The Times They Are A-Changin'

Every where you turn, if you have your eyes open, you can see a major shift in how people are digesting this instant microwaveable world we live in.

The more you see, the more you read the trades, the more you ride around town ... the more questions race through my pea-sized brain.

I have few answers, but a whole lot of questions as I await the Easter Bunny. Someone has to give me the scoop. Here we go:

Is everyone in a hurry while they drive? And can anyone drive without a cell phone plugged in their ear? Who are they talking to? And what did they do before cell time was free? If they are talking on the phone and most of them are, then how can they listen to the radio? Is radio just a background completely now, and why would I advertise on something that is background?

Why did the gods of radio decide for the most part no one wants news that listens to music? The all-music-think must just be for zoners. To hell with the outside world.

Local TV news is freaking out like the rest of the media, from a downscaling, moving-around audience.

How does a crack head shooting someone at 2am have anything to do with me? Who is home to see news at 5:30? Local sports guys are getting canned all over, except in the deep South, where football is king 12 months a year and junkies have cable and local and sports talk radio shows. On TV sports seems dead since ESPN is where sports junkies go. That's what some of the TV gods say.

Twenty-somethings get their media in a totally different way than the 50-somethings do. Well duh!

Twenty-somethings don't care yet about the city council and property tax. I didn't either! Some things don't change.

Instant communication via text and cell has everyone on a leash like never before. All this texting and phoning and computing can't be good for TV and radio. If you're texting, how can you be playing a radio contest?

If Drudge has 2 billion zillion hits, then why doesn't he have blue-chip advertising?

The Internet is putting magazines like Premiere out of business, and the newspapers, as something you can hold on to, are sinking fast. But are all these folks betting they will make money someday, or are the advertisers slower and dumber than the media to catch on to where their audience has gone?

CD sales are off 30% in Country music for the first quarter of 2007. Tim McGraw sells 300,000 when last time he sold twice that.

Plasma or LCD? DirectTV or cable?

"American Idol" rules the world. More people probably know about Sanjaya this week than know about Nancy Pelosi's shuttle diplomacy stink in the Mideast.

What do these people do who live in all these $1 million- plus homes? Nashville has million-dollar homes like the Colonel has chicken.

They have scoring sessions now at Warner Bros. in Burbank for video games!

Research is back in some quarters saying the same things it did 25 years ago with the same goofy conclusions. You use research as a tool, not as the Bible.

Everything old is new again if you live long enough.

The public has no idea what it wants. That's a very elite position but a true one.

Artists should create art, not create art based on the opinion of 600 people.

Those women on "Dancing With The Stars" are nearly naked! Did you see the fireman in the bikini?

Cookie-cutter programming where you are scared to talk and scared to go boo is an environment for failure. Music, music, music means you are only as good as the crop of music. Not something I would risk millions on.

Weather coverage on radio is still the best. Heard a storm warning this week -- what a great communication tool. You and your car radio. When it's working, nothing is better.

Radio is still something most people would never want to be without. Research is right about that. Give people something other than the same old worn-out song, and they will stay with you as your friend forever. Music is the meat and potatoes, while the talk is the special sauce and dessert. Commercials are the broccoli and spinach that keep you alive. So cook it, add salt, and make the medicine taste better.

Keeping your office door closed all the time is a recipe for failure. You can't fire everyone you did not hire.

If you could watch the "NBC Nightly News" in your car as you were stuck in traffic, would you? That decision is coming sooner than you think.

Will you listen to Tim's new CD on your cell phone? That issue is a today one.

The Beatles have waited too long holding out to iTunes. A hell of a lot of young people hardly know them. Elvis has done a little bit better job staying fresh.

One thing I do know -- none of us is getting enough sleep. The economy has been too good for too long. We are all too soft. Gas prices are stupid and make no sense. 9/11 still scares me, and I don't like consolidation of anything! Flying today is awful. Customer service in anything is a distant memory. Imus is old. So are Larry King and Barbara Walters. Hearing Casey Kasem on XM is somehow reassuring.

I feel better now. I sure have a lot of questions. I think we all do and just don't admit it.