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From: dsi@unccvax.UUCP (Dataspan Inc)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.tv
Subject: Re: Farm-Aid
Message-ID: <299@unccvax.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 24-Sep-85 10:18:12 EDT
Article-I.D.: unccvax.299
Posted: Tue Sep 24 10:18:12 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 1-Oct-85 07:16:33 EDT
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Organization: UNC-Charlotte
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Xref: linus net.music:8132 net.tv:3026


     Don't blame ABC for your woes!!!!  I can't help it if your ABC affiliate
would rather show the Emmies (sp?) than Farm Aid.  Here, in the 29th largest
ADI, as well as the 26th, and the 49th, all four CBS affiliates (WSPA, WFMY,
WBTV, and the one on the coast) all blew off everything but "Sixty Minutes."

     I don't think that any of the major networks had anything to do with 
this, and it is out of the good graces of your local VHF affiliates to carry
Farm Aid at all.  Frankly, the thing reeked of a local PBS fund raising drive,
and was the very polar opposite of "Live Aid" in terms of class. I turned
on the awards after about 25 minutes!

     Getting your collected representatives in Washington off their royal
butts (instead of endless bickering about porn rock, South Africa, and the
SDI) to solve this problem will go much further than whining at your local
affiliate.

     The motivations and objectives of "Farm Aid" are noble and commendable,
and there are certain farmers in a truly horrible situation.  However, if
you look at the entertainment industry, you will find ** PLENTY ** of
people who are equally as destitute for one reason or another.  How about
the 10 minute plug for the "National Endowment for the Humanities" which
gives ** PLENTY ** of talented people the opportunity to practise their
crafts and avoid starvation.  For every film editor on "Cagney and Lacey"
there are 50 of them editing TV newsfilm earning near-poverty level wages.
How about certain "living props" in the entertainment field which engage
in near self-mutilation and punishing, gruelling work to get the mere
opportunity to try out for a lousy part in a telecast.

     I suppose that you want the FCC to require TV stations to air programming
about every single group or person who is in bad shape, before allowing
one minute to entertainment and "awards?"  Talk about the collapse of
the economy...!

David Anthony
CDE
DataSpan, Inc.