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Media Alert: Local public radio station KZSC goes corporate!
Local college radio station KZSC Santa Cruz, 88.1fm is going corporate. At the beginning of this month, the self-described "non-commercial" public radio station began airing internal promotions for a contest sponsored by Toyota and Urban Outfitters.
For Immediate Release:
Local college radio station KZSC Santa Cruz, 88.1fm is going corporate. At the beginning of this month, the self-described "non-commercial" public radio station began airing internal promotions for a contest sponsored by Toyota and Urban Outfitters.
As part of a joint internet "Free Yr Radio" youth marketing campaign (http://www.freeyrradio.com), Urban Outfitters and Toyota are giving away a single Toyota Yaris to contestants who make a donation to KZSC (http://www.kzsc.org) throughout the month of June. While no actual purchase or donation is required to enter the contest, KZSC has been on average making one announcement every few hours promoting the contest and with it the names of Urban Outfitters and Toyota.
So what's wrong with that?
While the majority of the airwaves are controlled by commercial radio stations, public radio (as well as pirate radio) remains one of the few places where the community has a voice. Because public radio stations rely mainly on the support of everyday listeners, as opposed to advertisers, they are simply more democratic and diverse entities.
By using the public airwaves to promote the launching of a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing faux-community corporate internet radio station, the very principle of public radio is compromised. It wouldn't matter if Starbucks was offering free Paul McCartney CDs to people who pledge to KUSP - Commercial speech belongs on commercial radio.
(See the GAP or Chevron's "People Do" campaigns for more examples of corporate "green washing.")
KZSC already airs paid promotional announcements for local businesses, how is this any different?
Like most public radio stations, KZSC has a variety of ways of generating income - these mainly include pledge drives and underwriting. While the former is simply a form of accepting money from individual donors (the public), the latter often comes from local business people who first and foremost, want to support public radio. Such businesses tend to be relatively small, and benefit the local economy. In contrast, Urban Outfitters and Toyota are huge faceless multinational corporations with no interest or loyalties to the community, except to the extent of getting more people to purchase more of their massed-produced products.
The Toyota Yaris is a hybrid car, and hybrid cars are good - isn't KZSC just being eco-friendly by promoting it?
Contrary to what automobile manufacturers would have you believe, the amount of fuel that an automobile uses is only one of many factors that contribute to global warming and the general degradation of the environment. Regardless of what it runs on (this goes for electric cars as well), automobiles require massive publicly subsidized infrastructure such as paved roads, freeways (see the widening of Highway 1), parking lots, gas stations, as well as paved space that could be used for public commons (think gardens, parks, mixed use housing zones). This is to say nothing of the millions of animals that are killed every year by cars OR the din of engines and wheels moving on pavement that most American cities now possess.
Oh come on, next you're going to say Urban Outfitters is as bad as the GAP!
Similar to Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters personifies the commodification and cooptation of rebellion and faux-individuality - The image, the look of being "edgy" or "subversive" supercedes and prevents the actual act of it. (Think of FUBU, only for indie-rock scenesters). The fact of the matter is Urban Outfitters is just another chain store fixed to a niche market that contributes to the homogenization of culture and art.
As for "Free" Yr Radio - this is just one more tentacle of the corporate youth marketing beast - a quick look at their website shows other nefarious affiliations such as My Space (owned by Rupert Murdoch's newscorp).
Okay, okay, what should I do?
By in large, KZSC is a wonderful local radio station that boasts some of the best shows in the Monterey Bay area. They've unfortunately crossed a line with succumbing to the siren-song of corporate sponsorship and we need to let them know we aren't happy about it. Please call or email the following folks and tell them to keep public radio public! Just say no corporate swine.
Register your complaint with:
Program Review Committee 459-4726 prc [at] kzsc.org
Broadcast Advisor Michael Bryant 459-4733 mbryant [at] ucsc.edu
OR
Call the DJ's directly and politely request that they REFUSE to read ANY corporate promotional announcements: 459-4036.
KEEP CORPORATE SWINE OFF OUR AIRWAVES!
Local college radio station KZSC Santa Cruz, 88.1fm is going corporate. At the beginning of this month, the self-described "non-commercial" public radio station began airing internal promotions for a contest sponsored by Toyota and Urban Outfitters.
As part of a joint internet "Free Yr Radio" youth marketing campaign (http://www.freeyrradio.com), Urban Outfitters and Toyota are giving away a single Toyota Yaris to contestants who make a donation to KZSC (http://www.kzsc.org) throughout the month of June. While no actual purchase or donation is required to enter the contest, KZSC has been on average making one announcement every few hours promoting the contest and with it the names of Urban Outfitters and Toyota.
So what's wrong with that?
While the majority of the airwaves are controlled by commercial radio stations, public radio (as well as pirate radio) remains one of the few places where the community has a voice. Because public radio stations rely mainly on the support of everyday listeners, as opposed to advertisers, they are simply more democratic and diverse entities.
