Personality Driven Blogging In Tennessee

I see the Internet and blogging in an unusual way. When I was a teenager, I loved radio and I wanted to be a disc jockey.

And I was.

This morphed its way into doing news maybe because I could say Reagan correctly (it was during that time) so I don’t know. It was an organic thing that happened and I won’t lie, I miss radio. And it all started in Nashville winding it’s way into northwest Tennessee.

Blogging and the tubes are somewhat like personality-driven radio for me. I listened to DJs I liked who engaged me. That’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to be one of those people that made me people want to stop by on the dial.

And to a small degree, this is what I did.

I think about blogging the same way.

The reason why Brittney Gilbert was so successful at Nashville Is Talking was she had that same vibe. Adam Kleinheider did too although there styles were completely different. It was personality driven and it reminded me of my time of being enamored with radio (Stewman and I have talked about this) where our love for being in that field of communication was that is was about engaging our listeners.

I think it’s such an odd thing right now that WBIR is doing what WKRN did. Katie Allison Granju has created a personality driven (albeit more low-key) media-based blogging portal in Knoxville Talks that works but her personality does shine through her posts. It’s very similar to NiT. Different people with varying personalities engaging readership. Michael Silence balances the pragmatism of being a news man with his personality as well when he blogs.

I know that people want different things in their blogging experiences. Some people like the more clinical approach of sending and receiving information. When you think about it, we watch television in the same way. Do you watch your favorite anchors on news programs? Is Brian Williams your favorite or Keith Olbermann? Or, God forbid, Bill O’Reilly?

As a Cardinals fan, I still miss Jack Buck.

For me, this blogging thing is not my job. I do this because it amuses me. I don’t do just one thing over here. If you visit with me, you know you just might find a zombie video in one post and then me being serious about media or political stuff in another. I have no idea what it would be like to do this professionally. I’m sure in many ways it’s just as stressful as planning the radio programming I used to have to write and prepare.

I like personality. And it has been proven that it works although it may not be a money-making venture YET, but it will be or Silence and Granju wouldn’t be doing what they are doing. I started working in media when I was 19-years-old and I can tell you I’ve seen a bunch of changes come down the pike.

It’s a whirlwind and constantly morphs into something new. The Internet has everyone on their toes.

You see, I’m more engaged by Christian Grantham than I am Nashville is Talking right now although I know he’s put a ton of work into it and I respect what he’s done. I go to his personal site more than I do the work one. I relate more to our personal/professional similarities than I do to the new upgraded site. That’s not me slamming NiT. I just liked the old one better.

As an avid reader of blogs, I like personality driven. That’s why I adore Aunt B.

And I like human aggregators. I just see blogging a bit like radio. I listen/read you because I dig what you, the person, says/writes.
My two cents …