Public Radio is the Real Genius

So WMKK has announced that they're going to refuse to air any commercials between 9am and 12noon. They're treating it as something quite revolutionary. Forgive my giant yawn; that daypart probably doesn't bill well to begin with...I would not be surprised if the only commercials that aired then were part of a bundle deal for more lucrative dayparts.

Now if they said they were going commercial free doing morning drive? That's revolutionary! Suicidal, probably, but revolutionary nonetheless.

But the press release is what gets me:

"Three hours of uninterrupted, astounding musical variety; completely commercial free to start every work day is... sheer genius. An idea that revolutionary could only have come from The Mighty Mike FM," (emphasis added) commented Director of FM Programming Ron Valeri. "Finally, a station that is actually doing something about too many commercials on the radio." (10-17-07)
from Radio Online

Gee, so having no commercials is "sheer genius"? So I guess that means that public radio has been geniuses for over three decades! I know Ron's just trying to drum up some excitement for the idea, which he hopes will mean more listeners for his station. But that's showing some serious chutzpah when WMKK's 12+ ratings are about a quarter of what the local NPR powerhouse, WBUR, gets.

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Bonus points to anyone who was in their teens or 20's in 1985 and thought that Jordan Cochran (Michelle Meyrink) was the hottest girl in the world. She was a "geek goddess" nearly a decade before it was cool. :-)

Kucinich Just Got My Vote

Okay, maybe not for real...but after seeing Kucinich's appearance on the Colbert Report, and his proof that Stephen Colbert is literally in his pocket...hell, it's gonna be tough not to vote for him. Regardless of her political skills or anything else about her...I'd like to Clinton or Edwards pull off this amazingly classy act of self-depreciation as well as Dennis just did. I just don't see her capable of it. Obama, maybe, or Huckabee for sure, but nobody else.

I'll post a video clip as soon as I can find one; the whole bit is chuckle-worthy but there's two parts that had me bust-a-gut laughing.

UPDATE: As promised, here's a YouTube link to the clip.

Well, I *was* worried about the Angels...

Despite having the best record in baseball, there was a lot to be concerned about with this year's Red Sox going into the ALDS last night. They're a great team to be sure, but now they're playing other great teams...and the Sox definitely have some glaring weaknesses. The Angels are always a threat to Sox happiness, so I was a little apprehensive last night.

Apparently I didn't need to be. Beckett threw a complete-game, four-hit, shutout...with a brilliant combination of precision and power, mixed up with some disgustingly filthy pitches that nobody could touch. Plus the offensive did rake poor Jake Lackey...who's never had good luck at Fenway (1-5 lifetime)...over the coals for two homers and another two RBI. BOOYAH! RED SOX UP 1-0 in the ALDS!

Tonight the real competition begins, though. The Angels have never faced Dice-K, so that should give him an edge. However, Dice-K has really shown the effects of season fatigue in the past month or so. Fortunately, he should be pretty rested going in tonight...let's hope he doesn't have the infamous one-inning meltdown.

Oh, sweet IRONY...

The irony is truly astounding here.
(from Current.org)

A measure of how far the cultural battle over broadcast indecency has shifted: New York's WBAI, the Pacifica station that successfully challenged the FCC over George Carlin's "seven dirty words," created a special program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the court ruling that deemed Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" not obscene. But the program is being distributed online, not over the air. Bernard White, WBAI p.d., tells the San Francisco Chronicle that broadcasting "Howl Against Censorship" would put the station at risk for $325,000 FCC fines for each "dirty word" in Ginsberg's poem. "This is about the public airwaves," says Janet Coleman, WBAI arts director. "If we can't control what goes on them, then how much freedom do we really have?"

I tried to think of something to say that would add something to this...and I'm coming up with nothing. I suppose having nothing to say is exactly what some more conservative folks want. Bleh. :-(

Hockenberry Returns to His Roots

PRI just announced that John Hockenberry will be hosting their new morning show, to launch in early 2008.

This news is great news for pubradio fans everywhere as far as I'm concerned. I know John through my work at The Infinite Mind, where he was their regular commentator. I only had the pleasure of meeting him once or twice (TIM's producers, hosts and engineers are frequently all over the country...I was in Boston while John was in New York) but damned if he didn't make me bust a gut laughing (or strike me speechless with solemnity) every time he recorded a commentary. The man knows how to riff on anything under the sun, and he has a great knack for having an intelligent conversation with anyone on any topic; a rare gift.

Heat fans, and early Talk of the Nation fans...not to mention the lucky folks who caught him filling in for Tom Ashbrook's On Point last year, and fans of John's podcast/blog...will also no doubt be stoked.

