On 20 Aug 2003 14:37:05 GMT, "CAndersen (Kimba)"
wrote:

Rich Wood wrote:

I found it funny that TV stations stayed on the air with virtually no
operating receivers. They were talking to themselves.

Battery-operated color TVs sell for well under $100.
I figure if _I've_ got one, lots of other folks must, too.


Battery operated TV's are not in common use (and yes, I have one, too,
but just because I have something, it doesn't mean everyone else
does).

Even the TV people admit they were broadcasting to almost no one.

Mark Howell

On 20 Aug 2003 14:38:27 GMT, umarc wrote:

I visited a cell site recently where the back-up power was a
stack of gell cell batteries that, according to the AT&T guy, could
power the site for four days.

Then something went wrong because cell service faded away within a few
hours As soon as the electricity went back on , so did the cell
service.

I spent a lot of time walking through the city that night and my cell
phone had no signal indicator and that handset with the slash through
it. The display said "no service."

When my cell phone tells me I have no service I believe it. The bill
has been paid in full.

Rich

On 21 Aug 2003 14:32:45 GMT, "DAB sounds worse than FM"
wrote:

"People are flocking from radio in droves," says Michael Bracy, director of
government relations at the lobby group the Future of Music Coalition.

Will someone post some research that supports this? What makes Mr.
Bracy an expert on the status of radio?

It would seem to me that, if they're "flocking from radio in droves,"
it should be in his best interest. Now they'll have to buy the product
either on CD or MP3. The rest will either not listen or steal it.

I think it would be more appropriate to say new generations aren't
being attracted to radio because of the vast number of alternatives.

"So many people have become disenfranchised that they simply don't listen
anymore. Smaller local artists are being freezed out by centralised
programming.

Smaller groups have been squeezed out of the business in all of the 43
years I've been in it. That's long before Clear Channel owned much
more than a station in San Antonio. Some college stations had local
talent programming but very few commercial stations ever did it. They
played the hits. And ... did you know that all the hit artists were
local at one time? It didn't seem to hurt them.

It's very damaging to the culture.

You mean I'm culture-starved because I can't hear the latest
manufactured boy band?

There is a climate of fear
surrounding Clear Channel. People will say in private, 'They did this or
they did that,' but they won't speak out because they have to do business
with them.

As long as they say it in private, no improvement will come. Of
course, they'd better have proof that will stand up in court. Do it
the good ol' American way. Sue them. I've heard local promoters
complain that Clear Channel pays more. I can't fault the artist for
going where the money is. Let's see Mr. Bracy get all the big artists
together to boycott Clear Channel. If no one will perform for them,
the problem is solved. Then the only problem left is how to harvest
the green cheese on the moon.

The bad publicity has made Clear Channel a political pariah. While other
parts of the media industry are enjoying the relaxation of ownership laws,
in radio, they were tightened up last week, despite the company hiring
well-connected Washington lobbyists and appointing a former US congressman
to the board."

Radio ownership rules were tightened? I was under the impression that
TV was returned to 35%. There have been many instances where Clear
Channel was prevented from buying because of the rules. This isn't
new.

"According to the US ratings service Arbitron, Americans are spending 10%
less time listening to radio per annum. Radio listenership in the US is at a
27-year low."

I seriously doubt the increase in population over 27 years and the
explosion of alternative sources of music were included. 27 years ago
I didn't have a minidisc player, a CD player, an MP3 player, a DVD
portable, or even low quality Internet streaming competing for
attention.

"It's creative death, it's standardisation - McDonaldisation. Creativity
requires diversity.

Mr. Bracy needs to look at the dirt in his own house. Where does all
this sameness come from? Instead of blaming radio he should look at
the quality of the stuff oozing from the record companies, big and
small.

If you introduce free markets without regulation, you
are prescribing monopoly. The only upside to all of this is that it gets so
bad that things start to develop underground on the internet or satellite
radio. That's what happened with the Floyd."

Satellite radio isn't going to lead the way in local artists. They
aren't local. Satellite radio should be Mr. Bracy's vision of Hell.

"Mr Dyke [Director General of the BBC] directed much of his ammunition
against the global media giant Clear Channel, which owns 1,225 radio
stations in the US, many of which took a staunchly pro-war line.
"We are genuinely shocked when we discover that the largest radio group in
the United States was using its airwaves to organise pro-war rallies," said
Mr Dyke, who is also the BBC's editor-in-chief. "We are even more shocked to
discover that the same group wants to become a big radio player in the UK."

Mr. Dyke is in the dark. Individual stations made those decisions, not
the company. I realize it's not in his best interest to accept that,
but it's true. If it were a company directive there would have been
1225 rallies - one for each station even in markets with multiple
stations. They still compete.

Of course, the BBC has no interest in American audiences. I would be
"genuinely shocked" to discover that the BBC wanted to exploit
Americans when they don't even speak our language. Who ever heard of a
bonnet on a car? My home has a john, not a loo.

and there's been a load more stories about Clear Channel in the UK press. I
realise that being American that you don't take any interest in non-American
issues, but, shock-horror, we do actually look at issues beyond our shores,
and especially when Mr Mays might buy a UK radio group in the not too
distant future.

