[rfu-automation] Anything goes on the automated musical playlist?

[Joe Futrelle]

Did we ever decide that we should only put music on automation? If  
so, I would just argue for a very inclusive definition of "music" so  
we don't mistakenly pull some music like Bethany's piece. I would  
also propose adding non-music to automation. For instance local poet  
Michael Holloway, who lives in range of RFU in Urbana, has put out a  
great CD of him reading his poetry in a very engaging style, and I'd  
be happy to contribute that.

I'm not sure there's anywhere we ought to draw the line on automation  
except stuff that violates our 501c3 (political endorsements), FCC  
regulations (obscenity, indecency during non-safe-harbor), non- 
protected speech (libel, verbal threats), and copyright violations  
(unlicensed content).

But this doesn't really address a concern I think I'm hearing from  
you, Gary, which is that a completely eclectic automation programming  
style probably doesn't work for a certain class of listener, a  
certain time of day, or some other listening context. That doesn't  
concern me personally, but I admit that it's a potential concern that  
I don't think my and Lynsee's comments recently have attempted to  
seriously address. I think there are ways to address it that don't  
require completely pulling tracks that are especially unusual, for  
instance our earlier discussion of changing the shuffling process so  
there's more continuity (by genre, or whatever) from one track to the  
next. This kind of thing is technically possible, so I will look into  
how to program it along with looking into a time-based shuffling  
algorithm, and report back to the group when I have something working.

--
Joe Futrelle
Person


On Jul 6, 2006, at 8:32 PM, Gary Cziko wrote:

> Joe:
>
> Thanks for the information about the playset piece in particular  
> and this novel type of music in general.
>
> I never said I didn't like the piece or that it wasn't interesting  
> (it certainly was). I was just wondering if this would be  
> considered (or even intended to be) music and whether we should  
> consider expanding the role of the playlist to include spoken word  
> art.
>
>
> Just let local artists put their stuff on automation and don't  
> sweat it. If some listener (including you or me) doesn't like it,  
> who cares? They can subscribe to satellite radio, visit the iTunes  
> music store, or listen to one of their favorite CD's. But RFU is  
> the *only* outlet for some of these local artists, and that's what  
> we should be.
>
> Well said.  As Lynsee mentioned earlier, it is Radio FREE Urbana.
>
> --Gary
>