Inter with Rocco

Rocco Cima is the evening DJ for Q102 on Sundays from 5p.m. to 10 p.m. Q102 is owned by Clear Channel Communications. I came in contact with Rocco for another assignment in which I had to interview a media professional. My favorite radio station has always been Q102, ever since I moved to New Jersey in 7^th grade. My obvious choice for the assignment was to try and contact someone from the station. Once on the webpage for the station, www.q102.com, I clicked on the link for DJs and randomly chose one, my cursor happened to land on Rocco. From this point, after clicking on his link, contacting him was relatively easy since his email was right on his personal page. After emailing back and forth a few times I was able to set up a date to do an in-person interview. The best part about the interview was that I was able to do it in the studio while he was live on the air! I will use the interview to complete both my assignments of my station profile and my interview with and electronic media professional blog.

Rocco is not only an on-air personality for Q102 but he also has recently opened his own restaurant LA Café. Originally, Rocco had no intention of perusing a career on the radio, and he attended a culinary arts school after high school. He met some of the Q102 DJs while they were at a bowling alley promoting the stations name several years back. He just walked up to them and said, “I can do your job,” they responded by giving him an internship to see what he could do. During his internship he performed random silly stunts in the streets, such as getting people to sign his body completely naked. After about a year of working in his internship a job opening appeared for a night time DJ, Rocco got the job and became part of the “Freak Show” from 6p.m. to10p.m. on weeknights.

The road Rocco took to become a DJ is unusual because he has been able to stay at the same station and also was able to begin his career at a major station. He worked his internship at the young age of 17, before the rules of receiving college credit were strictly enforced, and by this he was able to decide early if it was something he enjoyed. By working at the station through an internship he was able to get “a taste of entertaining people.”

He feels that the new media that has come out has only helped the station and whatever new technologies come out in the future the station will use those to their advantage as well. With the popularity of social media Q102 has gained much more interaction with the listeners, also the fans can get more of a visual of the station. Through the social medias, such as facebook and twitter, the fans feel a greater connection with Q because it is easier to interact and no longer can only talk with the DJs through calling in. I noticed while performing the interview the stations facebook page was up on one of the computers the whole time, so I could get a sense of how serious they are about their connection with the fans. It was also great to see that it was the actual DJs speaking their minds on the pages, it isn’t someone in a PR department putting on the allusion that the fans are talking to the DJs. The addition of the texting feature has also added more interaction with the DJs. Fans can send in song requests and get through more often than calling on the hotilnes.

With any job there are going to be some perks and some disappointments. Rocco explained his favorite part about the job is his ability to make the listeners happy. He loves to make other smile and laugh. He also enjoys how interactive the station really is to all the listeners, the DJs really care about the fans. One downside to working in the entertainment Rocco explained is the instability of the business. One day a job can be there and the next someone can walk in and be fired on the spot.

The best advice Rocco can give to students is to go out for internships, they are the best way to learn. He also pointed out that many DJs start out in promotions, although it may not be the ideal job for many it is a great way to interact with other once in the door. For Q102 specifically students can apply for internships online or pick up applications at the studio. He also adds that receiving as much experience as possible is of huge importance. A great way to gain experience besides internships is working for local or college stations.

The best quality for a DJ to have is to be a “people person”. As Rocco says, anyone can be taught how to work a machine but you can’t teach just anyone how to work with people and be relatable. It takes a charismatic person to stand out. People also have to understand that working at a station isn’t only the time while on air, it’s also the time the DJ has to put into research for the show. It takes long hours to do the research, update personal pages on the website, show preparations, and also appearances at clubs, malls, or wherever they may be.

As far as extra readings such as trade journals there really aren’t that many for radio, but Rocco did say he would recommend checking out www.allaccess.com and www.mediabase.com .

Click here for Rocco with the Ting Tings

Webisode

I have chosen to summarize an article, which has helped my group in presenting the past connections with baseball and the media for our webisode. Baseball got its start in the media very early; sports were first featured in magazines in the early nineteenth century. The first American magazine that was dedicated to sports came about in 1820 and in 1835 several sports themed magazines emerged. Unfortunately all this was happening at a time when sports were considered to be vulgar so the magazines stuck to covering sports such as horse racing. During the first wave of industrialization the public became more educated and read more but at the same time Americans became more interested in sports. During the 1850s one magazine owner decided to make Baseball America’s national sport. Around this time daily newspapers started to become more common. With as much progress that has already been made, by the Civil War, regular sports still did not see much coverage in the newspapers.

