I am an irregular public-transpo commuter these days, but I am nonetheless decidedly unenchanted by the MBTA's (Mass Bay Transportation Authority) decision to introduce something called T-Radio.
The station, which will provide music, entertainment and sports news, and (maybe? news-news) is being rolled out in three unlucky T stations. The trial runs until Thanksgiving, and - if enough riders go as negative on it as I imagine they will - we may have something extra to be thankful. If not, T-Radio will be rolled out throughout the system. (Fortunately, there's no mention of providing it in the trains themselves.)
There are so places these days where you can hear yourself think. Remember how we used to complain about Muzak in elevators? I'm getting nostalgic for those good old days, now that so many elevators (special offender: hotels) broadcast television in them.
Didn't airport waiting areas used to be, like, quiet? Now they all have CNN or sometimes, unforgivably, FOX blaring in them. God forbid that we're away from the latest on Britney Spears and OJ for a few minutes. God forbid we just sit there for a few minutes reading a book or, like, thinking.
Of course, it's not that easy to read or think when you're surrounded by everyone yakking loud-o vocce on their cell phones. God forbid someone goes a whole hour or two without "checking in." (I wouldn't mind if all these conversations we're forced to eavesdrop on were interesting, but they're not. I never get to hear one side of someone plotting mayhem, breaking up, dishing dirt, telling off, or telling a story that's even vaguely compelling. No, it's all "I'm at Logan" and "Anything happening, Deb?")
And now the T...
When I just want to be sitting there staring off into space, making a bet with myself whether the Riverside, Cleveland Circle, or Heath Street train will come next, I'll have to listen to Umbrella, ella, ella or a review of the latest from the Blue Man group.
Who wants this?
It seems to me that people who want or need to be bombarded with their own Wall of Sound can be left pretty much to their own devices. Does the T think that those of us who aren't traveling avec iPod are poor folks who'd really rather be listening, but we just can't - poor us - afford our own tunes. Or maybe they want to bombard us with ads, which I'm guessing T-Radio will be providing for us, too.
And what, pray tell, will this development mean for all the buskers currently performing in T-stations?
MBTA Manager Dan Grabauskas is quoted in an October 11th article by Greg St. Martin in The Metro on this worry:
"I hope not," Grabauskas said of T-Radio potentially forcing out live musicians. "I think the performers in our stations add life, color and richness to the MBTA system."
Precisely, Dan, so why would you want to drown them out with anything else - even something as critical and important as the score of the Red Sox game?
I've been a T rider for a long time. Long enough to remember "Dime Time," straw seats on the Blue Line, stations that looked like stops on a tour of the Paris sewers, and cars that broke down so frequently that living on the Green Line gave you an automatic excuse for being late for work. In all that time, I have never once longed for any noise other than the screeching sound of "my" train rounding the bend and heading in the station.
I can't be the only one.
I will admit that many things have improved over the course of my T-taking lifetime. T-Radio, I fear, will not be one of them.
If the T wants to improve things in the stations, maybe they should put a few dollars into the PA systems. In most of the stations, the announcements are so garbled that you have no clue whatsoever what's being said. ("Did they really just announce that the train is running non-stop to Alewife, where all passengers will be detained?")
The T is going to have a section on their web site where you can comment on T-Radio. I'm planning on cheating a little here. Even though I may not have been exposed to T-Radio yet, I'm going to go on and tell them that I'd prefer noises off the T-station platforms.
But if people can hear themselves think, they might think more, and that'll cause trouble.
ReplyDeleteI think that those of us who find television and radio intrusive are a dying breed. This year a great little cafe opened here in Houston, called Inversions. It actually belongs to the Art League of Houston (so you're helping a good cultural institution when you get your latte). It's got a cool modern interior with tables and a coffee bar, an outdoor patio, ample parking (this is Houston - this matters) and a primo spot on Montrose Boulevard in the hip part of of town. And... free wifi and good pastries and okay sandwiches.
And... two big flat screen TV monitors that have been on every time I'm there.
Yes, I sit looking away from them. But they are still there banging on my consciousness. I hate them and I think they ruin a near perfect alternative to Starbucks.
I think the horse has left the barn when it comes to this stuff. At my local grocery store, instead of Muzak, we now have announcements (OK, that's not so bad), commercials, and there are displays throughout the store that show ads and make beep-boop-bop noises like video games (that usually make me think I'm getting a text message on my phone). At the checkout there are screens for the "In-Store Broadcast Network" (although so far I've mostly seen something that looks like Pong being played with zuchinnis instead of paddles).
It just doesn't stop, and I assume all grocery stores are like this now. Yesterday, my partner and I were shopping and he turned to me and said, "Going to the grocery store didn't used to be such an assault on the senses."
But I think we're in the minority.
Regarding the T: I am guessing they have the same issue as all transit systems, which is fighting for enough money to run a system that can never support itself on farebox revenue (for perfectly valid economic reasons; if you priced public transit to cover costs, you'd have what's called a "taxi fleet," thanks to the economics of the cost structures of natural monopolies (god, I loved my microeconomics class in b-school)). So they have got to find revenue, and a radio channel gives them an ad venue. I hate it too, but the only real answer to transit systems doing this stuff is more financial support from local governments, which means taxes, which is never popular. So they are probably stuck between a rock and a loud place.
STOP-T RADIO! Just click the "Stop T-Radio Petition" and sign online--send your complaint straight to the Governor's desk and spare Boston's ears from T-Radio's constant barrage of ads punctuated by muzak piped into the subway ceiling round the clock. There's no escape from T-Radio.
ReplyDeleteA dying breed. Sigh....
ReplyDeleteWell, count me in. I'm dying, I'm a breed, and I am hopping mad about T Radio.
I figure if I spend an hour a day until the "pilot" (please tell me this isn't rigged... wait, it's Boston we're talking about) ends I canmanage to write the Governor, my representatives, the T several times, the newspapers, and anyone else who'll listen. Maybe, for once, I won't be the only one who does so, and maybe the T will take notice and put an end to T Radio.
I'm journaling my correspondence in general at my JP Tracks blog. I'd be much obliged if you'd have a look and spread the word along.