Q. Why doesn’t Matt Drudge promote the radio show on a week he won’t be on?

A.  To be honest, I don’t have a definite answer, but let me weigh in with the facts I do know. I don’t think it’s a dis to his substitutes, who have included Joe Crummey and John Batchelor. (As I’ve alluded earlier, I’m not otherwise into conservative talk radio and don’t tune in when Drudge is away.)

First, Matt doesn’t promote his own show all that much. Years ago he said “I’m the worst marketer out there…I just don’t care. I throw my energy into the site.”  His existing promotional efforts consist only of throwing up links to station information in all 50 states, each Sunday.  If he isn’t available to broadcast from the radio control room in his home, he’s not disposed to updating the site.

Keep in mind WHY Drudge is usually out when he is.  He told C-SPAN’s Brian Lamb in 2005 that he “travels 30% of the time” and can use his WiFi only in the United States. To keep the website going, a vacation for him means putting in the usual amount of daily man-hours at his hotel computer.  Clearly, though, there are times when this isn’t possible or practical.  As I’ve said before, his sole assistant has put in roughly 26 hours a week…

Some could argue that it would be pretty annoying to be driven to a radio show expecting the regular host and get someone else.  Others would point out that the substitutes are getting paid for their services and it isn’t the regular host’s responsibility to promote them.  In any case, different radio personalities have their own preferences.  At any rate, it’s not as though Matt’s deliberately creating a news blackout when a pinch hitter’s at his plate…he just isn’t choosing to exert an extra, optional, effort.

More FAQs later…

I actually communicated with the friend of mine who ended up on the Drudge Report awhile back. To confirm the answers I’ve already given out, Matt Drudge actually has made an effort to do his own news research and generate original material, even from potentially hostile sources. Drudge did leave at least one message for my friend (who doesn’t appear any more endeared toward him now than during his 15 minutes of infamy.) 

My curiosity had been piqued a bit because Drudge had claimed in his 1998 National Press Club speech that he had knocked on Monica Lewinsky’s door during the Clinton scandal, but that reference was curiously eliminated from the speech transcript that appeared in his book, Drudge Manifesto. 

Anyway…just FYI, I guesss.

For your next dose of new media dialogue, check out an interview down Pajamas Media-way with Matt’s longtime co-poster Andrew Breitbart (now come into his own at Breitbart TV ).

Thanks for all your great feedback on the first incarnation of my book trailer, both in this space and elsewhere. A 60-second spot from an entirely different angle will be posted this week, and I’ll be teasing anybody interested (in a good way) with videos tailored at different market segments.

For your viewing pleasure is the world’s latest media innovation…

A trailer for a BOOK?  A video for a NOVEL?  Why the hell not?  This is your first available peek at Names Have Been Changed, the explosive new novel inspired and informed by three years of research on Matt Drudge, citizen journalism, new media, PR, Miami-Dade, and a host of other things not quite relevant.

Humor us!  Tell us what you think…of the video, the concept, the theme…the sound, the smells…

Aired to the public for a limited time only, it’s the first of several versions and my first attempt ever at movie editing.  Save for about thirty seconds of stock video, it’s composed entirely of stills (photographed on location in Miami Beach and Washington, DC.)  A movie version will follow.  As Drudge would say, “Developing…”

View it here. 

P.S. Let me make this clear, folks — this manuscript is not yet published and not yet available.  When the time comes, of course all that info will be easily accessible.