February 20, 2007
Some thoughts on Public Radio and Television
Got to Boston last night in preparation for the Public Media Conference.
The plane was only a half-hour late, so I got to have dinner with Doc and Jake Shapiro, who runs PRX. Jake's a Berkman Fellow, and a helluva smart guy who caught me up with the latest goings-on in the world of public media, from the inside.
Doc's an old-time radio guy as well, and for about half the conversation, the two of them were happily chatting about all these different radio stations around the country,the growth of religious broadcasting, the loss of university radio stations, and the FCC. This kind of stuff is fascinating to me, especially all the history around NPR, PRI, and the relationship of the national organizations to the individual stations.
It was all a great insight into the stuff going on in the daily lives of talented radio professionals.
I was really glad, though, when the conversation turned to life after spectrum scarcity. It seems to me that there's an enormous opportunity out there - a 'blue-sky' moment - where these trusted organizations can embrace the changes that are coming in a world where the net is a utility. In this world, you don't need a big 25,000 Watt transmitter, you don't need FCC regulation, and you don't need a big expensive studio to support all of this. It also means that you can have a radically different relationship with the people formerly known as your audience.
What would happen if you had an all-net set of streams (or podcasts) that took the best from the local community, used the public radio editors as curators and had them select the best from the community? I bet that local reporting would increase - there's always going to be someone covering the schol board meetings, wouldn't that be great to have the local public media make their reports available? Or local sports - there's bound to be some people who will be incented to take the effort if they knew that they could get exposure on their public radio station. How about letting people vote on the best programs, and putting them on the air, or get them highlighted on the homepage of the site?
In other words, what happens when spectrum scarcity goes away? This isn't coming overnight, but I read a recent study noting that the US now has over 50% broadband penetration, and growing. Mobile phones and services are coming that will provide affordable data plans - and when those data streaming rates are over 64K or so, it gets REALLY easy to stream high-quality audio right to your cell phone or car audio system. The technology is already far superior to that, it just hasn't seen serious adoption yet, but it will, in the next few years. So what do you do when you have an infinite number of choices when you get into your car because your car is enabled with mobile net access? Why not let the people formerly known as your viewers upload their own stories, their own oral histories and viral videos, and make the public broadcasting station be the hub for all of this creativity at a local scale?
The other thing that really caught my attention was around VRM and identity, and how public radio/television world can benefit. I posed a thought experiement: What if we made it really easy to pay for things that we liked on public radio and TV? How about using a shortcode from your mobile phone to 'vote' on your favorite shows while they're playing? Think 'American Idol' style, and you'll immediately see how interesting and lucrative this could be. First off, you're getting your listeners and viewers more active, and what they do has an immediate effect. But what also happens is that the people formerly known as the audience are then in control - they don't get signed up on a list, they don't have to give their name, address, and credit card number . So here was the thought experiment: What if you made a policy that you'd never collect or sell personal information about your donors? And what if you made it really really easy for people to become donors, like using that mobile code to vote for the story they just heard? What if you really put the listener in charge?
It might be too early for that yet, given only the 50% broadband penetration. But wouldn't it be a great experiment?
Doc and I are going to have the opportunity to have that conversation with a bunch of public radio and television execs today. I'm looking forward to it.
Technorati Tags: publicradio, npr, radio, jayshapiro, docsearls, speaking, vrm, spectrum, fcc, identity, pri, prx, jakeshapiro, television
Posted by dsifry at February 20, 2007 5:29 AM | View blog reactionsThe instant voting is a great idea. I would burn through my text message limit doing this.
My local PBS station is WGBH, the flagship production centre for the network.
However, when they go into fundraising mode, they become a mindless automaton. "Do wop". "Celtic women". "Lord of the flies dance to 60s motown classics sung by Celtic women".
I turn off WGBH during fundraising. My children sadly report when their favourite shows are interrupted by fundraising.
