Many of you who know me are well aware that my wife and I do not own a TV – nor do we plan to get one in the foreseeable future. However, after hearing the radio show This American Life was coming to Showtime as a TV series, I personally felt the slightest twinge to jump on the boob-tube bandwagon. It is no surprise to me that a channel such as Showtime would create such a series – frankly, anything resembling This American Life would never survive on network or basic cable TV. On a side note, I find it hilariously predictable how much better the website is for the Showtime version of This American Life than its public radio equivalent. To be expected I guess.
My wife and I have been long-time fans of this show and wish it the fullest of success on TV. Honestly, I could just as easily see folks swarming to it as I could see people not getting it and quickly moving on. Being so far detached from the culture of television at this point, I am not sure if I understand the medium enough anymore to be able to make a valid prediction. Still, I cannot express how happy I am to see a TV network willing to take a chance on something well worth it. As Ira Glass has made very clear, the radio show is not going away – the two will exist together. My hope is that some of the progressive methods that public radio and This American Life have instituted – free podcasts, audio downloads of programs, etc. – will be brought into the Showtime program as well. I know that one person cannot change a whole industry, and a very established industry at that. Still, my hope is that a little bit of public radio will rub off on this one show. Perhaps TV execs will then notice that fans react well to the attitude public radio fosters – you know, putting the priority of distributing the medium to the wide audience possible over pulling in the highest profit. I guess we will see…
Comment Love for March 2007
Posted on 2 April, 2007 at 3:48pm with 5 comments
Comment Love for March was a bit of a disappointment. March ended up being the largest month of traffic ever for this blog, but the amount of donations still ended up being lower than average. I think this has a lot to do with the extremely low amount of full-fledged articles written this month – I am going to have to pick up the pace. Ironically, the daily post method is bringing significantly more traffic to the site, but with less time to devote to longer articles, there is actually less participation. Go figure.
Still, the comments for March generated $31.00 to KQED. I am really going to put more effort into getting more vetted articles out from this point on, even if I have to miss a day (or two) of posting. I have a feeling this is going to really help out, please share your feelings if you feel otherwise. At this point, the only break from blogging I have is during the weekend. After a few months of experience, I have learned quickly that the weekend does not end up being a good time to write articles. If you are around my age (or older), then you are well aware that the weekend is anything but a break from work – it is just a break from the work at your job. So, there may be slightly fewer articles during the week to hopefully open up some time to get greater substance and, hopefully, more comments.
Here’s hoping that our fellow Comment Love partner ended up being more fruitful for March.