Video Killed The Radio Star...
Remember that song? Forget I asked that, many of you might not have even been born when it was written..
Anyway the title is quite accurate.
Once upon a time not that long ago radio was king everyone was listening... Not for 'DJs' or 'Sports Talk' but for live orchestra performances, radio dramas, radio comedy, radio everything! You had two major entertainment starts, 'movie stars' and 'radio stars'.
Lets shoot forward to the mid 50's / early 60s. Radio while still a force in entertainment world is quickly loosing its crown to TV by the late 50's it's mostly relegated to playing records clearly a shell of its former self.
60's-90's TV stars get bigger and bigger... Cable TV certainly helped in this regard as syndication combined with lots of stations meant I Love Lucy and the countless TV shows that followed would never die. It was no longer Radio and Movie stars that were all the talk it was now TV and Movie Stars.
90's - present & future
This is what I'd like to hear peoples thoughts about...
When I grew up very late 60s thru the early 80s TV was me and my brothers babysitter... If we were home TV was on. We always watched 'something' even if we didn't 'REALLY' like it all that much... After all what else was on? I'm fairly certain a great number of people my age had a similar perception of TV.
Todays kids aren't so 'all consumed' by TV like we were. They don't have to 'settle' watching something thats only 'okay'. They have lots of other choices.. They have Console Video Games (we had Atari 2600 but not nearly as plentiful a selection of games), They have computers, ( I had my Vic20 and C64 growing up but it certainly wasn't a popular choice of entertainment for most of my friends), they have stunning hand held game systems and finally they have the internet.
The tremendous thing the internet has going for it is that kids can always find GREAT stuff to do so 'might as well watch it, nuthin else good is on' doesn't really come into play.
What does that mean? Well that's my question... What DOES that mean?
Does it mean TV will be taken over by the Internet just like Radio was taken over by TV some 60 years prior?
I'm positive people laughed their asses off if someone said a tiny black and white TV with 5 or 6 hours of programming was EVER going to replace RADIO and all of its KINGS AND QUEENS. Well TV did just that. So it quite clear the average citizen of the world can be drawn to new forms of entertainment USUALLY at the expense of other entertainment.
I've come to notice one very interesting thing with TV, growing up there was A LOT of shows that were appropriate to kids AND very popular in the ratings.
- The Walton's
- Little house on the prairie
- Happy Days
- Perfect Strangers
- Diff'rent Strokes
- Growing Pains
- Bosom Buddies
- Laverne and Shirley
- Alf
- Family Ties
- Facts of Life
- The Cosby Show
- Fresh Prince
- The Wonder Years
- Dukes of Hazard
- Three's Company
- Mork and Mindy
I'm sure lots more... they were all aimed at kids and/or families. Well how many prime time major network programs are of that style today? Not many on the 'major 4' (abc/nbc/cbs/fox) perhaps the other two lesser networks do show more family shows, I don't usually watch them.
But it seems to me that the late 70s & 80s had way more shows targeting the 'family' or 'young viewer' audience. Am I just not noticing them or are the networks still marketing shows to ME and my generation? Lots of very gory COP shows (CSI and NCSI etc) and other adult oriented programs.
If someone trys to argue that Two and a Half Men is 'family programming' I'd direct them to view one program from any of the above mentioned shows and tell me if that show is for 'Family' viewing. Hey its funny as SHIT but any show that fits in douche-bag AT LEAST once in a 30 minute show is hardly what I'd consider family programming.
By the looks of it hollywood isn't even trying to create shows that would appeal to the youth of today... have they already written them off?
Anyway the title is quite accurate.
Once upon a time not that long ago radio was king everyone was listening... Not for 'DJs' or 'Sports Talk' but for live orchestra performances, radio dramas, radio comedy, radio everything! You had two major entertainment starts, 'movie stars' and 'radio stars'.
