I also swam a couple dozen laps, which makes it feel you have tackling dummies strapped to your thighs and biceps. I’m clean, tired, thirsty and struggling like hell to say something meaningful to the three or four of you.
The world is
winning. My soul
don't have a chance amidst
the mirth and chaos. Used
toiletpaper.
…. I struggle mightily to write something that is consistent with our pledge.
- to present My Radio Life as it is.
- to record My Radio Life for broadcasting students 50 years from now.
I remind the three or four of you too often of these goals. But it’s not for you. It’s for me.
I just swam back and forth in a new pool with a brand new sauna next to it. There’s what they call a “Suit Machine” in the locker room, which is a key component to having a tech yuppie locker room. You put your wet bathing suit in there and it goes
Vroom, vroom, vroom
Noise filling up the
whole room.
I don’t know how centrifugal force gets this done, but by the time you lay your bathing suit out on the backseat of the car to dry, it’s already dry. It’s like writing about the evolution of media. By the time you get to the end of a sentence about it, it’s already changed.
This is what is happening with me and media. It’s moving too fast. I can’t keep up with the pace of change and can barely fund our innovation On top of this this June, like all Junes, I have had a ton of family and friend and business stuff to go.
This is something I will not complain about. As far as a full life, I’m as lucks as they come. I know this. I am not exaggerating when I say that I am related in one way or another to about 500 people in the Region. You may be one of them, so help you God.
But I can’t escape the feeling that every moment I spend away from WJOB Network is a wasted moment. I’m 57. I only have so much time to make sure that WJOB carries on without me. Everyone wants a legacy. I just want WJOB to carry on long enough so that when broadcasting students 50 years from now come across this blog, WJOB is still in existence. WJOB almost died once. Let’s never let that happen again.
The world is
winning. I watched
a striped-back turtle
cross the street yesterday
faster than me.
To fund things, I dive headfirst into the community. This is so that I have stuff to talk about in the morning. My show, for better or worse, is the cornerstone of WJOB. It funds just about everything.
So I go places. On Thursday, I played in the Lakeshore Chamber of Commerce golf outing. This is a lot of hours away from my computer and my WJOB people. Absence gives me angst.
I’m late. I’m late. For a very important date.
John Kiernan, who just retired as one of the two heads of Calumet Breweries, sat with me for a while at the outing. I’m a big fan of John, not only because he and his cousin Mark distribute Bud Light for a good portion of Indiana, but also for his insight and demeanor. Just as I was gonna complain to him that I don’t like being away from my office for this long, he calmly said to me –
“Shut the f--- up. You need to be here. It’s your job.” And he handed me another Bud Light.
John’s gruff Regionism was like my dead grandpa slapping me in the face. I am not only fortunate to have love and family and radio around me, I have also been blessed with several men, led by my dad, who have kicked me in the ass, literally or figuratively, when I needed it. I know the value that these men have played in my life.
I am constant-
ly sinning. God
laughs at my tribunals
to winning. And it is
a loud guffaw.
The point of this blog is that June is almost over. I have been to dozens of events, with five more scheduled for tomorrow. The only way I could get enough time to rattle off some verbage to the three or four of you was to drive my wife to Indy for a judge’s committee meeting. I actually enjoy this. And I thank the Irsay family for this.
I plan for July to be different. Debbie and I have gotten things lean.
“Debbie, I need some time at my computer and to think. We’re close to something and I can’t see it through the haze.”
She has strict directions to not schedule things in July. What are the things we are working on? Same things. The HeyJED app and streaming video.
HeyJED – We developed an app that could save WJOB and radio in general if planted in the right soil. Shamari Walker started working on the code when he was a sophomore at Gavit. He just graduated high school and is on his way to Purdue. I have six weeks before he leaves.
Another local software wunderkind, Marcus Orciau, has joined us. He graduated from Lake Central and is also on his way to software engineering at Purdue in Lafayette. The clock is ticking.
Streaming video – It is time for me, and the team, to decide what it is that we are.
Are we a talk radio station?
Are we an FM music station (104.7 FM)?
Are we a podcast company? (more of these on the way)
Are we a streaming video company?
If we are TV, do we produce our own or aggregate others’?
When I resume my MBA in the Fall – tick tock, tick tock - I want to have answered these. I’m getting the feeling that we should be creating industry- or company-specific streaming video channels… and aggregate the channels. This is difficult to explain. I have been showing my vision to some possible partners lately. Outside of a few select individuals, their eyes glaze over and they start constructing their grocery list or wondering if they took the clothes out of the dryer or not.
It’s confusing. And there’s no way to know if any of the stuff I’m working on will ever have a sustained impact on WJOB. And any of it will make any money. The mystery of it all doesn’t stop me from giving my all. As a matter a fact, not knowing is part of the allure. Bye.