Internet Radio Potential?

Tuesday December 9th, 2008 - Chicago, IL

Snowy days have long lost their appeal and today was another one. Maybe I need to go sledding or something to appreciate it but at this time in my life the thrill is long gone. If it never snowed again I wouldn’t be upset but I’ll have to move if I want that to happen.

Then if I do move I’ll have to deal with other things like earthquakes and scorpions and who knows what else? It’s comfortable living in the Midwest and a few months of snowy weather is the price I pay for that. It goes with the territory and today I had to deal with it.

I live right between Milwaukee and Chicago and for some reason there is more snow in that area than there is in either city. I can’t figure it out and don’t really want to. It just is. I drove to see my friend Marc Schultz this morning and I heard on Chicago radio how the rain would continue and where I was there were several inches of nasty wet sloppy snow.

By the time I got into the Chicago area it was only rain and that was nasty to drive in as well. One would think people would put a cell phone down in such hazardous conditions but one would be wrong. I wanted nothing more than to see one of those halfwits slide off the road and hit a light pole at full speed jamming that cell phone right in their eye socket.

But I’m always the optimist. Unfortunately no such luck today so I had to wait an even longer time for traffic to move because idiot after imbecile had to describe the situation to someone else on the other side of their phone. It’s maddening and WAY too many do it.

After my recent wreck I admit I’m a little gun shy and was extra careful to leave a space between cars as I drove to see Marc for lunch. I had to sign a contract and get information for a gig I’m doing for him in Sheboygan this Saturday night so I had to brave the snow.

It’s always good to see Marc but even better when there’s work involved. After lunch I went to meet Jerry Agar at a place in Morton Grove that does internet radio shows. Jerry has an idea for an internet version of his talk show and I think he’d be able to pull it off.

It all boils down to money though as it does with anything else. Who will finance it? If he can get a sponsor he could be on the cutting edge of something big and losing his WLS job may have come at the right time. Eventually I think radio will morph onto the internet just as a lot of other things will like newspapers, magazines and TV too. It’s an evolution.

I met the guy in charge and liked the operation a lot. Apparently Chicago is a big player in this industry and there are a couple of operations like this here. I’d love to develop my own ‘King of Uranus Comedy Hour’ type show and I talked about it with the guy today.

He is looking for programming and I’d have to pay a weekly fee but I’d get access to an actual studio with a phone line to take calls and I could broadcast the show from websites other than the one they have. I could generate traffic for www.uranusfactoryoutlet.com. If I could find a sponsor to cover my costs it would be a great way to advertise my products.