davis_square | T-Radio! WTF

Entry tags:

mbta,
noise

T-Radio! WTF

I was just on the MBTA website, and found a quick reference to a pilot program called T-Radio. It sounds for all the world like they're going to be pumping crap music and idiotic personalities into my daily commute. Plus, in the process probably drowning out the T musicians with "Boston-based celebrities and sports figures in 30 and 60-second segments designed for people on the go". I was pissed when I started seeing TV screens in the checkout lanes at Star Market, but now in one of the last audio-garbage free spaces in the city.

http://www.mbta.com/about_the_mbta/news_events/?id=13647

Now I haven't been commuting in the past couple of weeks, so I wasn't in any of the stations for the trial periods. Has anyone heard this yet. Is it really as horrible as I think its going to be. I'm really hoping that I'm reading the press release incorrectly, and this is actually a radio broadcast that I need to actually tune into on a portable radio, but it seems for all the world like its going to be pumped out of speakers.

If you see something, say something.
The T has a feedback form about the program on their website. Take 30 seconds and go express your opinion.

http://www.mbta.com/riding_the_t/feedback/

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

See two recent entries in Spatch's LJ
http://derspatchel.livejournal.com/
He heard it at South Station.
He's livid about it.

Oooh, a livid Spatch is totally worth my time. *clicks through*

It appears the outrage has gotten started without me in b0st0n. More info there.

http://community.livejournal.com/b0st0n/5481011.html
http://community.livejournal.com/b0st0n/5484931.html

Yeah, pumped out of speakers, like it or not. And it sounds like a large percentage of it will be advertising, which gets to the root of the problem -- the Big Dig debt transferred to the MBTA in 1999 puts a huge strain on the finances. It'd be difficult to make ends meet with a competent management team, so imagine how it must look with the guys we've got.

And so, don't think that the fact that they're asking for input means they won't do this. They asked for input on the fare increase, too.

Perhaps we're asking the wrong people. May I suggest that you remember one advertiser you hear from on the T radio each trip, then on the walk from the T stop at the far end, use the new 800-goog411 service (free 411 through google) to call the business and tell them how angry you were at hearing them pay to advertise on the T-radio and how you'll probably never buy another one of their products.

Just a thought, though something I'll probably have to start doing. Heck if someone were to reply here with some of the ads they've heard, I'd probably make some calls myself.

The Big Dig Debt transferred to the MBTA? Do you know why on earth that's the case? The public transit system and those who ride it have to pay for a project that, so far, has only helped car users??? And now we may not even get the green line extension?

WFT indeed.

I guess there was a lot of debt, and they had to hide it somewhere. There was this grand plan for the whole system to be financed by 1 cent of the 5 cent sales tax, which was going to be a lot of money and so there'd be no problem paying it off. Then, the internet shopping took off and sales tax revenues have been much lower than anticipated. Turns out to have been a really bad idea in retrospect.

Fixing the funding scheme completely is probably the best option.

But, I can't help but notice that, despite its obnoxious ubiquitousness, all of the advertising the T sells brings in less than 1% of its annual budget. That sounds ridiculous but I'm not making it up (http://www.mbta.com/uploadedFiles/Documents/Financials/SORE_History.pdf). My pet theory is that if they restricted all advertising to ads for local businesses sold at hugely discounted rates (national corporations need not apply), they'd more than make up for the direct income shortfall by the boost to the local economy and hence the sales tax. (To be a win, it'd only need to increase local spending by about 1.6%!)

So, I am more than a bit biased since I worked on the campaign against it, but it's stuff like this that really makes me wish Question 4 hadn't passed in 2000 and reduced the state income tax.

Now we're stuck relying more on sales tax, and that's more fickle with the internet, and there isn't the more solid (though admittedly also vulnerable to economic shifts) input from as much income tax.

I agree with you on advertising. Granted 1% of their annual budget is still an insanely large amount of money and not something we'd necessarily want to see passed along in fares, but it would be excellent if ads were much easier to come by for local businesses and smaller nonprofits. I would hate the ads a lot less if they informed me about things more relevant to my actual locally-based life. (Not that that makes me hate the T radio idea any less if it were all-local.)

According to an article (http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/10/11/t_gives_music_as_test_run/)in yesterday's Globe, "Grabauskas said he does not know how much profit, if any, the MBTA would reap in the deal. Pyramid radio, started two years ago, has been piping music into Logan International Airport and big box retail stores in recent months."