I think the UK said something similar when Rupert Murdoch launched Sky
TV and the sky fell again when he bought British newspapers.

If we don't look beyond our shores we should be able to stop all those
humanitarian aid programs that cost us so much. I'm sorry we have such
little interest in the goings on with the Royal Family. I guess Mr.
Dyke doesn't read the New York Times. It appears to me that the first
section of the paper is heavily International. The evening news and
PBS' newscasts seem to cover a lot of "foreign" news.

Mr. Dyke also doesn't seem to realize that covering 50 states is
probably more difficult than covering 50 countries. After all, those
of us in the 50 states have more in common than his 50 countries. We
all speak a similar language. After a while, even war isn't news when
it's been going on for decades, or centuries. Maybe he's feeling bad
because the UK used to own most of those countries.

Let's get the Middle East fixed before he complains about how uncaring
we Americans are. Maybe we're just too damned tired of watching those
"across the pond" fight each other endlessly.They've been taking over
each other's countries for centuries and dressing their men in
ridiculous looking costumes. Isn't there something more productive
they could be doing?

Rich

"Rich Wood" wrote in message
...
On 22 Aug 2003 18:50:31 GMT, "R J Carpenter"
wrote:

You children don't seem to remember the "Fitch Bandwagon" from the late
30s
/ early 40s. Songs were "sung so clearly you can understand every word".

You're joking! Every word? That would mean the lyricist would actually
have to write something meaningful. This is too hard to comprehend.

You're too young to remember when skilled people wrote lyrics - Ira
Gershwin, Cole Porter. Irving Berlin and the whole lot. For your musical
education of that period I'd suggesting listening to XM-4 ;-))

On rethought - maybe the slogan was "hear" ever word. The idea being that
you could listen to the program and then start singing the songs yourself -
no need to buy records or sheet music. Remember that 78 records were VERY
expensive. Two songs for 50 cents or more, Bluebird was RCA's cheapo label
at 35 cents. Multiply by about 14 to get the equivalent in today's
dollars - very roughly the equivalent of $5 for a Bluebird 78 with two
songs..

In article , R J Carpenter wrote:
expensive. Two songs for 50 cents or more, Bluebird was RCA's cheapo label
at 35 cents. Multiply by about 14 to get the equivalent in today's
dollars - very roughly the equivalent of $5 for a Bluebird 78 with two
songs..

That's about how much a modern-day 45rpm 7" single costs.....

A 12" club single (they call them extended mixes) now goes for
anywhere from U$7.00 to $20.00 depending on the artist.....

I've seen full-length LPs -- nowadays a lot of them are two-record
sets go for $30 if they're "imported" *eyeroll*

--
Sven Weil
New York City, U.S.A.

Salutations:

R J Carpenter wrote:

"Rich Wood" wrote in message
You're joking! Every word? That would mean the lyricist would actually
have to write something meaningful. This is too hard to comprehend.

On rethought - maybe the slogan was "hear" ever word. The idea being that
you could listen to the program and then start singing the songs yourself -
no need to buy records or sheet music. Remember that 78 records were VERY
expensive. Two songs for 50 cents or more, Bluebird was RCA's cheapo label
at 35 cents. Multiply by about 14 to get the equivalent in today's
dollars - very roughly the equivalent of $5 for a Bluebird 78 with two
songs..


'Tunes' I think is what you are talking about there brother R J and I would
agree with you largely even though I was brought up on 60/70's AM and the
good old CBC..

What - you're - talking about the increasing roll over of western culture
into the dark rule of the synthetic, data modelled, vertically integrated
'popular' corporate artist.. All part of the fall of Rome brother..

Not that both Berlin and Porter didn't cough up some pretty ugly stuff to
pay the bills too - but it has gotten pretty bad lately on the racks I will
agree.. And I think the kids are on to it - see what happened to Justin
Timberlake at that Toronto shindig?.

Run the search term - 30's - or - 40's - on my hobby bitcaster below..

When I put the search engine together for the site, I built it so you could
search by lyric fragment because that is about the only way I remember a
'tune' and it really puts a load on the server model for testing purposes..
Consequently - most of the playlist is populated by lyrically memorable
tunes from several eras right up to now.. Stuff I can croak and waddle
(privately) along with - which in turn attracts a very interesting group of
fans who, like us, like 'tunes'.

I have a number of big band covers in there from the Setzer Orchestra
(which were interesting enough to push the originals off my play bank) -
but - you'll probably get a bigger kick out of the some of the OEM Andrew
sisters stuff - particularly with Danny Kaye..

Now I would put it squarely at the doors of the Video media, except that
some of the very best 'tunes' came out of vegas/movie/stage song writing of
any given time.. Well except for my main man Bill Monroe - his stuff came
out of back or a 32 ford with a 'spare' tank as near as I can figure..

