The Final Project

The ‘ship,  is over and I have now been at school for about a week.

I just wanted to write a quick post about the final project Caitlin and I did. It was a viral marketing campaign to promote the return of some of the more prominent DJs to Kansas City.

Phase one of this campaign involved creating a bunch of fake websites. We made a site for a stint one of the DJs Afentra does called War of the Roses. She uses a fake floral company in this stint called Flowers by Viviano. To promote the Church of Lazlo afternoon program we made a Church site that had a google map for area churches. We also promoted another sting called generation gap. Clicking through the images on that site revealed the DJs. Other sites were some forums like goddammitkc.com (goddammit is a common phrase of Lazlo’s and he is the primary DJ) and listennowkc.com. We had a countdown to the return on listenkc.com. These sites had hidden graphics and audio clips of the DJs.

All the sites linked to each other through fake advertisements or hidden links. Connecting many of the sites was this fake character we made called the Angry Bee (bee because the station is the Buzz). The Bee had a youtube.com channel, facebook, blogs and myspace. We even made fake pages for a fake stalker of the bee.

Another way we promoted the sites was by putting fake advertisements on the radio and in the local newspapers. We also made handouts with links to the sites. For example, we sent people to the flowers page by having the bee hand out flowers. We had nuns handing out churchkc.com flyers. We made CDs with tracks by Lazlo’s cohost Slimfast to promote listennowkc.com. We had bumper stickers for goddammitkc.com

The last phase was to have 96.5 the Buzz’s website link to these pages. This project was meant to get people excited and based off of site hits, it worked. Granted, there was an issue where an on-line radio station DJ tried to mess with the project to promote his own station, but competition is a part of life. It is a shame that this harmless project was attacked by anyone, though.

Just for fun here are my favorite bee videos:

 Wake up with the Bee

 Here we attack a rival radio station’s van.

-Bethany

Bethany – New Friends, Old Friends; New Responsibilities, Old Responsibilities

The ‘Ship is winding down. Caitlin has left already, as have pretty much all the other interns. I, however, I have my last day tomorrow. I was trying to see our project through to the end. As of Monday (8/25), the project will be completed and I will be free to fully describe what I’ve been doing the last month for it. For now, I have a few other side things that I’ve done that I can talk about.

I really feel like I became part of a family working in the promotions department. Coming back for visits, hanging out with these people and possibly applying for a job at the end of the school year are definitely going to happen. I had a blast helping out at the free concert series at KCP&L, the Speedway remote, other concerts, office work and just about anything in general. I regret that it took the entire summer before I started hanging out with station people outside of work. I went to advanced movies with the station, the Pitch Awards, Worlds of Fun and out to bars. Granted many of the hang outs happened because we got freebies from work, but it was a blast nonetheless.

So, I think the people in charge of promotions really like me. One of the staffers, AJ, told me I should be really proud that Jen put me in charge of some of the things she did because interns never got to do that. For example, this past Monday, I was in charge of a meet and greet for My Morning Jacket. My Morning Jacket is a band that is played on the Buzz and I am a huge fan. Consequently, I was very excited.

I swung by the station around 4 p.m. to grab banners for the venue and contact information for the band and the winners. I then went to the Uptown Theatre where my good friend, Cailan O’Grady, and station friend, AJ, helped banner while I dealt with the meet and greet.

I felt very VIP, I tried to get in the front entrance, but it was locked, so I walked down by the tour busses and told the security we were with the station and he let us right in. Once inside, I called Eric Mayers, the tour manager and let him know I was there. He invited me on to the main floor and gave me the rundown of the meet and greet. He was super busy, but still very sweet in taking time to introduce himself in that manner. He gave me a pile of pre-signed posters for the winners and the station at this time, too. We agreed I would call once I had the winners assembled.

Next step was waiting outside for the winners. I was rocking out the Buzz t-shirt, so they found me quite readily. They were all really curious about my role at the Buzz, which again let me feel more important than I actually am. Ah, the VIP life. Once the group of about 14 was assembled, I brought them inside the venue where I called Eric and he brought the band out on to the stage for sound check. Now I’ve been to sound checks before and they can be less than stellar, but this wasn’t a sound check. It was more like a private concert. They played like five or six songs with lights and everything. In between, Jim James would ask us if we had any questions, etc. Once they were done, all the guys came down to shake hands and take pictures. They were very polite and amazing to hear. Lastly, I handed out posters and ushered everybody out.

