OT PBS

[Swingman]

Houston's, one of the first in existence, if not _the_ first TV station in the nation, has commercials from most car companies, banks, etc ... at the very beginning, and end, of programming.

These are blatant _commercials_, some going up to 30 seconds, but most in the 15 second range, and run one after another for up to five minutes.

There is no way I would contribute again even if they stopped the commercials, and particularly after seeing the Taj Mahal they built themselves, which is why I suspect they continue to have to rely upon them.

I stopped contributing many years ago when a $20 check was returned for not meeting the "minimum contribution" amount.

That, and I trained one of their audio engineers as an apprentice many years ago, who is now a key player, so I occasionally get to hear some of the dirty laundry.

[Nova]

PBS has been running 15-30 spots for the last two years. See:

[Frank Boettcher]

That's too bad, it has not deteriorated that much in Mississippi and I hope it does not. I like a lot of the programming.

Underwriters are common, but they had specific rules about the length of the spot, only identification of the company and what their primary business is, not hawking any specific product, etc. I thought that the limit used to be about ten seconds for the underwriter identification.

I know Delta was/is an underwriter on several programming segments and the spots were set up to carefully observe the rules. I don't mind seeing who underwrites if it doesn't drag on forever.

And people like Norm can use the products on the air, but not mention them by brand name. In my book, nothing wrong with that. better than an ad making claims that may or may not be true.

BTW boiled down that smoked turkey carcass to make gumbo stock, but chickened out on the microwave roux method. Old habits are hard to break.

Frank

[Dave Hall]

Well as I mentioned I don't watch a lot of PBS, but since they do show Norm once a year, I have noticed that Delta Woodworking Tools has a significant adverstisement before and after the show. Most of the time when I cruise by the PBS station while irritating my wife by channel surfing, they are either begging for donations or an advertisement is on. I admit that I am usually cruising by at the top, middle and bottom of the hour (top and bottom are essentially the same aren't they?) and they always have advertising between shows. Non-commercial my ass...

[Frank Boettcher]

Frank

[Frank Boettcher]

That's actually an underwriters segment, limited (or at least it has been in the past) in length, content, and when it can be shown. Look at it carefully, it essentially identifies the company and what their main line of business is without hawking any specific product. Not just Delta, all underwriters.

Or it least that is the way it was.

Frank

[Swingman]

My oldest daughter was visiting from England until yesterday, so Monday, at her command and as promised, I made shrimp etoufee and a small pot (six quarts) of chicken, sausage, okra, seafood (crab/shrimp/oyster) gumbo for a family farewell get-together ... much to youngest daughter's chagrin, still being at college for a couple more weeks, so I froze about a quart for the night of her return.

You know you raised 'em right when, no matter where they are in the world, the first thing out of their mouth's is "Dad, are you going to make gumbo?" ... and, if they can help it, the first thing in when they get home.

At Christmas I'll break out the big gumbo pot and make another 30 gallons ... all with my, now perfected, microwave roux technique. ;)

You really need to try it.

[Dave Hall]

I guess I don't see any difference between generic Delta advertising on commercial stations and generic Delta advertising on PBS. I admit I have never seen an ad on PBS saying "buy a Delta Unisaw model xyz because we cut wood better than Grizzly" or any other ad for a very specific product or hawking a specific sale (i.e. "50% off Delta blurfls Thursday through Saturday at the Ross park mall store only"), but general name recognition ads similar to many national commercial TV ads.

On the other hand I don't see much of the "brought to you by gracious donations from the following..." type of underwriters listings like used to be prevalent on PBS (in my years ago experience watching Mr. Rodgers and Sesame Street with the kids). Those seemed more like what I could call non-commercial.

Oh well.

Dave Hall

[Swingman]

Even the public schools around here have company signs on them ... if you don't believe it, I'll snap a picture of our local elementary and post it in abpw.

Judging from the signs, and their size, you would also think that school property "ballparks", paid for by, and belonging to the taxpayers, but used by Little League, actually belonged to Real Estate and Insurance brokers.

Real altruistic motives ... yeah!

[Lew Hodgett]

You are either blind and deaf or your basic Shit Disturber.

Lew

[BeanCounter]

We await your recipe for gumbo, stirred with a wooden spoon, of course! Love good gumbo!

[Mark & Juanita]

Unless, of course, they are providing an odd, two-wheeled electric cart to people between begathons.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Pat Barber]

Wait a minute....you ain't shared no coonass receipe for etoufee that I recall... did you ???

I got the gumbo and d> My oldest daughter was visiting from England until yesterday, so Monday, at

[Swingman]

Here's an easy one that will puzzle Frank B even further, and make you an instant hit with SWMBO, family and friends ... just tell them you slaved over it all day! ;)

NOTE: The first time folks attempt the below they can't believe it will work so they can't resist adding/messing with the recipe, or quit too soon, or use Mild Pace Picante sauce (it won't work, use HOT only!).

RESIST doing so!... follow it EXACTLY and you will be surprised, I guarantee! And like all good Cajun dishes, it will be even better the next day.

EZ Etoufee ... from an old post back in 2002:

Take that same 8 Oz jar of Pace Picante Sauce (Hot ONLY!); add a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom soup (NO water); a stick of butter or margarine; bring all to a low boil; (RESIST temptation to add anything else!) add 2 lbs. of crawfish or shrimp and cook about five minutes until crawfish/shrimp is done. Serve over rice.

Takes all of 15 minutes. Best "bachelor" etoufee you ever ate ... you'd swear your Cajun momma made it.

[Andrew Barss]

: Underwriters are common, but they had specific rules about the length : of the spot, only identification of the company and what their primary : business is, not hawking any specific product, etc. I thought that : the limit used to be about ten seconds for the underwriter : identification.

I think it's now 15 seconds, subject to the content constraints you mention above. The picture is complicated by the fact that local stations can air 30 second spots on local PBS channel programming -- the really shot spot limits are for network, i.e. official PBS product, shows.

-- Andy Barss

[Rod & Betty Jo]

Whether their actual "commercial breaks" are shorter or otherwise they still appear to to do the same 22 minutes or so of actual programming per each 30 minutes of air time that all of the commercial channels do anyway...they just plug PBS ad nauseum inbetween the scant commercial plugs......Incidently whats wrong with O'Reilly?

[New Wave Dave]

I'd have to take out a home equity loan just for enough crab meat to make 30 gallons of gumbo.