Stan Freberg

The Super Bowl ads this year were a mixed bag for me. There were some that were funny, some that were moving, and some that left you wondering what the ad agency was smoking when the scripts were approved. (As an aside please read Ken Levine's blog on this very topic.)

I bring up the complaints about the lack of creativity in some of those Super Bowl spots as an excuse to write about a man whose commercial creativity in both radio and television was legendary.

Stan Freberg.

I first came across some of his work on a record called "Stan Freberg Modestly Presents: The United States of America. Part One:The Early Years". I was a kid, and didn't get a lot of the jokes, but it was a fun record to listen to, and I slowly started to 'get' more of the jokes as I got older.

Here's a sample from that album:

Look him up. Google him. Youtube him. You will find an amazing amount of creativity. Stuff that he produced 40, 50, even 60 years ago that still holds up today.

I could write an encyclopedic blog post about him. Instead, I'll just post some examples of his genius here, and let you be the judge.

First up, a radio spot about......radio:

He was a master at commercials that not only entertained, but were very effective at selling the product. Here are a couple of examples.

First, a lawn mower commercial:

This commercial for Butter Nut Coffee poked fun at the idea of subliminal advertising:

Freberg was also a satirist. He had a recording career during which he poked fun at popular songs. He didn't do what Weird Al Yankovic does, which was to keep the melody and change the lyrics. He got his point across in other ways, as in this example of his version of the Banana Boat Song:

Even though he had a very successful career in advertising, he was not above biting the hand that feeds him. His recording of "Green Chri$tma$" got him in a little hot water with people who never even HEARD the record, give it a listen and see what you think. I think his message is as relevant today as it was when the record was first released:

This is but a tip of the ice "berg" There is so much more to listen to and enjoy. I hope I've piqued your interest in him.

Enjoy!

"Blow In Her Face And She'll Follow You Anywhere" part 2

Time for a few more print ad's that have to be seen to be believed. I received these in an email and thought I'd share. 
 

Guns make perfect gifts for the holidays. At least these ads seem to think so:

A lot of companies have tried to tie their product into Christmas, but really, how many wives would want THIS under their tree?

Some ads just defy description:

Wow...just wow!

"Blow In Her Face, And She'll Follow You Anywhere." Part One

I received an email today containing magazine ads from the 60's and 70's. As I looked through them I was amazed at what you could get away with.

AMC has a TV show called "Mad Men" centered around an advertising agency in the 60's. I can totally see them designing ads like these:

 
I was not what you would call a big coffee drinker, but I have a major addiction to soda. Could these ads be the reason why?

I have others to share, including some gun ads, and more ads that could set back women's rights for 100 years! 


Stay tuned!

A Peek Behind The Curtains...

I enjoy talking radio. I've been working in the business off and on for about 30 years or so.

Whenever I'm invited to speak at schools to talk about what it's like to be in radio, I jump at the chance. I really enjoy giving people a "behind the scenes" look at what goes on.

 With that in mind, I thought I'd take a minute to give you an idea as to what happens here every morning.

4:45am - Arrive at station. I try to get here earlier, but some mornings that bed is just too darn comfy.

4:47am - Get my show organized. We use a computer system called NexGen that runs all of the commercials, jingles and music. I put them in the order that I want everything to run.

4:50am - Download the birthday messages from my voice mail. When people call in and leave messages for the voice mail, I download them and mix them for playback at 6:40, 7:40, and 9:20. 

4:55am - Anita Goodan comes into the studio to prepare for her first newscast of the morning.

5:00am - Here we go!

5:05am - My official show open, it features a montage of short clips that lead into the theme I use every morning, the Robert Goulet version of "You've Got A Friend In Me". I then jump in to kick things off and talk about whats going to happen on the show!

5:15am - My first time to chat before the commercials. I usually just re cap the weather, or if there's a relevant local event going on, I'll mention it here. It's normally just a "Good Morning" kind of break to get the day started.

5:30am - Anita's news break, after which we talk to Heather Zehr from AccuWeather about our forecast. AccuWeather is a national service, and I'm glad we get a chance to talk to her. 

5:45am - The first of our recurring morning feature called "The Forgotten 45".  These are songs that you don't hear on the radio anymore, but they are still good songs to hear. We run the feature at :45 past the hour to tie in with what singles used to be called...45's! The first one is "Living In America" by James Brown!!

5:50am - Nathan Welter stops by with the first of 2 morning sports reports. 

6:00am - News with Anita. I check my email for any new birthday voice mail messages.

6:10am - Getting ready to run a contest. We run a variety of different contests in the morning. TV theme trivia, Movie quote trivia, etc.. This morning it's the "Time Capsule" It's a pre produced feature where the caller has to listen to clues and guess the month and year that is being described. 

6:20am - Downloading more birthday voice mail messages.

6:30am - Anita's headlines. During these breaks at the bottom of the hour, after the news and weather, I attempt to come up with something interesting to talk about. The topics can run the gamut, from local events to interesting surveys or unusual stories. This particular morning I play "Fact or Fiction" with Anita and a caller!

