Danny

Good on ya for standing up for your cause and wish you the best!

This issue with the commercial ads being on public school busses, I would have thought that to be outright illegal for no other reason than it is municipal sponsorship of certain products. Sure, they don’t pick the adverts but they agreed carte blanche to the whole lot by proxy of the contract.

Here in the Philippines, it’s quite disgusting at how everyone with control over anything in the government will allow for private adverts and of course, make a little consulting fee on the side.

no…I still don’t see it. We are fond of throwing around the term ‘separation of church and state’ but in reality, there should be a separation of state and anything at all commercial. The government should be barred from raising funds by means of adverts. It took hundreds of man-hours, about 2 contract administrators, legal fees in documentation, lots more legal fees from lawyers researching to make sure the district couldn’t be sued…..etc….which is waaaaay much more than any revenue they made.

Smaller administrative footprint, that will save money. Not spending more to bring some in.

http://consumerist.com/352847/south-carolina-places-ads-inside-school-buses

I can’t be the only one that finds this completely perverse…

Have you read Josh’s research at http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/actions/busradio.htm ?

Also let me again express my pleasure in reading comments and thoughts by students Katy C. and Nikki, which address the issue as a whole with thought and clarity rather than through rambling tired personal attacks.

It certainly says something when students are able to leap over the mental constraints of the parents and educators posting here and exhibit a respected level of maturity in their thoughts, delivery, and writing.

I would like to see the parents who have children ask BusRadio and the school district these questions.

Do you request a email address from those students
who give feed back?
Yes they do. go to busradio.com and click on feed back and see.
Do they play music that uses words that are not in the dictionary?
Yes.
Where can I find the meanings?
I have used urban dictionary (Only because I can’t find the meanings anywhere else).
Have they promoted CD’s, Television shows and other inappropriate content?
See Obligation.org

Stop the bad seeds from entering your child’s mind. I don’t want a for profit company making money off of the children, are they pushing their immorality on to them?

Did they not promote a show where a student was asked if he would have sex with his sister?
Check again with oblgation.org

Does promoting items count as commercial time?
Not from what I heard.

I will stay with this issue and continue to do what I can to inform parents. I will still complain, but not complain to complain, but to complain for action.

I do agree with Danny that it’s ridiculous to provide a service for kids, packed with do-gooder PSAs, yet contain lyrics filled with euphemisms of vice. Much like MTV is marketed towards kids yet the majority of shows are teen partying and soft core porn. (I’ve never seen a “Road Rules” where the guys and girls aren’t practically naked.)

Regarding Katy’s positive BR comment about “The amount of commercials is does not play” – I think it would be well served to read some aggregated info on promotional content WITHIN the show. Segments of BR can be purchased, in essence making EVERYTHING that isn’t music a paid endorsement. I realize kids are savvy enough to know when a “discussion” of a product is actually an ad FOR the product – but still it should be addressed as a negative. It’s not just music and light DJ banter. On top of the standard commercials you basically have INFORMERCIALS running inside the show.

Josh’s link above to commercialfreechildhood.org addresses this.

To me that’s more of a concern that the lyrics. I don’t think young adults like Katy, a junior in high school, need to be shielded from everything in life that could be potentially harmful. Kids are savvy enough at filtering content, much more than any previous generation. But they still shouldn’t be subject to the lyrics OR the ads.

Content should be ACTIVE, sought out by the listener/viewer. Not PASSIVE – meaning sent to you with no choice. With streaming, on demand, and the internet, this is how media exists for our generation. We shouldn’t subject those to listen to ANYTHING without a choice. I think I’m a bit more liberal on the subject of lyrics than Danny is, but my concern is the delivery of ANYTHING by those not wanting it.

I’ve never cared for “slippery slope” arguments, but what if a company wanted to install “video desktops” for students? They’d have nice sounding features like calculators and text displayed from the teacher – but in the downtime would show ads for your favorite companies.

Far fetched? Maybe, but I’d rather keep the school environment free from outside corporations and influence – at any cost.

BusRadio would be a great idea, If they did it for the children and not the money. Children on my route (middle school) ride up to 50 minutes a day round trip.

My request, I want BusRadio to make available the written lyrics to parents and some students. I would like them in advance. My view are mine and not everyone agrees with me. However I feel that some of this music and some artist are morally unacceptable. It should not be up to the school district or bus drivers (including myself) to decide what is morally acceptable, It should be up to the parents and students (If they are at the age of reason) Remember this music is also played for 4 year olds on up.

This company signed a 5 year contract with our school district. They said it was an alternative to AM/FM, (So whats wrong with FM, Disney channel? they compare them self to Disney). They said they would not be advertising Viagra (Who would advertise this to teen age boys anyway)? No Beer commercials, But they played songs that sing about drinking, driving and so on.
They tell me that the song Crank Dat was about turning up the music. The parents should decide what the lyrics mean by pulling up the lyrics.(I think the students already know). The rapers use words you can not find in Webster so I use Urban Dictionary. Ive been told its unreliable, but they can’t tell me where to look words like Hatez up.
So where else do you look.
Anyway, Most parents love their children and do what they can to help them grow. I am just a messenger. Otherwise the parents would have no idea. Some people will tell you I give misinformation. They only way to tell who is telling the truth is to have the play list and the written lyrics.
I have a list of some of the songs that were played on December 14, 2007. Timbalan, “The way I are” was on that list, but the list also noted that it was not played in Littleton.
We made that decision, the committee. But shouldn’t our committee also have some parents and students on it?
Shouldn’t bus radio make available the written lyric to parents, school board, students?
After all they are making money off the students.
Additional information at Obligation.org click on Bus Radio and go to Nov 8 and listen to what the VP of Bus Radio had to say.
Also Google “Bus Radio Denver”
or 9news.com and type in the search box Bus Radio Danny.
Bottom line
“Work with the parents PTO’s and PTA’s OPEN AND HONEST COMMUNICATION”
Thank you for your concern.
Danny