INFROMANT - essay by Freon
The Year We Lose Contact
Have to rant for a moment - sorry to go all futurist on you.
Sure signs that Radio Concentration has already claimed your broadcast area as a victim:
1) Common street names like Bunert and Schoenherr are pronounced BUNNERT and SHOW-NAR.
2) Ads that you hear when you're out of state that sound identical but have local terms and places dubbed in
4) Morning shows that read the newspaper and cnn.com at you instead of writing items themselves
5) Songs coming in several remixes to fit the demographics of differing stations under the corporate umbrella
6) Money. Prizes. Ticket giveaways to sold-out concerts.
7) Memorable Beer Commercials.
Y'know, friends, we're doomed. Sorry. That's in the past - and look now at the telly of the future:
-=2010=1984=-
The big 'news' being that communities are protesting the second-rate status that cable is giving them by making public access television viewers use rf-converters to be able to view content on HDTVs which don't support analog cable/broadcast anymore. Viewers Pissed about Taking it Up the Spectrum(sic)
Of course, Comcast HAS to comply (oh dear) by taking CATV into their pipeline (for a fee), and leaving the community with NO NEED FOR BROADCAST TVs and therefore NO BALANCED MEDIUM, beginning the moment the last television hits the curb. Duh. Sorry - that's what you get for buying what your government tells you to buy. Or what Sony tells your government to tell you to buy. Get the picture? It's not news. It's fallout. Community access has swallowed. We're on our own.
Why complain? Analog cell phones are finished as of this year. XMRadio is somehow still here against all reason, and as I've mentioned, Broadcast Radio is already rotted at the roots. I'm on a pulpit built by AT&T Broadband, and I can already see the death of dialup from here.
And you can quote me on that.Smart people will always have public access, minimum requirement tools and freedom of information. Too bad we're running out of all four.
In 2010, everyone else just HAS to be satisfied with Coors, Fox 'News' and their next president - all chosen for them by that trusted one percent of the voting population, incorporated. What's scary? They ARE.
On Friday night, I bring NBC's broadcast of Orwell's classic, prophetic fiction '1984' with David Niven - 12am on RFF. Crack open a Blue and enjoy. ;-)
freon, doing his part by keeping the rabbit ears
LONG LIVE THE FIGHTERS-RADIO FREE ANYTHING
Freon is Canadian. If he's too loud we can deport him.
Labels: essay
3 Comments:
INFROMANT is not a typo. It's what you find on the back of a device that DOES support broadcast analog television.
Why don't DVD players have this? Why haven't they had this? Why haven't they had this for years? Because the plan has been in place for that long.
The most ironic thing happened yesterday. I was at Best Buy yesterday and saw a rack of Sony Walkman units with those FCC warning stickers on them.
This television receiver has only an analog broadcast tuner and will require a converter box after February 17, 2009, to receive over-the-air broadcasts with an antenna because of the Nation’s transition to digital broadcasting. Analog-only TVs should continue to work as before with cable and satellite TV services, gaming consoles, VCRs, DVD players, and similar products.
Okay, let's be serious. The sticker is bigger than the package for the product. Go look. It's hysterical.
Also, the 'converter' in question would cost twice that of this Walkman, and since the Walkman has an internal antenna, where the hell would you plug it in?
Third insult: The device is a TV AUDIO device. It doesn't even make use of broadcast TV.
I was tempted to buy both this and the converter, and go to the installation desk to have them put them together for me so I could listen to Broadcast TV after Feb next year. Har Har!
This is of course impossible. But there's the product, on the shelf still for sale, though next year fully 30% of its usefulness will be gone in the USA.
Why should I complain, says Sony - I can buy a NW-A919 ($425) instead.
Which brings me to the real point: why are these still for sale?
Because the more warning stickers we see, the easier it will be to believe we'll be better off without broadcast.
Yeah.
"Verizon bid $9.4 billion and AT&T $6.6 billion in the FCC sale of rights to airwaves now used for analog TV broadcasts. Those airwaves will become available with the completion of the conversion to digital broadcasts next year. These government-owned airwaves are considered prime real estate on the radio spectrum because of their ability to penetrate walls and send signals farther using less power."
Great. So now if we use these channels we're not simply breaking Federal law, we're TRESPASSING.
Next, exposed arials will draw cops like CB antennas drew State Troopers in the 80's.
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