All Good Things Must End

My three month run as Kasbah on Freedom Radio...the station just for you...IS OVER! My team and I worked hard. We fixed an error causing us not to be able to insert local information while on satellite. We deleted 45% of the content on our automation hard drive. This was all old, duplicate, or junk. This was causing a 1-2 day delay in transfer time. Now content transfers in about 10 seconds. We completely refreshed the radio imaging library...completely refreshed the music library...deleted 75 crappy commercials and replaced them with 100 better ones. We developed four massive campaigns aimed at key messages...and designed an automation scheme that allows for immediate push of hot issues. Freedom Radio and Freedom Radio News are now "BRANDED." People are talking about them and the jocks! There is a longer string of "important" stuff we did, but here is the cool part:

WE HAD A TON OF FUN!
I've had the privilege to work with some really strong, professional broadcasters. Plus, I've made a lot of new friends in the Voice Over world. By my quick broadcaster, public math...they've donated more than $10,000 worth of time and content to Freedom Radio. I plan to keep these friends forever!!!! These folks have done just about anything I've asked...for free! I really think these guys will be friends for life. (Both VO and broadcasters) The list is too long to hyperlink all their names. Check out KASBAH RADIO for names and links.

We got to do two EPIC countdowns...The Memorial Day Countdown and the Firecracker 500. By the way...we're not finished. Over Labor Day we plan to do a Rock A-Z show. This will be the icing on the cake!!!

So what is next???

I'm now heading up a team of nine in the news department. Freedom Journal Iraq produces a nightly 10-minute cast and a daily 1-minute cast. News is a challenge for me. It forces a guy with ADD to have to slow down, read, and understand. Plus I have to be uber-organized.

My #1 goal in news is to be light, lean, and lethal. I'm all about streamlining and empowerment. To that end...my friend Mark Glaser over at PBS' MediaShift is apart of a real big project! The question (project)???? How would you build a newsroom from scratch?
Here is a blurb from his blog:

A lot of the brightest minds in journalism have been thinking for some time about how the newsroom of the future might operate as we move from legacy print and broadcast operations into a more converged, Internet-centric world. I’ve taken a couple stabs myself at how a “New Newsroom” might operate, both in a guest post on PressThink in 2004 and on a recent post on MediaShift.

And now there are a series of discussions taking place called Journalism That Matters , where various deep thinkers are trying to literally invent “the next newsroom” prototype. Here is the blurb describing what they’re going to try to accomplish in Washington, DC, in early August:

Our goal is to facilitate critical discussion on the future and sustainability of journalism. Our unique approach is to first assemble editors, publishers, writers, researchers, academics, entrepreneurs, public advocates, independent and citizen journalists for fast, focused discussion. We’ll then define the ownership, management, location and sustainability of a ‘next newsroom’ prototype in at least one U.S. community, to launch in early- to mid-2008.

We’re going to answer this call: Pick an ideal location, and start a news organization from scratch, using the best-available technology and ideas, and without the obligations or burdens of legacy processes or infrastructure. Where will it be, what will it look like, who will own it, and how will it run.

What a great question and project. This will be the empowerment question for my news team. Look out world...Here comes Freedom Journal Iraq...Your source for news that matters!


PS. Rosanne Barr's radio show lasted two months on XM...mine lasted three. HELL YEAH!