Goodbye NBC, Tony and Life As We Know It
I’m standing at the kitchen counter where I have my lap top set up so I have a view of several rooms. I’m reading the December issue of Wired Magazine who’s cover story is the Google buyout of You Tube and how everything is changing (it is) and how viewers are moving in droves to the internet (they are) and the implosion of traditional commercial TV (boom!).
While I’m reading this, NBC is airing a special on Tony Bennett’s 80th birthday.
Summation: I’m reading a print article about how cyber space is radically changing everything about our lives as a very talented dinosaur croons to an aged audience, most of whom will be gone in 10 years, taking NBC with them.
* * *
Clear Channel, the media giant that I’ve had issues with – personally and professionally – for years, is selling its TV stations and a bunch of radio stations. They give their corporate reasons. Actually, it’s the first rumble in the fall of an oversized castle. I’d say it outlived its usefulness but Clear Channel was never useful. It was the company’s strangle hold on play lists and its drive to make money at all costs that drove users to create sites where they can hear music they want when they want.
Clear Channel will probably survive in some form but not as the traditional monster it’s been.
Web democracy wins again.