I hope Grabauskas is simply being dishonest, because if the T isn't at least going to make some dough off of this, it's completely without redeeming qualities.

I'm very glad I bike everywhere - I haven't encountered this yet, but it sounds appalling.

Sounds like a great business man.
- "Let's do X"
+ "Well, how much money is it going to bring in."
- "I have no idea."
+ "Hmmm. Alright. Get it started."

Pick your evil- T radio or the random homeless people gacking up hairballs and screaming random gibberish.

Then again, after listening to endless ads and soft rock, I might start doing that myself.

You can't win....

I'll take hairballs any day. It's more or less what I just wrote to the MBTA. That's part of the T's charm ... not the whistle of the Febreze commercial or some other advertising jingle.

I pick buskers. At least they're humans.

word

I dunno- those smooth jazz sorts really push some buttons.

It's as awful as you think. I commute to south station, and my wait for the train home yesterday was

Eddie Money "Take me home, tonight"
someone with a heavy boston accent (lenny clarke, maybe?) asking a trivia question
ad
ad
ad
the answer to the trivia question which I couldn't make out because the train in the opposite direction came through
Random hip-hop thing I couldn't identify
ad
ad
ad
Huey Lewis thing that I sort of remembered hearing when I was 10 but couldn't identify

Is an iPod too obvious a solution?

not everyone has one nor the luxury of portable music. And I for one do not want to be barraged with ads everywhere :(

My iPod doesn't completely block other sound because I'm not willing to spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of headphones. This is particularly a problem if the other sound is something like music.

That, and is it really safe to block out everything? I, for one, don't want to not be able to hear, say, gunshots, or someone screaming for help.

Gunshots actually seem like a plausible consequence of this plan, assuming you can see where the speakers are.

I deliberately don't use an iPod. I spend the whole rest of my day immersed in media, so I savor my T commute as a quiet time where I can just walk/ride and be aware of my surroundings. Needless to say, I hate this T-Radio idea!

My prediction: They will eventually cave to public demand to end this "service" - but only after we have agreed not to whine too much about another fare hike to make ends meet to replace the ads.

This is sort of what I've been thinking while reading all the furor in

b0st0n... After our recent fare increase with little/no improvement in service, clearly they need more sources of income. My current opinion is that I'd rather have T-Radio than another fare increase.

Of course, I haven't yet been in a station that has it broadcasting, so maybe I'll change my tune (heh) once I hear it and hate it.

I hate to say it, but I would pay more rather than allow in one more source of auditory pollution. I have a hard enough time finding anything like quiet as it is.

Quite unlikely that T-radio profit will trickle down to ridership. Trickle-down economics is voo-doo economics. Money tends to stay in the hand that it's in, and when it comes to greed over need, greed wins.
Captive T-ridership will be assaulted with the environmental torture of blaring ads as radio advertisers attempt to recoup their lost investment with increasingly longer, louder, crasser and more blatant ads that will spread like a virus from the platforms and into the trains and buses until advertisers learn that it just doesn't work, which may take a very long time. Nip it in the bud by complaining to the MBTA site and seek out those Emerson students at South, North and Airport stations or prepare to suffer.

I complained on the T website pretty immediately :D. I definitely don't think the ads will stave off fare hikes, but rather that if we ever are able to get rid of them, it will only be at the cost of accepting another rate hike without as much protest as the last one. Since rumor is the T wants a new fare hike anyway, this could be a brilliant ploy to get us to clamor *for* it rather than against. Ah, would that I trusted the T to be that smart. Worst case scenario is we have to have both (increase and audio bombardment) which... well, not without a fight!

TV screens in the checkout lanes at Star Market

Okay. It is just too early in the day to read that.

WHAT?! TV screens in the CHECKOUT lanes?

On topic:

I left feedback on the MBTA's special T-Radio feedback site, since I got caught up on the outrage via b0st0n a day or two ago.

I suggested that if they really want an innovative way to enhance the customer's experience (using their noxious press release phrasing), how about installing LED displays that tell you when the next trains are due? And hell, they could always run ads on those things, too!

If you see something, say something.

Best use of wretched security slogan EVAR.

