Our August 12 article resulted in some emails. Students and teachers are happy to share their contempt for Channel One being in their school. Principals and teachers are simply pushing Channel One aside to make way for more academic time.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts. Beware of Channel One Sales representatives bearing “free” TVs.
Consider the Trojans of North Hall High School in Gainesville, Georgia. Their school board signed them up for Channel One but now they are on a block schedule and there is apparently little demand to see the Channel One TV show, so the school plays Channel One before school starts.
Here is morning part of their bell schedule:
Schedule One
Channel 1 8:15
Warning Bell 8:25
1st Period 8:30-10:00
MOS
Announcements
10:01-10:07
2nd Period 10:14-11:44
3rd Period 11:51-1:51
Notice the double insult to the hucksters at Channel One News. First, they only allow ten minutes for the 12-13 minute show. The school district promised Channel One they would show the program in its entirety. That is very important to Channel One and its advertisers (not so important to schools). Second, North Hall is showing an abbreviated Channel One BEFORE school begins. Oh the humanity! The contract clearly states that the Channel One News program be shown “between the bells”.
One must assume that few North Hall Trojans are making the decision to not talk with their friends and instead sit in their classroom before school and watch the lame Channel One anchors push Nokia telephones.
Channel One advertisers are paying for a CAPTIVE AUDIENCE. This is an audience that is required to be in class under penalty of the state’s compulsory attendance law. That law secures an audience only “between the bells.” Here is the link to the North Hall bell schedule.
http://www.hallco.org/nhhs/blockschedules.htm
BLOCK SCHEDULING IS A “CHANNEL ONE KILLER”
Block scheduling is growing in popularity with schools. Whether you are for it or against it, it tends to do one thing for sure – it pushes Channel One out the door. North Hall is a perfect example, but there are many more. Schools are trying to minimize non-instructional time and the concept of “Home Room” is simply going the way of the Dodo. It is becoming extinct. Therefore Channel One is losing a place to be shown. This one fact of life makes the outlook for Channel One’s survival very dim.
Crockett High in Austin puts Channel One right in the middle of the school day. Warner Brothers and the other Channel One advertisers should love this, right? Wrong.
Zero Hour Classes 8:00 – 8:50
Passing 8:50 – 9:00
First Period 9:00 – 9:50
Passing 9:50 – 9:55
Second Period 9:55 – 10:45
Passing 10:45 – 10:50
Third Period 10:50 – 11:40
Passing 11:40 – 11:45
Fourth Period 11:45 – 12:40
(Channel One 12:35 – 12:40)
Lunch 12:40 – 1:25
Passing 1:25 – 1:30
Fifth Period 1:30 – 2:20
Passing 2:20 – 2:25
Sixth Period 2:25 – 3:15
Passing 3:15 – 3:20
Seventh Period 3:20 – 4:10
Five minutes to watch Channel One? This is the joke that Channel One has become. This is why advertisers are not lined up to exploit schoolchildren with ads on Channel One. It seems the exploiter is being exploited. Teachers have little loyalty to Channel One.
Here’s another common way that Channel One is shoved out of the picture. This is courtesy of South San Antonio High School down in Texas. If you check out the link, you see that Channel One is shown during Lunch Period. (You can hear Jim Ritts and Jim Morris screaming at the top of their lungs. This is a major violation of the Channel One contract. Nobody will pay attention to the show and the commercials if it is shown while kids are meeting up with friends and talking about whatever happened that morning. This is not an unusual way for a school to show C1N “between the bells” but not to expose the students to the contents of the show.
http://www.southsanisd.net/sshs/bellschedule.htm
Keep sending Obligation emails about how your school breaches the Channel One contract. It appears that people who email us are hoping that Channel One will try to make their school enforce the contract and that this would result in no more Channel One at the school.
If you are worried about being the only school that doesn’t “tow the line” with the Channel One contract, then stop worrying you are not alone.
If your school actually does honor the Channel One contract – in full, please email Obligation. We would like to know if any school in America is respecting the terms of the contract.
