Neil A. Carousso produces NewsNation original “Kurt’s Country” – a celebration of country music and a slice of Americana with host Kurt Bardella.
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Watch: Mayoral Candidate Maya Wiley Reveals Plans for NYC’s Recovery
By Lynda Lopez, WCBS Newsradio 880
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — In about two months, New Yorkers will vote in the mayoral primaries to pick a new leader who will come in facing pressing issues including overseeing the city’s recovery from the pandemic.
More than two dozen men and women are running to replace the outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio, including his former counsel Maya Wiley.
Wiley, an attorney and civil rights activist, chaired the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board after working at City Hall.
She also worked as a legal analyst on MSNBC before announcing her run for mayor last October.
Anchor Lynda Lopez spoke with Wiley for Friday’s installment of the 880 Weekly Rewind and asked how she plans to help the city recover and what she plans to focus on, not just to shepherd the city out of the devastated economy, but to make it work going forward.
“We had an affordability crisis before COVID hit. We have been struggling, frankly, with racial issues and racial injustice for generations, actually, but coming to a head as we saw this summer,” Wiley said. “We’ve had this kind of spiritual exhaustion because of the division, because of the struggle of daily life, and then COVID hits and now we’re traumatized and our economy is in tatters. We have 400,000 people facing eviction. We have over 200 million going hungry. This is a crisis of historic proportion, but as the candidate in this race that has also been in that hot kitchen we call City Hall, I also know that we have resources that we can use in order to not just meet the needs of our people right now, but start to solve some of our affordability issues.”
One of her proposals, New Deal New York, would create 100,000 new jobs by spending $10 billion of the capital construction budget to build affordable housing.
Another proposal would focus on investing in child and elderly care.
“The cost of child care and elder care is one of the top three expenses in the city before COVID, but what we’re going to do is put $,5000 a year into the pockets of, starting with 100,000 of our neediest families, to care for children and elderly adults, but we’re also going to create community care centers,” Wiley said.
Lopez also asked Wiley what she would do as mayor to improve the city’s schools and equity in education.
Educational equity was brought to the forefront when it became clear Black and Brown students were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic shutdown.
Minority students were at a disadvantage when it came to remote work.
Many families in underserved communities lacked the digital tools and resources to thrive in the virtual learning environment.
Wiley said every students deserves an exceptional education and that means ensuring that more dollars are getting into the classroom and to help kids who are struggling to get online.
“Something I’ve done inside City Hall is show city government how to do free broadband, getting every single apartment in Queensbridge Houses free service that the city paid for. I did that as counsel to the mayor, I know how to get it done, but we have to do that now because we don’t develop the educational opportunities for our kids if we’re not solving that digital divide,” Wiley said. “That is critically important.”
Wiley also said it’s time to stop policies that discriminate against children.
“We should not be using any admission standards that aren’t really about what kids need but are rather about what families have the resources to pay for the tutoring that gets them over the hump on a test,” Wiley said. “First of all, families shouldn’t have to do that and far too many of our families don’t have the resources to do it and it’s not meeting an educational agenda.”
She also proposes cutting some of the bureaucracy that’s coming out of the Department of Education to open the door for principals and teachers to bring more innovation to the table.
“There is a lot of it in our system, but it gets strangled by some of these rules rather than really thinking about what serves the need of our students particularly at a time when we have so much to do to help them come back,” Wiley.
Hear comprehensive analysis of the top stories of the week and original reporting on The 880 Weekly Rewind hosted by Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS-AM New York. Listen to this week’s full show, produced by Neil A. Carousso, on the media player above.
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Mr. Wonderful’s 3 Steps for Growing Your Business Again
In Best Of, Entertainment, Featured, Guest, Interview, Latest, News Stories, Technology, The World, videosBy Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary stressed business owners need to adapt to what he believes are permanent changes to consumer behavior as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast, presented by The First National Bank of Long Island, the self-made multi-millionaire entrepreneur made several recommendations of digital tools, sharing actionable advice for business recovery with host Joe Connolly. Mr. Wonderful also revealed what some of his companies have found success doing despite the economic turmoil.
