Program scripts from week of December 31, 2012
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.
The Great Experiment Fails
I’m not sure there’s another aspect of our relationship with media that continues to struggle more in the transition to the digital age than how we get our news. Once the printing press started making print materials easier to produce something very much like our modern newspapers came into being. For centuries this was the primary way, beyond word of mouth, that most people found out about what was happening in the larger world. As the years went by the newspaper got bigger and offered more and more news. Not just the local but the national and the international. Feature stories, sports stories and my personal favorite - the funnies. I remember waiting till my Dad got home from work because he always brought home the afternoon paper. I could lay it out on the living room floor and read about all kinds of things.
I’ve talked before about the challenges facing newspapers, magazines, radio and TV news before. Studies I’ve seen say that there is still a desire for that kind of information. At the same time people are expecting a different approach that makes use of the technology that has become a larger and larger part of our lives. Finding the way forward through all those questions has been a challenge.
You had to wonder if Rupert Murdoch had dealt himself the winning hand in February of 2011 when he launched “The Daily”. The Daily was intended to be the newspaper of the future. In its initial form it was for the iPad only and was designed to make use of the multi-media abilities of the world’s first successful tablet computer. Murdoch’s News Corporation would seem to have been just the kind of organization to make it work. Long history in the journalism field (admittedly not all of it of the highest calibre) and the deep pockets to fund it till it got rolling. Turns out that became the problem. It never got rolling. Which is why they pulled the plug on The Daily December 15.
So the journey will continue into the new year. How do we want our news delivered? What business model can be found to make it work and show a profit?
As we watch the launch of a new leadership right here at our hometown newspaper we’ll have to see if there’s some bright business person out there with the idea to launch the next generation of the news.
College Bowl Games
Once upon a time, a very long time ago, college bowl season was something special. The college bowl games were the icing on the cake, the tinsel on the Christmas tree, the great way to kick off the New Year by watching the kickoffs of some of the best college football teams in the land. Those days are dead, dead as a doornail, dead as Marley’s ghost. What we have in its place is just about as welcome as a visit from Scrooge’s late partner as well.
As is my custom let me be clear - I am not a great college football fan. I didn’t attend a college with a great football tradition. I watch one game a year - the Army/Navy game. Attending that game in person is on my bucket list. Outside of that I have no use for the college game. But back in the day I watched a great many of those bowl games. They were an event back in the day.
Not so much today.
Here’s a quiz for you. How many bowl games are scheduled for the 2012-13 football bowl season? 10? 20? Not there yet. 25. Nope. 30. Nope. 35 bowl games between December 15 and the so called National Championship on January 7. Among them you will find such luminaries as the Beef O’Brady bowl, the Kraft Fight Hunger bowl, the Famous Idaho Potato bowl, the Military bowl not to be confused with the Bell Helicopter Armed Forces bowl, the Buffalo Wild Wings bowl, the Belk bowl, the Franklin American Mortgage Music City bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia bowl. But all of this leads up to the big game, the National Championship, right? So you’d expect the bowls to slowly crescendo right? So explain to me why the last bowl game before the big one is the GoDaddy.com bowl featuring Arkansas State against Kent State. Other than folks with bets on the game and alumni who watches these games? I have a friend who is a huge college football fan. The rule is don’t call on Saturday during football season. You can visit as long as you sit down and watch the game. He probably watches all them too. I just can’t imagine why.
Once upon a time these games were special.
Today let’s just call them all the Irrelevant Football Cash Bowls and move on.
Rock Can Kill You
The New Year is always a time for me to sit back and re-assess my life. Time to take a look at the goals I want to set for myself. Plus a time to look at the things I’ve managed to tick off my Bucket List along the way. This past year for example I finally managed to go to Europe for the first time. I hope it won’t be the last but I can at least say I’ve done it.
Along the way there are also some things that you just have to admit you’re not ever going to do. I am never going to play second base for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Or any other professional baseball team but my goal was always the Pirates. For a lot of us on that dream list included singing or playing with a rock band. The good news is that as Baby Boomer rockers continue to play well into their geezerhood there may still be hope for me on this one. A recent academic study out of the United Kingdom may make me re-consider however.
The study was done by the British Health Department and the folks at Liverpool John Moores University. They studied rock stars from Elvis Presley to the Arctic Monkeys (I looked them up, current English indie rock group). What they discovered is not surprising and yet a little daunting all at the same time.
Over fourteen hundred stars from rock, punk, pop, R&B, rap, electronica and New Age who worked between 1956 and 2006. Of that number 137 or just over 9% have died which is a higher percentage of the overall age demographic. That’s right being a rock star is bad for your health. Curiously North American music stars seem to live longer than their English cousins, 45.2 years versus 39.6.
Speaking of ages the study debunks the popular 27 year old myth. While Joplin, Hendricks, Morrison, Cobain and Winehouse all died at that age they are the exception rather than the rule.
The other thing the study saw was that solo acts tend to die younger than members of groups. It could be that having some support from your band mates make a difference.
Guess it’s true, you can get by, with a little help from your friends.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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