Alan Bailey - Home Page

I feel like someone just broke up with me. I'm wandering around without a sense of purpose and just viewing clips and reading articles about Conan online... in a state of denial thinking what just happened didn't actually happen.

Late night TV was always kind of a curiosity to me... almost like a temptation because I was going to bed right around when it was starting... I have quite a few fading memories of going to sleep while still hearing Johnny Carson's theme song playing on the (black & white) TV in the kitchen while my Dad watched it (or just had it in the background). Of course sometimes I had the pleasure of being awake for Carson or his guest host Jay Leno. Even then I thought Leno was an intrusion into quality Johnny time. Sure, Carson needed a break but why not just reruns? Anyway, enough about Johnny because I know I was too young for it to effect me much.

And Conan has been on the television since 1993. I remember the first Late Night war with Leno and Letterman. I obviously don't remember the details but then heard this new guy Conan was coming into Late Night. This was last year of junior high I guess. I think I made a point to watch the first show, although perhaps it wasn't quite the first one. At any rate, I saw many early shows. And because of school, it was in the summer when I watched the most. I was somehow attracted to it... perhaps even then I couldn't connect with Leno or Letterman, even they felt too old. As well, Conan's geekiness was probably easy for me to identify with.

High school summers I probably watched Conan every night. (Yeah, for those who don't know me I didn't have much of a life then). The 1996 Clinton/Dole election was turned into entertainment for me when he had Clinton and Dole (Live, via satellite, of course) talking on his TV. (Or at least their lips were talking.) They haven't done that bit in a while, though. And who can forget Arnold Schwarzenegger promoting "JINGLE ALL THE WAY!" I started quoting so many Bob Dole lines from Conan that I had the nickname Bob Dole at my church youth group.

I have a memory of being in the high school library and looking up information on Conan (and specifically Pimpbot 5000 quotes.. don't ask me) on the new interwebs. There were a lot of cute fansites at the time which have now really become unnecessary since EVERYONE is online. Who remembers newsgroups? alt.fan.conan-obrien I think it was.

High school summers a lot of the time I spent programming... computers/calculators/whatever. But Conan would always be on at 11:30. Either I would take a break or have it on during in the family room at my parent's house. I remember hearing about Princess Diana's death while Conan was on.

1998, off to college. I had to think of a good password for my school email/computer accounts. I wanted to pick something that I knew would always be on my mind. It was something to do with Conan's show and I had that password for many, many years for many different accounts. In the computer lab at college I was surfing for Conan one time and this guy next to me introduced himself who had interned at The Tonight Show with Leno and had pictures on his page with Jay and other celebrities. But that was not to be a friendship because he seemed to have a thing going on with this girl I had a crush on in college. (White Sweater Girl anyone?) Of course who knows if he ever had a "thing" or whatever... I was hopeless back then.

The thing is, Conan was always my fall-back entertainment, and pretty much the only thing on TV that I ever planned around. I never wanted to see EVERY single show, but if I was hard at work in the computer lab programming for eight hours, I would think "I'll work til 11:20 then walk home to catch Conan." My other shows that I watch, Simpsons and Family Guy, have enough reruns for me to catch when I want. Plus those shows don't rely on current events as much, so I am totally fine watching them as reruns.

But now there will be no Conan. Sure, he could be back but right now it's an unknown. I don't know what to do. I eagerly await news of what he will be doing next.

Really this should have happened in 2004. Conan was leaving a contract at NBC and considering offers from other networks. A new contract was worked out to have Conan replace Leno in FIVE YEARS. That is a long time. I was ecstatic that Conan would be on an hour earlier but at the time I felt sorry for Jay.... who knows what will come in five years? Will Jay want to retire? Isn't he kind of like a federal judge who can stay until he resigns or retires? It seemed like they were just grasping to keep Conan on the network and convinced Jay to this agreement. Plus Carson had the show for THIRTY YEARS. Jay had twelve when he signed the contract, so seventeen in the end. So Jay didn't seem like he really wanted to leave and now we know...

So then Obama becomes president, Jay retires, Conan is in and all seems perfect in my world. Jay comes on in prime-time, I'm like what the hell? You've already reached the top... don't be like Michael Jordan and retire 332543 times. I figured the prime time show would be even more watered down family comedy and... yes. Plus this confirmed my suspicion that Jay was leaving before he even wanted to. When you make a living doing something for decades, it's hard to put it down. And of course he was looking at offers from other networks but NBC was greedy and wanted to keep him, so they shoved him in at a weird time slot that made everyone think huh?

Then it all comes down to two weeks ago. NBC announces they are cancelling Jay's show but not only that... moving it back to 11:30(10:30 Central)... Oh, and what mention of Conan? Oh, we'll bump him to 12:05, without asking him, he'll be cool with it. To be fair, both Conan and Jay had current contracts with NBC. They wanted to keep both, but at different times. Conan made a power move and said no. NBC was like, fine, we'll put Jay back on the Tonight Show. Jay COULD HAVE SAID "No I don't want to take Conan's spot," but as he was still on contract and is apparently a lapdog of NBC, he didn't want to violate his contract.