1. MAKE THE “GREAT DIGITAL PIVOT”
O’Leary divulged that only 36 of the 56 companies he had been invested in across “almost every sector” nationwide are still in business a year into the pandemic.
“They did the great digital pivot and that involves figuring out how to set up a platform – most of them use Shopify not Amazon, number one – to change their websites to be far more interesting and engaging,” he told Connolly.
Shopify allows businesses to create their own e-commerce website using the platform whereas Amazon is the consumer-facing website for companies’ online marketplace.
“They went to 4K photography, 1080p video, they told stories about their products, they had other customers talk about testimonials and how they were using them, so they really engaged people for the first time in ways they’ve never done before because they were forced to – everybody was working remotely,” O’Leary said.
He also shared the trick to monetizing digital content on the WCBS Virtual Business Breakfast. More on that later in Mr. Wonderful’s 3rd step to growing again.
2. PUT YOUR CUSTOMER FIRST
O’Leary said the best way to sell is to “promise customer support and deliver on it.”
He told Connolly his frequent advice to young entrepreneurs is that the customer is always number one, and if you treat them like that, you can have a very profitable business.
“The differentiating factor in selling is customer service,” O’Leary said, adding, “You can actually sell the same product for a higher price if you’re in the top quartile of customer service for it.”
The software tycoon invoked Apple as a prime example.
“When you buy a laptop from them, you’re paying 50 percent more than the exact same machine’s function on a Windows-based product or a brand you may not know, but because Apple makes you pay for customer support and you respect it and you want it, you pay a crazy amount more,” he said.
3. REDUCE YOUR CUSTOMER ACQUISITION COSTS
WCBS Business Producer Neil A. Carousso posed the number one question WCBS 880 listeners had for O’Leary, which was “How do you monetize digital content?”
Mr. Wonderful responded the only metric for monetizing digital content is whether it can reduce customer acquisition costs for one’s product or service.
“Basically, what you’re trying to do when you make new digital content is to tell a story about your product, show it in its best light, try and get testimonials from other users who are using it and why they use it, and try and acquire customers at the lowest cost you can,” the Shark explained.
“Remember, long-term outcome is basically customer acquisition costs have to be less than lifetime value of the customer acquired. Otherwise, you go out of business,” O’Leary added.
He produces a plethora of content for the companies he’s invested in and shows behind-the-scenes of commercial shoots, media appearances, and his daily life on his YouTube channel, which includes afternoon bike rides along Miami Beach, playing the guitar, cooking in his “Chef Wonderful” videos and enjoying O’Leary Fine Wines with his wife Linda.
A bonus step for growing your business again, O’Leary acknowledges, is a healthy work-life balance.
“I don’t work 9 to 5, obviously, and I try and find life balance in doing the things I love to do while I’m working,” said Mr. Wonderful. “I work seven days a week, but I don’t work every hour.”
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Small Business Spotlight: What Pandemic-Proof Businesses are Doing to Survive and Thrive
By Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Every company has become a tech company.
AlleyWatch Founder and CEO Reza Chowdhury says brand news businesses are currently in better shape than the ones that existed pre-pandemic because they’ve entered the market at lower costs with the COVID-19 pandemic in mind.
“The businesses that have survived have really, in an interesting exercise of elasticity of demand, in many cases have raised their prices because they have less demand and this is a real paradox when it comes to economics,” Chowdhury said on the WCBS Small Business Spotlight, sponsored by Dime Community Bank.
These businesses are trying to cover their losses by raising prices on fewer customers.
“When things open up, new entrants will be able to enter because the demand will rise,” the tech founder explained, adding, “They’ll be able to come in with some sort of advantage.”
Those advantages include lower rents that will allow new businesses to undercut their competitors on price.
