Blogging has been light this week because I’ve been down with a nasty cold. Plus I’ve been working on getting the SDC pages updated.
I did want to call out this Austin American-Statesman article about the goings-on at our local public radio station. Briefly, KUT cancelled two shows (“Paul Ray’s Jazz”, which ran twice a week, and “Phil Music”, which ran on Thursday) and replaced them with a new show, hosted by the station’s new music director. They also cut back the hours of the two hosts (Paul Ray and Larry Monroe). The end result has been vocal outrage on one side, and spin by KUT.
Several things stand out in this. There’s the sense of entitlement that many of the loud protesters apparently feel. (“How dare you cancel Paul Ray’s Jazz, even if only 300 people listen to in in a city of a million!”) There’s the relationship dynamic going on. (“Stop pledging to the station? Make them suffer financially for a decision I disagree with? I can’t do that!”) There’s the (possibly legit) complaint that the current station management is trying to make KUT sound more like (popular local radio station) KGSR. There’s the fact that KUT apparently has two HD radio channels. (Really? Do you have an HD radio? Do you know anyone who does? Do you know anyone outside the radio industry that gives a flying flip at a rolling doughnut about HD radio?)
Too many people in this world need to grow the heck up.
Since I promised light blogging, here’s a nifty little Flash simulation of the Michelson-Morley experiment, one of my all time favorite scientific experiments.