I said the same thing about LED displays after your suggestion in b0st0n. I referenced the BART in San Francisco and the Metro in DC, who both offer that service. I definitely noticed that, even when my train was 25 minutes away, my urge to kill was lessened by the fact that I knew exactly when it would come (and whether or not I had time to run upstairs for a coffee).

I loove that feature. And on multi lines, it'd tell you which train was coming. OMG I would hate waiting for a goddamn b line at gov't center so much less. So much less!

Yeah. But this would be a reasonable thing for the MBTA to do, therefore we all know how likely it is.

OMG LEDS THEY MUST BE BOMBZ!!!

Yeah, at the Star (well Shaws actually, but I'm old school) I sometimes go to, which is by the meadow glen mall off rt. 16, has a TV in every checkout isle with vapid personalities, helpful recipes centered around featured products and constant commercials. All with sound. And for some reason they have a large metal plate bolted over the power button on the TV, a tacit admission that they know people hate this and would turn it off if they were given half a chance.
Really, I'd be a damn site more OK with this if they provided a "turn off for 2 minutes" button, allowing those of us willing to take an active step to shut it off to quell the noise and flashy flashy lights. When the button wore out after 2 weeks though, it would give a good idea of how many customers they end up pissing off.

The Shaws in porter just got that plasma screen over the deli counter, with shiny pretty exposed off buttons, but I have yet to get the balls up to grab a foot long pepperoni reaching stick and turn the thing off.

thinkgeek sells a universal power button remote.... I don't know how well it works but if it really bothers you (I just tune it out), you might as well give it a try.

The large metal plate over the power button probably blocks the remote sensor too.

That's truly awful.

And although I have already sworn off ever stepping foot in the Porter Shaws again, I think I will swear it all over. Ew.

I heard this yesterday at North Station...I was a little WTF about it to be honest. I mostly just heard two songs and the weather. But I was looking around at first like "Who's radio is that loud?" I use an iPod, which doesn't block out all the sound...especially since I've listening to more audiobooks latey...so I find it kind of annoying.

can't wait to hear 'T radio' ... (sarcastic)

on another ad blight topic: does anyone know the deal with the big ass bus shelters with the lightbox ads that have sprung up in the last year? I mostly have noticed them on Highland - and they seem really inappropriate: mini billboards in residential neighborhoods.

Anyone know if the city gets a cut and what percentage that might be? The current ad seems to be for the movie "Rendition" - which kind of fits.

As far as I know, the deal is that those shelters are built and maintained by a company who makes money off the ads. It was a trade-off with not having shelters at all, since both Cambridge and Boston (and I presume Somerville, too) have said they could not pay for such things on their own. And I actually don't doubt them on that. Shelters are really expensive. Whether the trade-off decision was correct is a matter of debate, of course. Personally, I'm a frequent bus rider and really like having useful shelters.

So I looked this up, because I'm researching these things anyway for a school project, and that sounds like a pretty good summary of the situation.

Here's an old article from the Glob about it (http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2004/12/01/t_awards_10_year_pact_to_build_bus_shelters/). Ten-year contract, "Cemusa has agreed to install the bus shelters at no cost to the public transit system and generate advertising revenue for the transit authority. Cities and towns housing the shelters, such as Somerville, Cambridge, and Brookline, will also receive a portion of the advertising revenue." Etc.

I suggested that the T Radio was a public-safety hazard, because if people got used to 'tuning out' the PA system, they wouldn't be likely to hear important announcements.

I think that (potential lawsuit liabilitie$$$$$$) tack might be more effective than "we don't like it".

T-ridership will be faced with the dilemma of whether to wear earplugs or Ipods with sound-block ear-buds, thereby blocking out T-radio but rendering themselves deaf. Ridership will not only miss emergency announcements on T-radio, but audible emergencies on platforms and transport vehicles as well.
When I'm screaming while being mugged in a tunnel who will hear me?
How about a subway terrorist attack on a deaf ridership at rush hour?
Might make a good horror movie.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

T-Radio! WTF

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

T- Radio profit won't prevent fare hikes.

Re: T- Radio profit won't prevent fare hikes.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

Off topic, but

Re: Off topic, but

Re: Off topic, but

no subject

no subject

speaking of ad blight + MBTA (visual)

Re: speaking of ad blight + MBTA (visual)

Re: speaking of ad blight + MBTA (visual)

no subject

T - Radio will create voluntarily "deaf" ridership.