They just called me from "Marketplace".  They wanted some quotes on the new Michael Jackson album.

You know it will sell because of pent-up demand, because he died, because it’s the fourth quarter, but that’s not why I’m writing this.

Almost two years ago, I got a phone call from Laura Sydell, asking me to go on the record re YouTube.  We’d worked together before.  She called and I gave her quotes.  This time she asked me to go to Culver City, to the NPR studio, to ensure pristine audio quality.  She said it was a major story, I ultimately agreed.  Told her I’d meet her there.

That’s when Laura told me she’d be in San Francisco.  That she wasn’t going to the studio.

I live half an hour away in traffic.  Would Irving Azoff go to Culver City?  Michael Rapino?  Jimmy Iovine?  I expressed reservations, told her I wouldn’t do it, but I’d be glad to do it as usual, on the phone.

She got someone else.  He wasn’t much of an authority, but he’d go to Culver City.  Which begs the question of the authority of those who do go on the record.  Turn on the TV, you’ll see professional pundits pontificating, but they rarely have a true power base, they’re just talking.  Those truly making the decisions?  You can’t get them to go on the record.

And you can’t get me to go on the record much anymore either.  Because there’s not that much of a benefit.  I get quoted in "The New York Times" and I don’t get one e-mail.  But when I’m on NPR…

With her dander up, Laura Sydell informed me how many people listened to NPR, that public radio news reached more people than TV news. That nearly twenty million people tuned in.

I checked this out.  Laura was right.

Whenever I’m on NPR, I hear about it multiple times, for months thereafter.  From people I haven’t seen since college, from people who care not a whit about the music business.  My mother will call and say her octogenarian friends heard me testifying.  Which is all a long story to tell you when NPR comes-a-knockin’, SAY YES!

NPR may not get the ink, but it’s got the power.  It’s got an active intellectual audience that digests stories and acts on them.  My physical therapist could not be less clued in when it comes to popular culture, but a few weeks back she started talking all about the Keith Richards book…   She heard about it on NPR!

In an era of chaos, when a late night TV appearance means almost nothing, you’re better off focusing on your fans than taking the shotgun approach, utilizing multiple media outlets to try and reach people who ultimately don’t care.  Look at it this way, how often do you see Rush on TV, in the newspaper?  But Rush can outsell Katy Perry live any day of the week.  Katy Perry is a star in the media, but in the real world, not so much.

The news king in the real world, bigger than any Top Forty station, bigger than Fox News, is NPR.  They can put your band on the radar. Coverage on NPR has impact.