Quote:
Originally Posted by Titan1a
All the "big three" are no damn good and irrelevant. I rely more on BCB and shortwave radio. Government would love to shut down the other TV channels. Try that with radio! When all hell breaks loose with TV and internet there'll still be international radio broadcasts. Everyone should have a receiver and regularly use it. I have multiple.
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Where do you get this idea the government "would love to shut down the networks" (NBC, ABC, CBS)? That will not happen any time soon or at all, that I am aware of anyway. The so-called "big three" television networks were around (as radio networks, until the '50s) before cable. The government (FCC) is not about to shut them down. While we are at it, where do you get the idea "all hell will (eventually) break loose" with television and the Internet? Broadcast television, not to mention radio, after all, was around long, long before the Internet was even thought of.
Where do you get the idea, again, that the major broadcast networks are no good and even irrelevant? There will always be people who actually enjoy watching the stuff (some might go so far as to call it "garbage" or worse) on TV. You may not care for the programming on the networks, but there is one solution which always works: If you do not like what you see on the networks, you can always change the channel or turn off your TV. There have been many times I have used both options when trying to find something to watch. Another solution would be to completely ignore the TV and do something else with your time. The government has no control over that, although the programs' sponsors may not and do not like it a bit, since they are losing money with anyone who does not watch the program.
PBS is another matter. This is viewer-supported television which depends on viewer contributions; this is why PBS and its affiliates run pledge drives at least once a year.
The government will not shut down radio any time soon that I am aware of, even though television is much, much more popular these days. Many radio stations in small American towns have shut down for good; there is one station I can think of as I write this which did just that at least a year ago. This was station WATJ in Chardon, Ohio, a 1kW daytime-only station. I am not sure by any means exactly what caused the station to call it quits permanently, but I would guess (this is only a stab-in-the-dark guess) the popularity of TV had a lot to do with it.