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!

I've Been Promoted!

I was pretty bummed when I found out I didn't get promoted to E-7 this cycle. I studied real hard, but not hard enough obviously! Seems I wasn't the only one who felt pretty bummed. One of my new friends Ron Phillips (VO-BB), jokingly said he was going to get me promoted...one way or the other. I assume this is "the other" way he was talking about. All laughs aside, I'm very honored for this promotion. In fact, so was my Chief. He called everyone to attention and read the below letter.




I think if anyone, my Uncle Jim will be the proudest of this promotion. He's lived in Kentucky for like "ever!"

With this promotion comes the secret recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken and a lifetime supply of Kentucky Moonshine. I can only share the later with all of you!

10 Reasons There’s a Bright Future for Journalism

One of my favorite blogs is MediaShift with Mark Glaser. I interviewed Mark for background information on my proposal on how to leverage Airmen to help win the information war. His latest question to journalists: Is the journalism cup...half empty, or half full. The response motivates me in these changing times. It comes at a moment where I need to be motivated. That story is still a few days away.

There’s been a lot of debate lately about the future of newspapers, the future of TV, the future of radio — the future of journalism itself — in the face of drastic change brought by technology and the Internet. I’ve asked MediaShift readers whether they thought journalism’s metaphorical cup was half empty or half full and most people saw a pretty bright future.

As you might imagine, I share their enthusiasm for the future, and wouldn’t be writing this blog if I didn’t believe we will end up in a better place. But I’m also a hardened realist and natural skeptic, and I know there are painful months and years ahead for the (dwindling number of) people working in traditional media. Not everything new and shiny will be good for us, and there are plenty of ethical and technological pitfalls ahead.

But rather than dwell on the negative, rail against change, or damn the upstarts at Google and Craigslist, I’d like to take a walk on the sunny side of life in new media, consider the positive aspects of all that is happening, and how we could end up in a renaissance era for journalism. While I do believe large media companies will have the most difficult time adapting to the changes, they can learn a lot from the successful business models of smaller sites such as TMZ or The Smoking Gun (both owned by media companies).

Read his 10 reasons HERE!

What's My Blog Rated?

I saw this on a Blog I frequent...The D-Ring, Thanks Steve!

Find out what your blog is rated at Mingle2.

This is my rating:

Mingle² -

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
crappy (2x) dead (1x)

Here are a few other sites I like to go to:
Jacksnupple

Mingle² -

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
steal (1x)

Audio'connell

Mingle² -

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
suck (2x) strangle (1x)

G4TV

Mingle² -

No bad words were found.

This is Shelly's Favorite...looks like I might be a bit plain these days!

Pink Is The New Blog

Mingle² -

This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:
gay (6x) ass (4x) shoot (3x) faggot (1x)

One Of Those Days

I just had the worse day since I've been here. It started out really weird. I woke up and was mad for some reason! I don't know why...I worked out last night! (ABS class, toughest workout in the International Zone!) I watched Family Guy too! I had a pretty important task to do while I was on the morning show. I had to fix some audio on an interrogation video. The audio was really bad. Turns out the only thing you can make with crappy audio, is really crappy audio. From there everything just started to crumble.

Since Memorial Day I've been feverishly working on trying to out do 36-straight hours of epic rock broadcasting...The team and I came up with the Firecracker 500. 50-straight hours of epic rock broadcasting. Thus, really only a bit shy of 'twice as good as Memorial Day.' I'm ok with that! Once again I have my new friends and maybe one day colleges from VO-BB working with me on the Firecracker 500. This is a very difficult task to pull off. Its now tougher, because the ARMY folks will no longer be available to help out! I lost 20-hours of help! AHHHH!

THEN...I have this really talented friend named SPC Emily Green who I call my producer and we do the Hollywood Report twice a week...she goes by Natasha...she just got moved to a mid shift...which means she'll no longer be able to be Natasha on my show!!! Its one of my favorite elements on my show.

To make matters worse...there is a sorta-sand storm right now, so I can't even go lay out by the pool!

The only shining moment...We're just about to update the Freedom Radio website. Here is a picture of all of the new jocks:

(From left: The Curious One, George Solis; Natasha, Emily Green; Kasbah, Chris Eder; Aries "D", Aries Early; AK, Anthony Kuhn)