As part of hivio, the audio future festival, I’m producing a free t-shirt for all who attend. My instructions to the designers were to represent the power of audio – the theme of the event. I took the leading ideas and did a poll for folks who were interested in hivio, and that poll had some clear results. This was the winner: And this design was the runner-up. The final decision, of course, was mine. So now I’m going to tell you why I picked the runner-up over the “winner.”

And I’m not talking about streaming here. It’s already clear that radio is not necessarily serious about that, or we wouldn’t suffer endless debates about whether or not we should create a business model native to the Internet that leverages all the wonderful advantages of technology to offer up targeting and dimensionality and accountability to clients who desire it and consumers who appreciate it. Yes, we should do all that. No, we should not simply aspire to simulcast our

So what’s best, digital-only or integrated? Don’t get lost in this “either/or” – it’s a myth. It’s all about value, folks. Good or bad, high or low. Period. I think radio buyers can only respond to what’s in front of them, and many of radio’s digital-only doo-dads are not exceptional enough to capture their attention or interest (or the attention and interest of our own audiences). So make better stuff with better ideas and you can sell it better to people who don’t know

I was searching for a station online the other day and I encountered a website so appallingly bad I braced myself in case this URL triggered a rupture in the space/time continuum. Granted, lots of companies have bad websites, but this was B-A-D, folks. Now don’t tell me “well, they are probably short-staffed and can’t devote the attention to their site that it requires.”  That’s just B.S.  If you can’t stand the heat get out of the kitchen.  And if you can’t develop a website