What follows is a cautionary tale of the human price paid for the technology that brings the world to our fingertips.
It’s easy to blame corporate greed for the empty hallways where workers once tread even as it is naive to think that it doesn’t exist. But greed doesn’t fully explain what the rise of the machines is costing us, even as they make our lives better.
This week’s case in point is Captain Dan Geary and Allan Carpenter, the former morning show hosts for Froggy FM 94.7 in Erie.In a shake up that rippled across the Erie radio spectrum, the Froggy oldies format is being moved to the AM side at Flagship 1330 and will be automated, run less expensively by computer without DJ talk.
The 94.7 slot has become BOB FM, a Best of Best format that addresses listeners’ complaints of repetitive play lists by playing hit songs across a number of musical tastes.
Station management hasn’t announced if BOB will have live DJ’s, but it seems unlikely that an oldies duo, regardless of their local popularity in that age group, will be retained for the new format.
Downsizing is nothing new in business, especially for those companies faced with new and real competition.
Technology can be blamed in this case too, as emerging products like I-pods and satellite radio systems threaten to steal ears traditionally owned by local radio broadcasters.
I hope for the best for Dan and Allan. They’re professional at what they do and good guys to boot. If they are forced to join millions of other Americans who have had to make sharp career turns, I’m sure things will go okay.
My hope is that these companies will realize that as syndication and automation and new technologies take over that the real niche Erie stations have is Erie itself. That means local people talking about local things that can’t be found on a satellite or national show.
That means finding a way to make that model profitable in the face of all the bells and whistles that are out there.
The long term concern is that what makes us a community is more than geography. It is common experience.Ball teams and landmarks and media icons are all common threads that bind us as Erieites and separate us from members of other places.
The technology that reduces those images, the same technology that keeps our eyes on cell phones and blackberries and our fills our ears with MP3 earphones at the expense of basic human conversation threatens more than our listening experience even with the great enhancemnts it has added to our lives.
It threatens our connection to each other, the very fabric of who we are.
HEY! One of my New Year's resolutions is to see the day when the comments section will be fully restored on this site. Today is not that day. So if you want your two cents included, email me at scott.bremner@35wsee.com and write "Comments" in the subject line so I don't miss it.
COMMENTS
Scott. I read your blog today and you did a good job in explaining the good and problems that technology brings.
This is a local problem as it causes us to lose our local identify and advance as we should with the rest of the country. We are being pulled backward for the sake of profit. Nothing wrong with profit. It's just that some profit was usually poured back into facilities to keep them current.
Again., very good thoughts.
Jack Tirak