“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 2013-18 by Jay Phillippi. All Rights Reserved. You like what you see and hear? Drop me a line and we can talk.
Programs from the week of November 4, 2018
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.
Theater On Demand
I’m not sure how I missed this whole market niche in the streaming video on demand (SVOD) world, but it seems that there are several companies out there trying to bring the stage to your screen. My own roots in stage performance, so I would seem to be part of the demographic these services are trying to attract. There’s a problem, however.
I’m not sure I think it’s a good idea.
What tipped me to the concept was the announcement of a service scheduled to debut sometime in the indefinite future. It’s called “Stage” and is the brain child of Tony and Drama Desk Award nominated producer Rich Affanato. I nosed around and found a couple other similar services, BroadwayHD and Cennarium. Between the three they cover musicals, drama, opera, ballet, dance, plus the usual other type shows (interviews, retrospectives, etc).
Again, I love live performance, but I don’t get to see as much of it as I’d like. So this should be great, right?
No, I’m still in the unconvinced category.
There are a variety of reasons for this. None of which have anything to do with what these services are actually providing. I haven’t seen any of them, so I’m not saying they are doing a bad job. I’m not sure it’s possible to do a good job.
When the A&E cable network first debuted, this was the kind of thing they offered. You will note that it’s not there any more. Problem number the first is that there is a small demographic, relatively speaking, for this material. So your business model better be perfect. The second problem is the complexity of getting all the players on the same page. There are something like 15 unions and other professional organizations involved in shows on Broadway. They all want their rights and profits protected. So, again, your business model better be perfect.
But my biggest objection is how much you will lose from the experience of a live performance when you’re watching it on your TV, computer, or God help us, your smartphone. The impact of the music from a professional pit orchestra is lost, the energy of an entire audience on the edge of their seats can’t be replicated, let alone the technical challenges of visually bringing everything that is live theater to a small screen. Even productions staged for broadcast seem to come up short.
I am all in favor of anything that supports live theater. I’m just not sure this is going to be boffo box office.
Christmas Controversy
I am not at all convinced that we need to be thinking about Christmas yet, but the Christmas stuff seems to be streaming onto shelves and into the media. So I guess I’m stuck with it whether I like it or not. I’ve mentioned in previous years that I am something of a Christmas curmudgeon when it comes to the holiday and the media. If it isn’t December yet, I’m not interested. But I understand that mine is a minority opinion, and I move on.
So here we are at the beginning of November and some folks are tensing for one of the first arguments of the season. This past Friday saw the debut of the 2018 holiday season cups from the folks at Starbucks. Let me note that as a non-drinker of the nasty brown water, I feel that I can offer an objective look at what has been a controversial subject the last several years.
Let me also note that I think the entire subject is absurd. The underlying question boils down to “Is Starbucks properly embracing the season on Christmas with the design of their disposable coffee cups?”. If you still think this is a serious issue after listening to it spelled out that way I don’t know what to tell you.
The coffee mega-store has made holiday themed cups for twenty-plus years. Reindeer, tree ornaments, that kind of stuff. Then in 2015, they decided to make it simple, a plain cup in the traditional Christmas color of red. How could that be controversial? And yet a major hoohaw arose. Last year, a pair of cartoon hands in mittens were the center of the debate. This year, the design looks a lot like the wrapping paper we use in my family. Holly, stars, flames like from a fireplace, lots of red and green. And the world waited with bated breath to see if there was going to be another flapdoodle. So far there has been a fair amount of stories anticipating a possible donnybrook (kind of like this story) but I haven’t heard any big complaints. Starbucks may be benefiting from the media overload caused by the election this week.
Here’s the bottom line – this is a major corporate entity and we’re talking like the design on their paper cups has any kind of impact on the holiday. Let’s not lose track of the fact that it’s a container for coffee.
Enjoy what comes in the cup, then throw it away. Really, it’s just a cup.
Election Advertising
By the time you hear this program, you will be free of the single most irritating part of the media this fall. Because the election will be over and that means that election ads will finally go away. And other than the media outlets raking in the election campaign dollars I do not believe anyone will miss them.
Back when I was working in commercial radio, we had an ambivalent feeling about political ads. At election time, they chewed up all the inventory and usually not at the best possible rates. So yes, they brought in a lot of money but we all knew they were a huge tune out inspiration as well.
If it feels like you’ve heard more of them than ever before, that’s probably correct. The final numbers won’t be in for a while, but as I produce this show just before election day, the total for midterm advertising is expected to be a record breaker. A couple days later, the experts were saying it would land somewhere near three billion dollars. Two days later and the number is now five billion dollars. All for something that none of us want to hear by this time on the calendar.
There have been concerns about political advertising for years. We used to worry about the content. If they were getting too mean spirited. This always amused me because if you’ve studied any political history at all you know that we Americans have a loooooong history of down and dirty, nasty, personal political advertising. For most of my lifetime, which now covers more than a half century, our political ads have been, historically speaking, pretty tame.
The other great concern is about how much money is spent each year. Five billion dollars is real money, and an amount that could be put to much better use, I think. We’ve tried to put some restraints on the money in our political media. The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 looked to control how and how much money could be spent. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has been hacking away at those protections over the last decade, culminating in the Citizens United decision. The last real impact on our elections from the bill is the required statement “I’m so and so candidate, and I approved this ad”
Sadly, it’s unlikely that we’ll see anything like a bipartisan effort to deal with the issue any time soon. I will be honest, if this is what 2018 political advertising looks like, I fear to even consider what the 2020 campaign will sound like.
Call that the View From the Phlipside
Copyright Jay Phillippi, 2018
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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