radioboyalan doing that "on-air thing"...

Here is a recent picture of me, along with my dog, Bear, doing a live radio show on WJJD Country Giant Radio.

To the left of me are two working turntables. My hand is on the control board, and the CD players and cassette decks are in a stack just to my right.


http://www.live365.com/stations/alanmccall

Ah, summer..Heat, Bugs and..Memories..

I know it's hot, but I love summer. I always have.

A lot of my best memories are tied into summertime events. Growing up, it meant being allowed to stay up later. It meant gardening with Gramma (GG). It meant trips to Mexico Beach to the family beach cottage. It meant ice cream. It meant no school!

This year is my first summer without GG. Roughly 15 years ago, we planted some blueberry bushes together in an area between our homes. We never had a dividing line really, because we just picked and shared with each other. If I was working, she picked them. If she was busy with other things, I picked them. We just shared the bounty. We liked it that way.

I've picked blueberries several times this past week, and I can't help but remember some of those berry-picjing times we had together. I like to get out there pretty early before it gets too hot.

Today I thought back to one time when, while I was still just a kid, I asked her if picking the blueberries "hurt" the bushes.

"No, baby," GG replied, "it lets them know you're interested in the berries."

Another memory was brought to mind when I saw the old family beach cottage for sale in a coastal real estate magazine..for a staggering $575,000! The beach house was built by Grandaddy Sterling Harrison with some help from the family back about 1970. Grandaddy bought us grandkids small round Panasonic AM radios for helping..they were called Panapet 70s. I still have mine, and it still works!! (Of course, I used mine to listen to country music on WJOE out of Port St. Joe, Fla.)

I still love lots of things about summer. Jumping in the small, but refreshing, inflatable above-ground pool; reading and/or writing in the swing; going barefoot for days at a time; making ice cream (although we no longer have to hand-crank it!) and of course..berry picking!

Hey, have a great summer!

Dear Marketer..

Sometimes I think the marketing world gives itself black eyes.

After all, how many times have you read an ad that goes something like this:

"Real Home Based Business! Make money while watching TV in your pajamas! If you can lick a stamp, you can earn money with us..blah blah blah.."

Does anyone actually believe those ads? They may respond, yes, but do they believe them?

The closest company I ever discovered to be close to this scenario was Easy Life Marketing, although it was a commission mailing program that did not advertise itself like this. I did some mailings for Easy Life in 2004 and yes, earned a few thousand dollars. I was quite disappointed when they closed their mailing program down that fall.

They have recently relaunched their mailing program and, yes, Pro Results Advertising is a part of the new effort. A test mailing went out this past Friday, so I'll be interested in watching their results.

I used to often wish there actually WAS a company that would pay home mailers. If such a business actually existed, I would imagine they'd have more applicants than they could ever use.

I believe commission mailing is as close to that as you can get. I've done commission mailings that didn't produce results at all; then on the other hand, at one time, I made hundreds of dollars a month with Easy Life.

I'd be interested in hearing any positive experiences from others.

Nice Surprise

I got a pleasant surprise earlier this week when a young fellow that I'm quite fond of came to visit for a couple of days.

Aaron is now 7, a bundle of energy and always on the go.

Technically, he is my step-grandson. When I married Marianne in 2001, her three children were already grown. The youngest, my stepdaughter, became Aaron's stepmother in 2002.
Now that she and Aaron's father are divorcing, Aaron is..

Wondering what to call us without getting in trouble.

See how hard all the "step" and "ex" labels get? It confuses me, for Pete's sake. I couldn't imagine being 7 and trying to sort all this stuff out.

We had a great time. Between swimming, baking homemade cookies, going out for pizza, playing checkers, making cheeseburgers, playing bat-and-ball and a one-on-one version of volleyball, the time just absolutely flew by.

I don't know what titles everyone else has come up with. I call him "Aaron" and he calls me "Alan." It seemed to work fine for us.

Aaron is a kid with major hurdles to overcome, due to his family environment. It is going to be very easy for him to be one of the "lost kids" our society seems hell-bent on creating.

I hope he always remembers that along the way, there is an..ex-step-grand..ummm..

..There is a grandpa who loves him.

MySpace..Now I've Gone and Done It..

A couple of weeks ago, my stepdaughter Rose was showing her mother and me the MySpace.com website she had created for herself. I found it rather interesting, but, not really knowing anything about it, figured it was pretty much for teens and 20-ish kids.

Until this week, when a Live365.com fellow broadcaster mentioned that he'd picked up 200 listening hours from networking his station on MySpace.

So why haven't I blogged since Tuesday? Because I've been..gulp..building a website on MySpace.

While I was there, I noticed that dozens..many dozens..of the artists I play on the radio station have established themselves already on MySpace.

