Bus Radio

"It is virtually impossible to listen to commercial radio for thirty minutes without being offended by a song's lyrics or DJ's talk" according to busradio.com and who are we to argue? But there are other problems for the nation's caring school superintendents and bus drivers... how do you control those rowdy kids, get them to keep quiet and stay in their seats? The answer is, of course, compulsory advertising.

With the prevalence of videogames, ipods, and DVRs it is getting increasingly harder for advertisers to get consumers (and especially kids) to pay attention to traditional marketing messages. Channel One, a service that provides audio/video equipment to schools in exchange for mandatory student viewing of “news" and advertising content, pioneered the concept of marketing to kids at school where they are a captive audience. Bus Radio just extends the concept to the school bus.

Skeptical? Even the Happy Listener's Guide to Mind Control would be jealous of these "stats":

The actual content? Sounds  a lot like commercial radio unless you're at a school board meeting in Rhode Island where the superintendent suggests that Bus Radio can play a "yoga/Zen thing to get kids relaxed." (via MIT Adverlab)    

Comments

[Listener James from Westwood]

Next stage is to get the Party Posse's "Yvan Eht Nioj" into heavy rotation.

[Sarah W.]

I've been to the website and I've heard the media clips. They are playing music that is cleaner than regular radio and they still have fewer commercials than regular radio. Who cares if the kids are seeing commercials? You can't turn on Saturday Morning cartoons without being bombarded. I think it's a better alternative and my kids love what they've heard so far. I just don't see what the big deal is.

[doron]

The big deal is that this amounts to compulsoary commercials that children cannot avoid (similar to channel one). In your home you control whether your children are or are not advertised to... that is a *CHOICE*. I've seen the promotional materials that channel one uses to attract advertisers and the pitch goes something like "Johnny doesnt like watching tv anymore and when he does he skips the commercials. He's on the internet and out w/ his friends so how can you guarantee he'll see your message? At school!" Perhaps the culture of "Urban Span"/"Ad Creep" has gotten to the point where people dont see this sort of thing as a problem but one would hope there are still at least a few lines that shouldnt be crossed when it comes to advertising and I would argue that mandatory viewing/listening of advertising at or on the way to school would fall into that category.

[Danny Kenny]

Is the National PTA is taking a strong stance against BusRadio?
Check it out on Wikipeda.com, 9News.com, Thedenvernewschanne.com, or Google BusRadio Denver.
Littleton Public School District ask the Drivers not to play it anymore.