Search the site...

Jim Dedelow (JED) - Hammond, IN
  • Blog
    • About Jim
    • Home (Test)
  • Blog
    • About Jim
    • Home (Test)

95 years old and acting like a two-year-old

4/22/2019

Comments

 
This blog is about radio. I chronicle what it’s like to live a life of local radio. I talk about the death of radio and its rebirth into something else. Through it all, the three or four of you and I share a love for radio.
 
Cattails sway in
the wind by a
two-lane highway that leads
to a gas station that 
is God's creation.
You must, if you follow along, also share an interest in family. Radio and family go hand in hand. I am surrounded by a lot of both. It’s my responsibility to:

  1. protect my family
  2. protect WJOB
 
Both sides of my family have been around in this area for more than 100 years. In a couple of hours, I will stand outside of the Purdue CMEC Center and talk on the radio and on streaming video. This is the same road – it was a path then – that my ancestors walked down 147 years ago. They came here after the Chicago fire. 
 
This is a lot to carry around in early morning dark. I prance, gesticulating wildly, yelling at the stars. I wear a wireless Lavollier microphone that you can’t see from your car. To the naked eye, I look as if I’m hearing voices and screaming right back at them.
 
Words follow me
everywhere. I
can't get away from “duck,"
"scaffold," and "transgression."
"Truth" haunts me too.

 
Family and radio. There are other things, like the Calumet Region in general, but for the most part, from the time I wake up until Alexis and I start snoring again, radio and family are on my mind.
 
It’s 3:31 on the Monday morning after Easter. I have been lying in bed for an hour wide awake. I tend to toss and turn, so it’s best to just get out of bed and start writing to the three or four. I worry about radio.
 
We are a media family that is going in two directions. 

  1. Radio. Even though this may not be the case in a lot of America, radio is going strong for us. A ton of people drive around listening to WJOB on their car radios. A lot have radios in their kitchens. Many more listen on the TuneIn app on their phones.
  2. Digital. We’re at about 7.5 million video views since we started Facebook Live in 2016. We also have Amazon, Apple and Roku channels, along with  podcasts, blogs and websites. Purdue students help us explore the latest technologies.
 
We are a 95-year-old media company that acts like a two-year-old.
 
Island me, I 
want to be free,
but Trump and A. O. C.
won't leave me be. In or
get the f--- out.

 
Last summer, our initiative was to establish a streaming TV sports network. We did that. You can go over the old blog posts if you want to learn more about it.  Now the question is - Where do we go from here?
 
It took about ten years of trading to learn this, but sometimes you have to get quiet. It’s hard to explain… but sometimes you have to simply stand down before you can decide on your next step.  This is where I’m at right now.

  1. Radio
  2. Video news
  3. Podcasts. 
  4. Blogs
  5. Sports video
  6. News website
  7. Streaming audio stations
  8. Etc.
 
As the three or four of you know, I was pushed out of the Board of Trade by technology. For years, I yelled for dollars with the best of them. When computers came in, I didn’t adapt. Trading was headed for the cyber world and I fought it. I was eventually pushed out. A dinosaur. 
 
With radio, I am again faced with a dying institution. Whereas you used to trade with your hands, you now trade with a computer screen. Whereas people used to drive around listening to local radio, they can now drive around listening to Sirius, Pandora, podcasts, streaming audio.Where does this leave WJOB?
 
Fortunately, the spirit of WJOB is proving fungible to the internet. WJOB is good and pure and beautiful. So are the people of the Calumet Region. For better or worse, they look to me to make decisions that will allow the spirit to guide us for another 95 years. It’s a lot to think about at 4:12 on the Monday morning after Easter. Time to eat a couple eggs and do a radio show.
 
Tell me about
your pain. Are we
the same? Do we dare to
compare? What is your game?
I want to know.
Comments
    Wampum
    Picture
    I run radio stations and a streaming video network in Hammond, Ind., and write this blog.

     Blog Archives

    April 2025
    November 2024
    September 2024
    June 2024
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    September 2021
    May 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    July 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    March 2013
    August 2005


    RSS Feed

Picture
About   |  Advertise  |   Contact
7150 Indianapolis Blvd, Hammond, IN 46324 |   Map
Office: 219.844-1230 |  Studio: 219.845-1100
​[email protected]
Listen Live
© 2017 JED.tv and Vazquez Development LLC