Conan risked a lot making that power move. He could have kept the Tonight Show, but at 12:05. Many of his staff apparently that was acceptable. But he is probably DONE with NBC after the 13 week contracts he had when he was starting, to the weird agreement to take over the Tonight Show in five years, and now this. He should have jumped ship in '04 instead of signing a weird contract with Jay and NBC.

I'm afraid one result of this risky move could be that Conan becomes an asterisk in the history of the Tonight Show. He becomes known as the guy that took it from Leno, didn't have good ratings, and Leno had to come back to save it. It's stupid, but that's probably how old people view it.

On the good side of this move, is that he IS part of Tonight Show history. He's reached the top, lived it for a while, and now he can do a show more his style somewhere else. Because I don't deny it, I was afraid he wouldn't fit the classy style of the Tonight Show. But I figured they would give him time to REDEFINE it.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the day when Conan rises again. I now have no reason to ever watch NBC. I also don't plan on ever watching Jay Leno again, he does not deserve the throne back. I hope his ratings stink while he's back because people view him as a bad guy. (As I kind of said above, I don't fault NBC because they are just making business decisions, and I don't fault Jay because he was following contracts.) But still, Jay, you are a douchebag. If your ratings aren't pathetic during the next year, they will be in years to come as your fanbase starts to pass from this world, or go to sleep earlier, or become hard of hearing.

I'm guessing the maximum age of a Conan fan is 45 (they were 28 when he started). There's still ten more years until Conan fans start retiring, become empty-nesters and watch late night again.
Ratings have skyrocketed this week because all Conan fans realize this COULD be the last they see of him. We're here, but we watch Conan on Hulu, or somewhere else online, or hear about it from friends, or just read about it. We're smart. We all expected him to be around on the Tonight Show for at least ten years and thought we had time. But no. It feels like a breakup that I wasn't expecting.

To be continued...

If you're a musician, have you ever...

- wanted a website of your very own?
- wanted to have your website kept current with your Twitter updates, Facebook statuses, or blog entries?
- wanted to post an upcoming show on your website just by posting a blog entry?
- wanted to put pictures on your website just by putting them in a blog?, or
- wanted to have your photos imported from your albums on Flickr or Picasa?
- wanted to have the MP3s you just uploaded to Last.fm available on your website?
- wanted a website music player to fit in your webpage style and be able to play tracks from any link on your site?

If you're interested, keep reading.

-----------------------------------

"Alan's Web Business (AWB) - Friends don't let friends use MySpace."

I know you, and I know that you are a musician or in a band. You're doing your thing, writing music and playing out and making connections. Maybe you really know how to use the internet to your advantage in promoting your music already. For example, you're signed up on all the music websites, and keep your Facebook and Twitter fans informed of your shows and successes. It's been working really well but you want to go to the next step.

On the other hand, maybe you've never really adopted the internet. Sure you have a MySpace page with three songs but you never really update it and it's beginning to look stale. It looks stale to everyone else as well.

In either case, you've wanted your own website for a while now but haven't taken the plunge for a variety of reasons -

- Perhaps you're just fine with the limitations of MySpace or Facebook for your web presence.
- Perhaps you actually asked a web developer for a quote and almost choked on your coffee.
- Perhaps you "know a guy" that will make your website, and keeps saying he will, but he's just too darn busy.

The other problem with websites (besides the startup) is the maintenance. If your friend designed it, you might have to ask him each time you want a new show or demo song put on the website. And he's starting to get annoyed.

If you hired a web developer perhaps he gave you some tools to post news items or shows, but heaven forbid you want to add some more photos or MP3s.

This is where Alan's Web Business (AWB) comes in. AWB is a web development business solely for musicians or other starving artists. AWB is affordable and won't deplete your band account. AWB = Alan Walter Bailey.

* How It Works

I am not developing your website to get an award. I want it to get the job done. You are not Lady Gaga, and do not need a super visual website. You are aspiring, and need to make it easy for people to read about you, find your upcoming shows, look at pictures and watch some videos, without annoying them. There will be logos and graphics and some cool dynamic content. Anything else is overkill. Save it for when you have a record deal.

Because I keep the design slim, it will be quick. I will not spend three months designing your website like a web design firm would. You'll have a working site in maybe two weeks, then we'll make a few changes and be done. You should view my website at http://www.alan-bailey.com to get an idea for the "slim" design. Notice there is no Flash, no splash page, just easy access to information and music. There are interactive menus and pages to remind people they're looking at a modern website, but I'm not shoving it down their throats.

The internet is becoming very interoperable and more open these days. Data is being shared, because it makes sense. Don't replicate data, or it will be hard to manage. How many music websites do you have to keep updated with current shows and news? Way too many, right? I don't want your website to become stale and hard to maintain, so I have it update *automatically* based on what you have already done on other sites:

- The most current information you have is on Twitter or Facebook. I can display your recent tweets, Facebook statuses, or Facebook notes on your website. This is possible because of the RSS feeds that these websites provide of your current information.