The 1920s was considered “The Golden Era of Sports” and as historian John Rickard Betts proclaimed, “sport swept over the nation in the 1920s and, at times, seemed to be the most engrossing of public interests.” During the 1920s radios used sports and were “capitalized upon by broadcasters to promote the acceptance of this new medium.” Today, as can be seen on page 395 of the Broadcast Programming text book, Sports are still a dominant part of the radio scene with hundreds of commercial sports talk radio stations. Radio in the end contributed more to sport than sport did to radio. During the 1960s sports made their first appearance on television. ABC was the most aggressive with airing sports television and launched “World of Sports” in 1961. Sports became so popular on TV that in the 1980s cable stations such as ESPN were created to broadcast sports all day every day.

This article helps supports my group’s thesis for our webisode because it gives lots of interesting facts about the history of sports and the media. Our webisode would feel incomplete if we did not give a brief history of how sportshave changed and evolved with the media over time. This article shows that even as the media has changed over the years Baseball and other sports as well have been able to keep up with the changing trends. In one instance, with the introduction of the radio, sports broadcast were actually used to promote the new medium.

With all the history of sports in the media it seems pretty certain that with what new mediums may come out in the future, there will always be a place in them for our beloved sports. For example one new feature that is coming out now is the iPAD from Apple and they have already made a deal with MLB to have a feature on there that will show real live game stats. Apple is smart with adding this feature because, just as phones now have apps to follow a fans favorite team, this feature will only make the iPAD more competitive.

Interview with Lori Wilson

Lori Wilson is the co-host of the 10! Show for Philadelphia’s NBC network and an evening anchor for the 5 o’clock news. I have known Lori for almost two years now. I was fortunate enough to meet Lori my senior year of high school while I was on a modeling job; it was for a fashion competition with students from Philadelphia University. Lori happened to be one of the judges and when I was in the ladies room after the competition was over I just went up to her while she was washing her hands and starting talking to her telling her I was interested in studying communications in college. From there she gave me her email and I went to a taping of her show. This show was special because the fashion competition that I modeled for was aired on the 10! Show and after filming I was able to get a tour of the studio from her. We have kept in contact ever since this first meeting. I am using this interview for my blog and to get advice from an already successful person in the industry.
Lori Wilson got started in when she was only in elementary school, during this time she appeared in TV commercials. Later, once in middle and high school, she did the morning announcements along with being a participant in the speech team. Outside of school Wilson was part of a group called “Youth Telecommunications Workshop. In this she was part of a group of teens who wrote, produced, directed and hosted their very own that aired on PBS in her hometown of Indianapolis. From there Wilson attended college for Journalism and had several internships for local stations. From her last internship she sent a tape to an old news director and from that got her first job as a reporter and fill-in anchor for a CBS affiliate in Champaign, Illinois.
Before Wilson could get to the hosting position she has now she had to go through many other jobs and relocations first. Her first job was in Champaign, Illinois and she worked there for eight months until she received a call from KSLA in Sheveport, Louisiana. Here Wilson remained for four years and a morning news anchor and health reporter. She had a similar job after moving to Atlanta, Georgia where she was a morning news anchor and entertainment reporter for the next three years. From Atlanta she moved to Philadelphia, where she still remains, and worked for WCAU as a morning reporter and eventually moved to morning anchor for six months. From all this she got to where she is now which is full time hose of the 10! Show and anchor three evenings a week. She adds that sometimes it can be hard to be on TV because even when she is having a bad day she still has to go on air and appear “up beat.” Overall Wilson says she loves her career and enjoys that its something different everyday along with all the new places and people she gets to meet.
The world is changing fast and so it technology, this greatly impacts every aspect of the media industry. Wilson has two specific feelings about the changes. In one way she thinks it’s great because “it gives people a lot of access to broadcast themselves and can interact with the media.” On the downside though, the new technology can also lead to a loss of many jobs. With the internet people no longer have a need to watch the news. As a result the ratings go down and from decreasing ratings a loss of advertisers will appear. With no commercials people will loose jobs because the news won’t have any money.
Lori Wilson has much advice for college students with aspirations for pursue a career in the media field. She recommends getting as much practice in front of as well as behind the camera. She also insists students practice writing, try to get published if possible, and also do many internships. Internships are a great way to get experience, as well as working for the school newspaper, radio and TV stations, Wilson says. She would recommend reading any and as many trade journals as possible, it’s a good way to learn. Wilson thinks the best characteristics for a person in the industry to have are intellectual curiosity, strong desire, strong listening skills and excellent writing skills. To get started in the industry Wilson recommends visiting talentdynamics.com, which is a site that has many job openings listed by market size on and off air.

