Posts tagged talk
We are the media like it or not Jann Scott’s Journal #boulder
Nov 5th
Jann Scott the talk show host doesn’t exist a lone either. I have always appeared on a radio station with support staff or a satellite network with even more support. In TV I have worked at stations or cable channels either live or on tape never alone always with a team.
Today I host 22Boom on cable channel 22 here in Boulder. It takes approximately 6 people to produce each episode plus an editor or two, and the staff at channel 22 to get it on the air. Even a Jann Scott Live segment inside of 22Boom takes at least 4 people to produce. After all of that is done the show simultaneously appears on Boulder Channel 1 and all the Channel One Networks. Then it is touted on You tube, twitter and Face book.
Boulder Channel One and all the Channel One Networks are an even bigger under taking with contributions by hundreds of people, hundreds of channels, 1000s of viewers and fans and unfans.
Fans are the topic of todays Journal. With the advent of Social Media the waters have murkied a bit and it is up to me up to us to not get murked in the muck as Dan Culberson likes to say. Social Media and the Internet have produced a lot of so called citizen journalists of which I am not one. I am not saying I am better I am just saying I am not them. Neither are we. Our (my) fans are often social media types who are not me either. I (we) use social media as a conveyor belt into the general populous. And though the perception may be that we are Tweeps, we are not. We are separate from. There is a whole other world that could care less about Twitter or the internet. They watch TV, read the paper and don’t give a crap about sm.
We are media. I am media with a traditional outlook and management. It’s just that we are “new media” , but media just the same. So I may seem like a person to you or Boulder Channel 1 may appear to be some guy just like every twitter gal or guy blogger is someone representing only themselves…we aren’t that.
I mean, if fans want to perceive me that way it’s Okay. I guess. It is our unfans, the jealous ones who like to complain. But I try to not pay attention. But it is hard not to because they are fans or unfans. I know we have done our job when even they don’t know or they think we are down to their level: sniveling children.
I once had some unfans go on a tear about how we were not real which was interesting to watch on the internet. Recently when Steve Jobs died an executive at at a PR firm wrote to me screaming because he didn’t like our tribute. He went so far as to threaten to ruin me. That was a bit out of character for a pr firm who usually try to sell me something. We determined that the PR exec must have been drunk the night he wrote to us because his personal profile says he starts and ends his day with beer.Cause to threaten to ruin a talk show host or TV network is just as flattering as a praise.
This is a trap I occasionally fall into …deep. The trap is to write in forums and not on TV. Jo Anne Ostrowe the Denver Post TV writer once asked me during an interview.. “what’s this we thing Jann?” I avoided her stupid question as she continued to write about us.
We always have to remind young people when they come to work here what the rules are. 1st rule is that this isn’t social media and you are not a fan here. The rules here are you are now working for a media organization and we demand 100% loyalty. Which means no working for any other media outlet, no personal blogs, video outside of the network. We want you to build your creativity here, but you don’t get to moonlight or think you run the place, we do. That doesn’t always set well with the new sm types, but fortunately , there are plenty of network trad kids out there who love it. Just thought I’d clear that up
from the oo koo ka choo Capitol of America
Jann Scott
Boulder Colorado
Television: An Introduction
Oct 16th
I am so old that I remember when people didn’t have televisions in their homes. Back in the Olden Days, we had radios and listened to radio stories while we “watched” them in our minds.
For example, as a kid I listened to and “watched” “The Lone Ranger,” “Straight Arrow,” “Tom Mix” and “Billy Benson and the B-Bar-B Riders.”
Google ’em, Dudes and Dudettes.
So, when I heard about television, how it was the “coming thing” and how it added pictures to radio, I naturally assumed that all my favorite radio programs would just automatically migrate to new-fangled television.
Well, of course, some of them did, but many of them didn’t.
Other favorites of my radio listening were “Inner Sanctum” and “Suspense.” Imagine my surprise when years later after I became older and developed an interest in reading and I would read stories by famous authors and recognize some of those same stories that I had listened to and “watched” on radio!
Yes, Dear Reader, Hollywood recycles stories. But then, so did Shakespeare. (Google him, Dudes and Dudettes.)
Anyway, when my parents bought our first television set, guess what. The pictures weren’t in color! They were in black and white! Imagine that. And we were so fascinated with this new-fangled technology that we sat in front of it and watched whatever was being broadcast until the station went off the air at the end of the night.
Yes, Dear Reader, in the Olden Days, TV stations weren’t on 24 hours a day and when they signed off, they showed a picture of a waving American flag and played “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
As a matter of fact, in the city where we lived, there were only three TV stations in operation, which broadcast television programs from the only three networks that existed at the time! (Google ’em, Dudes and Dudettes.)
And all those television signals come through the air from the stations’ broadcast towers right to our television set and the rabbit-ears antenna on top of our TV set. And we didn’t even have to pay for it! Our only expense for watching television in those days was what we paid for our television set! And TV sets were so large that they were just like furniture in the room!
That’s right. Back in those days, so-called “cable-TV” was used only for homes that couldn’t get over-the-air reception from the broadcast towers.
And, then, guess what. When cable-TV became popular and people were willing to pay for television broadcasts, some people were so naive as to believe that if they had to pay for television, there shouldn’t be any commercials!
But then television became so popular, more stations popped up in town, more networks came into existence, and even more commercials took over the programming.
In fact, back in those Olden Days, advertisers owned the programs! There was only one advertiser for an entire show! You could google it.
Another oddity back then was that a program lasted all year long! Yes,there would be 39 new episodes each year, followed by 13 repeats during the summer. Imagine that.
Then color showed up, and that meant that it became more expensive to buy a TV set. That also meant that it became more difficult to adjust the picture. And adjusting the picture meant actually getting up out of your chair, walking over to the TV set, and turning dials on the back of the set!
As a matter of fact, the first remote control that I ever owned was actually connected to the TV set by a wire! Can you imagine? Picture it in your mind.
Talk about ancient history!
Kids today just don’t appreciate how easy it is to watch television.
Back in the Olden Days, watching television was an experience. It was something we appreciated, because we had to make an effort to watch it.
And don’t even get me started about kids who have their own television set in their own bedroom! I didn’t own a TV set until I was an adult and had moved away from home!
Well, that’s enough for now. All this reminiscing has made me tired and it’s time for my nap.
Goodbye and good watching.
Boulder Library: Nicholas Carr Lecture & Book Signing
Sep 4th
The Nicholas Carr Lecture & Book Signing: The Shallows event is scheduled for Saturday 9/17/2011 at 3:00 PM. The description for the event is: Join us for an author talk with Nicholas Carr on The Shallows: What the Internet is doing to our brains. The Shallows was a 2011 Pulitzer Prize finalist.
Mr. Carr will present a lecture, followed by a Q&A and book signing.
Carr’s book expands on his notable Atlantic essay, Is Google Making us Stupid? Part intellectual history, part popular science, part cultural criticism; The Shallows offers a compelling exploration of the history of information technology and how new research in neuroscience reveals startling implications for the way we think and learn.
Copies of Carr’s book will be available for purchase and signing after the lecture.
The event is free and open to the public.
For more information, call 303-441-3194