Serial entrepreneur Jay Brewer loves fast food and he’s taken his passion to the Internet. As the purveyor of Blogpire.com, he has created over a dozen consumer-product oriented blogs, generated incredible buzz, and some advertising revenue talking about a variety of niche topics from single-serve coffee machines to designer shirts to shaving stuff to global positioning satellite (GPS) gear.

Jay talks about how blogpire came to be, where he gets his content and how he is connecting cottage industry sellers with a world wide web audience.

Hosted by Bill Castanier, Jeff Smith and Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 21 Minutes 9mb mp3

From MSU Today: William H. Schmidt is a University Distinguished Professor of Education at Michigan State University and has been elected to the prestigious National Academy of Education. Schmidt is one of only three scholars in the world chosen for membership in recognition of their pioneering efforts in educational research and policy development.

Schmidt is co-director of the Education Policy Center at MSU, the U.S.-China Center for Educational Excellence, and co-principal investigator of the $35 million project known as Promoting Rigorous Outcomes in Mathematics and Science Education or PROM/SE.

Through much of the 1990s, Schmidt also served as project coordinator and executive director of the U.S. National Research Center for the influential Third International Mathematics and Science Study, which involved dozens of countries and chronicled the lagging achievement of American K-12 students in mathematics and science.

Schmidt talks about the state of K-12 education in America today and how important national standards are to improving the system.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 21 Minutes 12 mb mp3

From MSU Today: Carl Taylor is an expert on urban youth culture, a professor of sociology at MSU and principal investigator for the Michigan Gang Research Project.

His current work focuses on the idea of an emerging “Third City” in U.S. metro areas. The Third City is a metaphor for communities that have been forgotten by mainstream culture and developed their own norms related to violence, drugs, weapons and amoral behavior. He believes it is imperative to stay engaged in positive youth and community development in these distressed Third City communities. Ignoring the decay, he believes, is associated with a range of societal costs — from dysfunctional civic institutions to potential threats to homeland security.

Taylor has worked with the Guggenheim Foundation, the C. S. Mott Foundation, the FBI Academy, and the Children’s Defense Fund. Taylor served on the Michigan Juvenile Justice Committee for more than 10 years and advises various projects concerning youth throughout America. He’s also been involved in Laura Bush’s Helping America’s Youth Initiative.

Taylor earned his bachelor’s (1971) in multidiscipline social science, his master’s (1976) in criminal justice and his Ph.D. (1980) in administration of higher education, all from Michigan State University.

Hosted by Russ White.

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If you are a book worm, Ray Walsh may have your dream job. As the owner of Curious Book Shop in East Lansing his store has literally thousands of books, magazines and other ephemera. And one of his passions is The Wizard of Oz. Ray discusses the enduring popularity of the tale and explores the life, and Michigan connections of the creator of Oz, L. Frank Baum.

Hosted by Bill Castanier, Jeff Smith and Scott Westerman

Hear the Show 31 Minutes 15mb mp3

In the beginning, radio programming sold radios. David Sarnoff’s National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) was an offshoot of his Radio Corporation of America (RCA). Sarnoff, like William S. Paley at CBS believed that content would sell the box. That’s the same fundamental principle in action right now in the world of satellite radio.

As Sirius and XM contend for the hearts and pocketbooks for today’s radio listeners, their efforts are supported by a retail infrastructure designed to entice customers to buy the devices that deliver the programming.

Stan Kozlowski, a 1974 Comm Arts grad at Michigan State University, guides the retail focus for Sirius. He develops and executes the marketing programs and builds relationships with the retailers who ride the front lines of the satellite radio revolution. His team of 20 retail-focused sales and marketing professionals and nearly 40 outsourced consultants and retail specialists deliver over 80% of all Sirius subscribers.

Hosted by Bill Castanier and Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 29 Minutes 14mb mp3

From MSU Today: WJR’s Frank Beckmann talks about being the youngest newscaster hired at the Great Voice when he was 22. He talks about his mentors in broadcasting and his career path to WJR. Frank tells us about his transition from news to sports and how he took over play-by-play duties for Bob Reynolds on Detroit Lions broadcasts and for Bob Ufer on University of Michigan football broadcasts.

Frank talks about WJR’s move to carrying MSU sports and how he believes keeping George Blaha on Spartan football broadcasts and Frank on U of M broadcasts is the right move. Frank dispells the myth that he’s anti-Spartan, too.

Frank thinks iPods and satellite radio are good for the industry he loves and tells us how he came to write a weekly column for The Detroit News.

Frank sat down with MSU Today following a June 2006 broadcast of his WJR radio show from MSU’s Forest Akers golf complex.

Hosted by Russ White.

