Rant: CRZY-AM (all talk radio)

I don’t know how many of you heard about this story about a politican from city council that called into a radio station to blast another one annomously (the one she blasted was planning on running for mayor). She was asked if she worked for the government repeatedly, ignoring the question multiple times until she eventually lied and said no. When word got out the press had a field day. I guess it’s because they finally have a local government story that people would actually want to talk about. Well what set this politican off, so much so that she would feel a need to call in? It was the fierce verbal abuse by callers and the guests directed towards the mayor who recently announced he would not seek another term in office.
Call me stupid or whatever but I think this story perfectly demonstrates the problem with talk radio and opinion shows on the air right now. These hosts callers and guests go on air hurling as much negativity and insults that come to mind that we don’t think of the reprecussions of our actions. Much of talk radio and opinion shows are straight up garbage; a sea of incompetence and every possible thing wrong with the human race right now. It’s crude, callous and down right dumb; it’s surprising that with all that floating on the air that more haven’t don’t what that rougue city councillor did.
It makes me wonder what possessed radio stations to switch to the format nearly 20 years ago. Was it because it was cheaper than spinning AC/DC tracks on the radio or was their an actual perpose for talk radio? Was their a need to be loud and obnoxious on air? Was there a need for an uprising back then? Has it just now become a mindless bit of dribble for loudmouths with nothing better to do with their time or has it been like this since inception?
You may be screaming at the screen as you read this now thinking that I don’t understand free speech. No actually I’m all for free speech, I’m not against free speech I’m against stupid speech, speech where people don’t think of the reprecussions of what they say and end up causing more harm than good.
All I ask is to think before you speak, especially when what you say floats onto the airwaves is that too much to ask? Apparently so.

When Inspiration Hits…

Gosh, it seems like forever since I last did one of these but then again there hasn’t been much to talk about in the news biz, it’s been pretty funny to see Howard Kurtz try to wiggle and squirm his way through a whole hour of media analysis, when absolutely nothing happened during the week. Well, I should admit since I’ve been gone there’s been a few noteworthy news moments like Obama appearing on five different sunday morning talk shows (oddly missing, Fox News), the Libyan and Iranian leaders completely making a scene at the UN, Sanjay Gupta getting H1N1, Fox News getting caught rising up the crowd for the camera and printing false ads then there were non stories like Joy Behar getting her own talk show on HLN, Glenn Beck is still crazy and yada, yada, yada.
Still with that said I haven’t had the urge to go post something until now. It have might be that I’ve been so busy with university, trying to get used to the new buildings people and extra loong commute. When I say the commute is long I mean it is LONG, so long you will be able to read through the newspaper three times and still have time to have your mind drift off to strange and distant lands, imagining that your playing ping-pong on the back of an elephant with the person in that ad staring you in your face for what seemed like an eternity. Yes, that’s how long the commute is; wait, what was my point again?
Anyways with that put aside most of the days so far haven’t been too bad. There’s not a boat load of homework which is good because that gives me more time to focus on the what I do have and make it a lot better. The marks aren’t too bad it’s about the low end of what I’ve been getting in high school, which isn’t too bad considering that they always say you should expect a significant grade drop in your first year, lucky for me that hasn’t shown it’s ugly head yet.
I can’t lie this week was probably one of the roughest. I had my first streeter assignment which of course is kinda difficult because you are approaching complete strangers and you don’t know who or what you might get. I of course got the cold shoulder but what really caught me off guard was at the end of an interview when someone said I looked like this character from a 90s sitcom and asked me to say their catchphrase. Weird indeed.
The day after I had my first in class essay six pages double spaced in 50 minutes I think that’s a world record but let’s just wait and see what the mark is before we start setting any significant milestones.
Wednesday was a day off which I mostly used to get caught up on homework I couldn’t get around to because I was getting ready for the in class essay.
Thursday was a bit of a drag two lectures – two hours each with a three hour break in between. What killed was that I spent most of it alone because my friend scheduled to write her in class essay then too, tack that onto two boring as hell lectures and that killed all hope of that day being anything worth while.
Friday was a day where almost anything that could go wrong did but I think it could have gotten a lot worse if I wasn’t so lucky. I had to leave home early because my ride had somewhere to go. So I ended up having breakfast late, leaving home in a rush not even having time to spread the bed. When I got to the train station I was about 45 minutes too early so I read some newspapers for our news quiz. My hands of course were covered in newsprint by the end of it so I decide to wash my hands. The washrooms were occupied, so I wait and just as that person leaves another rushes in their so understanding that my life is a cruel joke I decide to forget it and wait outside for the train. I killed time by reading some class readings on my iPod, I continue this on the train for about an hour or so. Then I take public city transit to the university. I look around for the newspaper that need to read for class as I only read the free dailies. I couldn’t find one ANYWHERE. It was raining outside maybe people were using them for make shift umbrellas. Anyways, I got to class a bit later than usual and this random guy took my computer the one I set up just the way I liked it, so I had to sit next to this wanttobe sports reporter (I mean that with all respect, really). So we did the quiz, I crossed my fingers as I didn’t get to read the newspaper but I didn’t get stumped on too many questions. I think I might have done pretty well. Then we did another online scavenger hunt again not too bad. Then we had a local speaker from be local paper come in and basically explain how he did the hiring at the paper. I naturally had nothing to say. I wasn’t looking for a job at the paper yet, it’s something I have planned a few years down the road though, so nothing came to mind. I already have school, an intern and this blog to worry about I dont need another thing right now, my life is kinda full. Anyways, after that we took care of some homework business and we were out for the day. As it was still raining I took the city transit down to the train terminal which would later lead me out of town ( I would normally take the 20 minute walk saving me a token). As it was a bit late the train was crowded and thus making it incredibly miserable. I tried to make the best out of it by finishing some of the podcasts I was listening to on the way down. When I got near to my town I thought I would give my ride a call, but they decided to go into the city instead of waiting for me which caused an incredibly awkward scene. They would repeatedly disconnect the call and make me look like a complete idiot to anyone who may have overheads the conversation (trust me they were plenty). Anyways they told me to take the bus and although I lived there for about two years I don’t know exaclty where my house is (street intersection and stuff like that) but I remenered the route so I had to walk it in the freezing cold and pouring rain. It took about an hour exactly and a couple of unsuccesful attempts to find short cuts (I wasn’t brave enough to venture onto the train tracks after a couple of failed attempts to climb a fence).
Yeah, so it has been quite a week ha, ha, ha. Like I said it was the roughest day but it wasn’t Mackenzie Phillips rough, David Letterman rough or Jon Gosslin rough lol.
Well, anyways, you got an understanding of what I’ve been up to lately. I’ll try to update the blog a bit more I promise. Till the next one, later days.