Chowdhury told WCBS 880’s Joe Connolly and Neil A. Carousso these new businesses should remain lean and keep their costs low until the future becomes more clear.
AlleyWatch currently has six employees – an amazingly small team for such an influential trade publication that features a daily startup funding report that shows what types of companies and industries are wooing investors. It offers other advertising and content services, too.
While some traditional retailers and professional services firms had resisted building their online presence, they’ve been catching up in the last year. Chowdhury believes they do have transferrable skills that will help them sell online.
“There’s a bit of storytelling involved to get people interested in these products on a digital level,” he said, noting brick-and-mortar stores double as in-person advertising.
The tech guru told WCBS 880 business owners should just try everything in the realm of digital content at first. Businesses should tell their story and share their brand identity to attract target customers. Then, Chowdhury said, utilize a number of research tools available to track engagement and monitor how many people are visiting the point-of-sale website from social media posts.
“You’re going to get, really, an instant feedback mechanism and feedback loop from these tools,” he said, continuing, “The beauty of digital is you can attribute this to where the lead came from.”
From there, Chowdhury says, invest the remaining advertising budget in content that has performed well and can be attributed to sales.
Watch the WCBS Small Business Spotlight video above for tips on implementing a digital strategy and the new trends in business investment.
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Watch: NYC Mayoral Candidate Shaun Donovan Touts ‘Deep Experience’ in Leading Through Crisis
By Lynda Lopez, WCBS Newsradio 880
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — In a little over seven months, New Yorkers will head to the polls to elect their next mayor who will face a myriad of challenges, including overseeing the city’s pandemic recovery.
Shaun Donovan announced his candidacy for mayor in February 2020, just before the lockdowns that hurt an otherwise booming economy, revealing an underbelly of inequities in prosperity, health care and housing.
Donovan served as secretary for Housing and Urban Development and as the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama administration. Prior to that, he served as commissioner of the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development under former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
For the latest WCBS 880 Weekly Rewind, Donovan tells anchor Lynda Lopez that it’s that experience which makes him the best candidate to lead the city through its next chapter.
“No one in this race has the deep experience that I do in leading through crisis,” Donovan said. “I’ve been called on again and again in this city, and across the country, to lead through crisis, but I also have the biggest, boldest ideas for the future of this city and I have the experience to actually turn those ideas into reality — working on the city level, at the neighborhood level, but also at the national level. So I really do think in this moment of crisis, where we’ve lost so many New Yorkers, we need a mayor, whether through housing and hurricanes and so many other crises, who’s actually led, who’s actually shown that we can build back, but build back better, build back a city that actually works for everyone.”
Speaking to his experience within the Obama administration, Donovan said he was called on to lead in the “midst of the worst housing crisis of our lifetime,” as well as the recovery effort post-Sandy.
“When he asked me to lead the $4 trillion federal budget just three weeks later, Ebola hit, and so one of the things that I bring is that no one else in this race has sat side by side with Dr. (Anthony) Fauci in the situation room, has helped develop vaccines, has helped make sure that we’re actually getting everyone vaccinated, that we’re bringing a city back whether it’s after a pandemic, or after a hurricane, or a housing crisis,” Donovan said, adding that he also understands the importance of partnering with community organizations to bring about change after working in the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn 30 years ago.
“We need everybody at the table if we’re going to really beat the crises that we’re facing right now,” he said.
During the conversation, Donovan was also critical of the vaccine rollout in the city.
“It’s been a failure,” he said bluntly. “When our essential workers, Black and Brown New Yorkers who have been on the frontlines, whether keeping our subways running, as the heroes in our hospitals, our nurses and doctors, aren’t able to get vaccines quickly enough, then something’s not working.”
Lopez also asked Donovan how the city can be more affordable for New Yorkers.
We posed this question to several mayoral candidates amid a startling report from Street Easy that shows essential workers cannot afford 96% of the listings on its site, with their average salary of $56,000.
Donovan explained his idea of “15-minute neighborhoods.”
