Irony of the digital age: everyone can publish, but (big surprise) not that much is worth our attention. In addition to real substance and message, you still need talent, a team, vision and money to rise above the noise. Instant access to everyone-everywhere, like me typing in this blog, is fantastic, but in our business you still need to put on THE SHOW  --and have it carried in places where real listeners congregate. ...

So here's what is happening. Priority One to relaunch the show on the airwaves. Livestreaming did not work out for a number of reasons.  The bottom line is that producing our show for the Web takes nearly as much production and preparation effort as for radio, for an audience a fraction of the size. Not a strong persuader when it comes to seeking sponsors and underwriters. So- we are looking for a new home on the air. Our preference is to secure a Northern California FM station, and be on the air by February 1.  Once a flagship is in place we will seek other community stations to expand our coverage.

The show will be a new version of the program we ran last year on Green960. We learned much during that year, and will make a few tweaks, but we believe in the main that the format is a good fit for Angie and satisfying (entertaining, informative, fun) for the audience.

We have a new studio, our own, in Berkeley. It's no Bloomberg Media Center, but there is a proper studio and adjacent control room that will allow us to have Angie, the guests, and a production staff together in a comfortable and professional environment. It also is built as a broadcast hub, allowing Angie to work remotely (live) which we plan to do more of in the new session.

Business structure and budget:  LFTLC will soon be filing for non-profit status, and we will be raising private funds to help cover production costs during the first half of 2011.  If you would like to contribute, or know someone who might, contact me at gordon [at] lftlc [dot] com. We are planning to have the $84k fund closed by January, 2011.  Let me also say THANK YOU to our patient subscribers, who, on faith, have stuck with us during the down time.  We appreciate it-- you have paid for the continuation of this website and the equipment for the new studio.

Last year was a terrible time to find sponsors, this year looks better.  The malaise of uncertainty about the economy seems to be lifting, and although peak advertising rates may have come and gone, even modest sponsor dollars can go a long way with our show--- LFTLC is lean and mean!

We are optimistic.  After enormous turmoil, radio is settling down.  It is not going away.  It is perhaps less dominant than before, but a solid core audience prefers it over other channels.  That of course does not rule out the Web or mobile or any other pipeline, but we will be focusing on broadcast, creating for broadcast, seeking our audience through broadcast, and believe truly that it is viable. 

Radio-- quality Radio is important for the health of our democracy.  And it's important for us individually, for entertainment, information and sense of community.  There's nothing quite like it-- you could say Radio is must-have as a quality-of-life factor.  That's what we believe.  And that's where we intend to be.