Friday, October 8, 2004
Cell phone users spend millions on ring tones
By Jenee Osterheldt
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When Cassie
Keller gets a phone call, a lot more hap
pens than an archaic "ring, ring."
Instead, her cell phone launches into
this: meow-meow-meow-meow, meow-
meow-meow-meow
Right. The "Meow Mix" TV jingle
That's how it rings for the unidentified
callers, says Keller, a senior who attends
Fort Hays State University via the Internet
from her Fairway, Kan. home.
Just about everyone in her cell
Phonebook has been assigned a distinct
ring. For her mom, there's a rodeo song
and her boss has an ambulance siren. She
even has the Kansas Jayhawks fight song,
and snippets from the movie "Office
Space" and "Chappelle's Show." Then
there's her personal favorite, "Build Me
Up, Buttercup" by the Foundations.
O'Brien to host
'Tonight Show'
NBC STUDIOS
Jay Leno is turning over "The Tonight Show” to Conan O’Brien, above,
in 2009.
By Aaron Barnhart
Knight Ridder Newspapers
The announcement that Jay Leno is turn
ing over "The Tonight Show" to Conan
O'Brien in 2009 surprised most people and
at the same time, did not.
A surprise because Leno's gesture to step
down after his current contract expires
seemed improbable. Why would the come
dian known as "Robocomic" for his legend
ary work ethic freely give up one of the top
jobs in television? And why announce it half
a decade before the fact?
For that matter, why was NBC so eager to
declare O'Brien the heir to Leno's throne?
And why is O'Brien so sure he'll even want
the job in five years?
The truth, though, is the answers to all these
questions are obvious. Giving "The Tonight
Show" to O'Brien was the safest, smartest
move NBC could have made.
All the network needed was Leno's assent.
After thinking it over and discussing the
choice with his close friend Jerry Seinfeld,
who also walked away from a top-rated NBC
program Leno decided to grant the network
its wish.
Among the reasons he gave during
Monday's "Tonight Show" broadcast, one
seemed especially poignant. Leno and David
Letterman had been friends and allies dur
ing the 1980 s. Leno was a frequent guest on
"Late Night," and these appearances helped
Leno get back in Johnny Carson's good
graces after he had bombed on "The Tonight
Show." Eventually, Carson named Leno and
Garry Shandling his two permanent co-hosts.
Shandling later dropped out, and Leno was
poised to take over after Carson retired.
In the messy backroom fracas that fol
lowed, Letterman, who had lusted after the
'Tonight Show" gig, lost and jumped to CBS.
"When I took this show over, boy, there
was a lot of animosity between me and
Dave," Leno said Monday. "Good friend
ships were permanently damaged. And I
don't want to cause anyone to go through
that again."
He added, "This show is like a dynasty.
You hold it and you hand it off to the next
person." And then he reiterated, "I don't want
to see all the fighting," as the studio audi
ence broke in with applause.
"I like the fact that 1 can tell who is
calling," Keller says. "If the phone is in
the other room you can hear it and tell
who is calling. It’s funny. I have even had
people request ringers; it's like you can
give different personalities to different
people."
Keller gets her ringers from her wire
less provider, Sprint, as well as from Web
sites like www.3gupload.com and
www.matrixm.com.
Most Web sites have a yearly fee that
gives customers access to unlimited ring
ers, games and screensavers. Some even
let you make your own ring tone. At
www.3gforfree.com, you can pay $7 a
year for unlimited downloads. Other sites,
like matrixm.com, sell individual ring
tones, starting at $1; a few are offered for
free. And you can access the sites from
your PC or your cell phone, if your phone
has Internet access.
U.S. cell phone owners spent more than
$75 million on ring tones in 2003, accord-
It has been clear for some time that the
"next person" was O'Brien. With a built-in
nightly audience of 2.5 million (and more
younger viewers, at times, than watch
Letterman), O'Brien, 41, is by far the most
seasoned late-night performer not working
at 11:35 p.m. EDT. Next January he will sur
pass Letterman's tenure as host of "Late
Night," 11 ? years. As he stands at the same
career crossroads Letterman faced in the early
19905, O'Brien appears to have made all the
right moves.
