kvetching (sometimes) works!

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

so, remember the flap about T-Radio a few weeks back? i (and apparently many others) wrote in, and the MBTA listened.

Dear MBTA Customer:

Thank you for taking the time to let us know your thoughts on T-Radio. As we stated at the launch of this pilot test, MBTA riders would determine the fate of T-Radio. We have heard from a number of riders on a wide range of issues including the content and style.

Consequently, as of Thursday, October 25th, T-Radio will be suspended. While it is suspended, personnel from the MBTA and Pyramid Radio (the operator of the pilot program) will review and discuss the hundreds of emails received. Following a sufficient period of consideration, MBTA staff will present a recommendation on how the comments and suggestions might be addressed and whether a resumption of the pilot program is advised.

As always, we will continue to try and make your commute better through various means, and always ask for your feedback.

Thank you again for taking the time to write and have your voice heard. Its appreciated.

so, they’re turning it off for the time being. please, even if you did before, complain again and ask them to abandon the idea.

-steve

Comments

[grapefruiteater.livejournal.com]

Your complain link doesn't work. This is great news regardless!

[ron_newman]

Try this link instead.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Phew, they're saving us from Phil Collins and Sting. Now I can listen to Genesis and The Police in peace on my ipod.

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

fixed, thanks!

-steve

[elements.livejournal.com]

I got the canned response too. YAY.

Fingers crossed, but they must have had overwhelming negative feedback to both suspend (not yet *terminate* though) the program and to send a canned reply at all (never had a reply from the T before).

[elements.livejournal.com]

Hmm - I'd say more than "complain again" we should thank the MBTA for responding to public feedback, and urge them not to reinstate the program, and frame it like that, rather than a complaint. Which I'm sure is what you meant, but might be worth phrasing it differently.

[publius513.livejournal.com]

Thank God!

I missed the original post, or I most certainly would have been one of those hundreds of emails. I get chronic migraines, and already have trouble with relentless noise. Riding the T would have been a nightmare if I had to go back and forth from Davis to JFK amid a flurry of ads and other auditory garbage.

Keeping my fingers crossed that this "suspension" is permanent.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Here's an article about it from Boston.com. (http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/10/after_twoweek_t.html)
"The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority says it may bring back the private radio venture, after a period of study. But a spokesman conceded that the agency received an overwhelming number of e-mails – 1,800, mostly complaints.... MBTA general manager Dan Grabauskas had initially said the trial run would go until at least Thanksgiving, but Pesaturo said 1,800 e-mails gave staff enough feedback to realize most riders do not like it, at least in the current format."

[hakamadare.livejournal.com]

please, in addition to crossing your fingers (which you’re free to do, or not), also send a message to the MBTA via their feedback form. i support elements’ suggestion above, about starting off by thanking the MBTA and then urging them to make the suspension permanent.

-steve

[miraclaire.livejournal.com]

I sent in the form thanking them for listening to our concerns and responding and urging them to terminate the program entirely.

[dashford.livejournal.com]

I think I've got the hang of this:

Noise pollution due to being underground, in a tunnel, with trains passing through: acceptable.

Noise pollution due to bad radio playing in the above: unacceptable.

Works for me. Bring on the higher fares!

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Clearly you're not a daily T commuter. You are 100% correct however.

[dashford.livejournal.com]

You're wrong about my commute.

Actually, it's been suggested that the MBTA could raise revenue by having kind of an anti-jukebox in each station: as long as somebody pays a quarter into a machine every few minutes, T-Radio will *keep* from playing.