By using the public airwaves to promote the launching of a wolf-in-sheeps-clothing faux-community corporate internet radio station, the very principle of public radio is compromised. It wouldn't matter if Starbucks was offering free Paul McCartney CDs to people who pledge to KUSP - Commercial speech belongs on commercial radio.
(See the GAP or Chevron's "People Do" campaigns for more examples of corporate "green washing.")
KZSC already airs paid promotional announcements for local businesses, how is this any different?
Like most public radio stations, KZSC has a variety of ways of generating income - these mainly include pledge drives and underwriting. While the former is simply a form of accepting money from individual donors (the public), the latter often comes from local business people who first and foremost, want to support public radio. Such businesses tend to be relatively small, and benefit the local economy. In contrast, Urban Outfitters and Toyota are huge faceless multinational corporations with no interest or loyalties to the community, except to the extent of getting more people to purchase more of their massed-produced products.
The Toyota Yaris is a hybrid car, and hybrid cars are good - isn't KZSC just being eco-friendly by promoting it?
Contrary to what automobile manufacturers would have you believe, the amount of fuel that an automobile uses is only one of many factors that contribute to global warming and the general degradation of the environment. Regardless of what it runs on (this goes for electric cars as well), automobiles require massive publicly subsidized infrastructure such as paved roads, freeways (see the widening of Highway 1), parking lots, gas stations, as well as paved space that could be used for public commons (think gardens, parks, mixed use housing zones). This is to say nothing of the millions of animals that are killed every year by cars OR the din of engines and wheels moving on pavement that most American cities now possess.
Oh come on, next you're going to say Urban Outfitters is as bad as the GAP!
Similar to Hot Topic, Urban Outfitters personifies the commodification and cooptation of rebellion and faux-individuality - The image, the look of being "edgy" or "subversive" supercedes and prevents the actual act of it. (Think of FUBU, only for indie-rock scenesters). The fact of the matter is Urban Outfitters is just another chain store fixed to a niche market that contributes to the homogenization of culture and art.
As for "Free" Yr Radio - this is just one more tentacle of the corporate youth marketing beast - a quick look at their website shows other nefarious affiliations such as My Space (owned by Rupert Murdoch's newscorp).
Okay, okay, what should I do?
By in large, KZSC is a wonderful local radio station that boasts some of the best shows in the Monterey Bay area. They've unfortunately crossed a line with succumbing to the siren-song of corporate sponsorship and we need to let them know we aren't happy about it. Please call or email the following folks and tell them to keep public radio public! Just say no corporate swine.
Register your complaint with:
Program Review Committee 459-4726 prc [at] kzsc.org
Broadcast Advisor Michael Bryant 459-4733 mbryant [at] ucsc.edu
OR
Call the DJ's directly and politely request that they REFUSE to read ANY corporate promotional announcements: 459-4036.
KEEP CORPORATE SWINE OFF OUR AIRWAVES!
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I noticed these spots just today, and they did catch my attention.
You had me until you failed to explain how the differences between local underwriters and big corporations necessarily implies that the latter is more likely to exert undue influence over KZSC's programming than the former. You also lose credibility when you fail to identify the Yaris as a traditional gasoline car. Finally, having a MySpace page doesn't make anyone more evil, unless you'd like to attack all the progressive groups who use social networking sites to organize in far greater numbers than conservative groups.
Yes, this corporate tie-in is the lame cultural equivalent of green-washing. But who's to stop KZSC's public affairs DJs from discussing the problems of auto-centric development, corporate environmental sins, or cultural homogenization? Listeners who these promotions would brainwash into changing their consumption habits probably don't give a rat's ass about corporate power anyway.
Until the voices on air are muzzled, I just don't see a compelling story here beyond the usual corporatization of public radio financing.
You had me until you failed to explain how the differences between local underwriters and big corporations necessarily implies that the latter is more likely to exert undue influence over KZSC's programming than the former. You also lose credibility when you fail to identify the Yaris as a traditional gasoline car. Finally, having a MySpace page doesn't make anyone more evil, unless you'd like to attack all the progressive groups who use social networking sites to organize in far greater numbers than conservative groups.
Yes, this corporate tie-in is the lame cultural equivalent of green-washing. But who's to stop KZSC's public affairs DJs from discussing the problems of auto-centric development, corporate environmental sins, or cultural homogenization? Listeners who these promotions would brainwash into changing their consumption habits probably don't give a rat's ass about corporate power anyway.
Until the voices on air are muzzled, I just don't see a compelling story here beyond the usual corporatization of public radio financing.
That is indeed a very good point. However, the issue is less about undue corporate influence over the content of programming on public radio than the very presence of corporate sponsorship on the public airwaves itself. If the principle of "non-commercial" radio holds any weight these days, then allowing Urban Outfitters and the Toyota (non-hybrid) Yaris to promote their "Yr Radio" project and of course, their products, (via a cover campaign of "supporting public radio") IS nothing more than a corporate capitalist Trojan horse - and a clever one at that.