Of course, a great host alone does not guarantee success...witness the "indefinite hiatus" that Chris Lydon's Radio Open Source went on this summer...but John's still a great choice. I, for one, will be listening with interest to see how it goes. :-)

Today the Division, Tomorrow the World!!! (Series, that is)

With a brilliant bunt down the third base line...the always-dangerous-at-the-end Orioles stunned the Yanks in extra innings. That loss, coupled with today's Sox win over the Twins, means the Red Sox have won the AL East division! First time in 12 years, even.

I've said it before to Yankees fans, and I'll say it again: "How many World Series have you won this century?" Nyah nyah nyah. :-)

AM IBOC: Put Up or Shut Up Time

I should've mentioned this last week, but on Friday September 14th the FCC's new rules for IBOC digital radio (known in the US under the iBiquity brand name "HD Radio") went into effect. That meant, among other things, that IBOC was authorized for 24/7 operation on the AM band.

There's been a lot of controversy in the industry over nighttime IBOC. Anyone who's ever listened to AM during the day vs. during nighttime knows that distant (as in 100's or 1000's of miles distant) AM stations can come in like local stations at night. It's a quirk of the Earth's atmosphere called "skywave reflection". By and large this happens on the "clear channel" frequencies (no relation to the company of the same name) which only have one or two big stations in the entire continental US. These are stations like WBZ 1030 in Boston, WTIC 1080 in Hartford, and WOR 710 in New York...just to name a few.

AM IBOC intentionally puts a lot of RF energy on the adjacent channels of the transmitting frequency; that's just how the system works. So when you're in Boston and you tune an analog radio to 1020 or 1040, you'll hear a roar of white noise. That's the digital carriers...it's sort of like picking up the phone when a fax is transmitting. During the day it's not that big a deal because the AM signals stay local and locally there aren't going to be any stations on 1020 or 1040.

But at night...when these signals start reaching way beyond the local area due to skywave...there might be a station on 1020 or 1040. For example, KDKA in Pittsburgh...another "clear channel" station...is on 1020. So if these stations run IBOC and transmit it at night, will it result in interference?

A lot of engineering and even more speculation has been done on this issue. Ultimately the FCC decided that the answer was "For the most part, no" and authorized it. Radio purists cried foul rather loudly, but until it actually started happening, nobody really knew 100% for sure what was going to happen.

Which brings us to last Friday...when several of these bigger "clear channel" stations were just waiting to start nighttime IBOC broadcasting and immediately started doing so.

What's the result? Honestly I don't know. The invective is still spewing from both sides so I can't trust that, and I haven't been by a HD Radio-equipped tuner until today. I'll take a listen tonight and see what happens.

UPDATE 9/18: Meh, I'm not seeing massive AM disruption. Hell, I can't even get a solid HD signal here. I can get the HD light flashing on WTIC, WFAN and WOR, and even see a bit of PSD for WTIC, but that's it. Can't get a clear enough signal to hear IBOC audio, but that's no surprise...I couldn't do it before, either. I was a bit surprised that WHAM doesn't come in with IBOC here...the analog sounds fine. (shrugs) Anyways, the locals that I would expect to come in here, still come in just fine.

In all honesty, I kinda felt the AM band was a giant mess already...it's not really possible to make it worse. If anything, having more white noise/hash might be an improvement over the four overlapping skywave signals beating off each other.

Either way, my original point stands: we'll soon know definitively whether of not AM-IBOC at nighttime is a "disaster" or not...and the naysayers will either be vindicated or chastized. I fervently look forward to this particular debate being settled.

Insight to Programming Decisions

I saw this on Current.org today:

"I always liked WAMU weekends for the very reason that it wasn't just like WAMU on the weekdays," writes a fan of the Dick Spottswood Show and American Routes,

It's a comment posted on DCist about WAMU's announcement they were dropping bluegrass music from their weekend schedule. I understand the sentiment, but to my way of thinking, this commenter demonstrates exactly why WAMU made a good decision. He or she doesn't want to listen to the overall branding of WAMU, they want to listen to the bluegrass programming that happened to air on WAMU.

That's a very important distinction, because said listener probably can get quality bluegrass programming anywhere. But there's only one place to get WAMU programming. That's because bluegrass is a genre, but WAMU is a brand identity...and a crucial one for any radio station to establish.

No doubt the bluegrass programming just didn't really fit into that branding schema; not surprising since most music lovers don't care for the news/talk and vice versa. Given the overwhelming time for news/talk vs. music on WAMU, it makes sense to stay true to the brand.

This does not mean it's a good thing if the bluegrass programming just completely disappears. Obviously there's fans of it, and if WAMU is smart, I'm sure they're investigating the return on investment to continue the bluegrass programming via an alternative programming channel...such as online (webcast/podcast) or HD Radio multicast.