Bye-bye, Clear Channel!

[KA1ZGC]

Now, the moment every broadcaster in the state of Maine has been praying for:

http://news.mainetoday.com/updates/026376.html

Ding dong, the witch is dead!

--Thom
Kilimanjaro Africa One Zulu Goat Cheese

[W4EWH]

The newspaper that ran the story has picked up a trick or two from ClearChannel or some other rapacious media monster: there is a "Meta" tag in the header of the page, which causes anyone that surfs with JavaScript disabled to get a different page saying you have to turn Javascript on to see their story.

Here's the tag:

<noscript><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://www.mainetoday.com/membercenter/nojscookie.html"></noscript>

Of course, you don't have to put up with the advertisements and tracking that go with having javascript turned on: I use NoScript to block such nonsense, and it allows me to disable meta-refresh tags.

The arms-race between advertisers and viewers continues...

[Blaine N1GTU]

it looks to me like clear channel is starting to dump its stations due to the lack of interest in terrestrial radio.
the competition from ipods, cd players and sat radio has seemed to level the playing field
The plus side is it it will be nice to hear mom and pop owned radio stations popping back up
maybe some local content and talent.

All right, Cincinnati, it is time for this town to get down! You've got Johnny... Doctor Johnny Fever, and I am burnin' up in here! We all in critical condition, babies, but you can tell me where it hurts, 'cause I got the healing prescription here from the big 'KRP musical medicine cabinet. Now I am talking about your 50,000 watt intensive care unit, babies! So just sit right down, relax, open your ears real wide and say, "Give it to me straight, Doctor, I can take it!"
"I almost forgot, fellow babies...."Booger!"

[W4EWH]

it looks to me like clear channel is starting to dump its stations due to the lack of interest in terrestrial radio.
the competition from ipods, cd players and sat radio has seemed to level the playing field
The plus side is it it will be nice to hear mom and pop owned radio stations popping back up
maybe some local content and talent.

I think it's more the fact that the populace willing to listen is getting older and more jaded: we've heard the hype so many times that it blends into the background noise. We're just too experienced (and old) to believe what they're selling, and it's only local stations that can hold our interest because we see through the mass-media B.S.

FWIW. YMMV.

73, Bill W1AC

[Opcom]

java / javascript was supposed to be a tool to let good things run on any platform. It is instead used to:
1.) offload processing the -server- should be doing onto a guest's computer, slowing it down. (do you ask your guests to do chores?)
2.) shove filthy abominations at unsuspecting computer users.
3.) invite the minions of satan into your computer.

sorry to be so fanatical, just a point of propriety. I don't want to run scripts I did not agree to beforehand. I hit a page like that, too bad for them, I just go away. Maybe I will try noscript as well. Thanks. 8-)

The newspaper that ran the story has picked up a trick or two from ClearChannel or some other rapacious media monster: there is a "Meta" tag in the header of the page, which causes anyone that surfs with JavaScript disabled to get a different page saying you have to turn Javascript on to see their story.

Here's the tag:

<noscript><meta http-equiv="refresh" content="0; url=http://www.mainetoday.com/membercenter/nojscookie.html"></noscript>

Of course, you don't have to put up with the advertisements and tracking that go with having javascript turned on: I use NoScript to block such nonsense, and it allows me to disable meta-refresh tags.

The arms-race between advertisers and viewers continues...

[Opcom]

I have to agree about the content on radio stations owned by these giant conglomerates. Every time CC has taken over a station, the programming wint to crud, and the local flavor (even if it wasn't the best) was lost. I would rather listen to a fair or even mediocre local station than a canned network feed any day. I like the local color, the individuals doing the segments, etc.

[W4EWH]

I have to agree about the content on radio stations owned by these giant conglomerates. Every time CC has taken over a station, the programming went to crud, and the local flavor (even if it wasn't the best) was lost. I would rather listen to a fair or even mediocre local station than a canned network feed any day. I like the local color, the individuals doing the segments, etc.

That's the curse of mass-media: we'll all used to hearing the "best" performers belting out slickly produced, over-hyped, and (ultimately) identical noise.

Before radio, there used to be local performers in every dance hall, and that meant that people had a standard of comparison to use when judging the big names that showed up every year. Now, there's no way to judge what is "good" vs. what is "commercial", so we're inundated with garbage that sounds just like all the other garbage.

It's funny, in a way: the audience is aging as the "baby-boom bump" moves through the population, and along with our age has come the wisdom to know that amateur performances are usually better and more interesting than what comes out of the jock-in-the-box up in Cleveland. Besides, Cleveland can't imitate Maine! 

73, Bill W1AC

[KA1ZGC]

In this day and age, even when it's a local talent running the show, it's all canned.

If you look me up on QRZ, you'll see a picture of me at the original WTOS studio in Skowhegan the day before Cumulus moved them to their current studio megaplex in Augusta. The only difference between the studio then and when I worked there: there was no computer in the studio when I was there. We were live and manned 24/7/365.

The new studio has a nice Arrakis console (not unlike the one in my shack) that serves no real purpose at all, since all the music is on hard drives and the majority of the voice breaks are, too.

This wasn't so much a matter of policy as laziness. A lot of jocks didn't want to be chained to the console for 5 hours straight. Given the choice, a lot of jocks wouldn't want to go back to constantly manning the board. Forcing it on them would probably cause many of them to quit.

That's nothing compared to the way the playlist has been neutered: from over a thousand CDs to 200 songs, tops.

Cumulus and Clear Channel are now history for the state of Maine, but the cumulative damage they both did is permanent, I'm afraid. They browbeat all their puppet program directors into thinking just like them, and there'll be no convincing them to think for themselves ever again.

Die, Clear Channel, die. The world won't miss you one bit.

--Thom
Killer Agony One Zipper Got Caught

[K6JEK]

java / javascript was supposed to be a tool to let good things run on any platform. It is instead used to:
1.) offload processing the -server- should be doing onto a guest's computer, slowing it down. (do you ask your guests to do chores?)
2.) shove filthy abominations at unsuspecting computer users.
3.) invite the minions of satan into your computer.

Actually the story is a little more complicated than that. First Javascript and Java have nothing to do with one another. Nothing. Sun let Netscape re-brand Livescript to Javascript.  They share four letters. That's it. Second, the main thing Java is used for is server software where it is used extensively for mid-tier applications that run happily on a variety of hardware and software platforms without harm to man or beast. The small stuff is picking up, however. Every BluRay DVD player, for example, has a Java virtual machine.  This might have a satanical connection. I don't know.