Big Ideas of the Radio Industry (ch 8)

1. Radio Act of 1927: Th effects of it Today
2. The Audience of Radio
3. Program Format of Radio

The Radio Act of 1927 established the Federal Radio Commission (FRC) with powers to enforce the law and limit the number of broadcasters. In this way the federal government became the "traffic police" of the airwaves. The act required radio broadcasters to operate in the "public interest, convenience and necessity" of the community. So in essence, radio stations had to broadcast material that was good for the community and for society in general.

So how does this affect today? Well the original purpose of this act was to regulate the interference caused by too many broadcasters operating on close frequencies. What has ensued from this is major controversy with censorship of radio. In the constitution, the freedom of speech is ensured to all citizens. Radio is an outlet for many to not only play music but to speak their opinions. Opinions are different among different communities of people and what is acceptable in one group may not be appropriate in another. That being said i had the question: why is it the govermnent's responsibility to oversee what is said on the radio? That same kind of censoship is not seen in the print industry (thethe extent as in radio/TV). Then I continued to think and censorship is an important thing; people can't say EVERYTHING they want to...I mean come on the War of the Worlds fandago in 1938 is evidence that the radio has influence over people even today. That being said the line in which radio is censored should be regulated by unbiased organization like television is (ch. 11). The government and big companies giving advertisement money to radio station need to be regulated themselves becuase these factors influence the censorship of radio and limit the voices that need to be heard.

The audience of radio has changed the way radio is presented throughout the histor of the industry. The textbook broughout that most people don't want to listen to radio; they just want it as a complemnent to their everyday activites. From my own experence I have seen the truth of this statement and with new expansions into satelite radio and internet radio, my question is how will the original format of radio, from a station, maintain itself. In an age where people are picking and chosing what they liste to, will radio as we know it completely change in a few years?

Lastly, program formatting in radio and homogenized programming has led to the decline in radio listeners (in my opinion). If a format works, other station will copy that format, which leads to predictablity and boring radio. I myself have turned off the radio in the car many times because hearing the same song and material gets really old very quickly and many could account to that as well. So will stations see that and start changing their material? Stay tuned.

Big Ideas of the Recording Industry (ch. 7)

1. The Winners and Losers
2. Copyright Battles
3. The Big Three: Sony, Universal, Warner vs. Indie Labels

Throughout the start of the recording industry with the invention of the phonographic by Thomas Edison, the industry was a constant competition for the best format for recordings. The "format wars" were decided based on cost, quality of sound, and customer convenience (but mainly on cost). Today there is an ongoing battle between CD's and digital downloads. So the question is which format will win out? The interesting thing is that as of now (well when the textbook was published) the industry's bulk of revenue still comes from full length CDs (77.8%).  Is this because a lot of people are still buying  CDs (because I haven't bought one in years) or is it because people are illegally downloading music online, so CDs are the top revenue by default? And I can't help but wonder, what happens when one of these formats are crowned as victor of this battle; what will come next???

The history of recording, along with the format wars, has been filled with the battles over copyright privileges. This big winners in all of these seem to be the big companies; they don't want to lose ANY money. There challenge is to adapt to new formats of music and recording and ways to protect their rights over the songs. The idea that I found interesting in this are was the Close-up box on Radiohead. They released their album In Rainbows exclusively on their website and offered the song at any retail price of the customers choice. They had no help from the record label so they received no profit.  I found this as a slap in the face to the big companies and i laughed a little. I also thought it was brave of the group to do this and also very sweet that their loyal fans paid reasonable amounts for the album. The group also made most of their money through touring, which is the case of most artist, so the question is, why don't more artist try this approach to selling music? Maybe it'll be a surprise and people will buy the album for 4 dollars online instead of free on some illegal site and the artist would receive most, f not all, of that 4 dollars. Something to think about.

Lastly, The recording music industry is controlled by three major companies right now. In essence they control 80 percent of what people listen to and decide what is "Hot" and what people will like. This kinda seems like a inconvenient thing because the companies stay strictly with what is "marketable", but what if the next big game changer is constantly rejected because a company doesn't see the sound as profitable. The companies hate losing money and will almost never take a chance on something new, fresh and different. So thats where the independent labels come in and discover the brilliant talent. But almost always these successful labels are bought by the big companies. So will indie labels ever stand up for themselves and remain indie? Or will this system stay because it seems to be working?

Music and Recordings!!

I asked my mom if she has a particular favorite song when she was my age, but she said no. Much like me, because as hard as I have been thinking about it for the past few days, I can't think of one particular song or artist that I love more that others. Back to my mom, she did say that she did have an all time favorite artist: Whitney Houston. I can see why she picked Whitney, I mean come on she had hands down the voice of an angel and her music is among the handful of records from the eighties and nineties that I actually love too.

Even though I don't have a particular favorite song or artist of all time, my favorite song right NOW is hands down Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys ft. Nicki Minaj.   Link to the song:  http://soundcloud.com/aliciakeys/girl-on-fire-inferno-version

I love this song because it's classic Alicia Keys: up beat, AMAZING vocals, a strong message that makes sense. I feel as though Alicia and her music does have "staying" power because her voice, the message of her music is timeless. Think about it, how many people are still singing songs like "Fallin'" and "If I Ain't Got You" from her 2001 and 2003 albums? A lot of people are singing them I can tell you that AND I even hear them on the radio still. People young and old like her music and that's what makes her universal.

P.S A close second as my favorite song right now is Pound the Alarm by Nicki Minaj :)

Big Ideas In the News Industry (ch.11)

1. The changing definition of news: The Audience
2. Controversy: Conservatives vs. Liberals
3. Controversy: News as Entertainment

• The changing definition of News in recent years is attributed to the audience's definition of the news values: what is timely, important and interesting. Unfortunately the audiences have made it clear through ratings and the internet that what they think was important and interesting was the lives of celebrities or news exclusively expresses views that they already believe in. This is causing major problems in the News industry because reporters are losing credibility for reporting on miscellaneous topics in order to get more ratings. Also the way in which the audience selects the news that they chose to view is dangerous due to the narrow perspective they are implementing on themselves. This kind of narrow minded behavior can easily increase intolerance and bigotry in people.

• The fight between conservatives and liberals strongly control what reports report on. Because each side want there viewpoints reported on, strong guidelines are put on news outlets on how they can report news. The Media Research Center in particular monitors newscast for any unpatriotic reports. This causes some unrest with news executives because some critics feel that the news should be political watchdogs not cheerleaders.

• News as entertainment has been a pressing issue in recent history because stations want ratings, but the ways that they have been going about getting them have seemed unprofessional. The sensational promotional announcements for news reports that turn out to be hardly news is among this entertainment slant in news. Using air time on news broadcasts to promote other programs shown on the same station has also become common place; a way to advertise and get more ratings.