Letterman had an awkward relationship
with NBC executives that kept him from ac
tively pursuing the "Tonight Show" job he
dreamed of having. By contrast, O'Brien has
always been open about desiring Leno's po
sition. In an unpublished interview with me
in 19%, O'Brien said he expected someday
to be offered the job. He considered it a logi
cal career goal.
Over the years, however, he has been
happy to listen to other networks looking for
a late-night host. It sent a message to the
higher-ups at NBC that was inoffensive yet
unmistakable.
Earlier this year O'Brien turned the heat
up, ever so slightly. A curious story appeared
in the New York Times in February. It was a
less a profile of the late-night host as a decla
ration of sentiments. "A big question is loom
ing," he said. "What's next?"
Over the course of 3,000 words, O’Brien
quiedy turned the tables on NBC. After all,
he had been stmng along for nearly two sea
sons of "Late Night." As late as August 1994,
when O'Brien had been on the air more than
a year and won over many of his early crit
ics, NBC would not sign him to a one-year
contract. Now it was O'Brien who could af
ford to be coy and the network that was ner
vous for a long-term deal.
And who will take O'Brien's place as the
third host of NBC's "Late Night" in 2009?
That may be the most speculative ques
tion of all. His successor may not even be on
the celebrity radar. When O'Brien was picked
in 1993, he was unknown outside of "The
Simpsons."
Letterman's rise to prominence took only
three years. He made his first appearance on
"The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson"
in November 1978 and was offered "Late
Night" in late 1981.
ing to research by In-Stat/MDR, a digital
communications research firm. Research
ers predict cell users will spend $146 mil
lion this year.
They won't see any of Kristen Vincent's
money.
"I think I would have a hard time pay
ing for ring tones," says Vincent, 39, a
Hallmark associate product manager.
"You have to pay to download music al
ready, gas prices are already higher and
with people just trying to survive, it's just
hard to see myself paying for a ring tone."
Vincent says younger, hipper people
might think differently and she thinks it
is a great option to have. But she's happy
with the 40-plus tones standard in her
Verizon phone.
"I have never heard anyone with the
same ring as mine," Vincent says of her
Dragnet-like tone. "I’m unique, and it gets
a lot of laughs when people hear it. I like
that."
Keller says it’s the individuality that fu-
Springsteen accepts
risks of partisanship
By Tom Moon
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT)
PHILADELPHIA - When the music
quiets and Bruce Springsteen begins what
he calls the "public-service announce
ment" portion of his set at Friday night’s
Vote for Change concert at the Wachovia
Center, the Ne>v Jersey rocker will do
something he has resisted throughout a
career of more than 30 years: make an
overtly partisan political statement.
"There’s some reluctance, certainly, to
be coming out and doing what we're do
ing now," Springsteen said Tuesday in a
phone interview about the series of 37
benefit performances he helped organize
for Americans Coming Together, the
group that's mobilizing voters for Demo
cratic presidential candidate John Kerry.
The barnstorming tour of 12 swing
states which involves Pearl Jam, the Dave
Matthews Band, the Dixie Chicks,
R.E.M., Sheryl Crow, Keb' Mo' and oth
ers, represents a significant change in the
delicate mix of rock and politics. While
stars have often lent their skills to causes
(famine relief, nuclear disarmament, aid
to fanners), there has never been such a
coordinated campaign to elect a candi
date. The two-week effort arrives in Penn
sylvania with shows held simultaneously
in Philadelphia, Reading, Lancaster, Pitts
burgh, State College and Wilkes-Barre.
(The Philly show is sold out.)
Springsteen, 55, acknowledges that his
stand probably will alienate some fans.
He has accepted the risk, he says, because
he believes the stakes are too high.
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els the ringer trend
"It has to be in the same vein of ex
pressing yourself through fashion and
stuff," Keller, 23, says. "When you have
a ringer and it makes people go ‘What is
that,' it's fun."
