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"Fresh Air" Off The Air Due To Comedian's "Raunchy" Comments

D

DToTheJ

"Maybe they'll ban satellite radio next. Wink"

Now that would be something to get upset about!
 
keem said:
"Maybe they'll ban satellite radio next. Wink"

Now that would be something to get upset about!
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I canceled my XM a while back due to being poor, and although I was sick of the way Sirius ruined the service, I still miss it.

I mostly listen to MPB now, because it's about the only format that I like and can pick up consistently. So it's been kind of upsetting to hear of this knee-jerk reaction. It seems like the smarter thing to do would be to yank MPB from the "music on hold" system at all the universities and replace it with other content, or MPB's all-classical HD-2 stream.

There really is no logical reason why one old blue haired bible thumping biddy* should be allowed to dictate what MPB airs for the rest of us, when noncomm radio here is already filled to the gills with "family friendly" religious programming.

It's stuff like this that makes me glad I won't be calling Mississippi home for much longer. The comments section on that popeater story have thus far been pretty savage to the state and frankly, I don't feel the desire anymore to stand up for what is otherwise a pretty nice bunch of people, really the nicest bunch of people I've ever met (yes, the entire state!)
 
Alright, Zach,,,where do you think you should go? Best of Luck....you have been in nirvarna...and you are departing...best! JBi
 
Am I the only one here that's never heard of this show, doesn't listen to NPR, and wouldn't care if this medium supported by our tax dollars just went away? It's hard enough in our industry today without having to compete with the government for listeners.
 
jboyd said:
Alright, Zach,,,where do you think you should go? Best of Luck....you have been in nirvarna...and you are departing...best! JBi
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I'll go wherever my father goes after retirement because I don't have the money to light out on my own at this point. ;)

Whatever happens it'll probably be back to Alabama. He was gung ho to move down to the coast, but that was before the big oil spill. If it was up to me, I'd probably shoot for St. Louis or Albuquerque, they're two of my favorite midsize cities and both seem to fighting the recession better than anywhere in the south.
 
tzbarber said:
Am I the only one here that's never heard of this show, doesn't listen to NPR, and wouldn't care if this medium supported by our tax dollars just went away? It's hard enough in our industry today without having to compete with the government for listeners.
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You feel better now?

Tell you what. Just for grins, make a commitment to listen to Fresh Air one day a week or one day every two weeks until you have heard maybe 8 or 10 broadcasts. Then come back here and let's have a discussion where you know what you are talking about.

NPR and affiliated stations are getting less and less tax dollars. Your complaint about government supported competition is old, old news with less and less credibility.

Back to the origin of this thread: I'm all for reasonable decorum and decency in broadcast content. The problem is: "Who gets to decide where the line is?" If indeed Public Broadcasting in Mississippi took Fresh Air out of the schedule because one caller complained about one broadcast including one over-the-line guest, somebody has too much starch in their underwear.

Yes, the program sometimes explores areas of discussion that can make people uncomfortable.... but isn't that one of the tasks, one of the opportunities for all forms of media? A community, a society that doesn't get it's mind stretched once in awhile soon becomes "mentally and spiritually inbred".
 
Actually felt pretty good when I posted that. Not interested in listening,but thanks for the offer. Like I said, don't care about NPR. It competes with local broadcasters for listeners. Guess I'm one of those "inbred" of society you refer to since I don't think one of radio's tasks is to make the listener "uncomfortable", anyway. I'm just a guy making a living in the real radio business. Sorry to get in the way of your discussion for the "informed".
 
tzbarber said:
Actually felt pretty good when I posted that. Not interested in listening,but thanks for the offer. Like I said, don't care about NPR. It competes with local broadcasters for listeners. Guess I'm one of those "inbred" of society you refer to since I don't think one of radio's tasks is to make the listener "uncomfortable", anyway. I'm just a guy making a living in the real radio business. Sorry to get in the way of your discussion for the "informed".
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Well if local radio didn't offer such poor national news coverage, then things might be different. I'm interested in more than just corn futures at the top of the hour.

Locals in most small markets seem to give hourly news updates, which is fine and dandy but once in a while I want discussion beyond reading the headlines. In fact, local radio (and satellite, post Sirius-XM merger) have alienated me with their poor music choices, so my love for talk radio has only grown over the last few years.

The problem is, if not for NPR, that leaves Supertalk as the only talk outlet. Their poor coverage and poor sound quality pretty much keep me away. That and I don't really like some of their hosts.

The problem here is not about making listeners uncomfortable, it's really about a knee-jerk reaction to ONE COMPLAINT. Imagine losing your job because ONE PERSON complained about something that everyone else thought was pretty harmless. And not only that, it wasn't even a radio radio listener who complained. If there was a problem, it was that these universities are playing political and socially oriented talk radio through on hold system. That's a recipe for offending someone, sometime. Put the classical HD-2 on instead, geez, don't cancel a popular program for everyone else. It's like MPB is full of myrmidons. Or maybe this was a convenient way to expunge an expensive program mid-year? Who knows.
 
tzbarber said:
Actually felt pretty good when I posted that. Not interested in listening,but thanks for the offer. Like I said, don't care about NPR. It competes with local broadcasters for listeners. Guess I'm one of those "inbred" of society you refer to since I don't think one of radio's tasks is to make the listener "uncomfortable", anyway. I'm just a guy making a living in the real radio business. Sorry to get in the way of your discussion for the "informed".
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Zack and I have carried on a small amount of conversation over the months and my message was in some ways geared to prod him through his thought processes. But in the process I ended up being a little snippy with you. Sorry about that.

