Great American Novel... I mean, Website

I come back to what Ken Rutkowski says on Business Rockstars, the noontime show that we carry on WJOB now.

Put up a website about yourself where people can come and just hang out for a while. There’s isn’t really a roadmap of what exactly the content should be. Ken’s lack of rules on putting together your personal website helped me. Now I’m free to just throw up on the website my videos, radio podcasts, photos, twitter, blog, schedule… you get the picture.

So that’s where I am these days. I always wanted to write the great American novel, just like everyone else. Instead, maybe I’m building the Great American Website. That’s a quote in and of itself, I suppose. Perhaps that’s the evolution of the novel. Someone had to break through and tell the great American story through a website. What you’re reading, clicking, watching, posting to – this is history. It’s not a novel but a story. It’s not prose but an interactive journey. This all sounds like bullshit and is somewhat of a rationalization because you know what?

I still haven’t written that great American novel, and I probably never will. Instead, you get a website with all of the crap I’ve accumulated. It’s like a rummage sale in someone’s garage. Poke around until you find something you like. Believe me, it won’t be worth much and I’ll give you a good deal.

But then again, what is the story of the last of a dying breed in America worth? Yes, I realize that AM radio is dying. Or at least ailing. But there’s still one place in America where the owner (or co-owner with the wife) drives a couple miles to his radio station, does the morning show, then helps run the station the rest of the day. And then comes home, rests for a while, and then goes out and announces a game or attends some sort of doing associated with the radio.

It’s like The Last Tycoon only without all the money. The last of a dying breed. The great American small-time radio host in the industrial heartland. You like it, don’t you? It’s just enough to keep you hear dinking around all the crap I’ve created. Ken Rutkowski would be proud… at least until I start adding my poems and short stories. That might be a little too much.