just my two cents having lived in england (sheffield) and traveled the
continent for a bit - now in chicago. both systems have their faults but the
american has many, many more. i just got digital cable with like 300 channels
and i still can't find a thing to watch. i miss the documentaries of channel
4 in the uk and the state european tv stations. stuff about thigns that
matter like tricky (in 97) and land mines. they have most of our good shows
over there - the simpsons, Plus I loved the British comedy shows, the game
shows, the travel shows, the news is great - but mostly the documentaries.
our documentaries are either complete shit (95% of those on commerical tv) or
decent yet almost irrelevent. in america, public tv (and radio) they have
scrapped the idea of producing anything remotely controversial or mildly
political. this was a result of funding pressure and congresses impositions.
there is an excellent book that talks about what happened to public
broadcasting in america - Air Wars - The Fight to Reclaim Public Broadcasting
by Jerold Star - it should be in hardcover at you local library.
national pubic radio (1 national station with local and national programmers)
really great in a lot of ways. it's music programming suffers worse. it has
to cater to a high end, affluent white man or woman as its average listener.
it caters to stressed out managers who want to unwind after work to some
lightweight jazz - almost 1/2 vocals. as someone mentioned i think, a public
radio jazz "dj" can not choose his/her own songs. America's salvation for
music is really solely a funciton of community and college radio.
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