The Latest Punkers on the Block
On recommendation of the guys at Radiolab, I started listening to and thoroughly enjoying 99% Invisible. Short, well-produced, thought provoking; just darned good podcasting. There was the little turd at the end of each episode, though, a commercial plug for some shit or another that simply doesn't belong on public radio, even good public radio.
So when producer Roman Mars turned to Kickstarter to fund his third season, and got not just the target but over a hundred grand more than that, making it "the most funded journalism project in Kickstarter’s history," things were looking up ad-wise. With this much funding, goodbye ads!
Or so dreamers like me would think.
Alas, when Episode 61: A Series of Tubes went out to the public, the obligatory commercial dunning from the obligatory shitty businesses that dun tainted the tail end of an otherwise wonderful and informative piece of audio journalism, demonstrating once again that advertising is not about the money. It is obviously about something else.
Dear Mr. Mars,
I cannot tell you how excited I was to find your 99% Invisible show. It has all the elements I value in good audio journalism. It's just good. My only complaint would be the commercial plug for some business you insisted on inserting at the tail of each show.
So, of course, I got doubly excited when you broke all records for your self-funding Kickstarter campaign. As a Kickstarter contributor to other projects, that was crowd-sourced music to my ears.
Which brings me down, of even more familiar course, to my crashing disappointment at Episode 61. Despite people voting literally with their wallets, you had to involve outside dunners and the money they offer. I'm quite glad I did not donate to your campaign. I would have felt violated in the extreme by such a breach of trust. I do pity those who did donate, only to get punked (in the prison sense of the term, not the more recent ha-ha practical joke sense).
Public radio should be, as you claim, more public, in that it should not be supported by advertising. The fact that you squandered the trust extended to you by dunning those same Kickstarter donors reveals a very real, very insidious campaign to dilute the public's interest in public radio. I would be very interested in a show that actually covered that betrayal and why it seems every public show is hell-bent on doing exactly this.
In the meantime, your show is off my podcast rotation. I cannot convey how angry, how disappointed needing to drop your show makes me feel. I will say that, unless you reveal the conspiracy of ad placement that forces you to dun your listeners despite the riches they heap on your future efforts, you bear 100% of the blame for this violation.
Sadly,
Perry Staltor
As you can read above, I'm done suggesting "solutions," especially to Mr. Mars. He had the solution. He squandered the opportunity it presented. Public radio has become commercial, and no amount of public contributions is going to apparently change that. The lesson, therefore, is don't give money to public radio ever again.
So when producer Roman Mars turned to Kickstarter to fund his third season, and got not just the target but over a hundred grand more than that, making it "the most funded journalism project in Kickstarter’s history," things were looking up ad-wise. With this much funding, goodbye ads!
Or so dreamers like me would think.
Alas, when Episode 61: A Series of Tubes went out to the public, the obligatory commercial dunning from the obligatory shitty businesses that dun tainted the tail end of an otherwise wonderful and informative piece of audio journalism, demonstrating once again that advertising is not about the money. It is obviously about something else.
Dear Mr. Mars,
I cannot tell you how excited I was to find your 99% Invisible show. It has all the elements I value in good audio journalism. It's just good. My only complaint would be the commercial plug for some business you insisted on inserting at the tail of each show.
So, of course, I got doubly excited when you broke all records for your self-funding Kickstarter campaign. As a Kickstarter contributor to other projects, that was crowd-sourced music to my ears.
Which brings me down, of even more familiar course, to my crashing disappointment at Episode 61. Despite people voting literally with their wallets, you had to involve outside dunners and the money they offer. I'm quite glad I did not donate to your campaign. I would have felt violated in the extreme by such a breach of trust. I do pity those who did donate, only to get punked (in the prison sense of the term, not the more recent ha-ha practical joke sense).
Public radio should be, as you claim, more public, in that it should not be supported by advertising. The fact that you squandered the trust extended to you by dunning those same Kickstarter donors reveals a very real, very insidious campaign to dilute the public's interest in public radio. I would be very interested in a show that actually covered that betrayal and why it seems every public show is hell-bent on doing exactly this.
In the meantime, your show is off my podcast rotation. I cannot convey how angry, how disappointed needing to drop your show makes me feel. I will say that, unless you reveal the conspiracy of ad placement that forces you to dun your listeners despite the riches they heap on your future efforts, you bear 100% of the blame for this violation.
Sadly,
Perry Staltor
As you can read above, I'm done suggesting "solutions," especially to Mr. Mars. He had the solution. He squandered the opportunity it presented. Public radio has become commercial, and no amount of public contributions is going to apparently change that. The lesson, therefore, is don't give money to public radio ever again.