6:40am - Birthdays. The voice mail is all edited up and ready to go!

6:45am - The second "Forgotten 45" of the morning. "Make a Move On Me" - Olivia Newton John.

6:50am - The second sports update with Nathan Welter.

7:00am - News with Anita. I do my best to make sure these newscasts run as close as possible to the top and bottom of each hour.

7:20am - The Beatle Break . Back to back Beatles tunes for a change of pace to the normal music we play. When I first started this feature, people were wondering why I picked the Beatles instead of say Elvis or John Mellencamp. I picked them because even to this day, they are influencing the way bands sound. To me, the Beatles are timeless. Meanwhile, I edit more birthday voice mail.

7:30am - Anita's headlines. After the weather we talk about a program at the Starke County Public Library.

7:40am - Birthdays. New messages that were called in during the last hour are included.

7:45am - Another Forgotten 45. "Song On The Radio" - Al Stewart

7:50am - Weather and local events. As a small radio station, one of our goals is to be a local as possible by talking about events that happen in Starke, Marshall, and Pulaski counties.

8:00am - Anita's News.

8:10am - Another go 'round with the Time Capsule.

8:30am - Anita's headlines. After the weather we talk about some light entertainment news that lead into the "E.T. Radio Minute".

8:45am - The final Forgotten 45 of the morning. "Gimme Some Lovin'" The Blues Brothers.

8:50am - Weather and more local stuff.

9:00am - Anita's News

9:10am - The final Birthday segment of the morning. 

9:20am - The final Time Capsule contest.

9:25am - A long music sweep to lead into Jerry Curtis at 10:00am.

9:45am - I sign off the show. I make sure to thank everyone who was on the show, including special guests if there are any.

After the show I take a few minutes and wind down. If there are any commercials to record and produce, I knock those out as well.

If you have any questions about what I do here in the mornings, you can email me: tom@wkvi.com I also can speak at your school or your non-profit group as well, free of charge.

As Charles Osgood says: "I'll see you on the radio."

Link Plugola!

OK, So I'm not getting any money for this, so technically it's NOT plugola or payola or any other "-ola" for that matter.

I thought I'd take a sec and give some love to some blogs and links I check out from time to time. 

Some I use for show prep, others I check out for fun. 

First up, "By Ken Levine". He is an Emmy winning writer/director/producer/major league baseball announcer. In a career that has spanned over 30 years Ken has worked on MASH, CHEERS, FRASIER, THE SIMPSON'S, WINGS, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND, BECKER, DHARMA & GREG. I love reading his behind the scenes stories about writing those shows. He's also worked in radio, so I love those stories as well.

Next, "Homestead Annie". It's written by a friend of mine, she talks about her family, her life, and occasionally there are some awesome recipes as well.

Fark is a website that...well..their slogan is "It's not news, it's Fark.com". It's a place to find unusual news stories that are sometimes worth reading, but it's the headlines to those stories that are hysterical. All of the links are submitted by readers of the site, and the headlines are reader-submitted as well. 

Some of these links are listed in the right-hand column of this blog. I just wanted to take a second and elaborate on a few of them.

Happy reading!

 

Balloons!

Back in 2007 I was at the NASCAR race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. I had a shiny new Flipcam, and I was looking for unusual video to shoot. I thought it would be cool to get video of the balloon release.

28,000 balloons were blown up, stashed under a tent, just waiting for their moment in the sun.

Here's the video:

Flash forward to 2013, I get an email from a band from The Netherlands known as "Dion and the Magic Chords". They wanted to know if they could use the clip in a music video. A MUSIC VIDEO! Wow!

I gave them my permission and they ran with it. Initially I though they would just use a few seconds of the clip. It is featured quite prominently in the last minute of their video which you can see here:

A German ad agency wants to use that same clip in a commercial, and actually pay me for it. If they use it, I'll let you know.
 

My World Record Attempt

It all started back in January, when I announced on the radio that I wanted to attempt to break a Guinness World record for the longest radio broadcast by a single host.

The record at the time was 182 hours.

Yesterday, someone posted on my Facebook page a story about a Belgian DJ who recently set the record at 184 hours! You can read the story here.

In the spirit of good sportsmanship and fun, I emailed that DJ congratulating him and informing him that I was going to make a run at that same record next month.

He emailed me back wishing me all the best, and he even offered to call in while I was making my run.

So far so good, right?

This morning I check my email, and received a letter that can only be described as bulletin board material: (This email is NOT from the Belgian DJ...just some random Belgian)

"Please don`t do the radio marathon. First of all you are american and you can`t handle the 187 hours. Don`t underestimate how strong us belgians are. I lived in Amerika for 14 years one thing i learned is they you are the laziest people in the world.
For once let a record stay in Belgium. You Amerikans always have to be number one in everything guess what the rest of the world thinks you are the biggest and laziest idiots in the world."

Talk about motivation!! All I have to say is: GAME ON!