Cheers Heard Around The World

It’s official, Diane Sawyer will take over ABC’s World News desk in January of next year and if you are really quiet, I mean really quiet you could still hear the cheers over at CBS and NBC. Do you hear them? Bet you never would have thought to hear them from where you are. Sounds like they might finally make it back up to the ratings in their golden years.
You could probably guess I’m not really enthusiastic about the change it’s because I’ve never really been a fan of ABC NEWS. I’m not sure why (Could it be the hosts, the shows?) but this change from what I see now wont be making me change the dial to ABC anytime soon or at least add ABC’s World News to the long list of podcasts that I subscribe to.
Diane had a long history in the television news business starting quite sometime ago at CBS, doing assignments for 60 Minutes. She got well known there and even appeared on the cover of People in the mid 1980′s (something tells me that she was the inspiration for the sitcom Murphy Brown but I could be wrong), then she moved to ABC at the end of the decade and launched Primetime Live a newsmagazine show (kinda-ish) and on the network scored multiple high profile interviews and together with Charles or Charlie Gibson co-hosted Good Morning America in 1999.
When looking back at that rich history I find it odd that none of this strikes me as particularly significant. Yes, she has had a lot of experience and yes to some she is an important journalist but none of it struck a cord with me so I guess I yawned at the announcement. Still, I wish ABC and Diane good luck with their newscast, it’s still important and still a very credible news source.

For most of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars the public had rarely ever seen the actual reported injuries on film but recently the AP was slammed for carrying an image of a dead soldier which appeared on the front covers of newspapers across America. Most in the news business of course would like to carry the images but mostly refuse to do so out of fear of offending the family or because they felt pressure from the army not to do so.
The public has a right to know what the true consequences of the war actually are and there is no better way to show it than to publish the images of the wounded soldiers in action. There are ways to do so and also protect the privacy of the family, like instead of worrying about prying Chevy logos out of cars and trucks used on screen or blurring out VH1 logos when reusing their footage, blur the faces of the victims so that way the public could see and understand the true impact of the war while the soldiers remained unidentified. It’s simple steps like these that allow both sides to win.

The largest French-language newspaper on the continent maybe gone forever on December 1st, the Huffington Post and other newspapers reported earlier this month. As with many other newspapers La Presse struggles to meet its financial obligations and had to readjust their business model. That meant for readers that the Sunday edition was history and for employees more job cuts and concessions. The French newspaper market in Montreal appears to be a competitive one but there is only one major English language newspaper in Montreal, the others have went out of business quite sometime ago. The news of La Presse possible closer really does represent a growing trend in the news industry that changes are going to have to be made to avoid.

CHEK has been saved from shuttering it’s doors forever and ceasing to exist as a television station. On September 4th, Canwest which previously owned the station, sold it to a local investor group for $2 saving 45 jobs in the area.
Finally a good news story out there, but this is only the start, there’s a lot of work to be done to make the station viable. First, where to find programming worth watching. It seems for the meantime CHEK will have most of its programming coming from Canwest specialty stations but most likely in the future it will be filled with syndicated programming, movies and local shows. That’s only one of the seemingly endless problems with CHEK but of course with a little hard work, sweat and tears the channel has the possibility of being something worth watching.

