2007-10-12

That was your Two Minutes Hate. And now here's Celine Dion on Radio MBTA!

". . .to do anything that suggested a taste for solitude, even to go for a walk by yourself, was always slightly dangerous. There was a word for it in Newspeak: 'ownlife.'"

Every few years or so, our fine public transportation system (the MBTA) announces that it's going to do something that will greatly enhance and improve the commuting experience. Service after 2 AM? Cars with functional air conditioning?

No. Generally speaking, the most fanfare coming out of the MBTA accompanies "enhancements" that most riders don't give a shit about. Things that have the potential to boost revenue for the MBTA, provided that there's enough follow-through to ensure that these enhancements work on a day-to-day basis.

Why focus on the safety and comfort of your passengers when you can make a little cash by inundating them with "information"?

In the mid-90's, the MBTA began installing television sets in most of the major stations. These would purportedly pipe in news briefs and important commuter information, such as delays in service. After a letter-writing campaign from concerned citizens and subway performers, the MBTA agreed that the television sets would not carry an audio signal. Those that actually worked were pretty useless, and the project was scrapped, although as late as 2001, some of the dead sets were still looming ominously over certain station platforms.

A few years ago, they came up with a novel idea -- why not beam commercials on the tunnel walls between station stops? These are still going on.

You're not doing anything, so why not take advantage of the downtime by watching commercials? This seems to be the "logic" behind the MBTA's decisions, which now include something called "T-Radio."

Touted as "an expertly programmed radio format where informative news, entertainment and safety announcements are seamlessly integrated with music to appeal to Boston's multi-cultural T-rider demographics," this is basically just another way of putting a Band-Aid on a leprosy patient and calling him cured. The MBTA crows:

T-Radio will provide streamlined information in attention-grabbing mini-features, interspersed with music...T-Radio encompasses music across the last five decades up to and including current chart hits...(covering) many genres: Rock, R&B, Top 40, pop hits, Latin chart toppers, and mainstream crowd pleasers. According to Ed McMann, who will anchor T-Radio, "We'll try to play something for everyone."

Great. So I'll be treated to Phil Collins, J.Lo and Seal while I'm trying to read my book. That third rail is suddenly looking pretty attractive.

Right now this is in a "pilot stage," meaning that it's in the most heavily-used stations right now, but has the potential to spread out to us folks on the outer edges of the Orange Line.

I take public transportation every day, at least twice a day. With very few exceptions, I can be where I need to be in under 25 minutes. It's not often that I get bunged up about the MBTA, but this is fucking absurd. I get enough advertising and "infotainment," thank you very much. One of the myriad reasons I jumped the MySpace ship was because I was getting creeped out by the "profile-specific" advertising I was looking at every time I logged on. I understand that marketing is part and parcel of living and working in 2007. I'm a self-admitted pop culture whore, but I prefer to have the choice of where and when I'm going to be advertised to, even if that's entirely unrealistic most times.

If you're from around here, and think this sucks as much as I do, let the MBTA know about it here.

lisamcc at 7:50 a.m.



4 comments so far
lj lindhurst
2007-10-12 10:24:57
I kind of think those ones in the tubes are pretty cool! but yeah, the MUSIC would drive me insane.
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LisaMcC
2007-10-12 10:39:42
The flickers in the tube would be cool if they were playing, you know, maybe 60-second shorts by local filmmakers instead of Nike ads. But that's too much to ask of an organization staffed by halfwits who truly believe that "T-Radio," and not working equipment, makes for a better commute.
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scurvyann
2007-10-13 13:36:15
dude, i would totally be into riding the t if they showed stuff like this, from lexi's site: http://lexikahn.diaryland.com/071007_38.html HAHRhAHR!!! poo is funny, innit? luv, scurvyann
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Bill
2007-10-14 02:28:31
Music in stations should be quiet, unobtrusive and reward close listening. Assaulting the senses of frazzled commuters is probably the worst idea the T has had in recent memory. Someone needs to send Dan Grabauskas some Brian Eno albums.
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