One Man Saw - Red Green

[Sonny]

I suppose some of you have seen this, but it's worth a rerun.

[Larry Jaques]

Man, I had forgotten just how bad TV had gotten. Laughtracks, silly noises, 500 channels of noise, and 27-minutes/hour of commercials. What's to like?

-- To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. -- J. K. Rowling

[Steve Barker]

what's to like?? the fact that the shows are funny and entertaining. sometimes even educational (myth busters) don't like commercials?? Then get a fukkin dvr and learn to use it.

[RonB]

Larry, me thinks you are trying to take Red too seriously.

Loosen up.

RonB

[Robatoy]

[snipped for effect]

But whatcha gonna do when you get all those books coloured?

[Bill]

I haven't seen Red's show in a few years, but I thought he was funny. Reminds me a little of the writing of Patrick McManus who has written several books of short stories and used to write a column for Field & Stream magazine. I think Mr. McManus was a "Youper" (sp) though.

In high school, someone sitting next to me asked "Is it really that funny?", to which I had to answer "Yes!" : )

Bill

[Josepi]

Awesome!

The one I liked best was the snowplough dig-out saver.

A barrel of rocks, at the end of the driveway supported a vertical post inserted into it. At the top of the post was a pulley system with a rope attached to the end of a long 2x12, forming a ramp from the raised end at the barrel to the other side of the driveway (up-traffic).

As the plough came down the street it's tire ran up the ramped 2x12 and flattened it to the pavement. The other end of the pulley then hoisted up a plywood wall across the end of the driveway, rejecting any snow dumping from the plough blade.

He actually demonstrated it working like a charm (once!)... Was the best one yet!

[David Paste]

Is that bit true?!

[Lew Hodgett]

Is that bit true?!

---------------------------- Actually it's closer to 23 minutes of program and 7 minutes of commercials out of every 30 minutes.

What is truly frustrating is that every station is synchronized with every other station so that the all run commercials at the same time.

You can't escape.

Lew

[Robatoy]

Easy to DVR though... BUT! Nothing is more frustrating and annoying than the pledge drives on PBS. You get lulled into a nice program and then they make while they work every conceivable angle to pull a few bucks out of your pocket...fukkum.. Kroft left them a billion, what? Is all that money gone ?

[FrozenNorth]

Generally they only have shows I might watch during the pledge drives. Outside of TOH and ATOH and a couple cooking shows Saturday afternoons, there isn't much that interests me.

[David Paste]

Ah! That got me, but the TV of the states does have a rep for such advertising. The synchronised advert thing is also present here, which is irritating, but luckily I have a magic box to overcome such short- term discomfort. I haven't really watched broadcast TV 'live' for years. It's too painful. Especially seeing as the ads are badly tailored to the channel / programme, and double especially since The Discovery Channel started airing ads for everyone's least favourite space-opera based crackpot cult.

[David Paste]

Hey, at least you aren't held to ransom by a bloody TV license!

[Lew Hodgett]

than the pledge drives on PBS. You get lulled into a nice program and then they make while they work every conceivable angle to pull a few bucks out of your pocket...fukkum.. Kroft left them a billion, what? Is all that money gone ?

-------------------------------- Say, "Thank you President Reagan".

Just one more example of a trickle down screw job of the masses.

Lew

[Steve]

Just as bad as de-funding that "pinko" public broadcasting, the relaxed ownership rules leave us with about three huge conglomerates owning most of the broadcast outlets has stifled any sort of creative or local radio... which feeds the vapidity of what now passes for music. Excuse me, make that "product."

Pre de-reg, ownership was limited to a handful of AM, FM, and TV stations. Can't remember the limits now, but I seem to recall three of each, and no more than two in combination in any market. Today, you'll have any number of stations under common ownership operating out of the same studios and offices. It may make sense to combine some operations

-- sales, for instance -- but having one jock cutting voice tracks for multiple stations, or even multiple stations in multiple markets, ensures "uniform and consistent mediocrity."

Not even sure it enhances shareholder value, no matter what Ronnie's ideological successors tell us. And combining operations has failed to save newspapers... circulation continues to shrink, the "news hole" and ad revenues with it. It's not just a matter of another technology (i.e., the intenet) overmhelming print and broadcast. When you "cut to the bone" too severely, the patient can die.

No long range thinking -- and in the case of Ron, no thinking beyond the next nap.

[Puckdropper]

Steve wrote in news:4ce35473$0$8425$ [e-mail]:

*snip*

You've noticed that too? I don't even listen to local radio any more, except for Cubs games, because the mix is too boring. If I find a radio station that plays something I like, they usually repeat the same 4 hour block again (just in case I missed it.) I could do a better job with a MP3 player set on "Random."

Puckdropper

[HeyBub]

Ah, but the other side of the coin is that YOU can start a broadcast station without a lot of red-tape, hearings, public-necessity, community support, anti-competitive complaining by established stations, etc.

Actually, the barrier to entry for an FM station is in the few tens of thousands of dollars range. You can even subscribe to a station feed from aggregators. That is, there is one company that determines the playlist and feeds the results to any number of subscribers. It's likely that the exact same music is going out, at the exact same time, to fifty stations around the country.

In my town, Houston, there is ONE classical broadcast station and it's a PBS affiliate (spit). I assume there is not another because it would not be economically viable.

But who knows?

[Larry Jaques]

Whether or not the guy is funny, TV makes it an unenjoyable couple of minutes. I hadn't remembered how bad a brain rotter it was since I quit watching -ANY- TV about 3-1/2 years ago.

-- To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. -- J. K. Rowling

[Larry Jaques]

Build a CNC crayon-eraser, _that's_ what.

-- To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure. -- J. K. Rowling

[-MIKE-]

Ok, Larry, we get it, you don't watch TV. Now quit saying it in every stinkin thread. :-p