The winners at the sound check party

A full review of the show is over at popwreckoning.com

That’s all for now. Tomorrow is my last day.   😦  

I’ll explain the big project next week.

-Bethany

cdean – Winding Down

Sorry for the lack of updates. B mentioned that we’re working on a DL project, so there hasn’t been much I can post on here.

I will say that I have learned so much from my work with Entercom. It’s really been in the last few weeks that lessons from my experience here have started coming together. This might be because I’ve only recently started thinking about what ‘promotions’ means. I’m usually a reporting girl, and the goals on this end are very different. I’m working to connect with people. I want to make sure they enjoy our work and that they have fun with it. I’ve had some great chances lately to work with that…but more to come on that in a few weeks…. 🙂

There are a lot of really serious lessons that have come from this internship. For more on those, though, just read B’s post below this. She really hit everything spot on (and we had a looong discussion about it earlier today!).

Other than that, summer is wrapping up for me (already?!). This Friday I leave for Kville to spend a week putting out the first issue of The Index for Frosh Week. I’m pretty excited – this year I’ll be co-assistant editing the news section with John, working under the lovely JRapp as our section editor. John gets stuck working deadline nights and doing page layouts. Meanwhile, I’ll be working with the News Reporting class. In a nutshell, they (I think there are 18 of them?!) send me story ideas once a week. I share these ideas with the News section at our Sunday night meetings and assign stories to the Reporting kids during their class on Mondays. I help them get going on contacts and angles, and match each student up with a coach. Every editor or assistant editor on the Index staff has two or three coachees. It’ll be a lot of work but really fun. I can’t wait to start working with them!

Sadly, my work with them is put off a bit, as I’ll spend the first two weeks of classes in Denver and Minneapolis for the Democratic and Republican National Conventions! I’m going with The Washington Center, and will be working with a media source (will find out which one once I hit Denver on the 17th!) to cover the conventions. Should be fun! Then I start classes Sept. 8 and I’ll hit the ground running, yikes. Luckily I’ve already started some of my work for my senior seminar, which should be the most time-consuming class this semester. British/Irish Comedy? Nooo problem. Oscar Wilde, here I come.

So, not too internship-oriented…but still communication, so still pretty exciting…right? Ish?

Be the change you wish to see in the world,
Caitlin

Learning Life Lessons

We’ve been working on a special project down at the station and we can’t really go into too much detail about it just yet. Hence, the lack of updates.

I am really glad I did this internship because I have been learning valuable life lessons that I wouldn’t necessarily pick up in the protective bubble of college. This internship has fluctuated from really great to times where I’ve questioned the point. This project has especially been full of these flip flops.

As I look over the project I am thankful for the downs because I think I get the most out of emerging from difficulty than having everything handed to me. The first main problem I encountered was the issue of working in a group of people and running into corporate barriers. You learn your limits fast and you must learn to quickly work around them. Also, it can be frustrating to feel unappreciated for your work in a large group like that, but you have to realize that the others in the group aren’t going to see every little thing you do to praise you for it all. You just pucker up and keep doing your best. Appreciate yourself.

The second issue I encountered is sometimes the work you do can make another person feel threatened. At school, we learn to be careful in our stories so we don’t get caught up for legal issues, but nothing has really prepared me for what to do when somebody takes your work and goes after you personally. I might have expected this at something like a tabloid, but not in this field. But again, you learn to adapt. I was very surprised that anybody could take offense at the harmless project we were working on. It was just in good fun. Not meant to really do anything extreme.

So, it is a shame that somebody would feel the need to inappropriately go after the project by resorting to childish tactics. It makes me sad that some middle-aged man would even feel so threatened by our work that he would even go after this blog. This blog is our own free work. Entercom never asked us to write a blog. This is simply to turn into professors, so they know we aren’t goofing off the entire summer. It is not a part of the web of our project.

