Jim Snider at the New America Foundation has just published 
“How Mass Media Use Crisis Communications for Political Gain,” an excellent paper on the process by which incumbent commercial broadcasters exploit crises as a way to parry criticism for the rest of the time when they don’t actually provide much public service. He also explores how the National Association of Broadcasters is currently manipulating the legislative process to maintain its questionable hold on the trade in localism, most specifically in the face of satellite-based competition.
I really admire how Snider shouts into the wind. He is consistently the most articulate thorn in the NAB’s side within the Beltway.
Tag: j h snider
IBOC Reception and Politics Panned
Interesting hubbub in the trades surrounding the first digital radio-compatible receiver to hit the U.S. market, the Boston Acoustics Recepter HD. For $299 it promises to “receive and seamlessly play” HD Radio signals, including the new multicast channels some HD-equipped stations have begun broadcasting. But when a New York-based broadcast veteran plunked down the cash and got the box home, he found it didn’t work as advertised.
I went to the Ibiquity Web site to find that there were at least 13 stations broadcasting in HD in New York. One by one I tried to tune them in, and one by one I was met with frustration. Constant fiddling with the antenna yielded part-time successes. I managed to get Z100’s second channel for about three seconds, then three seconds of dead air, then on, then off…. Continue reading “IBOC Reception and Politics Panned”