So here we are, in the age of hypermedia saturation and the nearly extinct creature the "Radio DJ" is creeping ever closer to it's casket.from the San Francisco Chronicle, 9/6/04:
Software giant Microsoft took center stage last week when it began selling songs online, but another feature of its new MSN Music service is quietly raising eyebrows in the radio industry. Microsoft is using playlists from more than 900 local radio stations around the country to create its own soundalike Internet stations -- stripped of local DJ chatter, traffic, weather and commercials. The new MSN Radio offers Internet stations playing most of the same songs heard on over-the-air outlets like Berkeley's KBLX, "The Quiet Storm''; New York's WNEW, "The Mix 102.7''; or Chicago's WLUP, "The Loop.'' "It results in a more pleasant experience because you don't have the ads or the DJs,'' Rob Bennett, senior director for MSN Entertainment, said during a press briefing last week.
All I have to say is, go ahead... kill the DJs. Put them out of their misery. The industry has sucked out all of their originality, power, and influence anyway. The only place on the dial you have a chance of "possibly" hearing original programming is college radio. (I say possibly because major labels often reward and threaten college music directors by giving them loads of free records and threatening to stop sending them unless they play them a specific amount of times or bump them up on their playlists. Sometimes even suggesting faking the playlists)
Radio DJ's have little time to talk (asides from ads and promotions)and have little or no influence on the playlists. What they've been dwindled down to is primate-broadcasters pushing buttons and "ook-eek"ing on air.
It's a sad fact that going from state to state and turning the dial is not as diverse as it used to be. The FM Band is not unlike the shopping malls of America with the same stores/stations in every state and town.
This country is going to hell in a handbasket and I'm having a major problem with it.
It's not just the DJ thing, it's just that I feel like 'almost' everything I care about is being stolen from me.
- Copyright - (or should I say Fair Use/Public Domain)
- Politics - (Personal freedoms/privacy/etc..)
- Art & Creativity - Being stifled(Broadcasting/DJing/Producing with samples)
Our govenment only listens to those with money for their campaign funds. When it should mainly be working for the interests of it's people not solely it's corporations.
Where are the consumer rights groups? The Anti-Trust Laws?? The government agencies created to serve as checks and balances??
All removed, squashed and silenced.
A sad thing.
How bad is it when a person can go to jail for 3 years for downloading music?
I can rape someone and be out in less time. (not that I'd rape ANYBODY)
But think about how Fucked up that is.
I'm tired and I'm going to bed. I'll rant later. At least Ashcroft can't monitor my dreams.