Lets shoot forward to the mid 50's / early 60s. Radio while still a force in entertainment world is quickly loosing its crown to TV by the late 50's it's mostly relegated to playing records clearly a shell of its former self.
60's-90's TV stars get bigger and bigger... Cable TV certainly helped in this regard as syndication combined with lots of stations meant I Love Lucy and the countless TV shows that followed would never die. It was no longer Radio and Movie stars that were all the talk it was now TV and Movie Stars.
90's - present & future
This is what I'd like to hear peoples thoughts about...
When I grew up very late 60s thru the early 80s TV was me and my brothers babysitter... If we were home TV was on. We always watched 'something' even if we didn't 'REALLY' like it all that much... After all what else was on? I'm fairly certain a great number of people my age had a similar perception of TV.
Todays kids aren't so 'all consumed' by TV like we were. They don't have to 'settle' watching something thats only 'okay'. They have lots of other choices.. They have Console Video Games (we had Atari 2600 but not nearly as plentiful a selection of games), They have computers, ( I had my Vic20 and C64 growing up but it certainly wasn't a popular choice of entertainment for most of my friends), they have stunning hand held game systems and finally they have the internet.
The tremendous thing the internet has going for it is that kids can always find GREAT stuff to do so 'might as well watch it, nuthin else good is on' doesn't really come into play.
What does that mean? Well that's my question... What DOES that mean?
Does it mean TV will be taken over by the Internet just like Radio was taken over by TV some 60 years prior?
I'm positive people laughed their asses off if someone said a tiny black and white TV with 5 or 6 hours of programming was EVER going to replace RADIO and all of its KINGS AND QUEENS. Well TV did just that. So it quite clear the average citizen of the world can be drawn to new forms of entertainment USUALLY at the expense of other entertainment.
I've come to notice one very interesting thing with TV, growing up there was A LOT of shows that were appropriate to kids AND very popular in the ratings.
- The Walton's
- Little house on the prairie
- Happy Days
- Perfect Strangers
- Diff'rent Strokes
- Growing Pains
- Bosom Buddies
- Laverne and Shirley
- Alf
- Family Ties
- Facts of Life
- The Cosby Show
- Fresh Prince
- The Wonder Years
- Dukes of Hazard
- Three's Company
- Mork and Mindy
I'm sure lots more... they were all aimed at kids and/or families. Well how many prime time major network programs are of that style today? Not many on the 'major 4' (abc/nbc/cbs/fox) perhaps the other two lesser networks do show more family shows, I don't usually watch them.
But it seems to me that the late 70s & 80s had way more shows targeting the 'family' or 'young viewer' audience. Am I just not noticing them or are the networks still marketing shows to ME and my generation? Lots of very gory COP shows (CSI and NCSI etc) and other adult oriented programs.
If someone trys to argue that Two and a Half Men is 'family programming' I'd direct them to view one program from any of the above mentioned shows and tell me if that show is for 'Family' viewing. Hey its funny as SHIT but any show that fits in douche-bag AT LEAST once in a 30 minute show is hardly what I'd consider family programming.
By the looks of it hollywood isn't even trying to create shows that would appeal to the youth of today... have they already written them off?
Comments
Lack of an FM radio is still a "dealbreaker" among those whose hobby it is to find reasons NOT to buy an iPhone.
...By the looks of it hollywood isn't even trying to create shows that would appeal to the youth of today... have they already written them off?
"Family" programming was what it used to be in the 80's and 90's. Because families actually gathered around the box to partake in the TV viewing activity.
The list of shows you made -- I don't think that it was necessarily targeted for "kids", more for "something wholesome for the whole family" so that advertisers could get a nice mainstream chunk of the demographic to sell everything from sneakers to cookware to cereal to technology (walkmans and stuff, I guess, back then).
Fast forward to today. After dinner, if the kids are even back from school/ soccer/ karate/ hanging out at the mall, the kids are on phones/ texting/ xbox/ laptops etc.