Anyway - it isn't being forced to dance as well as sing that is making it
all run wrong..

My take is the published financial 'decline' of the music business is more
the result of bad reactive A&R calls regarding taking risks that don't
match up with the sample generated demographic models that big station
advertisers will support (with all due respect to brother Eduardo) - rather
than - outright downloading itself.. Although I bet it's easier to get an
industry fight together against it as opposed to a campaign around 'we suck
- we have mostly crappy tunes right now - sorry that's what everyone's
numbers tell us you want'..

Every so often however - someone sneaks a darned good 'tune' out the back
door and I quickly hand over my $20 for the CD.. Check out:

En Vogue - Giving Him Everything He Can Feel
http://www.dexterdyne.org/888/118.RAM

What do you do about it? I don't know.. I'm just a propeller head..

Nobody seems to reward being a talent much anymore - well except to point
out what a talent someone is between the softcore pepsi porn.. The system
isn't broken at all according to most of the professionals here - it's the
thieving public out downloading and sharing out their old collections
that's to blame apparently..

Now I don't support downloading myself - don't use cacheable audio
dataforms specifically to not support it - but I can sure see how folks are
unwilling to fork over the money for most of the popular albums out there
right now.. With the interesting proviso that while it's still a crummy way
to make a living - most of the small Jazz and Traditional labels are doing
as well as ever - better than ever actually..

--

J Dexter - webmaster - http://www.dexterdyne.org/
all tunes - no cookies no subscription no weather no ads
no news no phone in - RealAudio 8+ Required - all the Time

Radio Free Dexterdyne Top Tune o'be-do-da-day
Davis - Oo Shoo Be Doo Be
http://www.dexterdyne.org/888/065.RAM

"Songs sung so clearly that you can understand every word and sing right
along."

Actually Manhatton Merry-Go-Round sponsored by Dr. Lyon's tooth paste and
Dr. Lyon's tooth powder.

Norm Lehfeldt

"R J Carpenter" wrotf:


"Rich Wood" wrote in message
...
On 22 Aug 2003 18:50:31 GMT, "R J Carpenter"
wrote:

You children don't seem to remember the "Fitch Bandwagon" from the late
30s
/ early 40s. Songs were "sung so clearly you can understand every word".

"R J Carpenter" wrote in message ...
"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...

Anyone here remember the "Your Hit Parade" TV show of the late 50's with
Snooky Lanson, Dorothy Collins, etc? The four staff singers of this
national
show did their versions of the week's top songs "all across America."

You children don't seem to remember the "Fitch Bandwagon" from the late 30s
/ early 40s. Songs were "sung so clearly you can understand every word".
Wasn't Larry Clinton the band leader and Bea Wain one of the vocalists?
Clearly hits were thought to be national back then.

I wasn't around back then, but in all my readings of OTR and listening
to Chuck Schaden in Chicago, I would've sworn that it was "Manhattan
Merry-Go-Round" where the announcer said that the songs were sung so
clearly that you could understand every word. And people complained
about rock music fifteen years later...

Along those same lines, I have to chortle when I see someone giving a
tribute to Bob Hope saying how clean his comedy was instead of today's
"depravity." According to the Library of Congress' extremely
impressive web site on Hope's career, more than once at the height of
his radio popularity in the 40s NBC execs wanted to drop him because
they felt his show was too *off-color* (but obviously didn't). Plus
ca change...

Are people sixty years from now going to be reminiscing about how
family-friendly Howard Stern was?

"Mark Jeffries" wrote in message
...
"R J Carpenter" wrote in message
...
"David Eduardo" wrote in message
...

Anyone here remember the "Your Hit Parade" TV show of the late 50's
with
Snooky Lanson, Dorothy Collins, etc? The four staff singers of this
national
show did their versions of the week's top songs "all across America."

You children don't seem to remember the "Fitch Bandwagon" from the late
30s
/ early 40s. Songs were "sung so clearly you can understand every
word".
Wasn't Larry Clinton the band leader and Bea Wain one of the vocalists?
Clearly hits were thought to be national back then.

I wasn't around back then, but in all my readings of OTR and listening
to Chuck Schaden in Chicago, I would've sworn that it was "Manhattan
Merry-Go-Round" where the announcer said that the songs were sung so
clearly that you could understand every word.

And you are 100% correct. My memory haze is catching up with me.... Sorry.

wrote in message ...
"Songs sung so clearly that you can understand every word and sing right
along."

Actually Manhatton Merry-Go-Round sponsored by Dr. Lyon's tooth paste and
Dr. Lyon's tooth powder.

Norm Lehfeldt


Correct - I'm getting memory-haze, I fear.




"R J Carpenter" wrotf:


"Rich Wood" wrote in message
...
On 22 Aug 2003 18:50:31 GMT, "R J Carpenter"
wrote:

You children don't seem to remember the "Fitch Bandwagon" from the
late
30s
/ early 40s. Songs were "sung so clearly you can understand every
word".