Looking At Radio After The National Broadband Plan…

Friday, March, 12, 2010 by Mel Phillips.

(Weekend Edition)

The FCC’s National Broadband Plan will be revealed next Tuesday. The plan has been over a year in the making and it promises to be the biggest noise this FCC commission will ever make. This meeting is all about broadband - nothing else. The over/under for the word radio being mentioned is 1 and that’s being generous. Radio is now the bastard child of the Julius Genachowski administration. It’s been well documented by the media that the FCC, with $7.2 billion in broadband stimulus cash at hand, will build a plan that is faster, will help more people get it, even if they have to give it away, encourage industries to provide it and will help create innovations that will stimulate more broadband adoption, like Internet protocol (IP) video. Now let’s speculate as to how the new national broadband plan will affect radio…

As Radio Survivor points out, 35 percent of all households have no broadband access at home and over 30 percent of Americans don’t use the internet at all. What’s missing from those percentages is the number of people using the Internet on mobile phones but that still leaves enough folks who might want to listen to radio. Internet radio stations will get more play especially if broadband becomes more affordable. Since the wireless industry is the most sophisticated communications lobby in Washington, D.C., look for more devices that will offer radio in addition to video…

And what about TV? TV will continue on a track moving away from television as we know it to wireless. Will we soon have all forms of entertainment media on something between the size of a smart phone and an iPad? Count on it…  

10 Timeline Memories: 

1. 1912] Order your cookies: Juliette Gordon Low founds the “Girl Guides” which will become the ‘Girl Scouts of America’ (3/12)…
2. 1964] Guilty as charged: A Dallas jury finds Jack Ruby guilty of murdering Lee Harvey Oswald (3/14). The shooting was seen live by about 50 million people on November 24, 1963…
3. 1964] Screams? What screams?: Thirty-eight neighbors ignore the screams of 28-year old Kitty Genovese being stabbed to death in a Queens neighborhood (3/13)…
4. 1967] WRKO is born: WNAC changes call letters to WRKO and switches format. Boston’s new top 40 giant replaces the Yankee Network Flagship personality/talk/news station (3/13). WRKO - The Launch containing the history of the launch is available by going to Latest Postings on my home page and clicking WRKO - The Launch…
5. 1980] Guilty as charged: A jury finds John Wayne Gacy Jr. guilty of murdering 33 men and boys. Gacy will be executed in May of 1994 (3/12)…1997] LAPD arrest Mikail Markhasev in the shooting death of 27-year old Ennis Cosby, Bill Cosby’s son. Markhasev is serving life with no parole (3/12)…
6. 1991] Pretty slick: Exxon pays $1 billion in fines for the clean-up of the Alaskan oil spill they caused (3/13)…
7. 2002] In living color: Homeland security chief Tom Ridge unveils a color-coded system for terror warnings. If you’re color-blind, you’re out of luck (3/12)…
8. 2003] Getting Smart: Elizabeth Smart is reunited with her family 9 months after being abducted from her home. She was kidnapped in June of 2002 by a drifter who had previously done work at her family’s home (3/12)…
9. 2008] Client #9: New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigns two days after reports surface that he was a client (#9) of a prostitution ring (3/12)…
10. 2009] Scammer slammed: Former NASDAQ chairman Bernard Madoff pleads guilty to 11 felonies and admits operating what’s called the largest investor fraud ever committed by an individual. In June he’s sentenced to 150 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $170 billion (3/12)…

Music Memories:  

• 1957] Recorded on this date: “Maybe Baby” - Crickets(with Buddy Holly) (3/12)…1961] “Travelin’ Man” - Ricky Nelson (3/13)…
• 1958] Number One on this date: “Tequila” - Champs (3/14)…1965] “Eight Days A Week” - Beatles (3/13)…1967] “Penny Lane” - Beatles (3/13)…1978] “Night Fever” - Bee Gees (from “Saturday Night Fever”) (3/13)…1979] “I Will Survive” - Gloria Gaynor (3/14)…
• 1965] The new Yardbird: Jeff Beck replaces Eric Clapton in the Yardbirds (Clapton joins John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers) (3/13)…
• 1969] Grammy Gold: “Mrs. Robinson” (’Best Record of 1968′) - Simon & Garfunkel (3/12)…

Commentary:

Tomorrow, March 13th marks the 43rd anniversary of WRKO Boston. It was on that date in 1967 that WRKO was launched as the newest contemporary radio station in Boston. In 5 short months, WRKO was number one in the market. WRKO - The Launch chronicles the ‘birth to first’ history of the station. Go to Latest Postings on my home page and click WRKO - The Launch for your copy…

“Happy Birthday…happy birthday“: (3/12) Steve Levy (45), Darryl Strawberry (48), Jon (”Timmy” from “Lassie”) Provost (60), James Taylor (62), Mitt Romney (62), Liza Minnelli (64), Sammy ‘The Bull’ Gravano (65), Al Jarreau (70), ‘Get Smart’s’ ‘99′ Barbara Feldon (77), Andrew Young (78) and Edward Albee (82)…(3/13) Johan Santana (31), Dana Delany (54), William H. Macy (60),Neil Sedaka (71), Joe Bellino (72) and songwriterMike Stoller (77)…(3/14) Monaco’s Prince Albert II (52), Jerry (Ben & Jerry) Greenfield (59), Rick Dees (60), Billy Crystal (62), Michael Caine (77), Quincy Jones (77),Frank Borman (82) & Phil Phillips (84)…

Timeline Countdown: 2 days until Daylight Savings Time, 8 days until spring, 17 days until Passover, 24 days until Easter and 24 days until Opening Day (Red Sox & Yankees)…

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