Monday, October 24, 2011

2011 Southern California Regional Talkers Forum

Jeff Wasserman attended the 2011 Talkers Southern California Regional Forum for talk media industry guests.  The event was amazing, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles spoke on the success of Los Angeles in the past few years.  Larry King shared some great stories about his early days in radio and Bill Handle of KFI shared some stories about the future of talk radio. 

As expected, the conference was centered around networking and eating, breakfast and lunch was provided by The Original Bagel Company.

Newcomer Andy Dean with Premiere Networks, shared a few remarks and surprised the audience.  Andy was attempting to do comedy and be funny, but his jokes did not go over well with the audience.  Norm Pattiz, founder of Westwood One and now the CEO of Courtside Entertainment spoke about his early years in radio and the success of Westwood One.

A special Thank You to Michael Harrison of Talkers Magazine.  Michael along with his wife, son and staff did a great job putting this event together.  Michael believes local, low cost, regional forums will be the way of the future and I must agree, the day of the 3 day, national conventions are on the way out. 

This event cost guests, nothing other than their time. This is sure to be the future of regional conferences.