Tuesday, December 8, 2009

I ate a booger in the first grade...

Spent some priceless time with Social Networking Guru Nathan Richie yesterday—his strength being the ability to look deeply into each presentation given on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and My Space and spot extreme weaknesses in the way we’ve elected to communicate.



Like any drug, if it feels good you’ll continue to use it until it kills you.

Conversation without face to face contact is the greatest invention since the birth of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich—to speak when not spoken to without having to visually change our attitude due to selling out to unexpected facial expressions is like walking into a jewelry store and taking home the most expensive diamond without paying for it.



The most common connection we share is an addiction to where we’ve been.



We’ve developed a life and style around an assumed fifteen minutes of fame. While in the sixth grade I was the hall monitor at Ponderosa Elementary—it was during the week President Richard Nixon elected to help out the farmers and change Daylight Savings Time. To be a monitor protecting hundreds of children in the dark was an important position based on trust and leadership. That was 35 years ago! Surely I’m not the same person!



Why torture readers with chapters already written when it’s the future we’re trying to get to?



It kills me to see The Beatles outselling Jay Z, Jordan Sparks and Carry Underwood…it shows how lazy record companies have become in the art of discovering raw, unrehearsed, un-researched talent—they do what comes easiest, rely on the classics. Those rules didn’t exist in 1979 when a group of cousins and friends from Tennessee brought their four part harmonies to the forefront of Country music. I’ll never forget my radio station program director Lonnie Bell at a little daytime station in the armpit of the world screaming the praises of what he called the new kids on the block…Alabama ripped a hole in Porter Wagner’s glorified rhinestones generating enough pomp and circumstance to revamp a dying art. Can you imagine what the face of Country music would look like today without Randy Owens and Teddy Gentry having the guts to put a little rock guitar beside the fiddle in the band?



Your web page and Social Networking outlets are no different. They’re stuck in Beatles-mode. In 1983 blank blank blank was named best to succeed during a nationwide recession. Who cares? What does it have to do with those surrounding you today? What did you do then that could be utilized in 2009?



The one story I personally can’t stand to talk about is a weird event that unwrapped its pretty little face in late 1987 when Casey Kasum elected to leave American Top 40. At the age of 25 I was named one of the five finalists to replace him. Wanna know a secret…it’s never been a deciding factor in landing me a radio job. Sure! I wanted to be Ryan Seacrest years before he was pulled out of diapers! But why paste it to my history?



Social Networking is a tool. Former Vice President Al Gore predicted it would become a valuable source of communication but seems dumfounded by the fact that once we get a hit, laziness sets in. In the latest edition of Rollingstone Magazine he’s vividly clear about how the Obama campaign has totally missed the purpose of the medium. They dedicated their souls to its strength during the election and have done nothing since to keep American’s abreast of what’s going on behind closed doors.



To radio people Social Networking has become an open microphone ungoverned by program directors and decision makers. By being up to date and clear with reasons to stand on a box, the avenue described as broadcasting has hit a level of performance the masters before us didn’t have so they relied on two speakers to stretch their points across cities and states. Rather than saying, "Here's another four in a row without talk," listeners are seeing we're extremely human and go through everyday circumstances just like them. A thicker more meaningful bond is being created. But must be maintained everyday.



In theory Madonna is the greatest creation known to music—she never stopped reinventing. Maria Carey on the other hand has sold more CD’s scoring more number ones than Elvis Presley. Until she married Nick Cannon who the heck was she? Tommy Matolla a record company President vowed to make his wife the best thing since the invention of chicken McNuggets—once the divorce took place she totally disappeared having to reinvent a career that’s respected more today than the moments those incredible five octaves tore up your favorites list.



I love The Beatles! I can’t stop being inspired by Paul McCartney but they weren’t part of George Jetson’s life. We were supposed to be living in space by now working at Spacely Sprockets with our houses being cleaned by extremely friendly robots named Rosie.



How are we supposed to get to the future if our hands are Super Glued to a past we can’t change?



Nothing peels my potatoes more than hearing someone blurt out, “The music was better forty years ago!”



If that’s the case why do producers continue to re-master the Beatles collection? George Lucas rakes in millions every other year with added features or newly designed digital scenes in a movie series we’ve seen 16.9 billion times. James Camreon waited for technology to catch up to his dreams and next week we'll see it come to life in Avatar.

My brother Larry was wrong! Mighty Mouse and Howdy Doody were not the last of the great Saturday morning cartoons. The success of Sponge Bob Square Pants is a stolen page from the book that says, "Hey lets take a chance."



If you don’t think we live in the past…go back and count how many times I reverted back to its witchcraft in this short story? I’m cursed! I’m melting! Melting! All because my Facebook and personal web page have nothing in common with the future.



Nate might be onto something here…if you’re having a hard time landing a job or picking up new accounts—try allowing the power of Social Networking do its magical mystery tour…

If what you're screaming is, "Look at me!”



What’s in it for me?



Steal Nathan’s art…



arroecollins@clearchannel.com

1 comment:

  1. Wow, you really do listen to me when I babble.

    You always take our conversations and bring them to life in your own way.

    It's not just Social Networking. We all have a tendency to latch on to moments in our past that we allow to define us when they really are just crutches holding us back. The world moves forward, so must we.

    People tend to remember you for the last thing you did for them or the impression you left. If you're still lamenting for yesterday's awards and accolades, then you're misrepresenting yourself and what you have to offer today.

    In case you haven't noticed, people aren't craving the old (unless you count a 1968 Chevy Camaro- but that's just me). The are investing in the new. Ever hear of an iPhone?

    Like Janet says, "What have you done for me lately?"

    You better reassess yourself. Get an upgrade to YOU.v.2.

    ReplyDelete