Todd-'o'-Vision
Super xVirgin Man
- Joined
- Jan 2, 2002
- Posts
- 5,609
A story showed up in my notes yesterday about September 11th and advertising. It would seem that there is a movement afoot to demand that broadcasters not air advertising on 9/11. Apparently it would be unseemly, disrespectful, or something to that effect.
Please note that there is no movement underway to demand that newspapers forego any advertising on that date. Businesses are not being asked to throw giant blue tarps over their billboards and signs. The effort is aimed only at radio and television.
Why? Is there something inherently evil about radio and television advertising? Commercials are virtually the only way these private businesses make money. They broadcast programs with the hope that those programs will be entertaining or informative enough to attract viewers and listeners who will listen to or watch paid commercials.
Let’s say that a typical radio or TV station sells 17 minutes of advertising per hour. That’s the station’s inventory. But there is one huge difference in the nature of a broadcast commercial inventory and an inventory of widgets at your local mall retailer. If your widgets aren’t selling, and your widget inventory is mounting, you can mark the price down and have a sale! A widget clearance!
Broadcasters can’t save up unsold inventory for a huge clearance sale. When the hour is gone, it’s gone. If those 17 minutes aren’t sold – they’re gone too. So, when a bunch of hyper-compassionate do-gooders get together to “demand” that a radio or TV station ”refrain” from running commercials on a certain date they are actually demanding that the broadcaster take hundreds or thousands or millions of dollars worth of inventory and just throw it away. Seem fair to you?
During times of local or national emergency, such as a weather emergency, broadcasters have shown every willingness to discard their commercial inventory to meet the public’s need for wall-to-wall coverage. This is precisely what happened on September 11, 2001. Did you see any newspapers or magazines eliminate advertisements in order to expand coverage? No – they just add pages. Sorry to say, broadcasters haven’t figured out this “add pages” thing yet. An hour still only has 60 minutes.
Perhaps this “don’t run advertising on 9/11” idiocy stems from this misguided leftist notion that the “airwaves” are owned by the people. Duck squeeze. There is absolutely nothing in the U.S. Constitution which either grants or recognizes public ownership of the airwaves. This is a concept created by politicians to excuse their attempts to control broadcast content. We can be thankful that this “public’s airwaves” nonsense wasn’t around when our country was founded. If that had been the case we would all be leasing the land our houses sit on from the federal government, complete with restrictions on how we could use it. That real estate would, after all, be the “public’s land.”
One of the things that the terrorist world – meaning the radical Islamic world – hates about America is the freedom and prosperity that comes through our adherence to the principles of free enterprise and economic liberty. Could these slugs consider it to be anything less than a partial victory if Americans raise their voices against free enterprise on the anniversary of their cowardly attacks?
C&P boortz.com/nuze
Please note that there is no movement underway to demand that newspapers forego any advertising on that date. Businesses are not being asked to throw giant blue tarps over their billboards and signs. The effort is aimed only at radio and television.
Why? Is there something inherently evil about radio and television advertising? Commercials are virtually the only way these private businesses make money. They broadcast programs with the hope that those programs will be entertaining or informative enough to attract viewers and listeners who will listen to or watch paid commercials.
Let’s say that a typical radio or TV station sells 17 minutes of advertising per hour. That’s the station’s inventory. But there is one huge difference in the nature of a broadcast commercial inventory and an inventory of widgets at your local mall retailer. If your widgets aren’t selling, and your widget inventory is mounting, you can mark the price down and have a sale! A widget clearance!
Broadcasters can’t save up unsold inventory for a huge clearance sale. When the hour is gone, it’s gone. If those 17 minutes aren’t sold – they’re gone too. So, when a bunch of hyper-compassionate do-gooders get together to “demand” that a radio or TV station ”refrain” from running commercials on a certain date they are actually demanding that the broadcaster take hundreds or thousands or millions of dollars worth of inventory and just throw it away. Seem fair to you?
During times of local or national emergency, such as a weather emergency, broadcasters have shown every willingness to discard their commercial inventory to meet the public’s need for wall-to-wall coverage. This is precisely what happened on September 11, 2001. Did you see any newspapers or magazines eliminate advertisements in order to expand coverage? No – they just add pages. Sorry to say, broadcasters haven’t figured out this “add pages” thing yet. An hour still only has 60 minutes.
Perhaps this “don’t run advertising on 9/11” idiocy stems from this misguided leftist notion that the “airwaves” are owned by the people. Duck squeeze. There is absolutely nothing in the U.S. Constitution which either grants or recognizes public ownership of the airwaves. This is a concept created by politicians to excuse their attempts to control broadcast content. We can be thankful that this “public’s airwaves” nonsense wasn’t around when our country was founded. If that had been the case we would all be leasing the land our houses sit on from the federal government, complete with restrictions on how we could use it. That real estate would, after all, be the “public’s land.”
One of the things that the terrorist world – meaning the radical Islamic world – hates about America is the freedom and prosperity that comes through our adherence to the principles of free enterprise and economic liberty. Could these slugs consider it to be anything less than a partial victory if Americans raise their voices against free enterprise on the anniversary of their cowardly attacks?
C&P boortz.com/nuze