I watch PBS about 20 hours a week. You know what I like for fundraining?
How about a Cosmos marathon? Or Joseph Campbell? Or a This Old House marathon?
The "blockbusters" that WGBH assaults us with make me shy away from giving them money.
Please wake up.
smp
Posted by: Stephen Pierzchala at February 20, 2007 7:03 AMjonny1
Posted by: jonny2 at February 23, 2007 11:47 AM"what happens when spectrum scarcity goes away?"
The 1930-era allotments didn't make much sense after the 1980s technical improvements, and it's good that those big chunks of radio frequency can soon be put to new uses.
Some trends I didn't see above:
(1) Our receivers can now work with any digital data, not just voice data -- we're essentially opening up a new digital delivery channel to join phones, cable etc.
(2) That set of radio frequencies is essentially line-of-sight, and so is more useful for local and micro-transmission uses than many other digital delivery channels might be.
Suppose your mobile could pick up local radio-frequency signals and turn them into text or images as well as sound? The sandwich shop wouldn't need GPS or RFID or special transmitters, but could just pump their menu to anyone walking down the block who was tuned to the restaurant channel, so that it would be ready on their hand if they passed by and were curious.
I don't know about mobilephone-sized *production* of signals in such frequency ranges, but at worst a digital address coming in over the hyperlocal AM frequencies could be used by the phone as a trigger for outbound telephony.
Bottom line: Tomorrow's radio-frequency bands may be useful for things very, very different than early radio shows, or classic TV shows -- all media types can be turned into digital bits now -- audio would be only one element of what we can do with these newly-freed transmission channels.
jd/adobe
Posted by: John Dowdell at February 23, 2007 5:24 PMJapanese Pussy
Latina Pussy
Sweet Pussy
Juicy pussy
Pussy Lip
Free Indian Pussy
Mexican Pussy
Bald Pussy
Pussy Fucking
Ass Pussy
Pussy Pump
How To Eat Pussy
Pocket Pussy
Tit and Pussy
Spread Pussy
Pussy Juice
Ebony Pussy
Blonde Pussy
Pussy Cum
Naked Pussy
Shaved Pussy
Sexy Pussy
Raw Pussy
Pussy Squirt
Lesbian Pussy
Eating Pussy
XXX Pussy
Pussy Fuck
Free Pussy
Rate My Pussy
Latin Pussy
Wired Pussy
Pussy
Black Pussy
Wet Pussy
Hairy Pussy
Teen Pussy
Tight Pussy
Young Pussy
Hot Pussy
Site Map
Black Pussy
Wet Pussy
Hairy Pussy
Teen Pussy
Tight Pussy
Young Pussy
Hi!
Indian Pussy
Little Pussy
Lick Pussy
Old Pussy
Nude Pussy
Ebony Pussy
Blonde Pussy
Pussy Cum
Naked Pussy
Shaved Pussy
Sexy Pussy
Good site!
Raw Pussy
Pussy Squirt
Lesbian Pussy
Eating Pussy
XXX Pussy
Pussy Fuck
Free Pussy
Rate My Pussy
Latin Pussy
Wired Pussy
Japanese Pussy
Hi bro!Klik here...
Wet Pussy
Asian Pussy
Big Pussy
Pink Pussy
Mature Pussy
Squirting Pussy
Pussy Pic
Pussy Licking
Fat Pussy
Virgin Pussy
Pussy Sex
Sorry...
Latina Pussy
Sweet Pussy
Juicy pussy
Pussy Lip
Free Indian Pussy
Mexican Pussy
Prived!
Bald Pussy
Pussy Fucking
Ass Pussy
Pussy Pump
How To Eat Pussy
Ziga!
Pocket Pussy
Tit and Pussy
Spread Pussy
Pussy Juice
Pussy Closeup
Zaga!
Hairy Black Pussy
Tiny Pussy
Shaving Pussy
Perfect Pussy
Pussy Shot
It's a very good site !! Very nice work, admin :) Good luck !
