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| Friday, March 8, 2002 |
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From the Department of Applied Irony 
| | The phone only rings when I'm on the john. It happened again a couple minutes ago, while I took a moment to lighten up in the middle of packing for Austin. |
| | Hello thisis the Sanmabarbara Rrsrchcenter. We're dunnasurvey radiolisten. Doyou havva fmoments towanswer afewquestions? |
| | Whallanser inna frmmbl hinna. |
| | Whatradiostationdoyoulistentomost? |
| | Whatradiortationdoyoulistentomost innamorning? |
| | There was a silent pause. She seemed to be writing something. |
| | CanIaxyouonemorequestion? |
| | Isthere awoman innnahouse betweentheagesof — |
| | No. I drove all the others away. I'm alone. |
| | I really wanted to say KPIG, but it wouldn't have done them any good. Hope it helps KCLU, though I doubt it. |
More proof
Texas Crude
| | I'm off to get a haircut, pick up the cleaning and pack for Austin. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a blast from the not-too-distant past: The 24 Hours of Democracy project in 1996, which I talked about here (dig those 404s!) — and features a link to my favorite rant from that time (found and de-404'd), by Retired Texas Judge Steve Russell. Great reading. |
| | Context: it worked. That campaign was against the Communications Decency Act, which the Supreme Court struck down. |
Rant on
| | Here's The Choice — my latest Suitwatch newsletter for Linux Journal. It's a longer-form version of the rant below. There should be more coming up in LJ along the same lines. A lot of Net stations, especially the ones streaming MP3s over Shoutcast, are running on Linux. |
| | Speaking of which, one idea is to hire a train for the trip to Washington — to deliver clues where they're needed most. A bit obvious as ideas go, but appropriate. Whaddaya think? We could take along some friendly bands and netcast live along the way. |
A Call to Arson
| | Somewhere back when Cluetrain was forming out of primordial conversations, I told Chris Locke my Theory of Marketing, the logic of which was slyly intended to scare potentially boring clients away from my consulting business. It went like this: |
| | - Markets are Conversations; and
- Conversation is fire. Therefore,
- Marketing is arson
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| | Chris said, "So let's test that out." |
| | I think it's time for another test. One of will. Do we care if Internet Radio continues to exist? Do we want KPIG to go away? Internet-only stations aren't the only ones threatened here. KPIG's first home is the airwaves, not the Net. But KPIG says they face music usage fees of $5-$10k per month if this CARP thing goes through. This won't force them off the air, but it will force them off the Net. Context: Right now they pay nothing more than what radio stations have always paid to play music. These new charges are for broadcasting on the Net. |
| | In other words, the Feds will impose a fee for netcasting — one that stations don't pay to use the ordinary airwaves. |
| | Think of this more as a fine, because that's what it is. It's punishment. In fact, it's so punitive that nobody will broadcast on the Web. They'll just go off the air. Think about that. Consider the implications. Ask what else might be next. Will we all be charged for quoting copyrighted works? Don't laugh. Will the copyright police use Google-like powers to crawl the Web looking for unauthorized publication of copyrighted works? How unlikely is it that some people aren't already coming up with schemes for doing exactly that, and billing you through your ISP? |
| | [Later... Sez here that's already happening.] |
| | Do me, and yourself, a favor. Listen to KPIG. To Radio Paradise. To WCPE. To Radio FG. To all the other stations you'll find links to here. Listen to how good these stations are, how much better than the corporate drool you get on what we used to call the "public" airwaves, and are now anything but. Look at how they tie their playlists into the Web, and even allow listeners to buy CDs from those playlists. |
| | Here's the rub... The Net is the real public broadcasting band, the real Citizen's Band. It is our new commons — a place where real markets live and work. It grew outside the market-hostile "regulatory environment," and neither these regulators nor the inbred inhabitants of their closed environments can even begin to understand why the Net exists, or how a real marketplace is supposed to work. |
| | We have a marketplace here. It's off to a very good start. And it's a threat to both the regulators and their farm-fattened beneficiaries. That's why they want to turn it from a commons to an extention of the plumbing system we call The Media. |
| | We need to Save the Commons. The constitution is on our side. And vice versa. This is First Amendment stuff: |
| | Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. |
RaveBoy
| | In fact, here is an email I wrote to Chris back in January when I first got my hands on the book: |
| | Still on yesterday's deadline, yet fresh from reading Bombast on the john. Hard to laugh and shit at the same time, but that's the idea. Tom Robbins takes credit for offing Elvis because The King died in a head at Graceland with Another Roadside Attraction in his hands. |
| | Funny that EGRs are even funnier the second time around. Proof that ink shits all over pixels, still. Better to write on paper than sand. Sells better too. |
| | He wrote back saying he thought it was "unpublishable." |
Hmm
| | David Weinberger's nephew says "Marching is old. Why not figure out a way to shut the internet down for a day?" |
discuss
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