When I watch these things I wonder, what would the the old man, Uncle Walter say about what the idiots in charge of his empire are doing to his TV network. Disney hasn't been worth a shit since Disney merged with ABC, that also has in its stable Freeform, that used to be ABC Family. The only thing on there that has changed is the name the same teen soap opera dramas, are there and of course overnight the frigging 700 Club. Freeform went into the toilet when they bagged Wildfire.
The Disney Channel, has been sliding into the manure chute as well. When they pulled the plug of Shake it Up, and Wizards of Waverly Place, it was all gone except wiping their butts. Then came some more shows , Good Luck Charlie was aced when the LGBT community bitched about an episode on a queer family that moved next door to the Duncans. Oh can't have that kind of reality, on Disney Channel. However I call Uncle here. If you listen to the kountry music on Radio Disney Country, you hear verses on drinking, premarital sex, and so on. Okay fine that's the threshold of kountry music, but for tweens, and teens? So why yank Good Luck Charlie because they opened a not yet approachable door? But we live on, then we gained Dog with a Blog that's been axed, Jessie, and soon to be Liv and Maddie. It's coming down to the point that one might as well divorce Disney from your teens viewing. We can't as two of our AM station's are Radio Disney affiliates , but can Disney be revived? Perhaps, but its going to take some shuffling of management and ownership of the channel to do it.
Then too the environment of Television and to a smaller degree radio, but more TV. Many local stations are tanking. The fix to rescue the smaller rural market TV stations, is an FCC regroove, and giving back some of the spectrum back to the broadcasters, and not so much cell phone and wifi companies. TV networks now have to compete with online TV channels like Netflix and Hulu, as well as on demand from the same networks. Local TV stations can't effectively battle against that.
Back when I was a young wolf pup there was 4 TV networks and 5 TV stations , then came 7 over the air TV stations. 6-7 being Fox, and the WB that is now the CW, (which stands for CBS/Warner Brothers) that was the merging of the UPN network, and the WB. CBS owned UPN, or United Paramount Network. Most notable of that channels offerings was the Star Trek franchise. So with little to compete with and no back channel bitching, like there is with Facebook and so on, the networks had incentive to produce damn good shows, A-Team, B.J.& The Bear, The Dukes-of-Hazzard, KnightRider and so on. Wholesome TV. Even Disney came on, on Sunday nights with a good whole family movie. But then came cable and the two satellite networks that get in a scrap with the networks and drop channels. I've only seen that happen twice with cable. The oil embargo in the early 70's, to other big crisis's brought on 24 hour news, to cover breaking events, so here came CNN, then FoX News Channel. Hows the local TV channels supposed to compete with the big boys? So a declining quality in local newscasts. Then of course for radio, which once demanded over the air, started webcasting, or as its more popularly called podcasts. Which wouldn't I think be as much if the FCC would open more spectrum, to local media, which also would dramaticly cut down on pirate radio stations. I have said that opening up or expanding the thresholds of AM, and opening up the frequency band of AM above 1750 khz, to say 2000 khz, as well as loosening up the entrance requirements substantially. Just because a map shows that there could be frequency overlap, does not really mean there is. Likewise expanding the FM band to 200, and lower to 800 would give local communities local radio, that was supposed to happen per a ruling by then Bush senior inviting something called, Community Radio.
I have also said and I believe in it although I understand why many young people don't want in, lets face it even at a entry level pay check of $30.00 an hour for 6 hours or so on air ain't much, but it beats throwing burgers at McDonalds. Plus you gain a platform to where even if broadcasting isn't your chosen field, at least of radio, you gain some of a skill to feed yourself.
I was reading in one of my trade publications on broadcasting about being in radio, at least starting requires eating off of a EBT card, and needing public housing, maybe, but I do radio because I love the medium. I was always fascinated of how me could be in a studio, playing music and talking, could travel through all the equipment, up a pipe sized run of coax, to an antenna 500 feet in the air and find a lonely car antenna on a car or truck go through that system and somebody could hear it. It was wizard science to me. But I found that there was also a tool. In the early days of our OTR(over,the,road) 4-H truckers group, I could combine my love of radio, and pushing 18 then 6 wheels down a highway. That has proved itself many times over. But I also remember after about two years into our LPFM efforts, that I didn't want to be a phony. Many jocks were on air pretending to be truckers or know the trucking lifestyle, but never set foot or planted their butts in a truck. So two years in I stood in front of our 20 members of what then was the TeenAge Truckers Association, that became the United American Independent Truckers Association in 1988 , but I said, if I ever pull my keys out of LexiBelle and I ain't trucking then I wont be on the air. I could not do one without being involved in the other. If one becomes an icon, and you fake it, you'll get busted and no amount of damage control or repair can fix that.
More on our roots in an upcoming entry here, but TV is dieing at least the way your used to it, and last nights movie on Disney called, "Adventures in babysitting " is a prime example.
See ya'll on the cyber radio, starting at 10:00 hours.
TTYLY
