“The View From the Phlipside” is a media commentary program airing on WRFA-LP, Jamestown NY. It can be heard Monday through Friday around 7:30 AM. 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 moment’s 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 2013-17 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from week of May 28, 2017
This Week’s Podcast
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.
So Who Won?
In America, we are all about the winner. We love Vince Lombardi’s “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing” quote, even if we get the context wrong more times than not. We love the concept that “second place is first loser”. We can thank the late Dale Earnhardt, Sr. for that bit of wisdom. And we love it when the winner puts lots of points on the board in the process of winning. I’m a firm believer that it’s one of the reasons why basketball is more popular than soccer. As Al Davis said, “Just Win, Baby”.
So there’s nothing more frustrating than a situation where a clear winner cannot be determined. Nobody likes a tie, and even a boxing match split decision falls into the “kiss your sister” category. Which is a silly saying, like kissing your brother is some great treat.
So this year’s television season is leaving everyone with a bit of a sour taste in their mouths. Both NBC and CBS are claiming to be the winner for the 2016-17 television season. They both have arguments in their favor, while neither side can present a commanding case.
For the third time in the last four years, the Peacock Network came out on top among viewers 18-49. And they did it the hard way. No network has ever won that age demographic WITHOUT the Super Bowl or the Olympics. The NFL championship game is usually the biggest single TV event in any given season, but this year it was on Fox. NBC did have the top two series in the prime demographic, Sunday Night Football and the second half of the Thursday Night Football series. CBS had the first half, which is when NFL TV ratings were in the toilet.
Meanwhile, CBS will point to the total viewership numbers, which they won by a million plus over NBC.
The reality is that all these numbers are window dressing. Because the overall viewership numbers are down. NBC might claim a win there because their numbers were static from last season. Everyone else showed drops in total viewer numbers. CBS was the winner among losers, seeing their numbers drop by twelve percent.
The reality is that all this sleight of hand is meant to divert us from the facts that broadcast television continues to struggle to keep viewers. There’s a real issue there that needs to be addressed. That’s going to require them to think in different terms, approach issues from a different point of view.
And probably find a new way to define winning.
Southern Rock
The death last week of Gregg Allman got me thinking back to the days when I first started paying attention to music. I grew up in a household that wasn’t really into music. There was a fair amount of mainstream folk played, plus the Tijuana Brass and some mainstream pop. Going into college my tastes were fairly narrow and unsophisticated. As it intended to do, college expanded my mind.
The 70’s were a time when music was going through a lot of changes. Not all of them good, admittedly. But there was some fascinating musical blending that comes to the forefront during that time. Folk Rock got its start in the mid-60s but continued to grow in the 70’s. Jazz fusion began to explore the boundaries of jazz and rock. And country music and rock music came together to become something special as well. The Allman Brothers Band was arguably the premier example of rock and roll turning back toward the musical traditions that spawned it. Many of the early rock legends were southerners, from Elvis to Fats Domino to Buddy Holly and Jerry Lee Lewis. During the 1960’s rock shifts its attention to places like Liverpool, and San Francisco.
By the 1980s, the musical trends would move away again. MTV would point the world towards New Wave, and Glam Rock. But what the Allmans, and Lynyrd Skinner and dozens of other Southern rockers had begun would continue to percolate through the musical world. Even Country music would feel the impact. It’s not by accident that some of the top acts in Country music of the 1980s, like Alabama and Garth Brooks, noted rock groups among their primary musical influences.
All these years later, there’s a tendency among some rock music experts to look down their noses at southern rock. It is dismissed by some as “good ole boy” music, or other, less radio friendly terms. I think that sells it all short. Take a listen to Dicky Bett’s amazing “Les Brers in A Minor” on the iconic 1972 double album “Eat A Peach” and try to dismiss that as some simple, redneck rock. Jam band fans will find plenty in the Allman Brothers repertoire that will appeal to them as well.
It shouldn’t be enough to just note or even mourn the passing of Gregg Allman. The kind of music played for the short years that were the true prime of the band fronted by him and his brother is worthy of our listening today. Dig out an old album, jump onto the computer and pull up some music. Let the music roll over you, a taste of jazz, blues, rock, gospel, country and more.
That’s the way to remember Gregg Allman.
Gregory Lenoir Allman died last week. He was 69 years old.
Nothing Is Private
It seems like the experts and the commentators and the educators keep saying the same thing over and over and over, but it never quite sinks in. I’ll admit it even happens with me. I hear all the folks who know about the subject giving the same warning, and I nod my head, and then just move along as if it doesn’t apply to me. So far I’ve been lucky because it hasn’t come back to bite me in the butt. Not everyone else is so fortunate.
So let me repeat it, one more time. Nothing you put on the internet is private. Nothing. All the apps that claim that your post isn’t saved anywhere? That may be true for that individual application, but all it takes is someone doing a quick screen capture before it goes away, and your post is permanent. And in someone else’s control. Oh, and once it’s out there? It is permanent because nothing on the Internet ever goes away.
Of course, then you also have the seemingly endless supply of people who don’t really understand how this whole internet thing works.
Last week former Playboy Playmate of the Year Dani Mathers was convicted in an L.A. courtroom for secretly taking a photo of a 71-year-old woman undressing in a locker room, and then sending the picture out on SnapChat. Mathers maintained that she had intended to send it only to a friend. She pleaded no contest and was sentenced to three years probation and thirty hours of graffiti removal public service time.
Not intending to make the photo public, if true, doesn’t excuse her from being a dirtbag. But the underlying issue has less to do with her and more to do with the victim in this case. Because there is that other thing about the Internet, nothing ever goes away. That photo is out there to stay.
So let me try one more time. Every little joke. Every picture. Every link you share. On every website, program or application you use can be found by other people. Even if you delete them. Even if the website or app promises you that it’s private. Even if your settings are on “Friends Only”. It may take a little work, but if someone really wants to find it, they will.
Maybe you were just kidding around. Maybe you never intended anyone else to see it. Maybe you were just really ticked off and hit “Send” before you took a minute to think about it.
There was that old threat that terrorized school children when I was growing up. Guess what? It’s actually true. It all goes on your permanent record. Think about that the next time you’re ready to post something.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2017
Theme music for “The View From the Phlipside” and “TVFTP – Podcast” is “Hustle”
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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