On today’s The
Writer’s Almanac, I read that this is the anniversary of the first paid
radio commercial in 1922. Ah, so that’s where it all began! Herbert Hoover
thought it shouldn’t be allowed.
I had to have a small laugh because I know how
my husband absolutely hates the commercials, feels there are more and more of
them every day, and believes it’s all a conspiracy. It drives him crazy when he
switches channels when a commercial pops up during, say, a motor race, only to find that the other
channel he was watching, flipping back and forth, is also running a commercial. We don't, as we once did with broadcast, get these programs for free.
It does seem to me that many channels
proliferate just for the income of it, not for the service. I remember in years past hearing the annual
broadcast channels announce the renewal of their licenses. Part of their license to broadcast was their service
to the community. Anyone who disagreed with the license renewal could complain
to the FCC. Not anymore! Cable channels, like many under the Discovery banner,
consist of repeats, repeats, repeats, strung together with a boatload of
commercials. Many old shows are pulled apart and reassembled a bit differently
and touted as being new. Even the staid BBC fills its daily schedule with reruns
of the ever angry Gordon Ramsey, Top Gear, and Star Trek: The Next Generation,
which is now over 20 years old. It costs little to repeat some of these productions
ad nauseam, and the income from the commercials must be quite handsome.
Such is the way of the word these
days. If it were just me here, I’d be
happy to stick to the PBS channels, making my annual contributions in lieu of
all those ads.
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