Re: Sept. 11, one year later

["Aaron [Bishop] Read" <aread@speakeasy.net>]

At 10:51 PM 9/18/2002, you wrote:
>Observations from spinning the dial a week ago...
>
>A noncommercial station going commercial-free for a day!  What will they
>think of next?  I didn't realize it until sometime in the afternoon when
>I heard a recorded announcement from the GM thanking listeners for their
>support, but NHPR went through September 11 without any of the usual
>clutter of underwriter announcements.  NPR programs also lacked such
>announcements and the sole PRI program I caught that day, Marketplace,
>also forwent underwriters, even dropping their usual theme music which
>incorporates GE's "We bring good things to life" jingle.  I suppose
>other public stations also joined the commercial-free parade but I heard
>local underwriter announcements during an afternoon break on WBUR.

This raises a question in my mind...about WBUR and other stations, too...

There was much ballyhoo about a lot of stations either going 
commercial-free or really toning it down on Sept 11th 2002.  However, I 
listened to WBUR for most of the day (I usually do...I'm just a liberal 
news junkie :-) and noticed that while the level of underwriting was 
noticeably down, it was still quite present.  Where there'd normally be six 
or seven spots there might be two or three...and a number of mid-hour 
breaks where eliminated completely by the national feed.

First of all...wouldn't any underwriter running ads that day - unless 
specifically tailored to a Sept 11th-related issue - get somewhat panned by 
listeners?  I noticed the tone of all the spots were subdued but many of 
them were just regular spots for regular things.  Seems almost 
counter-productive.

Second...is the amount of underwriting/ads a station would run that day a 
testament to their financial shape?  I know WBUR's supposedly doing better 
on fundraising these days but they've taken a big hit in the underwriting 
dep't (notice the flood of "dot com" spots is just GONE now?) and I can 
imagine how an entire day without underwriting could be very fiscally 
painful.   What's the quote that's oft-used in fundraisers?  It costs them 
$3500 (staff, utilities, fees, etc) per minute of airtime?  Something like 
that...

And the same could be asked of ANY station, really.  I just mention WBUR 
because it's what I was listening to.


____________________________________________
Aaron "Bishop" Read     aread@speakeasy.net
FriedBagels.com Technical Consulting
www.friedbagels.com   AOL-IM: ReadAaron