As for MySpace being simultaneously owned by Rupert Murdoch but being employed by progressives for networking purposes, we can always make arguments about using the master's tools to dismantle the master's mansion. The truth is, like Friendster and Tribe.net, MySpace is just another website that can be used for political and non-political purposes (let's not try to take the binary "conservative vs. liberal" road here) - I'm not just talking about the barrage of tawdry sex advertisements but instances such as high schoolers slandering their teachers or taggers posting their tags publicly (no diss to true artists like Banksy). More importantly, while MySpace currently plays an important role in organizing, that could easily change overnight provided there was a similar outlet - People will always find a way to resist their shackles and communicate with other like minded people - you're reading one of those ways right now.
But MySpace isn't really the issue. The issue is the corporatization of everyday life and the further infiltration of advertising-mentalities into our very minds. The fact that KZSC could simultaneously call itself "non-commercial" while promoting "Yr Radio", the Toyota Yaris, AND Urban Outfitters is a happy faced lie worthy of a Huxleyian novel. And just as Huxley rightly predicted almost a 100 years ago, the mistake progressive activists often make is to expect that corporate behemoths act in a manner of open hostility and aggression towards the very demographics they wish to shake down for a little more cash - On the contrary, a used car salesman is most often the one left smiling.
Lastly, if the corporatization of public radio and everyday life is no longer a compelling reason to voice dissent then perhaps we should check our own level of sensitivity (consciousness?) on the issue.
As for MySpace being simultaneously owned by Rupert Murdoch but being employed by progressives for networking purposes, we can always make arguments about using the master's tools to dismantle the master's mansion. The truth is, like Friendster and Tribe.net, MySpace is just another website that can be used for political and non-political purposes (let's not try to take the binary "conservative vs. liberal" road here) - I'm not just talking about the barrage of tawdry sex advertisements but instances such as high schoolers slandering their teachers or taggers posting their tags publicly (no diss to true artists like Banksy). More importantly, while MySpace currently plays an important role in organizing, that could easily change overnight provided there was a similar outlet - People will always find a way to resist their shackles and communicate with other like minded people - you're reading one of those ways right now.
But MySpace isn't really the issue. The issue is the corporatization of everyday life and the further infiltration of advertising-mentalities into our very minds. The fact that KZSC could simultaneously call itself "non-commercial" while promoting "Yr Radio", the Toyota Yaris, AND Urban Outfitters is a happy faced lie worthy of a Huxleyian novel. And just as Huxley rightly predicted almost a 100 years ago, the mistake progressive activists often make is to expect that corporate behemoths act in a manner of open hostility and aggression towards the very demographics they wish to shake down for a little more cash - On the contrary, a used car salesman is most often the one left smiling.
Lastly, if the corporatization of public radio and everyday life is no longer a compelling reason to voice dissent then perhaps we should check our own level of sensitivity (consciousness?) on the issue.
I like the show I am listening to on KZSC, but I just heard the Toyota and Urban Outfitters advertisement discussed in this post and agree that it is corporate advertising and much different than their traditional underwriters. I called KZSC and spoke with the dj. His attitude about the whole thing was a little flippant, though he was polite enough to have a conversation before needing to return to doing his show.
I asked why he reads corporate advertising on the air and he said because it gets placed in front of him so he has to read it. I asked him what the difference was between KZSC and a corporate radio station and he told me to listen to a corporate radio station so I could figure out the difference. I replied that I knew the difference between advertisements produced by marketing corporations and advertisements read by a dj. So I asked him if he was telling me that was the difference, that he reads the advertising instead of a pre-produced commercial. He then replied no, that corporate stations have a set play-list whereas KZSC djs can play whatever they want. I could hear the other dj say that they did not get paid, that they are volunteers. At this point our conversation basically came to an end since the dj had to get back to the show.
But I'm left with the feeling that KZSC is indeed taking another step towards commercialization. Of course there is still a big difference between KZSC and a station owned by Clear Channel.... but the dj made the point that he gets to play whatever he wants to.... yet he told me he read the advertisement for Toyota and Urban Outfitters because it was put in front of him and he had to read it.
I asked why he reads corporate advertising on the air and he said because it gets placed in front of him so he has to read it. I asked him what the difference was between KZSC and a corporate radio station and he told me to listen to a corporate radio station so I could figure out the difference. I replied that I knew the difference between advertisements produced by marketing corporations and advertisements read by a dj. So I asked him if he was telling me that was the difference, that he reads the advertising instead of a pre-produced commercial. He then replied no, that corporate stations have a set play-list whereas KZSC djs can play whatever they want. I could hear the other dj say that they did not get paid, that they are volunteers. At this point our conversation basically came to an end since the dj had to get back to the show.
But I'm left with the feeling that KZSC is indeed taking another step towards commercialization. Of course there is still a big difference between KZSC and a station owned by Clear Channel.... but the dj made the point that he gets to play whatever he wants to.... yet he told me he read the advertisement for Toyota and Urban Outfitters because it was put in front of him and he had to read it.
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