“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday just after 8 AM and 5 PM. The following are scripts which may not exactly match the aired version of the program. Mostly because the host may suddenly choose to add or subtract words at a moments notice. WRFA-LP is not responsible for any such silliness or the opinions expressed. You can listen to a live stream of WRFA or find a podcast of this program at wrfalp.com. Copyright 2013-14 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Program scripts from week of April 14, 2014
My name is Jay Phillippi and I’ve spent my life in and around the media. TV, radio, the movies and more. I love them, and I hate them and I always have an opinion. Call this the View from the Phlipside.
Ratings Deception
I’m going to return to one of my favorite topics. I keep coming back to a few of these because I think it’s important for all of us to stay on top of what’s happening. Especially when what’s happening is yet another mistake being made.
In this case it’s the “old line media not dealing with the new digital age very well” story. Once again we have the media old timers circling the wagons instead of realizing that nobody uses wagons any more.
Over the last six plus decades there has been one set of numbers that people in the television industry have always listened to, the Neilsen ratings. The ACNeilsen company and later the spun off Neilsen Media Research folks tell us what we watch and who is watching.
The folks at Nielsen try to keep their finger on the pulse of the media world. I mean, that is what smart MEDIA people would do, right? About a year ago they decided it was time to start including people who watch TV via broadband services. In other words people who watch TV via the Internet would be counted. The numbers of us doing that have become statistically significant and therefore should be included.
Not so fast, my friend said the people at the National Association of Broadcasters. The NAB is a big wheel in broadcast TV and Radio. In February the NAB voted to call on Nielsen to delay adding those households to the local TV ratings. They’re still measured and counted in the national ratings but will be excluded from the local ones for the indefinite future.
So why would the broadcasters want this? I can only offer an assumption. That is that they believe or fear that many of those homes aren’t watching the local stations’ streams. Which means we’re not watching their commercials. Which means their ratings would go down. Which means their commercial rates would go down as well.
Once again the old line media is trying to change the rules so they can keep playing the same game they’ve always played. So they circle those wagons while the rest of us take off with our hoverboards and jetpacks.
I’m just wondering how it’s going to be before they realize they’ve stayed on the wrong trail?
Self Promotion
If there is one thing that American culture has done better than just about anyone in the world it is promote. Whether it’s pushing a new product or promoting ourselves it is a truly American art form. In fact there are days when I think it goes beyond that. There are times when it feels like it is an integral part of the American Way of Life. When you connect the dots with our obsession with being famous then you begin to see just how much self promotion is a part of our national psyche.
I must admit that I do a certain amount of self promotion myself. The blog and twitter feed that are linked to this show are self promotion pure and simple. I have a product that I’d like lots of people to use. I have a certain track record that can be consulted along the way.
So why do I have such a problem with the news from a week or so ago about two young football stars who are working on creating their own “brand”s? It’s what you do these days, I understand that. It doesn’t change the fact that I felt a small frisson of irritation with the news that Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III and Texas A&M soon to be NFL quarterback Johnny Manziel were in the process of creating their brands. RG3 now has his own brand logo and Manziel has been applying for a copyright on the phrase “The House That Johnny Built”.
In the end what I think bothers me is this. What do these guys think they have to promote? RG3 has shown flashes of promise but hasn’t managed to play a full season. He hasn’t shone in the postseason yet either. You can point to Manziel’s Heisman Trophy but the reality is that there are plenty of Heisman quarterbacks who wash out of the NFL. There’s an old marketing adage that says you don’t sell the steak, you sell the sizzle. I’m just wondering if there’s much steak to be had here. So the argument could be made that these guys need to rake in whatever bucks may be available to them while there’s any sizzle to be heard.
On the other hand, it takes a special kind of arrogance to draw a comparison between yourself and one of the greatest proven performers of all time. “The House That Ruth Built” is what both sizzle and steak really look like.
It was just last week that long time late night star David Letterman will be stepping down sometime next year. A variety of thoughts came to me in the time since then.
First, why do you announce it this far in advance? There’s not even a definite date, just some time in 2015. It’s APRIL of 2014! It’s not like “The Late Show” is being cancelled. In the lifespan of late night talk shows this happens. I don’t see any upside to this indefinite, relatively distant future announcement. Most of us give two weeks notice and the world manages to keep turning.
Second, I wonder how much of this has to do with the retirement of Letterman’s long time rival, Jay Leno. Most specifically if it has to do with the performance of NBC’s “Tonight Show” since Jimmy Fallon took over. In the weeks since the handoff to the new generation Fallon has basically tripled the ratings of his two network competitors, Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel. The talk has been out there for years now that both Leno and Letterman were living on their laurels. Opinions ran that both were in the end stages of their careers and it was time to think about new blood. Well, NBC has seen the benefit of that new blood first. Maybe, CBS or Letterman or both saw the writing on the wall.
And that brings us to the surprise in all of this. We can assume that CBS learned the lesson of the long drawn out replacement sagas at NBC the last two times it was time to name a new host. No long drawn out process, no start and stop and start again. No teasing potential hosts only to dump them later. Within a week CBS had the new name. A new name that might be a game changer.
Stephen Colbert.
But there are pitfalls on that front as well. On the “Colbert Report” the host does a biting satire program in character. The word is that we will NOT be getting that Stephen Colbert on “The Late Show”. Will fans of the “The Colbert Report” follow along for this other Colbert? And what will this straight up version of the host bring to battle back against a Jimmy Fallon that will have had a full year to polish his already impressive act?
Late night TV hasn’t been this interesting in a very long time.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
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