On 11/19/10 4:40 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
In ,
says...

On 11/19/10 5:09 AM, J. Clarke wrote:
In ,
says...

On 11/18/10 6:27 PM, Bill wrote:
Michael Kenefick wrote:
Mike, I agree with most everything you said. However, you can't argue
that PBS doesn't compete with other channels for the viewers time. The
Woodsmith Shop is the only show I record on DVR.

Bill

I'm not talking about viewers time.
I'm talking about commercial sponsorship.

I worked at the Ohio University School of Telecommunications. We were in
the same broadcast building a facilities as WOUB PBS radio and television,
and worked very closely together. We also had student run, university
funded radio stations, which is essentially the same thing as public
broadcasting-- a radio station subsidized by public tax dollars.

The student radio station would sell advertising to local merchants and
other companies, just like the local commercial stations. The owners of
the local commercial stations took serious issue with this, as well they
should have. Most merchants have a set percentage in their budget for
advertising. They will only spend X% on advertising. You have a publicly
subsidized radio station now competing private stations for a cut of
that percentage. That is wrong and I'm fairly certain, illegal, but gets
completely ignored.

University activities often fall in special categories. A student radio
station is (or should be anyway) intended to teach students how to run a
radio station, not just to provide entertainment to students. Part of
running a radio station is the business side of it and if the student
station can't sell advertising then it can't provide experience in the
business end of running a radio station. Ergo to do its job it has to
be able to sell advertising.


That doesn't make it right or legal.

It's right because new employees for the broadcasting industry have be
trained, and legal because universities get a free ride on all sorts of
things.


They get plenty of training. Besides, broadcast sales has about as much
to do with broadcasting as running being a waitress has to do with
raising cattle.
In any case, any salesman in the real world will tell you that they
learned virtually nothing in school that helped them with sales.

But all that is moot, and I'm sorry you guys can't seem to help getting
caught up in the metaphor, instead of the topic.



--

-MIKE-

"Playing is not something I do at night, it's my function in life"
--Elvin Jones (1927-2004)
--
http://mikedrums.com

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