So it was looking almost perfect for a while. 24 hours to be exact. I was gonna do a fun little feature interview with CFRA’s business show to air on January 3, going over some of the business hits and misses of 2009.

But there won’t be a show that day, so there won’t be an interview. But hey, that doesn’t stop us from making our own list, does it? Let’s think about the home runs and the strikeouts, the holes-in-one and the whiffs, the winners and the losers, and whatever other metaphoric people you want.

I’ll get us started with a couple of wins and losses:

• WINNER: Dave Carroll. This Canadian musician took the lemon of having United Airlines smash up his Taylor guitar and made social media lemonade out of it. “United Breaks Guitars” is sitting at 6.7 million views on Youtube right now; the second song at 670,000.
• LOSER: City of Ottawa. After repeated problems with sewage overflows into the Ottawa River, the city held a press conference to trumpet upgraded equipment that would prevent the problem. Before the event even got rolling, a resident was on site complaining about the stench of sewage. I used to think the worst thing that could happen at a news conference was nobody coming (and I’ve had it happen); now I know the worst thing is that poo fumes interrupt it.
• WINNER: Dragonwave. This local wireless-tech company seems to have gone from strength to strength in 2009. From my perspective, I think their profile and public face is just right too — as Nortel circles the drain, there’s a strong argument to be made for modulating expectations.
• LOSER (special collective award): The TV networks and the cable companies. With saturation commercials and lobbying efforts, the “Save local TV” vs. “Stop the TV tax” forces have left at least this guy beyond figuring out who’s right and who’s wrong. Unless that was the point after all…

What are your PR wins, losses, etc. for 2009?

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