From Jim Metrock: I check in on Channel One News only occasionally now. The company is a shell of its former self. Fewer and fewer students see Channel One’s advertising, news, and fluffy filler content. American schools are so much better with the fall of Channel One News.
Below is a February 25th Facebook post I saw today, February 29. That’s 5 days for students to “like” and/or comment.
10 “likes” in 5 days? 1 comment?
Channel One continues to mislead the public by saying they have “nearly 5 million” student viewers. Total hogwash. That is the figure they claimed before they transferred title to their old TV equipment from the company to schools. That transfer may or may not be legal, but the reality is that did away with the hammer Channel One held over the heads of school principals forcing them to show the controversial, daily 12-minute TV show.
The student who made this comment and reply is Channel One’s biggest and loneliest fan.
Before the transfer, Channel One required principals to show the program at least 80% of school days. Channel One News sent ugly letters threatening principals and superintendents when they found them not showing the program according to the contract. (I have several of those letters.)
Schools wanted the TV equipment at the time. They didn’t want Channel One News with its junk food commercials and ads for stoner movies, but Channel One said they would come to schools and rip the equipment out if they didn’t force feed the TV show to students. That fear is now gone and therefore principals aren’t honoring the old contracts. The audience has all but vanished.
Keith Kocinski doesn’t get feedback from his TV reports and his Facebook posts not because students don’t like him, he looks like a very likable guy, but because they don’t know who he is. They don’t see his face in their classrooms.
Mr. Kocinski is free to tell his friends that he is a big time reporter and his work is seen by “nearly 5 million” students. There is no need to tell him any different.
Check out Channel One’s Facebook page. Click here. You will see the same handful of students, probably in early middle school, are the bulk of Channel One fans. So we know that Channel One is deadly serious when they tell that one student, “Thanks for watching!”
