April 2006 – Rob's Blog

Satellite Radio, Rich Content and the Threat of Wi-Fi/Wi-Max

What is it about Satellite radio that has caused over x subscribers to sign up for Sirius over the past x months? Is it the superior technology? I’ve seen some of the installations of the portable satellite tuners and heard the quality of the streams that are being beemed to its subscribers. The new eye sores on Americas dashboards and barely differentiating sound quality are not driving subscriptions at thirteen bucks a month.

Howard Stern left FM because adversisers and regulation had stemied the ability to build rich and provocative content on America’s open airwaves. Starting in the 1970’s Stern worked day after day to understand radio listeners and the content they enjoyed. Whether you’re looking at XM or Sirius, you’re looking at services that are activly creating content that people can get their money’s worth from. Whether it be specialty radio stations or channels of consistant right-wing discussion, rich content is the only lure satellite radio has to draw and maintain a customer base.

Wi-Max is the same wireless internet connection you enjoy at your local coffee shop, only it is spread across entire cities. On April 13th, the City of Portland announced that 134 square miles will be covered by Wi-max.

How are these three topics related? First, remember that the internet is providing the single greatest conduit of information in the history of mankind. Children to senior citizens have embraced the web as a platform for delivering their own personal and original rich content. Second, consider for a moment that Howard Stern (and any other radio personality) control only a temporary pool of content consumers. Once Stern retires or public interest wanes it is the burdon of content providers to fill the gap.

Wi-Max means that anyone in possesion of what will be a viral explosion of connected personal digital devices will have the chance to connect to any content provider in the world. They will be limited only to the quality of decentralized content.

As more standards for rich content delivery develop, enormous audiences will be built around new ideas in hours or minutes. Simply serving up commercial free music won’t cut it.

Oppression in Belarus

Belarus You’ve probably heard about the protests and riots going on in Paris regarding the proposal to change how employers can remove younger workers. (CPE) In that situation you have a large group of people who both refuse to accept the reality of globalism and will ultimately suffer an economic collapse because of it.

You may not have heard of the protests going on in Belarus (Bell-a-roose). Belarus is a country of about 10 million people in north-eastern Europe. The country is led by Alyaksandr Lukashenka. Lukashenka is looked upon as somewhat of a villain for having extended his initial presidential term and almost assuredly rigging two more consecutive elections where he was found the victor.

What might be most striking to someone with a North American perspective is the oppression by the Belarus government in such close proximity to the European Union. This oppression was shown most recently during the March 19th, 2006 presidential poll where one of the opposition candidates was beaten and arrested and protesters were put down by riot police the following week.

Riot Police beating Belarus Citizens The acts of the state riot police against the protesters were caught with incredible clarity through the lenses of amateur and professional photographers. You can view photos of the Belarus government’s violent oppression of its people on Flickr. Also, you may want to watch this frightening video showing clips of the police approaching the citizens and subsequently beating peaceful protestors.

The reason that this situation continues to exist is because not enough of the country’s citizens are willing to stand up to the government. If you’ll look at the pictures and video above you may wonder when the next clash will be.
Not surprisingly, Belarus still suffers from the fallout of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant meltdown. April 26th is the 20th anniversary of the disaster, and is likely mean further demonstrations from the citizenry of Belarus. Needless to say there will be an incredible amount of turmoil before there can be any hope of regime change against Lukashenka.

I invite you to learn more about Lukashenka, who allowed a hot air balloon on an international race to be shot down for violating Belarus airspace. And also Belarus, widely regarded as the last country in Europe to be under the control of a dictatorship.

Advertising For Peanuts

Just a quick post to advertise for Advertise For Peanuts. This site features creative advertising spots of a viral nature. This type of copy is the future of advertising as the 60 second commercial aimed at broadcasting gets fast-forwarded or deleted in the increasingly on-demand nature of content consumption.

Forcing users to watch commercials, i.e. prior to CNN’s online video news is an ugly way to get consumers attention. People will turn their speakers down or multi-task to avoid unwanted messaging. People will eat creative content alive whether it promotes Burger King or Hanes underwear so long as it makes them feel good.

As people will get better at filtering out broadcast advertising the videos and print offered on Advertising For Peanuts represent the marketers future for mainstream appeal.