...and bizarre diversification moves (their purchase of Hertz Rent-a-Car as an example).
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Older Audiences & Advertiser Appeal (For All Markets)
- Thread starter Kelly A
- Start date
A time honored tactic of that infamous German dictator.
And I invoke Godwin's Law.
There for a minute, I thought you were calling General Sarnoff a German dictator!
And only on page eight. Might be a record.
Sarnoff came close to that definition. His treatment of Maj. Edwin Armstrong (my personal radio héroe) was somewhere south of abominable and his business practices were learned from Atila the Hun.There for a minute, I thought you were calling General Sarnoff a German dictator!
I for one don't believe for a minute that executives put a guy (or woman) on the airwaves because he or she is a nice person in person.
They do it only if they think that putting that person on the air will increase ratings, and make them money. Period.
Anyone who has worked in radio for any length of time learns rather quickly that being a nice person to others in the office and studio really doesn't mean squat when the bottom line is at stake.
They'll protect outright monsters if that monster makes them enough money. Go back and re-read the "Me Too" cases. So many of those men survived in those gigs as long as they did because the personality's employer paid for victims to stay quiet.
I can think of a particular well renowned morning person in LA that staff members could not stand due to his ugly treatment of nearly everyone.
I mentioned no names. I know NOTHING!
Wouldn't Sarnoff be Russian?There for a minute, I thought you were calling General Sarnoff a German dictator!
No matter which historical and geographical comparison, his main quality was being despotic.
I think David Sarnoff was a man of his time.
That is exactly the point. And it is a topic which involves the psychology of broadcast media and the effect of broadcast personalities on the listener.
What the listener -- especially older audiences -- hears is an angry guy who sounds completely credible, who believes that everyone should be angry about whatever he tells them. It happens very often with populist demagogues, who are are mainstay fixture of AM talk radio. And when that is pointed out -- that the personality spends about 3 hours a day ranting about some conspiracy theory or how one group of people is out to get another group of people -- then the executives who hired him make the excuse that when the mike is off, he's really a nice guy, a hail fellow well met, with lots of warmth and charm.
That's why the demagogues are supported. They're also supported because they bring in ratings and contribute heavily to the bottom line of the company. AM populism/extremism and TV populism/ extremism does well with older audiences.
But, in my opinion, it's dividing our nation ( I'm speaking as a North American) in half, and pitting families against each other, cultures against each other, and tearing at the fabric of our democracy. JMO. -- Daryl Lynn L.A.
I know who that was in L.A., but wasn't he syndicated out of New York? - D.
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I agree with you mostly, but I'd throw in the internet press as a venue for demagogues and division, as well as both major political parties in the US, who profit off of our political system by dividing us.
Nope. As local as Boss Radio.
And with that, I invoke Sergeant Schultz!I mentioned no names. I know NOTHING!
The RCA videodisc system was an incredibly dumb move. That system was in development for a very long time, and during the time it was in development, the market changed drastically. When RCA first started early development their videodisc system in 1964, EIAJ Type 1 black & white reel-to-reel videotape systems hadn't yet come to market, let alone VHS, Beta, and the Laserdisc formats. By the time they released it to market in 1981, multiple videotape systems had come and gone, but VHS and Beta were already pretty well established. It seems that the primary reason that RCA continued with development and marketing of their videodisc system is just sheer inertia and an unwillingness to admit that they'd sunk a bunch of money into something that was obsolete before they ever sold a single unit. The problem with RCA videodiscs is that they looked no better than a VHS or Beta tape and you couldn't record with them since it was a playback only medium. And if a customer was okay with that playback-only limitation, they would choose the Laserdisc system that produced better picture and sound and wasn't subject to wear.
The interesting thing is that when it came to market, most video publications assumed that it would be a success simply because RCA was backing it. They were wrong -- it fairly quickly bombed, and in the process cost the company well over a half billion dollars.
Amazon.com: The Business of Research: RCA and the VideoDisc (Studies in Economic History and Policy: USA in the Twentieth Century): 9780521368216: Graham, Margaret B. W.: Books
Amazon.com: The Business of Research: RCA and the VideoDisc (Studies in Economic History and Policy: USA in the Twentieth Century): 9780521368216: Graham, Margaret B. W.: Books
www.amazon.com
Interesting book about managing Corporate R&D spending - RCA also had their "MagTape" VCR system, designed in house, but the introduction was cancelled:
Prototype RCA SelectaVision MagTape VCR in 1973
In 1970 RCA began development on the SelectaVision MagTape system, which was to be the corporation's video cassette recorder platform.
www.cedmagic.com
Kirk Bayne
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