sisyphusshrugged: (Default)
[personal profile] sisyphusshrugged
OK, fun is fun, but this time the RIAA went too far.

Throw your mind back to the first episode of WKRP.

Johnny Fever is sitting at the turntable, his mustache practically scraping the desk, listening to Mantovani or someone of that ilk performing the somewhat incredible feat of making Paul Anka's Having My Baby even worse than Paul Anka's version of Paul Anka's Having My Baby, and the new station manager comes in and tells him they're a rock station.

Johnny practically cut the record in half with the needle getting it off the turntable (remember turntables?) and put some real music on. A great moment in TV history.

Well, you're not going to see that ever, ever again, because the RIAA was charging so much for the rights to replay those songs in syndication that they've all been digitally removed and replaced with "generic" music.

Replaced, may I add, by the new owner of the rights to the episodes, Fox.

You people suck.

Like unto the singularity in the heart of the cosmic Hoover do you suck.

A lot, is what I'm getting at.

via boingboing

Date: 2003-09-25 01:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] incendiarymind.livejournal.com
You have got to be kidding! It's as if they're so worried about losing a few dollars that they're alienating everybody who still puts the dollars into the coffers. Somehow I get the feeling that the RIAA heads are secretly trying to drive the organization out of business.

Date: 2003-09-25 03:11 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] temima.livejournal.com
You think I can get a t-shirt saying "RIAA is killing music"?

oh, that's just gross

Date: 2003-09-25 03:51 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
But, though I'm always happy to pile on the RIAA, this one isn't their fault. Someone in the bowels of Fox (or possibly Pat Robertson's company) made the change to reduce the money owed to ASCAP.

And, though I'm always happy to pile on ASCAP too, this isn't their fault either. They're not the ones who made the decision to deface a work of art to save a couple of bucks.

Philistines.

Date: 2003-09-26 09:11 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Remember how Johnny Fever gets himself psyched up for the change and just before starting the rock-and-roll record, he says into the live mike the word "Booger", an act which had gotten him fired from his last job? Ah, that was a great moment.

-Jaquandor
http://byzantiumshores.blogspot.com

multiple sacrilege

Date: 2003-09-27 05:30 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
WKRP was one of my favorite shows. remember the ep where Johnny and Venus were subjected to an on-air sobriety test, and Johnny's reactions got better as he kept getting more and more drunk? hilarious.

and i know how you feel about the music issue... the music is why another of my favorite shows will most likely never be seen on dvd: Miami Vice (http://www.wildhorse.com/MiamiVice/) (my MV fan site).

Universal's said many times over the years that reacquiring the rights to all the songs would be cost prohibitive on a grand scale. i'm curious to see if future reruns of Miami Vice (currently airing on Spike) will have the music digitally replaced. there will be a vociferous backlash if there is.

these people need to get their acts together. just because ruining the shows by removing the music that was at the heart of them doesn't do anyone any good. the musicians no longer get royalties, and the viewers don't want to watch anymore, so there go your ratings, and you don't get back the money you paid to syndicate the show.

stupid greedy bastards.

jo
thousand yard glare (http://blog.wildhorse.com/)

WKRP

Date: 2003-09-29 06:55 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] indraladybug.livejournal.com
Is anyone running it on a regular basis? Sometimes TV Land has one episode on Saturday nights, but that's not nearly enough.

Johnny Fever was hilarious always, but for some reason I remember the one where Herb's daughter painted her frog pink.

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