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From MSU Today: Jim Cotter is senior associate director of admissions at MSU. The MSU Office of Admissions will unveil a revamped Website on July 1. Jim joins us to talk about the profile of the typical Spartan and how that profile has changed over the years. Jim tells us how technology has impacted the admissions process, and he tells us about the feedback he receives from students who are admitted to MSU and choose to enroll – and about the feedback from those who choose not to enroll. Jim also talks about the most popular and acclaimed academic programs at MSU and about the many summer programs MSU offers to high school students.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 25 Minutes 14 mb mp3

Real Estate websites have been around since the inception of the Internet. Now, Zillow plans to completely redefined the genre. Their database provides free, instant price estimates for nearly 50 million homes across America. Amanda Hoffman lets us look under the hood of this beta site which puts more information than ever before into the hands of prospective home buyers.

Hosted by Jeff Smith and Scott Westerman.

Hear the Show 16 Minutes 12mb mp3

From MSU Today: Ron Dzwonkowski is the editorial page editor at The Detroit Free Press. In that capacity, he is responsible for the newspaper’s institutional views on the issues of the day, for political endorsements, and for the various opinion letters and columns that appear in the newspaper. He has been at the Free Press since 1983 and in his current position since June of 1998.

Ron is a native of Cleveland, Ohio, but more a part of Michigan. He moved with his family to Michigan in 1968 when his father took a job transfer and has lived here since. He attended the University of Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University.

Ron has been in the news business in Michigan since 1971. As a reporter and editor, he has covered politics, sports, crime, the auto industry, state government and suburban news. He has seen Michigan through its good times and bad, and written stories about people from Monroe to the Keweenaw Peninsula.

We recently caught up with Ron on Mackinac Island to get his thoughts on the issues of the day. We talked from the porch at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, site of the Detroit Regional Chamber’s annual Mackinac Policy Conference.

Ron talks about the state of the newspaper business and how he’s really in the information business rather than the newspaper business. And he tells us the skills that the journalist of the near future will need to have to thrive in this ever-changing field.

Ron wonders if the British system can help Michigan’s struggling economy. He’s deeply concerned about the ballooning federal deficit and says it really does matter who leads Michigan.

Ron covered Spartan football for the Associated Press in the late 70s and early 80s.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 15 Minutes 9 mb mp3

From MSU Today: WJR – the Great Voice of the Great Lakes – and MSU are partners again. Paul W. Smith is WJR’s most recognized voice and talks about how he always knew from his days growing up in Monroe, Michigan that he wanted to be in radio. He tells us how his WJR career began and how he loves coming to work every day.

WJR president and general manager Mike Fezzey tells us how the WJR/MSU deal came about and discusses the challenges and opportunities facing the radio industry.

Hosted by Russ White.

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From MSU Today: Daniel Howes is business columnist and associate business editor of The Detroit News. From 1999 to January 2003, he was based in Germany as The News’ European correspondent and automotive columnist; altogether, he has reported from some 20 countries on three continents. Before heading to Europe, Howes was the paper’s senior automotive writer and an investigative and projects reporter on the newspaper’s business desk.

He came to Detroit in 1993 from The Roanoke Times in Virginia, where he covered business, politics and higher education. Howes is the winner of many journalism awards, including multiple International Wheel Awards for column writing and a four-time winner of Northwestern University’s Medill award for general markets coverage. He is a regular contributor to NewsTalk 760-WJR in Detroit, and appears often on radio and television in the United States and overseas.

A native of Canton, Ohio, he holds a bachelor’s degree in history from The College of Wooster and a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University.

Daniel talks about the troubled automotive industry and Michigan economy. He’s concerned about the lack of a solid energy policy at the federal level. He talks about the state and future of the newspaper business, including the impact of bloggers. And Howes expresses his strong support for MSU’s study abroad program.

We caught up with Daniel at the Detroit Regional Chamber’s Mackinac Policy Conference at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 25 Minutes 14mb mp3

From MSU Today: Matt Roush launched the Great Lakes IT Report in 2001. GLITR is the bible for tech news in Michigan and the Great Lakes region. It’s a daily IT newsletter delivered via email first thing every business morning to approximately 30,000 readers. As Technology Editor of GLITR, Roush covers the tech world broadly, from hardware, software, advanced manufacturing, life sciences, and tech education.

We caught up at Grand Hotel, site of the annual Mackinac Policy Conference.

Matt – the guru of technology news in Michigan – talks about starting the tech beat while at Crain’s Detroit Business in 1994. He discusses the state of – and future of – journalism and tells us what “tech” really means.

Hosted by Russ White.

Hear the Show 13 Minutes 7mb mp3