In Praise of Free Broadcasting

    How many times have we heard "In light of the events of 9/11...?" Well chock up another. We've all paid closer attention to the news, right? I know I have. And yes, those events have made me reevaluate many things, including what is broadcast into our homes.

    Recent allegations of monopoly resulting in higher fees and poor service have been made regarding the "franchised" television provider in our town. This may be, but with all due respect to a local pioneer, I don't believe the comparison to Ma Bell is entirely accurate. In a word, we don't need television. Telegraph and Telephony helped run World War I. We need the telephone. Not so with the "boob-tube" as my father used to call it.

    Sure the entire (civilized) population of America would not have been able to watch the second airliner crash into to the WTC live, but would this have been such a bad thing? Was it that alone that made it worse than Dec 7? I don't think so. And in terms of finding out what has been going on in the world it is my opinion that the television does not provide the best information. If you are paying for re-runs of The “Andy Williams Show” then it is worth it, notwithstanding the advertising. But if you are expecting your dollar to inform you of current events you are over paying for a deficient product.

    Don't dismay pioneers! There is an alternative. The “ether” carries a far superior product at the Amplitude Modulated (AM) frequency of 1240Khz in this valley. And it's free! It gives me news at six o'clock in the evening that I don't see on television until the next morning, if at all. There is inter/national, state, and local news (can’t get that from Paul Allen’s wires,) plenty of entertaining talk, thought provoking commentary and (I can't wait) Mariners Baseball!

   24 hours of free worthwhile listening. And you can even get other things done while saving money. Be forewarned, you may still need to exercise some personal censorship. But since it's free you don't have to feel bad about turning it off. For instance, if you don't think you should be angry about what's going on in our government, you may want to turn it off during dinner. If computers bore you, don't listen Saturday morning (I listen just to hear Kim...she's hot!) If the possibility of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe or the possibility of time travel (or even a local hole in the ground) doesn't interest you, go to bed early (I sleep with my radio on, I just love free stuff.)

    And remember, we won that war when all we had was radio.

-Christopher Hobbs