio on. The music stations are voiced tracked and sound like hell. The talk stations continue their bland fair with right-wing yelling from syndicated shows.

In the middle of radio’s programing meltdown you have companies like Clear Channel and Citadel firing people who create great content.

So why should people come sample your product when they can sample their own by Ipod or so many other choices out there?

They won’t and by the time radio wakes up to this sad fact the people who have made this mess will be long gone–their pockets line with cash made on other people’s misery.

All of the above is sad but true.

See you on the unemployment line very soon.

With 1,800 human beings kicked out of their jobs and on the cold winter streets now comes word the Clear Channel boy toys are taking a voluntary pay cut to something that still keeps them in Ferrari territory.

When I told another radio friend of mine he asked “if the company is in such trouble why don’t the Mays Monsters drop the corporate jets out of the sky and work for $1.00 a year?”

Why don’t they?

I think you know the reason dear reader. It’s because the Mays Monsters don’t give a shit about the people who work for them. They never have and they never will no matter how many bullshit emails they and their stooge John Hogan send out trying to give a rectal exam to the workforce left in the company. This attitude, along with bad programing, has been part of the company since old man Mays and Red McCome started Clear Channel with WOAI in San Antonio.

Think 1,800 people out is bad?  Heir Hogan told assembled employees the firings on Inauguration Day were only the first wave. The second wave has yet to come. How would you like going to work everyday with the Mays’ grand economic plan hanging over your head.

Never mind that. In the end they Mays Monsters will walk out of their gigs with a pair of Rolex watches and a boot load of cash. And the little people–fuck them and let them eat cake.

It was a ritual like the way I would have morning coffee and settle in to read the newspaper. I used to be this way about reading the ARBs when they came out in every radio market.

Now I don’t give a shit.

Not because I don’t care about radio, but because I’m resigned to the fact it doesn’t matter what your numbers are. The only thing that matters is how much revenue you drag in for the radio station (if you’re in the talk format) and how much a company like Clear Channel can save by running in the can programing from another market. In music radio one air person may do three to four different radio stations.

Gone are the days when radio was live, and people made appointments to hear their favorite person on the air. Now the voice you hear may not be in your market.

Most people never think about this important aspect when it comes to radio: owning a spot on the airwaves is supposed to be a privilege a few are granted–this makes a radio frequency a finite resource. The airwaves are supposed to belong to the public and in turn broadcasters are to return the privilege granted by providing a public service to their community.

Can some one please tell me how Clear Channel’s’ inauguration day slaughter benefits the public for right to own and operate on “the people’s airwaves”? How does it help when a tornado touches down or there’s a gas leak at 3 in the morning?

Can someone please tell me how voice tracking and syndication helps to act as a local focal point for the above mentioned community involvement or great entertainment based on what goes on in the community? Can anyone tell me how programing in the can like peas or tuna fish acts as anything but an alienated voice from another city?

Clear Channel’s slaughter of 1,800 people– like the baptism scene in the God Father– flunks on a grand scale. The media has nothing to do with servicing the community and giving John Q Citizen better entertainment and information it has to do with making money and shows capitalism without a human face at its worse.

If your in broadcasting there’s a couple of things you can do: vote and write you elected officials and the FCC making your concerns known on broadcasting. Educate the community to the fact the airwaves belong to the people of this country and in turn they are owed something better then they are getting.

Remember the old saying “God helps those who help themselves”? Now more than ever this is true. Mobilize and fight back or end up in the trash bin of radio history. Which do you choose? I know what I choose.

This is an insider’s view of the raw, running open sewer which passes for the media and radio today. All tips are welcome no sources will be revealed. Look out corporate America we’re here to blow the whistle on your fowl and sick effort to ruin radio and the media– as the public once knew it–in pursuit of pure profits.

How often will we blog?

This is a collective effort by a number of us with long histories in the media. There are no guarantees as to how much we’ll blog so you’ll want to check back often.

Most of us in broadcasting, especially radio, have been fucked long enough. It’s time to fight back. The public deserves a better media, and the people in broadcasting deserve better treatment.

Keep  your dukes up corporate America because we’re here and ready to slug it out.

At least once this morning one of the Radio New Zealand National announcers on Summer Report referred to the Labour Government criticizing National. On another occasion the announcer started to refer to the Labour government, but corrected herself to Labour Party leader Phil Goff.

After nearly 3 months you might think that as a news programme they would have noticed the change.

Nie wiem, czy promo Roxy FM to aktualnie najlepsza kampania polskiej stacji radiowej, ale na pewno jedna z bardziej konsekwentnych. Utrzymano na początku obrany kierunek, żeby pierwszoplanowymi bohaterami reklam zrobić sobowtóry znanych muzycznych gęb oraz chwytliwe, dwuznaczne hasełka.

Po tym, jak latem 2008 radiostacja deklarowała “Przesłuchamy każdy zespół”, ilustrując  te słowa obrazkami zmasakrowanych korpusów Lenego Krawca i Amy Winohałas (dwa obrazki na końcu notki) odpytywanych z muzycznego abecadła, ostatnio rozporcjowała pana Podobnobono, wybierając  tylko najlepsze  jego kawałki (patrz pierwszy pikczer niżej).

No, jak dla mnie, proszę ja was, bardzo smaczny ten pomysł z bonopółtuszą.

Nazwa: Wybieramy najlepsze kawałki / Klient: Roxy FM / Agencja: G7 / Copywriter: Marcin Dubiniec / Art Director: Maksym Matuszewski / Creative Director: Mariusz Joński / Fotograf: Zuza Krajewska i Bartek Wieczorek / Publikacja: listopad 2008

Nazwa: Przesłuchamy każdy zespół: Lenny Kravitz, Amy Winehouse / Klient: Roxy FM / Agencja: G7 / Copywriter: Marcin Dubiniec / Art Director: Maksym Matuszewski / Creative Director: Mariusz Joński / Fotograf: Zuza Krajewska i Bartek Wieczorek / Publikacja: Lipiec 2008

Paul Holmes devotes his HoS column to writing about himself. What is new about that you may well ask. This week it is about his completing his stint as host of the Newstalk ZB, weekday breakfast show.

Paul Holmes - jokingly - tells Bill Francis where he can shove his job. Photo / Getty Images

Never a huge Holmes fan, especially of his TV show, Adam admits there were some aspects of the breakafast show he enjoyed, especially between about 6:20 a.m. in the morning and 7:00 a.m and sometimes the 7:15 to 7:30 slot.

This week, especially the last few days the Holmes ego must have been boosted by all the media coverage.

Farewell Paul Holmes.