LORI WILSON NEWS from Lori Wilson on Vimeo.

Webisode

This article talks about the growth and expansion of the MLB website. Professional basebll used to have a reputation for being late in taking advantage of new technologies but in recent years that has changed. In 1995 Major League Baseball took its first step forward with the introduction of its official website, http://www.mlb.com/. This site was created by the league’s branch of management for interactive media, Major League Baseball Advanced Media (MLBAM). MLB.com was the first website to have a centralized location for all thirty teams online in hopes of “boosting interaction, sales, and media exposure.”
The main goals when originally designing the website have greatly been achieved. With eight to nine million hits a day during baseball season the website has surpassed many critics’ expectations. The site is also currently the number one supplier of streaming footage a year with 12,000 events a year excluding highlight footage. Another considerable advantage the site retains is that it can be read in English, Japanese, Korean and Spanish which makes the site accessible to many more people. MLB is also the only company who has sole right to games, clips and clubs and also with this views are able to see historical archives on the official site. Although there are other sites in which MLB.com has to compete with such as ESPN. Com and Yahoo! Sports, the official website has many extras which other sites can not gain access and this ensures the continued success of MLB.com.
I chose too use this article because it gives lots of information about the website itself and all it has to offer which is helpful to someone like me who is not a very technical person and does not have a lot of experience with this particular website. This article relates to our webisode because it is all about the MLB website which we will incorporate much into our project. Our main goal is to talk about the expansion of baseball throughout the media and the official website is a crucial part to baseball’s existence in the media. Before the internet and creation of MLB.com people could only watch the game on TV but now fans can watch online. They can find statistics at the drop of a hat, watch highlight shows incase they missed the game, watch classic games from the history achieves, and much more.
Although MLB has had major success it does still have competition with other websites trying to offer the same information. To combat this MLBAM has made deals with competitors which will also increase revenue. For example MLB made a deal with ESPN.com to put the logo of MLB links to all official scoreboards in hopes of expanding distribution for MLB.tv. Along with potential issues this specific article also gives some insight into what seems to be a growing trend, watching games online. With 1.1 million subscriptions sold last year it seems to be something for us to keep our eyes on. I believe this is something that will continue because the subscriptions themselves are not sold cheap at prices of $99-$120. If fans are willing to pay this much for games they can watch on TV for free there must be something special about this, although the subscription does also extras like highlight footage and live audio, I still can see a trend that will only increase with time.
Another reason I believe streaming is here to stay is because people already take advantage of watch regular television programs online with the help of sites such as hulu.com. As a society we want to watch our favorite shows but sometimes life gets in the way, a person may have to work late, or a college student might have a big test the next day; it is relaxing to know that if we miss an episode we can watch at a time convenient for us online. The same can be said for baseball fanatics. With a subscription to MLB.tv a person can watch a game they missed the night before or simply watch the provided highlight footage.
In connection with the book,page 335, the whole idea of streaming video and selling subscription is a great way to produce revenue but the website also makes money through online advertisements. With the subscriptions the website makes money because the viewers are paying for the content and with the added extras such as highlight footage the subscriptions is worth the money for a baseball fanatic, this goes off the concept of the pay-per-view model. As far as online advertising the MLB made a smart decision when they decided to partner up with Yahoo! Sports because of ‘Yahoo!’s incredible distribution capability ad advertising ability will provide an expected 20-30% growth rate over the next three year deal.” By partnering with an already successful website they can take advantage of extra online advertisements. With all the success MLB.com has already achieved I see nothing but even better things to come from the website. MLB.com is a great example of the league taking advantage of the media available.
http://74.125.155.132/scholar?q=cache:ksWGpDRdzqYJ:scholar.google.com/&hl=en&as_sdt=8000000000

Next American Idol Judge

Fox’s American Idol has been a hit since season one with the trial and tribulations of singers trying to make it in Hollywood. Much of the success of this is also due to the judges whom either America seems to love or hate. Over the past few season the show has tried to add some variety with guest judges and adding a 4^th judge to the mix. With the 9^th season the beloved or hated Simon Cowell will be filming his last season. There is no need to worry though because American Idol producers are already in the works with negotiations to have the perfect man replace Cowell, none other than Howard Stern himself.

