The Skinny White Boy KastPod

Not that there is anything wrong with changing your company name, I quite happily work for a company that has changed its name three times in the last six years. I am not complaining. But it is what that name-change represents that makes it a good thing… or not. You may know that PodShow, the company owned by Adam Curry and a fellow by the name of Ron Bloom, officially changed its name to Mevio, a name that seems to be created by the same random password generator that forces us to remember things like @fE37>b, but what does this name shift give us?

As far as I am concerned, BIG, FAT LIES! I have always been skeptical of the activities of Curry and cohorts. I am naturally paranoid, so that is just me, but I was absolutely floored when I read what Ron Bloom had to say in one of the company’s own press releases. Here, Mister Bloom is quoted as saying “We have never believed in user-generated content as a business, or even as a sustainable entertainment offering.”

Excuse me? This is coming from the CEO of a company that up until 2 days ago was ALL about user generated content. What about giving us the means to “quit your day job”? Setting up a music network so us amateurs didn’t have to pay ridiculous fees to play music in our podcasts? That’s all just down the drain now? Because we have “never believed in user-generated content”?

Mister bloom is sadly at odds with… wait for the drum roll… Himself! On his own web site (www.ronbloom.com) he is proudly claiming to be the author of the media’s 5/50 rule. As he puts it, “Within 5 years over 50% of all media consumed will be created by other consumers.”

Yeah, Yeah, I know. The former and latter statement are not mutually exclusive. Nonetheless you can’t help feeling like you just got kicked in the nuts. I have never believed that creating a podcast from your basement or back room can get you famous or even financially independent. And even that is strictly personal. I know others have done it. But they have been feeding the quit your day job line to 1000’s of people for several years. And now they are quitting what many perceived to be their day job. Feel left out in the cold? You should! I will quite happily turn over and go back to sleep. I never bought into their bullshit anyway, but maybe someone should ask the 25% of their work-force they just canned what they think about the name change.

The gasoline prices in this part of the country are around 3.20 (in USD) on a good day and about 3.40 in the “nice part of town”. Before my European friends start shouting, yes I know that is still only one fourth of what you pay out there, but that’s not what this is about. You have a budget, and when an essential ingredient of your daily life hikes up with about 30 percent, it’s gonna hurt. Whether you live in the US (where the gasoline prices are still ridiculously low) or in Europe where these prices are insanely high (by comparison).

Anyway, back to those rising fuel prices. You can’t turn the radio or TV on or there are people on talking about. It should come as no surprise then that I am also finding it in personal blogs. One idea that keeps circulating around the soc-nets and blogs is that consumers should force the price back down. The idea is simple…

If enough people avoid buying gas from one oil company, that company will be forced to lower their prices. At that point the other distributors will have to follow suit to stay competitive.

As with most things that sound to good to be true, this is another one of them. My apologies to people that think this can work. Surprise, surprise, I disagree. Matter of fact, I think you are nuts!

First of all there is the issue of mobilizing enough bodies. That’s hard work! For instance. Earth Hour is organized by an extremely professional bunch. They buy TV ads, space in the news paper, banner ads, you name it they’ve done it. And after all that, did I see any lights off on my evening walk? Not any more than usual. Furthermore, whether it’s a group of professionals or grass-roots type folks. Try putting one ad in the paper to boycott Exxon (or Shell, or Texaco, or, or, or). They will slap a lawsuit on you so quick you can’t even blink, keep you in court for years and drain you financially.

But even if you overcome that hurdle… You have to ask yourself: Where does this company get barrels of crude oil? Do they own their own oil fields? And if so, do they produce enough of it to turn it into fuel for your car? The price of a barrel of oil is a complicated matter. It’s not just controlled by the oil mogul you are boycotting. And by the way, if the oil company slashes their price for fuel, you may have just put your local filling station out of business. Gas stations make only a few cents per gallon. That’s why there is always a giant store behind it where they sell a bunch of other things. You can’t survive selling gas at retail prices. You need the up-sell, the cup of coffee, the donut, the pack of gum to make real money. As a gas station owner you have to sell fuel at a certain price. This is made up by what the oil company charges and what the competitor down the street is doing. If the retailer just had the tanks under his store filled for the whole sale price of 3.10 a gallon and the oil company decides to lower the price to three dollars, the poor guy now has to sell the remaining gasoline with a 10 cent loss.

Then there is the reaction of buyers to the changing prices. Say your boycotted filling station is going to lower their price by ten cents. With gas prices soaring, people who typically buy another brand of fuel are going to switch. So yes, the other brands will have to follow suit to stay competitive. But once they do, the playing field is leveled out again and now we are right back where we started. Again, that is assuming you can mobilize enough people to boycott the station of your choice.

But bigger than all that, transportation is one of the largest industries. Air, rail, road, water… They all need to “gas up”. the companies that transport goods (or people for that matter) are already seeing their profits diminishing. You yourself are feeling the effects when you go grocery shopping. Your dollar isn’t just going as far anymore. The stuff that goes into your cart is simply more expensive to ship to you. And while you may be able to pump your gas anywhere you want, A trucking company has far fewer options. Telling a truck driver he has to go 20 miles out of his way because he isn’t allowed to fuel up on brand X, is simply not viable. The truck now uses more gasoline to travel the same route, the driver will be on the road longer (and thus have to be paid more) and that 18-wheeler will put more polutants in the air. Surely we don’t want that!

If you want the gas prices to go down, you gotta stop wasting it. Buy a more fuel-efficient automobile. Stop spending billions of dollars topping of the tanks of Hummers in foreign desserts. In other words: end the war in Iraq. Sell of less of our own oil supplies to foreign nations and thereby become less dependent on foreign sources of the stuff. If you really want gas prices to come down, the smartest thing you can do is go vote!

So… I get this email from PodShow (www.podshow.com). This was on January 20th of this year. Yeah I missed it. It was buried under 500 spam messages in my gmail account. Turns out some other podcast played a tune by skinny ole me!

In an episode of my own podcast, way way way back, I played the opening notes of Amazing Grace. I was just doodling around on my guitar. Gobs of distortion and soaked in reverb, I recorded it. And then used it in the Kastpod. So, as a joke I dropped it on the podsafe music network. And lo and behold, another podcaster played it. Woooohooooo! The Narangba Baptist Church in Queensland Australia has a podcast (they did 100’s of them!) and they used it in episode #253. Go here: http://www.narangbabaptist.org.au/ and check it out (It’s all the way at the end).

Kind of ironic, as irreverent I am, but I am honored nonetheless… Thanks guys!