One of the most popular parts of my recent book Making Waves: Radio on the Verge is the very last page.
Now, as we prepare for Thanksgiving in the US, it's a reminder of something worth being thankful for.
Here is that final page:
EBay was born in 1995 when a computer programmer named Pierre Omidyar couldn’t register the name of his consulting company, Echo Bay Technology Group, so he shortened the domain to “eBay.”
The very first item to appear on eBay was Omidyar’s laser pointer – his broken laser pointer. After selling the item for $14.83, Omidyar contacted the winning bidder to make sure he understood that this laser pointer was, in fact, busted.
He did. You see, he was a collector of broken laser pointers.
There’s something for everyone and, thanks to the democratizing force of digital media, there’s now everyone for something. Still, radio has an advantage few other media have, regardless of where those media live.
We have the biggest, most effective megaphone in town.
Use it.
To create a new future.
While you can.
The buzz always yields to what’s new and sexy, to be sure.
But that’s only part of the story.
You see, an iPod never soothed your fears when a tornado leveled your neighborhood. An Internet stream never volunteered its time and money for your local community. A satellite radio station never brought your favorite music artist to town. A mobile phone never tossed you a free t-shirt at a movie screening. You never called Apple to play a game or request a song or enter a contest. Nobody at last.fm ever inflamed your political passions or solved your relationship problems or helped you handle your money. Internet radio never helped you find your way home in rush hour and never helped you know what to wear to work or school. It never made you smile or cry or feel like you’re part of an extended family, singing along to the same tune and laughing along to the same jokes.
The miracle of radio is not that we play the same songs our competitors do, but that we do everything else they can’t.
Radio is that friend in the dark, that playground of the mind.
Close your eyes and see what you hear.
Have an outstanding Thanksgiving.
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