> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Behalf Of The Fool
I met my partner in Senti-Metrics, my new venture, working nights at a radio station in Pittsburgh, more than 20 years ago. I was the night editor for the AM station, which was all-news. He was the night engineer for both stations; our FM station was *the* progressive rock station in town. One of the eye-openers for me working radio was the fact that there is far more structure in the broadcasts than one usually notices. And we heard plenty in those days about programming and formats. The DJs' worst fear was a Program Director of the "shut up and play the hits" variety -- which is what dominates today, of course. I think this article missed a key factor in the homogenization of radio and other media. The cost of distribution has everything to do with it. The scarcity of broadcast licenses and the difficulty of physically distributing printed publications create high distribution costs, raising the value of the financial survivors while pushing everyone out. There's no such thing, really, as a marginalized major-market broadcast outlet or daily newspaper. The high cost of owning the channels -- electronic or physical -- leaves room only for the very most successful. And this naturally is a ever-tightening circle, since the scarcity of competition drives the value up higher. The media industry has been evolving in this direction for many decades, as this article suggested. Those who proclaim that the rise of the Internet has had little effect on that trend are being short-sighted -- a decades-long trend isn't easily reversed. People have forgotten how to make use of diverse points of view, to the point where far too many regard such diversity as a problem, rather than a strength. That's a path to Fascism, in my opinion. And sadly, even some of those who give lip service to diversity have no idea how it works or why it matters. Although I wrote the above out of a certain amount of passion about the issue, I'll add that Senti-Metrics mission is to bring diverse viewpoints to light. If we can identify just a few of the unrecognized opinion leaders in the areas we work in, that'll satisfy me. It won't pay the bills by itself, but I think we'll manage to do that at the same time. Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