- The next most current information is a blog you might have. Well, blogs from any blogging site can be displayed on your website. Blogger, Wordpress, or LiveJournal are some examples. I recommend Blogger for its simplicity. The less you have to worry about the better, because you're too busy trying to write your next hit.

- Even if you don't have a blog, I still recommend setting one up for administration of your website. If you look back at my website, none of the text is stored on my website. I import my News from a blog, my Bio page, my Press page, my Shows, and even my Photo Albums from the same blog. In addition to having RSS feeds for access, blogs usually have "tags" or "labels" that you can apply to posts. When I have a new show, I post a blog with the label "shows" and it will appear on my website. Easy, huh? Tag a post with "news" and it will be in the news section. If you know how to use a blog you can update your website. (If you are a heavy Flickr or Picasa user, they have RSS feeds as well, and I can import photos from them on your website.)

- The hardest things to put on the website are also the most essential - MP3s and videos. But, it's easy to do because I use data you've already uploaded on other sites. For videos, I'm sure you have some on YouTube already. Just put a link to them in your administration blog and they will appear on your website. (Pretty much the same way you've put them on MySpace.)

- MP3s are the hardest. Good music is a hot commodity, and everybody tries to control it. MySpace, Facebook, Reverbnation, and Sonicbids all hide the MP3s that you have uploaded so they are only available for streaming from their site. The one site that allows access to their data, created by computer scientists with an emphasis on music sharing, is Last.fm. You may not have
heard of it, because it started in the UK. However, the top songs being played on the website are broadcast on WXRT's digital HD:

http://www.radio-info.com/sections/2-breaking-news/news_items/6868-cbs-radio-to-use-lastfm-programming-on-hd-2-channels-in-four-major-markets

"This is the first time that a music website has been turned into a terrestrial broadcast." So it's a pretty cool site. And I can have your website look at your albums on Last.fm, and display the tracks on your site, for playing or download. Keep Last.fm updated, and your website follows. For special cases or more "hidden" tracks, you can use good ol' FTP to put songs on your site.

- I will also provide a music player that is similar to the one on my website. It will not interfere with your site, and will blend in with the color and layout you have designed. It could even be hidden if you want, or you could provide no way to turn it off (not suggested). Any songlink on the site starts up the song in the music player. You could even announce a new track in a News entry on your blog, and link to the song, and it will be playable from that link. Nice 'n' easy.

* What I Don't Provide

- I am not a graphic designer or a visual artist. If you want some cool art for your site, I know a number of artistic types that would be happy to be paid to make art for your website. Perhaps you could have it coincide with your new album. As well, many musicians already have their own artist friends that have made a logo or some graphics to support their friend's music. I will gladly work on putting that art into the website.

- I don't provide hosting, but I will set it up for you. If there's a certain domain name you want (www.yourband.com), we'll order it from GoDaddy.com for less than $10 a year. Hosting is also available for less than $5 a month or so. I'm never entirely sure on GoDaddy's deals - they change every week.

- Eternal support. I will help you out for the first few months if you have problems or changes. But I won't be your friendly "Support Dude". Once the site is up and you can update with your blog, my job is done. Though if something breaks in my infrastructure I'll fix it. If you want a site redesign, that will be the same price as a new site, because that's most of the work.

* The Price and Process

To get your website going, I am charging $200. This is incredibly low for what I am providing. Plus, the first two people or bands that take me up on this offer will get $50 off. That's how crazy I am, $150! I am academically interested in seeing this technology work for some other people. And we'll see where it goes from there. If you want my services, the process will be something like this:

- We'll meet up. If you have any art already designed, or an artist ready to work for you, bring it or he/she so we can discuss the art in the context of the website. We'll decide on a basic layout and color style, the kinds of pages you want and need, and anything else you want displayed on the site. Remember, I am trying to keep the design graphical but simple. If you come in with ideas of birds flying across the screen and landing on an image of your head, then I am not the web designer for you. Sorry. That's annoying.

- After we meet up, I'll do a lot of work setting up the initial layout. At the same time, remember when I said you can update content through your blog? I'll have you doing that, writing your bio and any other pages you want and just posting them on the blog that I'll set you up with.

- When I have an initial design, I'll check in with you to make sure you like it, and will get it working with your Facebook, Twitter, blogs, Last.fm, or photo albums.

- At this point, if there are changes, we'll work those out and it should soon be good to go!

* Well?

If you are interested, just get in touch with me at alanbailey@gmail.com and we will discuss the many options ahead.

This is the first time I'm doing web design for others, so there might be some kinks along the way. Hopefully you'll work with me. I have had a website since 1995, and have made three band websites for my bands since 2003. Those two computer science degrees might be useful for something too.

Simply Jazz

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