From The Future #1 – Examorays

Ever wonder what the future of journalism has in store, take a look at this article I found from the not so distant future about a new technological innovation called ‘Examorays’

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Could the death of e-book readers be coming soon? Media analysts think so.
At the Worldwide Media Expo held on May 5th the foremost-news barons had bleak expectations for the most popular news format in the world. They believe e-book readers will face stiff completion from Examorays which embed video, text and other content directly into people’s brains.
“The magnitude of possibilities for Examorays are so grand that once they begin to lower in price and get further recognition from the average consumer, e-book readers will go the way of the dodo bird.” Art Balville, head of eNews Central said at the media expo panel.
However there are some who disagree like Philip Johns, a media critic and professor who says that the demise of e-book readers are greatly exaggerated.
“Those before use thought television would make radio obsolete and the internet would make all forms of media in print, video and audio disappear but that was not the case they all changed they way they approach their business and still survive to this day.” Johns said yesterday on MSNBCNN.
Examorays are proving to be a difficult sell at major retailers as their size and cost are a turn off for most. Reports from cable network WebMD News, that shows serious personal injury due to extended use of examorays are also not helping them fly off shelves.
Sandy Hanson, a Radio Shack employee feels that most media analysts are off on this one. “We can’t keep e-book readers on the shelves while Examorays have been collecting dust on our shelves for months,” she said “They [analysts] should really consider the practicality of new technology before considering the older ones dead.”
E-book readers made significant improvements since they first caught on in the early 2010′s, gaining full colour screen and better audio and video playback. They have since become essential for school and work and over 1.5 billion have been sold around the world.

FlushMusic

Muchmusic turned 25 recently but you wouldn’t know it if you tuned into the network. Thats because MuchMusic or more specifically CTV Globemedia felt their audience wouldn’t care, thus not a peep out of them.
I was really disappointed with Much, as this proves how disconnected they are with their actual audience. If they been paid a bit of attention to some of the chart topping music videos, even the ones on their own Muchmusic, they would notice that many of the videos in recent years sample older tracks (see videos from Flo Rida to get my drift), are entire remakes (think Africa on this one), mimic other videos (The video for Headley’s Never Too Late seems strangely familiar) or sound much like a throwback to the past (Amy Winehouse comes to mind as well as Shakira’s track Shewolf, much of Solange’s last album and the list could go on and on). To imply that their audience of today doesn’t care about the past seems foolish and not only that, they lost an opportunity to promote some of their other music stations such as MuchMore or MuchMoreRetro.
The move smacks of unoriginality – MTV largely ignored their last major anniversary. But at least they gave it a mention on the then active TRL and celebrated it on VH1 Classic when the station aired MTV’s first day of programming. What makes it worse is that the MTV-nization of Much isn’t over yet they are considering airing music videos during commercial breaks and during credits of shows much like MTV. Tack that unto the enormous amount of the schedule devoted to reality shows and reruns of teen drama series while the actual music is pushed back to late night and early morning slots where some other nets might be airing infomercials instead.
A birthday present from Much for those who actually cared about their anniversary maybe that Leah Miller of MOD fame finally got the boot. But the bad news is that to replace her Much is holding another VJ Search and we might end up with another what’s his face (Tim Degan, I’m probably way off with his name?).
Strangely while ignoring Much’s 25th anniversary CTV is going all out on TSN’s. Introducing a new online TSN store, re-airing old promos and bumpers from the past 25 years, re-airing ‘Classic TSN’ games on ESPN Classic and of course I’m not done yet but I think you get the point. Apparently nostalgia means nothing to CTV. All that they see (I’m going out on a limb here) are $$$$ when they look at the massive amount of channels they have hoarded in their nest. They go by the mentality to completely overload TSN with anniversary celebrations because it will sell TSN products to their viewers while Much goes empty handed because they don’t see a market for it. But what better am I supposed to expect from corporate honchos…

Meanwhile at the other end of the country, CHEK one of the channels of the failed E! network, is still clinging onto life as they managed to get Canwest into talks to save the station last minute. The channel was scheduled to go off the air on August 31st along with CHCA but things turned around as local investors teamed up with employees to raise $2 million to attempt to save the station.
I hope the channel gets saved as it means so much to the people of the area (But please avoid the pitfalls I mentioned in On Your Side… With A Baseball Bat and Brass Knuckles). Yes, it probably is difficult to run a station but I think with a lot of community involvement it could become something worth watching in sometime. CHEK took a couple of blows over the years as E! but it’s hard to do much worse than before. Probably the restructuring will take years to get right programming wise, that’s if they get the station at all. I’m hoping for the best, especially in this economy we could use all the jobs we could get.

Also noteworthy, Jenna Bush gets a gig on Today (Please, save us from the Bush’s, we’ve had enough), The View wins their first Daytime Emmy, no one was their to pick it up and the ratings tanked for the show (yay?), Harry Reid told the Las Vegas Review-Journal “I hope you go out of business” (harsh), Glenn Beck is still insane (Duh), Newsday rejects ads from a competitor of its parent company (they could do that?), workers from The Journal News have to reapply for their own jobs (Not cool).
More attaining to me, DePaul university will have a Twitter journalism class (Oh God why?), journalist may have to turn to ad agencies for work (actually, I saw this coming) and The Columbia Journalism Review asks “Does Journalism school still make sense these days?” (Try and guess what some said). Uh, gulp don’t look too good for me right now.