Dark Shadows

 

 

So...The new Dark Shadows movie with Johnny Depp comes out in May. I'm very excited about it. I've been watching the show in re-runs and on DVD for a while now.

 

I thought I'd take a sec, and tell you how I got hooked in to DS.

I was born in 1963, so I didn't catch the show when it was first on. I first saw the show, when it was being re-run in the afternoons sometime in the mid-1970s, on a TV station in Indianapolis. It ran for a few months over the summer, and I remember watching on a Friday as the episode ended with Willie's discovery of the secret room, and Barnabas' hand reaching up!!!

I anxiously awaited for Monday to arrive, and to my horror, they replaced DS with something else!!!! I called the station, and the answer I got was that they didn't like the quality of the prints for the re-runs, so they just stopped showing it!

Unbelievable!

Fast forward to 1990, I was working in Minneapolis, Minnesota for Stuart Anderson's Cattle Company Restaurant, as a store entertainment coordinator for the bar! I worked at the stores in Roseville, Bloomington, Fridley, and Minnetonka. When I first arrived, not having made friends yet, I was looking for something to fill the time. Suncoast Motion Picture Studio, a video store, became my second home.

This was before DVD. Everything was VHS. So I'm perusing through the racks, and I see that "Dark Shadows" is out on VHS!! What a concept! I was thrilled. I started snapping up the tapes as quickly as they came out. How devious that one tape would end with a pretty big cliffhanger, forcing me to wait until the next release to find out what happened!! I figured it was my version of waiting from Friday until Monday, with the wait actually being a little longer. :-)

I still have those tapes, up to the first time travel story.

Yes I watched the 1991 NBC show as well. I recorded them on VHS, and kept them until the DVD's came out.

When I left Minneapolis to return to Indianapolis for another career opportunity, one of my going away gifts was a copy of "The Dark Shadows Companion:25th Anniversary Collection" that had autographs from Kathryn Leigh Scott and Lara Parker (2 of the actors from the show) inside!

So that's where we are now. I break out the DVDs and watch them from time to time, with certain DVDs marked with my favorite episodes.

I have not yet made it through the entire series...but I plan on it! I've stopped and started three times! Once on TV, once on VHS, and now on DVD. Third time's the charm, right?

 

Today I had the opportunity to interview Kathryn Leigh Scott. 

 

I did my best, to not go all 'fan boy'. I'm not sure I succeeded. Listen for yourself by clicking here.

The movie opens May 11th.

I know...I know...It's been a while. How've you been?

So it's been a year and two months since I've been the morning radio host here in Knox, Indiana. After hearing what happened to some of my radio bretheren today in Indianapolis, I have become more and more convinced that I've made the right move.

In the time I've been here. I've been a part of some interesting promotions that have never been done here before:

• We broadcast an entire day on our front lawn, complete with bounce house and an electric car!
• As of this writing WKVI is getting ready to host it's second Pumpkin Drop. (True..other stations I've worked at have done this. Hi Smiley! But this kinda thing has never happened up here before)
• I've taken my flip cam all around the area to tape my exploits, see an earlier post here for some of those videos.
• This past Summer, I've MC'ed or judged at least 5 different pagents.
• I got to go Power Parachuting!!

And that's not all. There's still more in the pipeline.

The stations sound has improved 1,000 percent since my arrival, not because of my arrival, though.

The music library has been tightened up. The music list has been trimmed. We have new automation software (nexgen) that allows us to voice-track both out FM and AM stations. The company that owns these stations is a firm believer in live local radio, and I'm going to make sure that trend continues here.

Also...we have JINGLES!!

I am such a radio nerd. I always threatened that I would retire if I ever got a jingle with my name in it. Well I got one, but I'm not going anywhere!!

We have online streaming! If I may throw in a quick plug, just go to http://www.wkvi.com/ and check out both our AM and FM streams. I'm on live in the morning on the FM, and I'm voicetracked afternoons on the AM country station.

I know...voicetracking is evil. I consider my AM VT shift to me a challenge. I am doing my best to make that time sound live and local, and not just liner card driven.

The past year also gave me a radio first. We covered a funeral procession for a local Vietnam vet. Forty-one years after being listed as Missing in Action (MIA) in Vietnam, CW3 George A "Andy" Howes came home to Knox in a funeral procession that began in Indianapolis. I hosted coverage of the ceremony once the procession arrived in town. 

There are plenty more things to come. I can't wait!

I will try to blog here more often. There's also my Facebook page, and my Youtube Channel, as well.  

See you later.



My life at WKVI

I just wanted to take a sec and update you on my new gig at WKVI-FM in Knox, IN.

In case you didn't get the word, I started as morning man here Monday August 2nd.

It's been a lot of fun. It was a major re-location to be sure. I think the gamble is paying off though.

I bought one of those Hi-Def Flip cams, and have been running around the listening area shaking hands and kissing babies. I wanted to use this blog entry as a sort of bookmark for all the videos I've done so far.

Enjoy!