View From the Phlipside - Digital Re-runs

My name is Jay Phillippi and I've spent my life in and around the media.  TV, Radio, the Movies and more.  I love them and I hate them and I always have an opinion.  Call this the View From the Phlipside.

There is a long standing fear about the speed with which technology develops.  The fear that we won’t be able to keep up somehow.  It’s always struck me as rather bizarre since if the technology suddenly gets ahead of the usability curve why does it suddenly become incumbent on me to keep up?  Technology is there to serve me, not the other way around.  As astounding as it may seem to some of us I know folks who are functioning perfectly happily and successfully without smartphones, social media or constant connection to the internet.

On the other hand I am disappointed when I see the opportunity for creativity being wasted.  I don’t know why I let it bother me since it’s been going on for decades now.  But once again I just have to shake my head in wonder when a whole horizon is opened for exploration and folks just stand there scratching their heads and saying “Well what are we gonna do with THAT?”

In the recent past television in the U.S. went digital.  Remember the whole big hoo haw over getting the right antenna and then they ran out of antenna boxes and so on and so forth.  Along with that local channels picked up digital sub channels.  In other words whole new channels to be programmed with whatever they choose.

And this is where it gets sad.  Because they’re doing what they always do.  When new channels were added back in the dark ages (for those of us who remember having only 3 or 4 channels) what did they program?  Reruns of old TV.  When cable channels first started popping up what did they program?  Reruns of old TV shows.  So guess what you’ll probably find on the new digital sub-channels?  That’s right, re-runs of old TV shows.  In fact there are whole networks being offered just for the new digital channels.  Networks that offer nothing but...re-runs of old TV shows.

And I can’t help thinking to myself “Is that really the best we can do?  Is that really the extent of our programming creativity?”  Because if it is I’m not sure it’s worth the trouble.  We already have plenty of channels running plenty of re-runs.  What we don’t have is very much in the way of interesting new ideas.  No places for folks to try something different, no place to develop the next big thing.

One step forward in technology to provide one step back in programming.  If this is the promise of the the technology age I’m not sure I’m impressed.

Call that the View From the Phlipside.
"The View From the Phlipside" airs on WRFA-LP Jamestown NY.  You can listen to WRFA online HERE
Copyright - Jay Phillippi 2010