The Future of TV and Radio
First, CBS stations across the country are fined because Janet Jackson's boob showed up on the national broadcast of the Super Bowl (for which local affiliates have no control of the content - they only broadcast the signal to their local viewers).
Then, several ABC stations refuse to air Saving Private Ryan on Veterans' Day because they're afraid of the repurcussions from the FCC.
Now, ABC and the NFL are under fire because of a white actress dropping a towell and jumping into the arms of a black player in the intro to Monday Night Football.
As a result of all of this new pressure on broadcast outlets, shock jock Howard Stern has decided to leave the public airwaves and go to satellite radio where he can do and say anything he wants without fear of being fined (he has already been fined more than 2 million dollars by the FCC).
He compares it to the growth of pay television on cable and satellite where the best programming now resides because of the limitation of broadcasting on public airwaves.
Right now, 4 major corporations own almost 80 percent of all the radio stations across the country which has greatly homogenized the music you hear on FM and AM stations.
Do you think enough people are willing to PAY for satellite radio to get uncensored talk and a greater variety of music than we currently get?
Then, several ABC stations refuse to air Saving Private Ryan on Veterans' Day because they're afraid of the repurcussions from the FCC.
Now, ABC and the NFL are under fire because of a white actress dropping a towell and jumping into the arms of a black player in the intro to Monday Night Football.
As a result of all of this new pressure on broadcast outlets, shock jock Howard Stern has decided to leave the public airwaves and go to satellite radio where he can do and say anything he wants without fear of being fined (he has already been fined more than 2 million dollars by the FCC).
He compares it to the growth of pay television on cable and satellite where the best programming now resides because of the limitation of broadcasting on public airwaves.
Right now, 4 major corporations own almost 80 percent of all the radio stations across the country which has greatly homogenized the music you hear on FM and AM stations.
Do you think enough people are willing to PAY for satellite radio to get uncensored talk and a greater variety of music than we currently get?
posted by cvo @ 1:53 PM
2 Comments:
At 10:01 AM,
R said…
Someone recently emailed me a link to a story "MEDIA MONOPOLY BEHIND THE MERGERS: Q&A" by Neil Hickey on CJR that is a couple of years old, but relevant to this point. The link is http://www.cjr.org/issues/2002/3/media-hickey.asp if you want to read the whole thing. The part that was emailed to me is the following "worst-case scenario:"
"That some transnational company that knows little and cares less about your community, and whose main allegiance is to its stockholders and advertisers, will own your local daily and weekly newspapers, all your television and radio stations, the cable system, the Internet service provider, several of the national networks that serve you, your local video stores and movie houses, many of the magazines and books you read, and all of the sports teams in your area. That would allow endless cross-promotions of the owner’s interests, and probably very little hard news about anything having negative impact on advertisers or on the company itself. Everything you read or see, every opinion, every image, and every jot of information would arrive through one corporate filter."
At 11:02 AM,
cvo said…
A perfect example of what Russell is talking about has already happened and created a potentially deadly situatino.
A freight train carrying anhydrous ammonia derailed in Minot, North Dakota last year, releasing a deadly cloud over the city. When the emergency alert system failed, the police called the town radio stations, six of which are owned by the corporate giant Clear Channel. According to news accounts, no one answered the phone at the stations for more than an hour and a half.
Why? Because they are all remotely-operated from New York and have no live people actually working in the radio towers other than the occasional engineer for repairs.
300 people were hospitalized, some partially blinded by the ammonia. Pets and livestock were killed.
The scary thing is that this goes on in hundreds of small towns and in some big cities where you may be listening to what you think is a local DJ or newscaster or even weathercaster, but it's actually being created and sent out from a consolidated source to save money for corporations (like Clear Channel).
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