Category: examining the mainstream
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Dr. Laura lived by the market, died by the market
As most radio enthusiasts have probably already heard, veteran talk show host Dr. Laura Schlessinger appeared on the Larry King Live program Tuesday night and announced that she would leave her show at the end of the contract. Schlessinger made the decision in response to growing flack over her repeated use of the so-called “n-word”…
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Life Inc., Publishing and Radio
I really enjoyed my conversation with Douglas Rushkoff, discussing his new book Life, Inc; How the World Became a Corporation and How To Take It Back. The first part of this interview is on this week’s edition of the mediageek radioshow. I find that Doug is articulating very clearly a lot of ideas that have…
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KRXQ Loses National Advertisers For Broadcast Defaming Transgendered Children
Two days of contacting Sacramento rock station KRXQ’s advertisers regarding the station’s May 28 broadcast defaming and advocating abuse of transgendered children has gotten results. Chipotle Grill, Snapple and Sonic Drive-In have all pulled their ads from the station in response to the broadcast. KRXQ general manager Jim Fox acknowledged to the Sacramento Bee that…
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The Empty Hypocrisy of Protecting Children
You might have heard that the Supreme Court recently made a very narrow decision refusing to strike down the FCC’s enforcement of fleeting expletives on TV, such as when U2’s Bono dropped an f-bomb on a live Golden Globes broadcast a few years back. The justification always given for prohibiting so-called indecent words like “fuck”…
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In Indianapolis the Radio Pirates Were Cops
You wouldn’t have heard them on the AM or FM dial, but amateur radio operators in Indianapolis heard them loud and clear. Indianapolis police officers were heard on the 2-meter VHF amateur radio band using it for both personal and professional communications, littered with naughty words not allowed on the broadcast airwaves. The problem with…
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On Thursday’s Radioshow: New LPFM Bill & Journalism Town Hall
Another new Congress, another new low-power FM bill. In what’s become a tradition since Congress voted to stunt the growth of low-power radio back in 2000, a new Local Community Radio Act has been introduced. But this time around the bill arguably has the best chance of passing yet. We’ll hear from some of the…
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I Think I Must Admit that Laserdisc Is Dead
I have the sinking feeling that I might be forced to define my terms…. My pal Aj alerted me to this boingboing post about the news that Pioneer is ending production of laserdisc players. The funny thing is, I honestly didn’t think Pioneer was still making laserdisc players. That’s not a joke. Although I’ve been…
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Film’s not dead, either
Oh, no. I’m not ready to give up on the anti-planned-obsolescence rant just yet… The world of photography has been much less chaotic than the worlds of audio and video over the last century. There’s really only been one significant technological disruption–from film to digital. Yes, there have been multiple formats of film over the…
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Rumors of VHS’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Oh, planned obsolescence, you are such an insistent mistress. It seems like the end of the year news hole combined with the imminent digital TV transition (which does not necessarily mean the end of analog TV…) has sparked additional interest in the press ringing the funeral bells for that most ubiquitous yet unloved video medium,…
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Reboot the FCC? Better, Democratize the FCC
A week ago Prof. Larry Lessig penned a provocative little column for Newsweek that apparently was supposed to be titled “Blow Up the FCC,” but was published as “Reboot the FCC.” In essence, Lessig argues for the FCC to be done away with, replaced by an “Innovation Environment Protection Agency,” focused on curtailing monopoly power…