Internet Killed the VeeJay Star

We have been talking about digital music and radio in our class this week. It makes me sad that the romanticism of music radio has disappeared over the last 10 years. We read an article in class called “The World is Streaming In” that discusses the advantages of digital radio. More band width from digital more chances to hear more interesting radio. I have a satilight radio and I was very excited at the prospect of “cable TV for my radio” and, interestling, my radio has turned into the same sad device as the television. In the immortal words of Bruce Springsteen, “We switched 'round and 'round 'til half-past dawn/There was fifty-seven channels and nothin' on.” (1992)


Only 57 channels? Now that my beloved XM Radio merged with Sirius (I chose XM specifically because I did not want to support the Howard Stern School of Broadcasting) I find that the radio product is diluted. A number of satellite radio listeners I know agree that they liked their respective choices better before the merger. More choices have brought a lower quality of radio product.

I also think it is interesting as music radio becomes less of an art form as the vehicle of music will the music itself become more commercial and trite? You have to “train” your Pandora to send you the new music you want and still you have no “radio personalities” through which you come to love new music. Thanks, Howard. I blame Stern again for the decline in music radio. Radio became a place to hear poop jokes and dirty talk to strippers and, of course, lesbian strippers. In this sense I think Stern brought down the dignity of the medium. AM radio has political talk, which can get feisty (see Michael Savage) but at least it does so under the guise of political entertainment. Stern is just dirty for money.

Now you can hear no new music and no Thank you, Dear Lord, for NPR and all of the shows that help remind us that radio can do amazing things (A shout out to my friend Gina at WDUQ in Pittsburgh.) But the days of waiting to hear from that radio personality to talk about a new song are so far gone – the day we turned to VeeJays to do it for us on MTV the medium killed the radio star.

Trapped in a cell?

As I type this I just texted my friend in New York for help with a project. I sent him details via email. It was so wonderfully quick and convenient. I love these tools. But what happens when they become more than tools? I guess this is one reason to blog – the RANT.


Yesterday, I showed the first hour and 10 minutes of Casablanca in one of my classes. I asked students to step outside of themselves and imagine it is 1941. We are at war. All of the men are gone. The people in the theater don’t know if their brothers, husbands and sons will come back. Think of the movie as a piece of propaganda for the war effort. Now, picture yourself in a movie theater in the 1960s (During its art house theater runs it gained the reputation of one of the greatest films ever made.) The time and the place changes and the way people look at the movie changes. Now it becomes not a movie about war, but a great love story. Look for the symbolism in the film; think about what you don’t understand historically about what is happening in the film. With all of that going on in your head – when do you have time to text in a dark theater? I was sad and hurt at how many of my students texted with impunity. It was just plain rude. So when does a tool become a crutch?

I asked my honors students to try a media fast and see how it felt. Interestingly, they fared well – except for the texting. I had several students say that it made them realize that texting is an addiction for them. A few even spoke of panic attacks over the thought of being disconnected. One student brought up a great point; she has always had a cell phone so giving it up was traumatic because she had never known a time without it. I remember when you couldn’t stray further and the edge of the kitchen with the phone. The cord would be stretched out sooo long as you struggled for a place to hide to have a conversation with your friends. Giving up the cell would be inconvenient but not traumatic.

So I have been sitting here thinking - what would be traumatic for me to give up. What have I loved in the way that this generation loves their cell phones? No doubt – my radio. In my pubescence the worst punishment was the confiscation of my radio. I loved it and I love it still. I would miss it desperately if I could never again enjoy talk radio, NPR, sports and music. Radio was my connection to the world and my first true love. I worked for several years as a radio personality and a news director. Eventually it broke my heart – radio is a cruel mistress – but that is a discussion for another time.

You are what you eat

We have been talking about digital publishing this week in class. You can now purchase a device, from any number of manufacturers, to upload books, magazines and podcasts - and have a portable library in your hands. The copyright issues and issues of bypassing publishers is an interesting line of inquiry. This “bypass” of traditional media creates an unprecedented relationship between media and the citizenry. It could be likened to the advent of the printing press, the translation of the Bible from the Latin text and the Protestant Reformation. Anyone could read the Bible and the priests who did the interpretations of the text for the faithful were now no longer needed. The political pundit, the news anchor and the news reporter become passé. The news can now be created and translated by lay persons or what is describes as the “prosumer” by Web spinners. Prosumers are people who both consume and produce media – but how long can you feed off of something, expel it, and feed again without eventually creating a toxic situation? What if we run out of people who can interpret from a deeper place and just opinon because as we both consume and create so do companies who do it right along with us. When will we know what is public relations and what is authentic when it will all look the same? The great Frontline documentary, “Merchants of Cool” talks about a feedback loop when people begin to act like what they see in the media. The question becomes do prosumers create things that are authentic or are they just regurgitating what they have fed on. (Why am I on this food kick?) Maybe the new Neil Postman book for the 21st century is not Amusing Ourselves to Death but “Eating Ourselves Alive.” (Yuck!)

I have started a blog.

Anyone who knows me would laugh; I spend days teaching and preaching to students to be thoughtful of their technology use. I read to them Marshal McLuhan and Neil Postman warning them of the temptations of Huxley’s Brave New World. This class that I am taking is forcing me to reevaluate my thoughts on technology and revealing my hypocritical stance.

Ahhh, the digital existance. I revel in its simplicity of use and I revile its ease on thought. Would our greatest writers have used the thesaurus in Word to aid in their descriptions of being? Would Descartes been able to be – since his thinking would be left up to Google? As I type this I spell check reminds me of my mistakes DesCarte? DeCart? I can go no further until Word has resolved the case for me. The red squiggles drive me into a rage of incomplete thoughts – If I think incompletely I must be incomplete as per our Cartesian philosophy.

I find that I am reluctant to be and not to be. What was the question? How do I embrace technology?. All of my flaws on the page taunting me and reminding me that you have no time to think deeply; you can’t spell DeCart so how can you continue to write? I must fix my errors before I can proceed. And so I spell incorrectly over and over in order to find the correct response. I have to continue to spell a word incorrectly to finally spell it right? How is that idea not counter intuitive to the human spirit? Just keep typing something similar until the real thing shows up. And sometimes it never does – that is when it is time to change the word; thank you, thesaurus.