Richard Warner Online

What a day! We may see 70% of Americans vote today. Even people who aren’t politically oriented are interested and engaged, able to speak intelligently and without defensiveness about the differences in candidates and platforms.

A request here in the office: please continue to be respectful and tolerant of all viewpoints on this day and after results are tabulated. We have team members committed to both parties.

Where to watch or surf for results?

Well, Daniel has set up multiple TV sets in his home and offers this analysis:

• MSNBC, CBS and FOX news usually offer the earliest projections
• CNN is the most conservative is calling races
• Those with HD will see additional live data in the pillar boxes on CNN, ABC and MSNBC.
  

CNet, which is owned by CBS, is actually recommending Google’s live map as the best place to get breaking results. You can find it here: http://maps.google.com/help/maps/elections/#2008_election

I try to reserve my editorial on this blog for matters less personal in nature, but Best Buy has now had three strikes in my book, and they’re out. Based on my experience and the accompanying article, I am warning you about shopping there.

After the worst retail experience of my life at a Best Buy store in Atlanta last December, where an employee was so hostile and condescending, I lost my cool in public for the first time and vowed never to return.

Researching a follow up letter to the CEO, I discovered that complaints to Best Buy are so numerous, the company staffs a floor of people at its Minneapolis headquarters to field complaints (”oh, I can’t believe that happened to you!”) and mail out Best Buy gift cards to sooth angry customers. 

Shopping for a new HD set for mom and dad in recent days, I shrugged off my experience of a year ago and went to their nearby Best Buy store in northern Ohio. Well, five days after the purchase, Best Buy technicians showed up and dumped the set in my parents living room, initially even refusing to remove the old TV even though we had repeatedly requested installation. My dad is disabled; there’s no way they could have moved a 32″ Sony tube TV themselves.

And now, after charging charging my credit card twice to have the new TV set up, the company is refusing to credit the overcharge because they can’t figure out how it could appear twice on the same ticket. “You’re going to have to take it up with your bank.”

Despite Best Buy’s dominance over its hapless national competitor, the company is to be avoided. 

I mentioned an accompanying article. After serving as a business and consumer commentator on radio and TV here in Georgia for 30 years, I can honestly say this is the first time I’ve ever gone public about dissatisfaction with a company. 

Why is the name “Best Buy” a contradiction in terms? Here’s a clue. 

Gloom, doom, customers rethinking everything forcing you to do the same. Georgia Aquarium CEO Mike Leven has been in business nearly 50 years, including time at the top of Days Inns, Holiday Inn, and his own company that launched Hawthorn Suites and Microtel. He admits he hasn’t seen it this bad before. What now? “Moving quickly is a lot better than not moving.” Mike’s strategy is something for every small business owner to consider. 

• - Market aggressively.
• - Love your current customers. Over-perform for them.
• - Existing customers will be your best source of new business.
• - Don’t borrow money.
• - Be transparent with your team.
• - Don’t hire new people unless you absolutely have to. Get through it with existing staff, even if it means working longer hours.
• - If someone doesn’t “get it,” they’re gone. 

Atlanta’s alternative weekly Creative Loafing files for bankruptcy. Major cuts at the AJC. And look for Atlanta’s local TV stations’ headcounts to get whacked. The combination of declining auto dealership and retail advertising has put local media past the tipping point where the old business model is no longer sustainable and Internet advertising hasn’t begun to make up the difference. For viewers, this means seeing fewer anchors, younger reporters who shoot their own new stories, fewer stories that require deeper preparation and understanding, and more product placement like the ridiculous oversized McDonald’s french fry prop on Channel 46’s sportscasts. Media as it existed in the ’60s and ’70s is gone. Competitive newspapers have folded; thanks to deregulation, local news on the radio is all but gone except one station in a market, such as WSB AM; TV stations are about to go through a radical restructuring that will impact who you see and the quality of what’s produced. The perfect storm in 2009: recession, no political advertising, no Olympics and the conversion to digital TV in February. 

You need to sign up for this: my college buddy and game show expert Steve Beverly puts out a free daily e-newsletter about current and past TV game shows called the Daily Game Show Fox. It’s a fun read, and as always, his level is knowledge and memory is astounding. email Steve at dailygameshowfix (@) gmail.com and he’ll add you to the distribution list. 

So, UGA play by play man Larry Munson is retiring, a dark day for the Bulldog nation. What a guy! I met Larry in 1977 as news director of WRFC AM in Athens, the Bulldog football flagship station. Then we worked together at the Georgia Radio Network where he did a daily commentary for years in the ’80s. My impressions of the man:

• - Just as his on-air comments frequently revolved around shocking athlete’s salaries, in his professional life, he was uncomfortable asking for money. We frequently had to encourage him to ask for more when a sponsor requested his voice. He’s say, “$50. That’s fine.” And we’d say, “no, no, Larry, you’re worth so much more than that!”
• - In conversation, Larry talks as if he’s doing play by play. Everything sentence is short, descriptive, staccato.
• - He loves to be around women. His remarks about women can be filthy, but he isn’t dangerous. 
• - He isn’t afraid to make fun of himself. One time I had him record a message for our answering machine: “My God, leave a message when you hear that tone thing!” He did it completely in character. 

Larry is a genuine 100% original, the true test of a successful life. It’s a privilege to have worked with him. 

Had an experience this week with credit card pfishing, where a bad guy (in this case, in Kuala Lampur) used our credit card gateway (the company that processes credit card charges for banks) to rip off thousands of people. We weren’t hacked; we don’t store credit card information, nor were any of our customers ripped off.

What I learned, first of all, is how lax and even carefree the credit card processor has been about this (and in fact, the FBI tells us there are many issues with this company).

Second of all, how you must keep very, very close watch on your credit card and bank statements because once a scammer successfully accesses your account with a tiny charge (1¢), he begins charging all sorts of things until your credit limit is reached or your checking account is completely tapped.

Very scary and very stressful. 

Rolling Stone features the first in-depth interview with David Letterman in years, and I have to admire his comments about being #2 to Jay Leno (who is being forced out of the Tonight Show by NBC next May). Letterman’s comments are refreshingly honest: “I wish that we — and when I say ‘we’ I mean ‘me’ — I wish I could have prevailed.”

But Letterman concludes by saying that the reason for the ratings lies not in the local-news lead-ins of the two networks or the promotions of their shows, but in the difference between the two men. “I think he has greater appeal for more people than I do,” he said simply.

“It seems unlikely that now, after years and years of trying under a wide variety of circumstances and advantages and disadvantages, that suddenly I’m going to prevail,” Mr. Letterman said. “You can’t go through life fooling yourself. You have to be honest with the situation. That’s fine.”

I interviewed Dave in 1985 and found him to be as candid as he is here. The question to ask yourself: are you being as candid with yourself about your career as Dave?