[url=http://poeks.net]casino rama toronto[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net[/url]
casino rama toronto
[url=http://poeks.net/casino-rama-toronto.html]casino rama toronto[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net/casino-rama-toronto.html[/url]
casino rama toronto
[url=http://poeks.net/casino-rama-tickets.html]casino rama tickets[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net/casino-rama-tickets.html[/url]
casino rama tickets
[url=http://poeks.net/casino-rama-bus.html]casino rama bus[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net/casino-rama-bus.html[/url]
casino rama bus
[url=http://poeks.net/casino-rama-barrie.html]casino rama barrie[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net/casino-rama-barrie.html[/url]
casino rama barrie
[url=http://poeks.net/casino-rama-niagara.html]casino rama niagara[/url]
[url]http://poeks.net/casino-rama-niagara.html[/url]
casino rama niagara
This site is so sweet!
[url=http://petendom.com]cleopatra slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com[/url]
cleopatra slot machine
[url=http://petendom.com/cleopatra-slot-machine.html]cleopatra slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com/cleopatra-slot-machine.html[/url]
cleopatra slot machine
[url=http://petendom.com/antique-slot-machine.html]antique slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com/antique-slot-machine.html[/url]
antique slot machine
[url=http://petendom.com/roulette-slot-machine.html]roulette slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com/roulette-slot-machine.html[/url]
roulette slot machine
[url=http://petendom.com/winning-slot-machine.html]winning slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com/winning-slot-machine.html[/url]
winning slot machine
[url=http://petendom.com/unicorn-slot-machine.html]unicorn slot machine[/url]
[url]http://petendom.com/unicorn-slot-machine.html[/url]
unicorn slot machine
shemale sex
asian shemale
black shemale
shemale cum
shemale movie
shemale cocktail
shemale video
shemale porn
asian shemale
black shemale
shemale cum
shemale movie
shemale cocktail
shemale video
shemale porn
shemale hentai
free shemale
shemale pic
free shemale movie
hot shemale
shemale fucking
absolute shemale
shemale girl
Nice and interesting site
[url=http://compharma.info]taking adderall[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info[/url]
taking adderall
[url=http://compharma.info/taking-adderall.html]taking adderall[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info/taking-adderall.html[/url]
taking adderall
[url=http://compharma.info/taking-atenolol.html]taking atenolol[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info/taking-atenolol.html[/url]
taking atenolol
[url=http://compharma.info/taking-tramadol.html]taking tramadol[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info/taking-tramadol.html[/url]
taking tramadol
[url=http://compharma.info/taking-lisinopril.html]taking lisinopril[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info/taking-lisinopril.html[/url]
taking lisinopril
[url=http://compharma.info/taking-coumadin.html]taking coumadin[/url]
[url]http://compharma.info/taking-coumadin.html[/url]
taking coumadin
Yo have nice site, admin! keep up good work man!
[url=http://cohchampion.com]golden palace casino net[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com[/url]
golden palace casino net
[url=http://cohchampion.com/golden-palace-casino-net.html]golden palace casino net[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com/golden-palace-casino-net.html[/url]
golden palace casino net
[url=http://cohchampion.com/ceasar-palace-hotel-and-casino.html]ceasar palace hotel and casino[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com/ceasar-palace-hotel-and-casino.html[/url]
ceasar palace hotel and casino
[url=http://cohchampion.com/palace-group-casino.html]palace group casino[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com/palace-group-casino.html[/url]
palace group casino
[url=http://cohchampion.com/palace-casino-uninstall.html]palace casino uninstall[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com/palace-casino-uninstall.html[/url]
palace casino uninstall
[url=http://cohchampion.com/palace-casino-lemore.html]palace casino lemore[/url]
[url]http://cohchampion.com/palace-casino-lemore.html[/url]
palace casino lemore
