Design Review Committee disapproves replacement "Sign"
Preserve Jazz Festival announces sabbatical for 2015
NOTE: We’ll be posting the recap for #bhamchat Episode 2 later today, though the post will be saved in chronological order (meaning that it will appear as being the post before this one).
This week’s edition started with a rather quiet discussion about the decision earlier in the day by the Jefferson County Commission to not take part in the statewide sales tax holiday taking place in August.
Q1: #bhamchat looks like the sales tax holiday is the 1st topic tonight – what are your thoughts about JeffCo deciding to not take part this yr?
- bhamwiki: Perhaps they consider it a trade-off with the court-ordered occupational tax holiday. #bhamchat
- kb0989: #bhamchat…I’ve only lived in JeffCo for two years…but i keep seeing bad decisions and quick fixes rather than substantive changes
The conversation got a little more engaged when the discussion switched over to the recent radio station changes on Birmingham’s FM dial.
Q2: Radio carousel – anyone have anything else to say about the station change over at 105.5? – http://bit.ly/l9mlJ (expand
) – #bhamchat
) – #bhamchat- apollorockit: @bhamterminal Do people still listen to terrestrial radio? #bhamchat
- logosmith: #bhamchat I do listen to terr. radio, but appeal of satrad, oddly, is that most radio isn’t really local anymore anyway.
@bhamwiki had a pretty interesting view of the situation as well:
- bhamwiki: Broadcasting the same programming on multiple frequencies deprives the public of more choices, no matter what you like to hear. #bhamchat
- bhamwiki: Multi-market multi-station owners like clearchannel seem to be milking cows they don’t plan to have to feed. #bhamchat
One question led to a link that probably tells us more about the current situation than anything else…
- logosmith: #bhamchat How many media companies actually control, say, top 90% of BHM radio? I’m guessing 2..
- bhamwiki: This might not be completely up to date – http://bit.ly/35aj8 (expand) #bhamchat
- logosmith: @bhamwiki #bhamchat – so – perhaps 3 or 4? That’s actually more than I thought.
Our last Q was more to get a taste of what folks are reading out there right now:
let’s try this, Q3 what’s your favorite Birmingham, AL blog, and why? #bhamchat?
- 1011TheSource: @bhamterminal I’m partial to the “No Sleep in Helena” blog (because I live there). It is a good one. #bhamchat
- pascal_caputo: @bhamterminal for obvious self-serving reasons I vote for caputoreport.com #bhamchat
- @kb0989: @bhamterminal…The WeKnowBooks blog by Homewood public library is pretty cool…they do book reviews and event promos #bhamchat
- @motrctyman: @bhamterminal My favorite AL blog is Stephen Gordon because he is so wise and dead-on with his political views #bhamchat
- DOGingham: #bhamchat prob foodimentary.com (bc I enjoy the food tips/quotes/etc being in small doses)
- DOGingham: and well, I hope that my own will be a favorite too! 🙂 http://blog.al.com/dogingham/ #bhamchat
- dnr24: Favorite local blog is bhamdining.com. Self serving second is beerlicious.net #bhamchat
- uabewing: we are in our infancy, but http://www.indieophile.com is awfully good, and local if you like independent oriented news and podcast #bhamchat
Well, we did have one more question…
One last quick poll – what do you think is the one story going on in Birmingham that no one’s talking about yet? #bhamchat
- deongordon: #bhamchat *arrives fashionably late* …I’m inclined to say few in the media are discussing LL’s increasingly erratic behavior.
- pascal_caputo: Will the lack of progress on the dome & transit lead to a call to repeal Langford’s x2 biz license fees and 1 cent sales tax? #bhamchat
Of course there’s more that went on, so we invite you to click on one of the #bhamchat links above to see all of the conversations and suggestions – and feel free to join in next week Tuesday starting at 6:30 p.m. on Twitter. For more information, check out the information here and here.
Thanks to everyone that took part or watched… we really appreciate it!
Where is the ethical line nowadays?
This post has nothing to do with the current state of our public officials here in Birmingham or the standards that we may be unrealistically attempting to hold them up to (at least, not yet).
It begins as a response to an ever growing debate on the blogosphere and the newsrooms, both physical and virtual, about what it is that the people want and if we as bloggers and mainstream media should give it to them.
The decision by TechCrunch to publish some of the documents that were stolen from Twitter has led some to want to cast stones about where “the line” is that should not be crossed.
Personally, I’m not quite sure that the line’s moved from where it was; I think we’ve just chosen to ignore it more often.
I do feel that we’ve become more accustomed to getting whatever we want whenever we want. This leads to voices becoming lost in the digital wilderness of finger pointing and innuendo. It is also not limited to the digitial world as we become frustrated with terrestrial radio stations and political representation – despite the fact that our choices have helped lead to what we’ve received, whether intentionally or not.
No one is immune from this, but it is possible to tone down the rhetoric just a little and see if we can’t get folks to think of solutions instead of dwelling on the doom and gloom.
Andrew Keen’s column in today’s Daily Telegraph about the situation, published while most of the metro Birmingham area was asleep in bed but just as our morning anchors started their days, said as much. According to a Tweet he sent out around 3 a.m., it cost him just a couple hundred followers. I’ll be interested in seeing what my comments cost me.
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Posted in Commentary
Tagged AL, Alabama, Andre Natta, Andrew Keen, attitude, Birmingham, blogging, Daily Telegraph, opinion, TechCrunch