Howard Stern is one of the highest paid radio personalities, partly due to his blunt personality. He says what he feels and exactly how he feels with no reservations or apologies. He is a Simon Cowell to the extreme. Hollywood reporter Chuck Ross thinks Stern would be a “dazzling choice.” Idol bosses think he would be even meaner then Cowell and clash with the other judges which also helps ratings and makes great TV. Stern has announced many times that his contract with Sirius radio is up in January and he open to looking to other markets for work. Stern himself though has not said whether he is going to make the switch or stay with Sirius radio, but he has announced on his show that he is considering the option, we will just have to wait and see.

This would make a huge impact on the TV industry because Howard Stern has made his career on radio. Not only would he be making the switch to television but to a family show. If Stern did do the show it would be interesting to see how he would keep his edge but also tone down for audiences of all ages who watch American Idol. I wonder if more people would watch the show knowing about Stern’s past and the personality that he does have. I feel he would help the industry and particularly American Idol because I do think bringing him on board would make more people interested in watching the show.

WEBSITES USED

http://www.tvweek.com/blogs/2010/02/howard-sterns-an-a-holeand-why-hes-the-right-choice-to-replace-simon-cowell.php

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/idol_producers_want_howard_stern_YUKlMlwQkfqa7EgK1nvRaN

Digital Channels

With the new age of digital television TV has found a new wasteland. With the transition for local channel from analog to digital there have been some new problems that have arisen over the past few months.

The reason for the switch in the fist place was to free up air frequencies for emergency services such as police, fire departments, and ambulances. Besides the initial airwaves to be used for emergencies, the leftover frequencies can be used for the switch is that some of their airwaves for wireless services, like broadband for example. With the big switchover local channels were allowed several digital channels which allows for multicasting. This means that one broadcaster can offer their programming on more than one channel. So if a local station had channel 6 they would then also own 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, and also 6.4 and this station can offer various programs on these channels simultaneously. Another advantage of the digital switch is that the picture and sound quality has been improved on those local channels. Long gone are the days of bunny ears which folks would have to play with to get a mostly clear picture. Now the local digital channels are the same as those clear channels found.

The problem with these new channels is the companies don’t know how to draw audiences and produce revenue with these channels. It has been compared to the recent real estate crisis in the middle of this recession we are in right now. As in the market is available but there are no buyers. Some have found some programs which are improving the situation but are no solutions. For example one local station is running a 24-hour local new channel and one is trying a 24-hour Spanish channel. The most successful of these channels was found in a tiny city near Mexico. With a simple mounted camera so audiences at home can watch the town-folk, surprisingly something about this combination works. It seems to just be more localized which some think those extra channels should focus most on. Commissioner Michael Copps thinks these digital channels should focus on local politics, religions, music, and cultural diversity.

I think it is important first of all for people to understand the reason for the whole digital conversion because I had no clue why this was happening all of a sudden. Knowing that it will help emergency services makes me feel better about the whole switch because in my house we still had two analog TV sets, so I actually was involved in the whole switch. Secondly I think it is important for people to know about the extra stations which many are making specific to local events and such. It is another way to be involved in the community and find out new things through media.

I think one way it impacts the industry is through advertising which the article talks about as well. Broadcasters need extra ads to support these extra stations. If the extra digital channels are more specified toward local event s it is a great place for the mom and pop shops and lots of local venues to air commercials since the target audience will be viewers from the area.

WEBSITES USED

http://www.dtv.gov/whatisdtv.html

http://www.dtvanswers.com/dtv_multicasting.html

http://blackboard.rider.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2Fwebapps%2Fblackboard%2Fexecute%2Flauncher%3Ftype%3DCourse%26id%3D_56860_1%26url%3D