Month: June 2006

While I believe that it’s far more likely intelligent life exists (or existed) elsewhere in the universe than not, I just don’t believe they’ve been flying around here on earth.

I’m with Carl Sagan: when considering intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, we have to take into account evolution and the extremely long timespans involved. The odds may be against intelligent civilizations arising near enough at the same time and close enough in space to contact each other. We may be millions of years too late or too early for other civilizations.

SPACE.COM – For decades now, eyes and sky have met to witness the buzzing of our world by Unidentified Flying Objects, termed UFOs or simply flying saucers. Extraterrestrials have come a long way to purportedly share the friendly skies with us.

UFOs and alien visitors are part of our culture—a far-out phenomenon when judged against those “low life” wonders Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster.

And after all those years, as the saying goes, UFOs remain a riddle inside a mystery wrapped in an enigma. Why so? For one, the field is fraught with hucksterism. It’s also replete with blurry photos and awful video. But then there are also well-intentioned and puzzled witnesses.

The bad news is that Phil Hendrie’s last show is tomorrow night. The good news (somewhat) is that 570 will run “best of” shows through September.

Sweet feathery Jesus, I’m gonna miss him. (Sweetfeatheryjesus.com is a Phil fan website, by the way.)

It’s impossible to nail down one bit as a favorite, there have been so many that were gut-busting, heart attack-inducing, ulcer-popping funny.

I liked it when Phil’s characters started arguing with him… about being characters. It was like stepping inside of Hendrie’s tortured brain for a few minutes as his different personalities waged war with each other.

The best line was when he had Margaret Gray or Bobbi Dooley on, and she burped. She then starts yelling at Phil, “How come whenever you have to burp you make me do it for you? How dare you, how DARE you…”

Multiple personality disorder radio at its finest.

I was recently interviewed for my views on talk radio vs. the blogosphere. Someone apparently bought into my delusion that I knew what I was talking about.

If you’re interested, here’s where it was posted:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/19/102535/850

http://scoop.epluribusmedia.org/story/2006/6/19/10253/6815

http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/6/19/103541/238

http://www.eurotrib.com/story/2006/6/19/103533/571

Gateway to the Internet.

George Bush (Will Farrell) talks about global warming.

All Access has this interesting quick note:

CLEAR CHANNEL’s proposal for selling one-second spots has received attention in the advertising trade press from ADVERTISING AGE. The magazine’s article about CLEAR CHANNEL RADIO’s “blinks” quotes Senior VP/Creative JIM COOK as noting that the plan “really is to find new uses of radio for advertisers who are continually asking us to demonstrate that our medium can successfully extend brands, can successfully reach the consumer with touchpoints that are new and surprising.”

Examples of the “blinks” include playing jingles like the MC DONALD’S “I’m Lovin’ It” theme, the NBC chimes, or the INTEL four-note signature between songs, or a honking horn and the word “Mini” for BMW”s MINI. Agency representatives consulted by the magazine voiced skepticism that any client would go for the one-second “spots,” but RICHARDS GROUP Dir.-Broadcast JIM GAITHER said he has talked with CLEAR CHANNEL about three second spots and said “it’s not building a brand; it’s refreshing a brand” but noted that “you can’t use a one-second campaign for something that generally has not been advertised before.”

Talk radio (especially after the equal time rule was discarded) became one of the most important tools in the arsenal of political conservatives. It hasn’t been as kind to liberals. The advent of Air America didn’t change the world much — due to one of the early investors making off with most of the dough, and the fact that the big radio conglomerates seem to shunt AA off on their weakest signals.

However, blogging seems to be to liberals what talk radio was to conservatives. And it may turn out to have equal impact as more people spend more time in front of their computers (especially those of a political activism bent), just as people spend in their cars listening to political talk radio (especially those of a political activism bent). Politicians are using these tools, talk radio and the blogosphere, to energize their bases.

Conservative bloggers don’t appear to be having the same impact as the liberal ones.

What’s shaping up is a battle royale between conservative consumers of an older medium vs. liberal consumers of a newer medium. It does seem as if America’s dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, Bush’s recent political stumbling, and the liberal blogosphere (which reaches and energizes a younger audience) are conspiring to tilt the country just a wee bit more back to the left (or the center, as the more cautious might assert).

Will 2006 be the year in which it makes a difference? Or will it be 2008? Signs are pointing to the former. We’ll all wait and see, and continue consuming the pundits and the bloggers.