Editor’s Note

I was talking with a good friend who is not in this biz the other day. The conversation turned to how something of real quality can be overshadowed by lesser competitors because the people with the power to “make it happen” can’t see what is standing right in front of them. 

And where do we go from here?

There is a bunch of stuff in this issue about the current obstacles facing the live event audio community regarding wireless communications, and if you are not really well-versed in what is going on and what is likely coming up, it may seem like we are talking out of an orifice that is usually reserved for expelling material other than speech.

Here we go again, he can’t come up with something coherent to write about so he is going to throw together a bunch of random crap. Geez, why can’t this guy be all intellectual and organized like that guy who runs the magazine for the squints?

Because I can’t, that’s f#&%ing why so just shut up and deal with it.

OK, now where was I? Oh yeah random stuff…

It’s a much scarier thought for me than it is for Jenna Fischer

I was reading the most current issue of Wired the other day and was struck by something they called “radical transparency” — the notion of being totally open and honest with your customers as a way of inspiring loyalty. (It is very much an extension of the kind of bottom-up hierarchy that I discovered in the books Out of Control and The Cluetrain Manifesto, both of which I wrote about a good two years ago.)

By this point in time I must seem to be the guy who insists on flailing the long-since deceased steed, but I have always been one to say what I think. Evidently I don’t think about a lot of different things because I sat down at the computer with the intention of revisiting a subject I have expounded on several times in the past. But instead, I’ll just touch on it and move on.

I hate bad service. No, I mean REALLY hate it. There is little that makes me angrier than paying for goods or services only to be abused or ignored by the person doling out said good or service.

I have had a few radically differing service experiences lately — none really connected to our industry, but I still think they make an important point.

First, I had a major appliance just stop working. It was, of course, a couple of months out of the warranty period. I called the repair line for the brand, and we made an appointment for the next day with a three hour window. I made arrangements to work from home for the morning and set up a couple of meetings for the afternoon. About 20 minutes before the end of that window, I got a call from the tech saying he was a little behind but would be there shortly. He finally arrived almost five hours after the agreed-upon time window. Then he ran a few tests and told me that the repair cost was roughly double the cost of a similar brand new unit. Then he "did me a favor" and did not charge me for the service call that he was five hours late for.

One thing out of the way right from the start: Yes, this is another special House of Worship issue. Yes, the desire to do these is driven by the business folks who feel they can sell more advertising because — unlike a lot of other venues — churches are still spending money on audio gear. But, if I did not truly believe that we were bringing something of value to the table for the READERS of FOH, I would stomp my feet and hold my breath and scream and yell (quite a feat to do all at once) and likely end up fired for refusing to be a "team player."

We have trod upon this ground before, but I keep seeing things that make me remember that it is not usually the big expensive whatever that sends a show south. It is usually something small that just got overlooked. Here are a few recent examples.

The first was a bonehead move on my part. I was playing out and trying to get a good audio recording of the gig for demo purposes, and do so without having to ask the house sound guy to change anything he was used to doing or use any unfamiliar gear. A lot of thought and wiring went into building a rack that could feed the house, provide our PM mix (which actually freed up the house guy who had been running mains and two monitor mixes from a sideof- stage position) and feed an Alesis HD24. Got it all done, but failed to really think through the internal routing of the mixer until — of course — I was driving home from the gig. So I ended up with a pretty unusable recording. At least I know how to do it right for next time. I think. Ask me when I get home from that one.

OK, here it comes again. As we approach the end of the year, I find myself with a tendency to get Serious. Sorry, it's a character defect that I continue to work on, to little avail.

While I want to review the year and take some time to reflect and be grateful, it is an insanely busy time of the year. Here at Timeless World Headquarters, we are up to three monthly magazines (FOH, PLSN and Stage Directions) plus the annual Event Production Directory. (By the way, that little reference guide that so many of us turn to in time of need is finally going electronic as well as print. That's good news — especially for those of you who spend significant time on the road — but it is a hellacious amount of work to get it into the new format.) Plus, I have a couple of side projects (including trying to front a large band again — just how stupid am I?) that make time even tighter.

No, it's not the name of the next band you'll be working with or even a way of looking at the future of analog consoles. I saw that phrase on the cover of a magazine recently. It was a teaser to an interview with the publisher of Wired Magazine, and it referred to the entire idea of print publishing — from its efficiency as a way to disseminate information in a timely manner, to its effectiveness for advertisers seeking to get their stuff seen by the right audience. The phrase has stuck with me because it does a great job of describing the way I have felt but have been unable to express well for the past decade-plus.

Can it actually be? Four years have passed since the first time I filled this space. Back in October of 2002 the industry was still reeling from the aftershocks of 9/11, and the consolidation that has been a part of everyday life lately was just beginning. The last thing anyone wanted (especially in the manufacturing community) was another magazine.

And yet…

So let's take a look at what has changed in the past four years. The upper end of the

I have now rewritten this column three times. Every time I try I end up covering too much ground and just rambling. This is the last shot. In the past few months I have been involved in a number of conversations and situations that all forced the same basic question: What is news?

The easy answer is to quote Reuven Frank, the one-time head of NBC news who said, "NEWS is what someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising." That statement is at once overly broad, confrontational, outmoded and completely true. And smart marketers both know and take advantage of it.