Wireless providers are broadening the
alternatives to give cell users plenty of
creativity when it comes to customizing
their phones.
Sprint, the first mobile carrier to offer
master recording tones, just released two
new ring options this week: pro football
player voice ringers and BlingTones.
For $2.50 a ringer, you can download
(www.sprintpcs.com) the voices of NFL
hot shots like Tony Gonzalez and Daunte
Culpepper. That same price will get you
a BlingTone. Sprint has partnered with
some of hip-hop's hottest producers and
DJs like Rockwilder and Hi-Tek to de
liver the BlingTone ringers.
Hip-hop is not only dominating the
Billboard charts, but it also dominates the
"This election is about a set of ideals,
and truthfulness, and creating the coun
try you want your kids to grow up in,"
says the father of three, who lives in
Rumson, N.J. "No other election I can re
member has had that kind of significance
to me."
Early in the campaign, Springsteen dis
covered that many of his musician peers
felt likewise, and were looking for "some
way to have a collective impact." Those
conversations sealed it for him: "I real
ized that this is the time. I can't sit this
one out if 1 meant the things I've been
writing about these 30 years."
Springsteen's songbook includes poi
gnant odes about deserted Rust Belt
towns and police brutality and the heroic
firefighters of 9-11. But while he has spo
ken eloquently on social issues at his
shows for years, he says he isn't prepar
ing a statement to deliver at the Vote for
Change performances.
"There will be no intense speechify
ing from the stage, as far as I know," he
says of the bill, which also includes John
Fogerty and Bright Eyes.
Yet he knows that everything he says
will resonate differently. "The same
words are going to be ... changed by the
moment and the event. 1 actually think it
will add clarity to some of my music, re
cast some of the things I've been saying
in a clearer and more powerful light."
He rejects criticism that the Vote for
Change shows preach to the converted.
After all, everyone with a ticket knows
that his money is going to a group bent
on dumping President Bush.
"We're going to find the republicans in
The Behrend Beacon |
ringer world as well. At Sprint, Beyonce
has achieved platinum status, with ring
ers like "Baby Boy," "Crazy in Love" and
"Naughty Girl" being downloaded more
than a million times. And 50 Cent has
been downloaded more than 500,000
times, giving him gold status.
In the future we'll see even more inno
vative ways to customize cell phones,
says Nancy Beaton, Sprint general man
ager of wireless music and personaliza
tion.
The next step in mobile customization
is AAC sound, which has CD-like qual
ity, Beaton says. In addition, there will
probably be video ringers that not only
play your favorite song, but also show a
short clip of the video as well.
"It's all about personalization," Beaton
says. "People buy ringers to customize
their phones. They want ringers that are
popular, the songs that they enjoy and
they want ringers that have a special place
for them."
the crowd, and there will be a laying on
of hands. We're going to convert people!"
he says, sounding like a street preacher.
Then, turning more serious, Springsteen
notes that he has encountered "a lot of
people who actually haven't made their
minds up" about how they will vote. "I
have friends who grew up republican, and
they're unsure. One guy's an
outdoorsman, so the environment is im
portant to him. Those kinds of people we
might be able to reach."
Another issue is the war in Iraq, a topic
on which Springsteen is anything but am
bivalent: "If you mislead your people into
a war, and that costs a thousand lives and
many, many more wounded and $2OO bil
lion of taxpayer money, and it turns out
the grounds for going to war have been
false, you lose your job ... There's an ele
ment of common sense to it."
Springsteen says that while he's been
frustrated by the media's handling of Iraq
and the apparent unwillingness of John
Kerry to treat the election as a "street
fight," he remains convinced that the ide
alism that spawned Vote for Change is
not misplaced.
"Sen. Kerry has to make the point that
America isn't always right, but it's always
true," Springsteen says. "It's as seekers
of truth that our real Americanness comes
to the forefront.
"That is a deeper sort of Americanism
than the jingoism, the right-or-wrong
dime-store version of the American myth
the republicans are so good at packaging.
To me it's the essence of patriotism, be
ing truthful."