Life lessons: people can be very petty, so deal. You just have to deal with it and not lose hope in an entire work field just because you meet one or two people who don’t meet up to your own work ethics and expectations.

cdean – Check it, KC Vinyl Lovers

The former owner of The Music Exchange (Westport, KCMO) recently passed away, leaving behind a vinyl collection of a quarter million albums – one of the largest in the country. His family will hold an auction (Saturday, 10 AM) and sale of the albums (beginning today).

The Music Exchange is located at 1413 West 13th Terrace.

Check out KMBC 9 News for more information.

cdean – Buzz video blog

Last week we shot our first Buzz video blog. It’s a bit rough – and my computer compressed it into a rather grainy format…my iMovie skills need some work still I guess – but let us know what you think! 🙂

Love,
Caitlin

cdean – Network

We will shoot our first video blog tonight, an SNL ‘Weekend Update’ type of thing. Very excited. I think we are onto something good with this. 🙂

Yesterday was pretty frustrating at the ‘ship. B and I were selecting stories and deciding on the best order for our ‘news broadcast’ (Media Writing pays off once again!), but there were tons of things that needed to be done around the office, so we kept getting called away from our work. One of the tasks given to us was to drive over to Westport to pick up food for the band Alter Bridge, which came and played live in the 98.9 The Rock studio. They had a show last night with Staind and Hinder that we promoted, so they swung by the station! It was monsooning outside when we left, so B and I used the pink umbrella we found last week in the storage closet! I actually got to meet two of the band members later in the afternoon, just because I happened to be hanging around outside the studio waiting to carry their equipment back to their tour bus.

Tomorrow night I’m helping banner at the Snoop Dog and 311 show (yeah, odd combo sort of), then I get to attend a meet and greet with 311! This is pretty cool because they are only doing ONE meet and greet this entire tour, and we’re it. Jenn set it up because Sam is a HUGE 311 fan. Mostly I’m just excited to see how stoked Sam is to meet her boys.

It’s really cool how many people I’m meeting by working here. Yesterday afternoon on the way home we stopped by an office building in downtown KC to drop off a framed poster. The poster was signed by every band from Rockfest, and Jenn wanted to send it over to a man at AEG (Anschutz Entertainment Group) who played a huge role in putting Rockfest together. I was only in the office for a few minutes, but it seemed like it would be an interesting place to work. I like that even though I’m interning in broadcast promotions, and I’m probably not interested in pursuing a career in this specific area, I keep meeting people and learning about other areas of the communication industry that might be beneficial to me in the future. This really is a field where who you know matters a lot. Once people know you and know what you can do, they remember you when a need for someone with your skills comes up. Plus, there are so many possible jobs that I never would have known existed or are needed had I not met the right people.

Plus, now I know that wherever I work, I want a window office on the 30th floor. AEG has quite the view.

cdean – Rockin’

Only four or five weeks left with the internship – how did that happen?! It feels like I’m just getting the hang of things and being trusted with some awesome projects. Not only am I down about our time quickly drawing to a close, I’m worried I won’t have enough time to bring some projects to full fruition.

A couple weeks ago, Bethany and I were asked if we would be interested in launching this site on a bigger scale – like redesigning it and hosting it on The Buzz’s home page as ‘The Buzz Bloggers’ or something. Jen suggested we do a video blog with it. We were told to do anything we’d like with it, just make it fun. We’ve come up with some ideas that could work really well, but it’s so hard to be free at the same time, much less make it out to record and then edit, et cetera. We need to get on it soon, though, because I don’t want to let this chance pass me by….

Things that have been getting done though include a lot of smaller projects around the office. As Bethany mentioned awhile back, I learned how to write copy for on-air promos. AJ has said I can help him soon with writing on-air promos for charities, so I’m looking forward to that. Writing the copy, which I spent weeks learning how to do last semester, is actually the easiest part. There are so many stipulations to meet and rules to follow, from the number of times a promo needs to be played to making sure no laws are broken (especially if alcohol is in any way involved). Plus everything must be written, recorded and produced by a certain date, and entered into Marketron, and then scheduled into the day’s programming. My head swims just thinking about it….

Last week I was recorded for a commercial to play on The Rock. I don’t really listen to that station much (I’m more of an alternative girl), so I’ll probably never hear it, but it’s cool nonetheless!

