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Infomercials on Channel 12

F

FredLeonard

Guest
Has anybody notice how the channel 12 schedule - during pledge periods and on nights and weekends - has been filling up programs that seem a lot like infomercials (minus any call for action). The same shows get repeated - a lot. All personal growth, self-improvement, financial advice and health tips. Same topics that make up the bulk of infomercials on cable.

This week includes....
Smarter Brains
Active with Arthritis
Love, Laugh and Eat
Travel with Rick Steves
Blood Sugar Solution
Three Steps of Incredible Health
Drop Seven Foods, Feel Better Fast
Unleash the Power of the Female Brain
T'ai Chi, Health and Happiness
Eat and Cook Healthy
Now Play the Piano in a Flash: Three Steps to Piano Success
Ed Slott's Retirement Rescue

Channel 12s off-hours schedules used to include programs for people taking college courses for credit or repeats of prime time shows. No more. Now it's wall to wall infomercials. I assume they have found a loophole in the rules for non-commercial stations through which they can drive this truck. Are these shows brokered with the program producers paying channel 12 to play their shows? All the better to get the money to pay channel 12's boss his million dollar salary.
 
Seriously, I agree. A few years ago, when WHYY added the digital subchannels, I noticed this trend starting. I'd rather have the old WHYY on a single channel with mostly 1st run programming than what it has become. It's SOOOOO unwatchable now.
 
Channel 12

I actually watch channel 12's HD Info station [The World] PBS feed channel 12 provides, as I like documentaries and PBS Newshour and never seem to be watching TV at 6pm to catch it, this is a useful station for me. I rarely watch Channel 12's primary signal [always seem to have that Antiques show on]. I watch "First" online at WHYY-org, when they have a segment of interest to me.

Sounds like they have found a way to get away with infomercials. If that makes the Begathons shorter then great, but Fred is probably correct, they help pay some of those rather inflated salaries. Remember when working at a Public station meant little salary, lousy equipment, operating on a shoestring, etc? Remember channel 12's first Wilmington studio at 5th and Scott Sts, an old red brick school house. They had old used equipment, Sid Shaw their one man news department did a 15 minute Delaware Tonight broadcast at 6:15pm and again at 11pm, both live. He used Polaroid photos as his visuals. Very low budget. Today's Channel 12 both in Wilmington and Philly have nice state of the art buildings and equipment and even though they now only do a weekly 1/2 news magazine have a far larger staff in the news department, just for the Delaware news than in Sid's day. They also have others covering the news for PA and NJ that air on WHYY-FM along with the Delaware reporters Delaware stories. So Public broadcasting and Channel 12 and 90.9 FM both have come a long ways since those early years as NET National Educational Television affiliate and NPR respectively.
 
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