“Within 15 minutes of your front door, every New Yorker should have not just a great school for your kids and a job that sustains your family, you should have transportation that gets you around the city quickly, you should access to the health care that you need — whether it’s to get a COVID test or to get a vaccine or to get the pre-natal care, the mental health care that’s so critical at this time… but we should also have access to fresh food, to parks, to all of the things that contribute to the underlying health disparities that have led to such disproportionate impacts of COVID around our city,” Donovan said. “All of those things and more are what every New Yorker should have within 15 minutes of their front door and that’s how I’m proposing that we plan our city going forward.”
The mayoral candidate was also asked about whether he believes Gov. Andrew Cuomo should step down amid dual scandals involving sexual harassment allegations and COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
“Enough is enough,” Donovan said. “We’ve heard from too many brave, courageous women, women I believe, that sexual harassment is real in the governor’s mansion, in the executive office building, in Albany, and now is the time for the governor to step down. If he won’t, then we need to move forward with an impeachment process, but enough is enough. I’ve been deeply moved and angered by the stories that I’ve heard and I believe them and it’s time for him to resign.”
Hear comprehensive analysis of the top stories of the week and original reporting on The 880 Weekly Rewind hosted by Lynda Lopez Friday nights at 7 PM on WCBS-AM New York. Listen to this week’s full show, produced by Neil A. Carousso, on the media player above.
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‘I Couldn’t Be Happier Right Now’: Mets Catcher James McCann Looks Forward to First Season with Team
NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — James McCann, the newest catcher for the New York Mets, has spent a month with the team so far and says he is looking forward to the regular season.
McCann, who signed a four-year contract with the team in December 2020, spoke with Ed Coleman on Tuesday for our Mets 2021 Season Preview Special, saying he’s had an amazing time with the team so far.
“It’s been a really good first month,” he said. “The organization, the people within the organization – I couldn’t be happier right now, it’s been a lot of fun.”
Prior to starting spring training, Coleman noted that McCann wanted to befriend Jacob deGrom and “be in his back pocket.” McCann says now that they’ve worked together, their relationship has grown.
“Jake’s a phenomenal guy,” McCann said. “He’s always joking around, he’s always having a good time. But, he gets his work in and he works hard.”
Despite the fact that it’s only his first year as a Met, the catcher thinks that he has a lot of experience that he can bring to the team.
He particularly notes that, as a veteran player – he has been playing professionally since 2011 – he hopes to inspire younger players to overcome their weaknesses and push on for a good season.
“I’m a big believe that things happen for a reason. And one of the things that’s happened in my career is I’ve had the ups and the downs. I’ve had good years and I’ve have bad years. And I really think that part of that journey and part of my job, as a guy that’d been around, is to share my experiences and share what I know. You know, be a veteran guy that can help those young players to realize that everyone’s going to go through a slump, everyone’s going to struggle at times. But what helps you come out of those bad times is what makes you a good player,” he tells Coleman.
He also has been learning a lot from his own idols, such as former Met Mike Piazza, who spoke highly of McCann in an interview on Monday.
“I definitely knew who Mike was. I definitely loved his game as a kid. I can remember being in the front yard, pretending to swing like Mike Piazza and now, here I am, talking baseball with him… trying to pick his brain and see what he thought about this and different things like that but, he’s been really, really good to me,” McCann said. “I fully expect to be in contact with him and bounce different things off of him throughout my time here.”
McCann says he is looking forward to the 2021 season and says he plans to trust his instincts, noting that he has been playing for several years and plans to stay true to himself.
“I think, for me personally, my approach never really changes. I’m going to be the same guy, no matter where I’m hitting in the line, no matter who I’m facing, whether there’s runners on base or runners in scoring position, or nobody on base – that’s part of my revelations as a hitter: Staying within myself and not trying to do too much,” McCann said.
Neil A. Carousso produces special coverage of New York Mets baseball for the WCBS Mets Radio Network.