I suppose that’s about it. Today I started another job working at a gymnastics school, plus I’m starting to prepare for an awesome trip at the end of August/beginning of September – I’ll be attending the Democratic and Republican national conventions! It’s an awesome opportunity, and hopefully I’ll be blogging about that (here or elsewhere) more as it draws near, plus during the actual events of course.

Happy Monday!
-Caitlin

Bethany – Super Busy, But Still Working Hard

Sorry for the lack of posts.  Even though the large events like Rockfest are over, things have still been busy at the stations.  Sure, we still get our busy work assignments like continuing with the blue sheets, calling winners, prepping the station vans, but they are also talking to us about individual projects to start.

Caitlin and I went in to talk to Jen, the head hauncho of the promotions department.  She recommended since we were more news focused that we should create accounts at allaccess.com which has the earliest updates with anything going on in radio.  It even has a job market section, so it will be a useful tool after graduation.

Then she discussed how she thought an interesting project for us would be if we expanded this blog into a more webisode focused design.  She wants us to make hilarious videos about the buzz.  We can use the station’s hd camera, green screen and editing equipment.  Caitlin and I are working out our proposal for the first of our videos.

Apparently Jen wants us to do it because she thinks we understand the buzz listener better than anybody else.  Now we can’t let her down.

Aside for that, We’ve taken a small break from remotes.  We helped out at Ford Demo Days, which basically had us working sign-ups and putting flyers on cars to have people come test drive Ford vehicles on the race track.  At the end of the day we actually got to drive on the track.  Caitlin drove the largest vehicle on the track, a Ford 350, which I thought was hilarious.

Caitlin drives the monstrous six-wheeled truck on the Kansas Speedway

Wednesday, July 2, I went to Warped Tour.  I think I really confused the people from the station because I was there to work as press for PopWreckoning and I kept running in to people confused as to why I wasn’t bannering.  I think I worked harder than the station people that day though, because I conducted six interviews during Warped.

On July 5, there was top secret event that I showed up to work.  However, once I got to the station instead of working, they had a limo pick us up to take us to the Chris Rock show.  They provided beer in the limo to loosen us up for the comedy.  It was just the station’s way of saying thanks.  It was really fun and a good bonding experience with the other interns.  One of them, Ted, said he wants a guest column on this blog, so maybe you’ll see Ted’s Corner soon.

That’s all for now.  Caitlin starts a different schedule this week, so Team Awesome is breaking up to a certain extent.  She is still working Tuesday with me, but instead of Thursday, she’ll be at the station on Friday.  Sadness.  Oh well, I’ll still see her at the Snoop Dog/311 concert Thursday.  And I’ll probably still see her practically every night because we are besties and hang out even if it isn’t for the stations.

-Bethany

Bethany – Feeling Blue? Meet Copy

Things have been fairly chill since Rockfest.  Many of the tasks have been things I’ve done before, but there were a few new things this week.

First new thing: blue sheets.  I guess it is that time of the year for the station to get things in order for an audit, and to do this requires blue sheets.  Basically, I enter information into the computer about every album or single the station has been given for research purposes.  Not very exciting, but rather important.

The other new thing: editing copy.  Finally, what Caitlin’s been waiting for.  I had no idea how intense the process was to make a 15 second commercial.  sales has to get in touch with the client, see how much money they can get from them based off of a proposal for a commercial length.  The price also depends on who would say the commercial and when it would air.

Promotions, our department, gets a sheet with all the information that is supposed to be included in the commercial and we cut it down to the appropriate time length and fix up the little spiel for the DJ like “Brian here.  Feeling dehydrated then join me at blahety blah for some nice Vitamin Water.”  Short, mentions the location, person speaking and the item being promoted.

Apparently there are a lot of weird liquor rules that you have to watch out for and even though a company like Miller is one of our biggest sponsors, we have to be really careful about mentioning them on air.  We have to be extra cautious if they are involved in an event in Kansas that we are promoting.

Finally, you enter this into marketron so the DJ can cut the copy and times for airing can be figured out.  It is really important to label this for the proper station so it doesn’t accidentally get aired on one of Entercom’s other stations.  It has happened before and is an embarrassing error.

I’m sure I left out some things about the process, but Caitlin should fill you in with her post.

-Bethany