Content summary: About the FIR/ATS Mashup Edition; FIR listener survey update; new FIR Speakers & Speeches podcast online; does Phillips have a PR crisis over a patent application?; Castrol’s venture into RSS advertising and podcasting; a special report on new media in The Economist this week; revisiting the Chevy Tahoe story; listeners’ comments discussion (MySpaces, agency billing, interviewing teenagers, inhospitable Starwood blog); Winners & Losers; the music.

Welcome to the FIR/ATS Mashup Edition

This is a joint FIR: The Hobson & Holtz Report and Across the Sound 94-minute podcast recorded live on April 24, 2006, with Neville Hobson (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), Shel Holtz (Concord, California, USA) and Joseph Jaffe (Westport, Connecticut, USA).

Download the file here (MP3, 38MB). You can also sign up for the RSS feeds to get it and future FIR and ATS shows automatically:

• RSS: For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report
• RSS: Across The Sound

For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as Juice, DopplerRadio, iTunes or Yahoo! Podcasts, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon.

Listen to this podcast now:

Show Notes for April 24, 2006:

Intro:

• 00:51 Neville introduces the show; what FIR and the FIR/ATS Mashup Edition are about; FIR Listener Survey update; new FIR Speakers & Speeches podcast
• 03:19 Joseph introduces the show, what Across the Sound is about; connections between us three; podcasting growth

News and Commentary:

• 07:07 Phillips Electronics’ patent filing on TV remote controls – ‘consumer revolt,’ PR implications and content-producer control
• 20:23 RSS advertising and podcasting turn Castrol USA into a media company
• 32:39 The Economist’s ‘Among the Audience‘ new media survey – 15 pages of insight into participatory communication (we think this survey is a must for your knowledge library, alongside Business Week’s ‘Blogs Will Change Your Business‘ a year ago)
• 47:54 Revisiting GM’s grassroots ad campaign for the Chevy Tahoe – an item on the ‘desperation marketing checklist’, Joseph says, where consumers are one step ahead of GM; Tac Anderson asks what’s the advice for GM?

Listeners’ Comments Discussion:

• 63:45 Tac Anderson says a platform like MySpaces would make a perfect intranet communication tool, and tells us about the launch of SisterWoman.com
• 66:40 Ed Lee has some thoughts on agency billing models
• 69:29 James Foster thinks email is a clunky communication medium, and asks whether FIR might bring together some teenagers and talk to them about how they communicate
• 70:42 Matt O’Neill offers some tips on solving Skype sound quality issues
• 71:39 Steven Fielding says the new Starwwod blog doesn’t seem very hospitable
• 73:15 Sebastian Keil suggests interviewing our kids about how they use MySpaces

Winners and Losers:

• 73:58 Winners: ATS – Chris Clarke, who found the ATS Easter egg (and Chris has a promo); FIR – TV Guide for their blog community
• 81:11 Losers: ATS – Starbucks; FIR – Apple

Outro:

• 86:39 Joseph and Shel wrap the mashup; let us know your views about today’s discussions; how and where to send your comments; please take the FIR Listener Survey; where to find the show notes
• 88:16 Outro podsafe music from the Podsafe Music Network – Magic Carpet by NewLeaf

Links for the blogs, individuals, companies and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the show are posted to the FIR Show Links pages at The New PR Wiki. You can contribute – see the home page for info. If you have comments or questions about this show, or suggestions for our future shows, email us at fircomments@gmail.com, or call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

So, until Thursday April 27…

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)