Primetime TV generally targets mostly that "18-35+ males and females, not families.
And anyone under say, 25, well, it's mostly downloads of all kinds of stuff in between Facebooking.
Video killed the radio star... But video and audio is still around, just now available in so many formats and devices and delivery platforms.
I am only 32 but each day I wake up, I have to take a breath to take in where we are heading to life. I only just dipped my feet in Facebook. Boy, oh boy... THERE IS AN ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE EARTH SPENDING TONS OF TIME ON FACEBOOK ON SEEMINGLY MORE INANE STUFF THAN THE ACTIVITY OF WATCHING TV.
Facebook, downloads and social media could possibly kill TV. We'll see.
Even my dad follows most series viewing online. At home we mainly watch TV for live/recorded sports in HD. That and my parents are still a little old school so they watch the news programs as well, mum watches Oprah but while on her iBook.
I don't watch or read news generally nowadays. Gawd knows where I get my "general knowledge" from nowadays. Probably blogs and forums, I don't even regularly visit news websites.
By the looks of it hollywood isn't even trying to create shows that would appeal to the youth of today... have they already written them off?
Hollywood still tries to make *movies* that cater to the youth of today. Mostly laughable. But occasionally you do get a gem like How To Train Your Dragon.
Video killed the radio star... But video and audio is still around, just now available in so many formats and devices and delivery platforms. Facebook, downloads and social media could possibly kill TV. We'll see. I don't watch or read news generally nowadays. Gawd knows where I get my "general knowledge" from nowadays. Probably blogs and forums, I don't even regularly visit news websites.
Wow... very interesting post... I summed it up not due to the lack of content or interest but just because I didn't want to be 'one of those people'... (who quote everything and then say... AGREE!
I got to talking more about this topic yesterday with my brother... and my niece and nephew are still pretty young (under 10) but I flat out asked him...
Do the kids watch TV as much as we did... and he said ... no not as much but it's certainly still part of their world and I was kinda surprised by that because I was under the impression his kids didn't spend too much time with broadcast TV.
Then I rephrased my question...
How much time do the kids spend watching ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, UPN, WB? In other words, 'The Majors' with the first 4 being the 'real majors'.
OH he said... they don't watch ANYTHING on 'network TV'. Nothing at all. He said one of his neighbors has a 'tween' (almost teen) and she does watch FOX for ... Glee? I think but other than that even she mostly watches programming on cable stations. So this all but confirms my point.. The networks have given up on luring todays youth to watch their primary stations.
I guess its easier for the networks to buy up the cable stations and let the kids continue to watch those stations instead.
I'm thinking this will catch up to them... but perhaps not.
All I do know is this... Every year people are spending more hours per week using the internet (outside of work) and every hour spent on the net is usually one less hour that was given to 'TV Time'. And no matter how its painted.. that is going to have an effect on TV, 'The Networks' AND Hollywood.
Between reality TV *AND* the net ... it translates to LESS and LESS 'traditional premium jobs' for Hollywoods TV actors and actresses.
Its really fascinating for me to witness something like this first hand... I never new Radio... My dad and uncles did and they rode that wave from Radio to TV. I was born smack dab in the middle of the TV heyday never really knowing anything else and now as these last 10 years went by I really started taking notice... and it'll be really interesting to see how quickly the transition takes place. Radio downfall to TV was over what? a 20ish year time span?
"4. TELEVISION ARRIVES: By the late 1940s, television catches on. The years 1948 - 1952 are growth years for TV like the early 1920's were for radio. Programming is mostly controlled by the same networks and sponsors as radio. Rural areas will not get TV until the decades end.
1950-1960 - RADIO STRUGGLES"
So yea, the 'late 40s and by the mid 60s the golden age of radio was very much a memory'
Yes 'music radio' was still a success, along with sports, talk and religious programming but 'Hollywoods Radio' was done and 20 year might be too generous.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiB0VgOKojg
Old maybe but, good stuff..