The page is not complete, and I haven't uploaded a photo yet (I have to find a photo that I'm actually in, which I don't have on this particular computer)
but I guess I will.

I figure..well..if Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Faith Hill and such can be on there, I might as well join 'em.

http://www.myspace.com/radioboyalan

The Human Mind is a Strange Thing..

..Well, sometimes it is.

After receiving an email from Ben Settle (a copywriter) about running into people who were acting..strange..today, it got me to thinking.

A lot of people treated today a bit differently due to the 6/6/06 date.

I guess I didn't have time to pay much attention to it, to be honest.

For starters, this morning I had five different "lead generator" pieces to write for different internet affiliate sites.

I had a family luncheon today, which was pleasant. The lunch was better than my norm..today it was steak and Caesar salad.

In the afternoon, I had real estate "lead generators" to work on. I've had some success in this area, and have a pretty major project that I'm working on right now.

My stepdaughter Rose, and the kids, Benjamin and Daniel, came for supper and brought us Subway sandwiches. Then they went swimming.

I fixed up a little tiny radio as a nifty little gadget for my seven-year-old nephew, Dillon.

Now, I'm on the computer and blogging.

I didn't win Publishers Clearing House's sweepstakes today, but other than that, it has been a pretty darn good day, I think.

Hope yours was, as well!

Really Lame Radio Operators

In 24 years, I've come across, and done some work for, various radio station owners and operators that didn't quite "get it." But the company I'm about to tell you about today must have oatmeal mush instead of brains.

I'm talking about Kepha Communications, a party that is leasing WCVC (or, more accurately, the remains of WCVC) on 1330 AM in Tallahassee. This group is just plain inept.

First of all, when they took over, the previous Christian teaching and talk shows were all cancelled. Kepha put on EWTN, but without any kind of business plan.
They don't sell advertising. They don't have enough listeners to gather listener support. They don't even put the station on the air..lately, it's been pretty much off for over two weeks.

Their studio was burglarized, with most of the equipment taken. They don't keep a live person at the station during business hours.

For this they pay $6000 a month, plus another thousand to rent the tower.

Not that I really care, because satellite talk Catholic programming doesn't appeal to me, but, Kepha, what is your goal? To reach the community with programming? To tie up the frequency so no one else can try something that might work?

It only bothers me because several times a week I get a call asking "Are they on the air?" Even when they are, they run at an odd power level, making their signal so unlistenable it's not funny. I can sometimes make out voices through the static, and realize they are actually on.

This can only be described as "lame." Glad I'm not associated with Kepha. I'd be totally ashamed to admit it if I were.

Also, Hank-FM, the variety hits station at 99.9, has one atrocious liner. The song "When You Say Love" plays, but with "Hank FM" or "99.9" spoken over every part of the song when the word "love" should be. Sounds horrible, folks.

Sometimes I almost like Hank-FM but their music mix is just missing..something. I don't know what. I worked for a variety hits station in 1979 and loved it, but Hank just misses having that special sound, or whatever it is. I hope you find it along the way there, Hank-FM.

Family Reunion Pictures and Website

Last summer, my wife Marianne and I, along with her children Rose and Robby, travelled to Madisonville, Tennessee for the Barton Family Reunion.

The reunion was held at Marianne's parents home, which is a lovely two-story house. They have enclosed the swimming pool area, as you will see.

For those of you who don't personally know me, I'm the guy in the blue and white striped shirt.
Marianne's in the purple tank top.

Tim and Christine created this site:

http://www.bartonfamilysite.com/

Enjoy!

June 1..Means Revised Goal Setting Time

I'm not so sure what, if anything is significant about June 1..I guess any first-of-the-month, any month, would have worked for this particular endeavor.

I've totally revamped my business goals.

Originally written last year, my goal sheet was ambitious..but impractical. I didn't figure out smaller goals, or milestones, on the way to reaching the big
goals I had set at the top.

I'm setting out parts of it for the world to see. And I'll report back how its going along the way..kind of like a public report card. That alone is enough to keep me pluggin' along!

My first-level goal, is income from copywriting/marketing at $1000 a month.
Now, that doesn't sound like much, and it really isn't, but in May I made approximately $164. I want to get to the $1k a month within three months.

From that point on, I've mapped out a steady, progressive climb until one year from now..June 1, 2007..my goal is to be at the six-figure level..which averages out to $400 a day in income.

Knowing my personality, if it is of the get-financially-free-now plan, it's too overwhelming for me to tackle and I get discouraged.

All right, there's my goal, in a nutshell. The actual business plan is, of course, much more complicated, as it goes into more detail..writing x amount of sales letters and websites, direct mail, internet marketing..etc.

As with any business plan, the results come from taking action steps that get you where you want to go. Back to work now...