It’s August 11 and the Channel One News crew hasn’t shown up for work.
All across the country students are filing into their classrooms. Some students have been already been in school for a week or more.
Channel One would normally be pushing their advertising on kids by this date, but as we have reported, the company has delayed its broadcast season until August 18. This is obviously an attempt to save money. The company limps along with a bare bones staff and with no production employees on their payroll. [In 2006, Channel One gave pink slips to their their production crew and turned that function over to a company called TeamPeople. In 2007, NBC agreed to produce Channel One News so they could use this captive audience of young people to market their raunchy TV fare ("My Name Is Earl") and their brand of news.]
Like a lot of decisions there is an upside and downside. By supplying schools with less TV content, Channel One will decrease expenses. On the other hand, everything starts anew at the first of the school year. Teachers and students quickly get into a routine. Teachers are always looking for ways to opt their classes out of Channel One’s onerous contract. [Channel One demands that their program be shown, no matter what teachers think, at least 90% of school days]. With Channel One being so tardy this year, teachers can easily get students accustomed to a more worthwhile use of their time and it will be easier to turn off the TV show when it finally starts appearing on the screen. Note: Channel One has always configured their TV sets to have the show come on automatically. They never trusted teachers to turn the TV on. Teachers however can turn the show off once it has started, they can turn the sound off, and they unplug the set.
If Channel One had a long list of advertisers ready to be on their show, the company would be starting their broadcast season EARLIER not later.
It will be interesting to see how many of last year’s three anchors report back to duty. Tony Anderson, Jessica Kumari, and Chris Browne would be wise to find more legitimate work. "Exploiting school kids" doesn’t look good on a resume, but then again working at Channel One News is an easy way to make a paycheck. As Channel One News continues to shrink the number of days it broadcasts to schools,these anchors will have even less work to do.