My working years have dragged me through eight states in this great country. One of my employers (eleven years with that operation) connected me up with another 7 or 8 states. I call Arkansas home which, of course, neighbors your state and I spent some radio years over in the Delta. So if anything I say seems to be a bit critical of the people of Mississippi, I'm also aiming some observations at my own beloved Arkansas, or the state of Georgia where I now live and other states across the nation.

I carry a little "scar tissue" because the culture of rural Arkansas did not prepare me to face a big globalized world that we live in. I'm a little torqued that my schools did not make me uncomfortable with the status quo in which I grew up. I can say that the church of my teen years and young adult years did teach and encourage reaching and being a change agent.

I find it ironic today as that same church along with like-minded groups has decided they don't like change, they they apparently don't like NPR either.

Your radio business has lots of competition for audience. TV. Smart phones. Electronic games. Cable. Satellite radio. The movies. Computer-centered activity including e-mail and Facebook, etc. None of these others are really out to help you figure out your own broadcasting enterprise. NPR is the one that is a laboratory that is experimenting with and identifying trends that might be helpful to you. But you choose to dislike the one industry that could be very helpful to you.

And apparently the NPR in Mississippi has decided their tastes are more to be trusted than is the national organization. That, my friend, is a trait more unique to the South than most other parts of the nation. (Keep in mind... I am a product of the South, and a current resident of the South.)
 
tzbarber said:
Actually felt pretty good when I posted that. Not interested in listening,but thanks for the offer. Like I said, don't care about NPR. It competes with local broadcasters for listeners. Guess I'm one of those "inbred" of society you refer to since I don't think one of radio's tasks is to make the listener "uncomfortable", anyway. I'm just a guy making a living in the real radio business. Sorry to get in the way of your discussion for the "informed".
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I'll take it a step further Terry... if it is below 92.1 on the dial I could care less whether it was ever on the air or not. Now granted I have friends that work in public broadcasting and this is no slam against them personally, but if you're not making money or at least trying to in the radio business, why bother?

The only thing that I have ever listened to on MPB is Russ Robinson's High School Scoreboard Show, which of course runs on commercial stations as well. Outside of that, it's all government funded liberal dribble to me.
 
To be honest, I haven't really listened to MPB since they got rid of most of the classical music. I'm not a fan of talk on public radio. for one thing they all eat the microphone and speak in a near whisper. Play that through a pair of woofers and it sounds like a bunch of rumbling and mumbling. I can't listen to Terry Gross or some of the other talk shows without being reminded of Saturday Night Live NPR parody "Delicous Dish", where they also speak softly and eat the microphones, SNL nailed NPR with that sketch. its funny because NPR is really like that. its a major snooze fest for most of the day. Just because you are a non commercial or classical station/network doesn't mean you have to be stuffy and bore everyone to death. Try listening through headphones, its even worse. Just mumbling with an "s" being heard. Public radio has always been dry and laid back, but back when they had live people playing music they would occasionally crack a joke, take requests or lighten up a little. Now they take themselves too serious. I've heard Terry Gross and have never really cared for her, many times she sounds like she is full of herself. And she has some of the most boring guest I've ever heard. I just as soon listen to a Colon Blow commercial or watch paint dry. Its not just the mumbling that irritates me, its the whole format. Its just simply boring. Of course this is just my opinion. and I'm sticking to it.
 
flytrap said:
And she has some of the most boring guest I've ever heard.
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I'd say Louis CK broke that trend. ;)

I'm with you on the eating the mic thing, though. But some of it may be down to processing. I've heard some really good sounding public radio stations and some really bad ones *coughWKNOcough* and some HD feeds that sounded totally unprocessed, which makes listening to the low and mumbly speech all the more difficult.
 
I personally hate it when someone tells me "you can hear it online" when I gripe about not being able to get something on my radio. Having said that, when it comes to Fresh Air, "you can hear it online" on our *coughWKNOcough* hd2 feed at wknofm.org at 11 AM (and PM), or 7 PM on the main hd1 feed. This could be better than *coughNOTHEARINGITATALLcough*.
 
robgrayson said:
I personally hate it when someone tells me "you can hear it online" when I gripe about not being able to get something on my radio. Having said that, when it comes to Fresh Air, "you can hear it online" on our *coughWKNOcough* hd2 feed at wknofm.org at 11 AM (and PM), or 7 PM on the main hd1 feed. This could be better than *coughNOTHEARINGITATALLcough*.
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Yeah, let me know when that HD-2 feed reaches Grenada. Or the analog signal, for that matter. :p

Don't get me wrong, I like WKNO a whole lot, especially how there's always a talk option and always a classical option spread across the two HD channels. I just wish silibants didn't grate so much. It's especially annoying on the analog feed because it sounds like it causes distortion when someone uses lots of esses. And the HD-2 and HD-3 (luv me some BBC WS) are both really, really quiet. I have to turn the volume way up to understand what's being said. Beyond that, WKNO is probably one of my more favorite public radio outlets, along with Alabama Public Radio out of Tuscasloosa and MPB (despite their boneheaded move.)

I'm a fan of maximum dynamic range in music, but speech is a cow of a different color.

BTW people should be careful about saying 'you can get it online' because people who get into the groove of downloading shows might not come back to radio at all. I actively avoid Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me, This American Life and Car Talk now because I have them stacked like cordwood on my computer's hard drive.
 
[/quote]

Yeah, let me know when that HD-2 feed reaches Grenada. Or the analog signal, for that matter. :p


[/quote]

The HD-2 signal reaches Grenada "online" at wknofm.org, streaming live.
 
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