Commercial exploitation of Schoolchildren Hall of Shame: ...
A look back to 2023: Another bad idea in...
Where are they now?: Channel One’s Kent Haehl selling...
Pop Quiz: Maggie Rulli has just… January 2, 2026 I just saw Maggie Rulli...
From Jim Metrock: About six years ago, I met several Edmodo employees at an...
Kent Haehl was Mr. Channel One News. He presided over the company for six...
From Jim Metrock: There are more and more signs that Channel One News is slowly giving up its long struggle to exist. Today I clicked on "Anchor/Reporter Bios" and got what you see above. Nice looking people, but two of these three have been gone for months. Only Jessica Kumari remains from this trio....
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From Jim Metrock: I wrote about this type of thing before, but here we go again. Yesterday afternoon, November 14, middle school bus riders heard a song on BusRadio called "What You Got." It’s by Colby O’Donis. You’ve never heard of him and many "with-it" iPod-listening young people haven’t either. He is a new...
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After receiving our email about BusRadio. The Douglas County Director of Transportation wrote the following reply: On Nov 10, 2008, at 9:46 AM, Paul Balon wrote: Jim, your allegations are not true. Many school districts in Colorado use BusRadio including Denver, Adams 12, Adams 5, Aurora, just to name a few...
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Subject: Douglas County and the BusRadio controversy My name is Jim Metrock and I run a nonprofit called Obligation, Inc. in Birmingham, AL. We research and report on companies like BusRadio that bring marketing into school districts. I write because BusRadio is desperately trying to get advertising into Colorado school buses. These are not...
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EF Educational Tours is STILL taking up school time with their commercials. The only thing that is new is the rather adult flavor they have added to their classroom ads. This ad ran on November 3 and several other dates in American classrooms. Kids and teachers have to be shocked to see this image...
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From Jim Metrock: This week Obligation had its first booth at the National Association for Pupil Transportation convention in Myrtle Beach, SC. I deeply appreciate the NAPT for allowing Obligation to provide information about commercial-free busses and BusRadio’s potential for bus driver distraction to their members. The NAPT membership is broad. I talked with...
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From Jim Metrock: I am pretty awful at picking stocks. If you think you are in bad shape with your investments, you should see my brokerage statements. Actually, even I am not looking at my own brokerage (now I know why “broke” is in the word) statements because I don’t have the nerve....
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Press Release Source: Channel One News Channel One News Announces "OneVote 2008" Results – Teens Declare Senator Barack Obama the President-Elect in Nationwide Online Election Wednesday October 29, 11:12 am ET — Obama nearly sweeps key "Battleground" states according to poll — Channel One Network’s youth citizen journalism platform, YouTellIt.com, inspired teens to...
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NBC Universal to cut 3 percent of 2009 budget: report Sun Oct 19, 2008 (Reuters) – NBC Universal, the broadcasting unit of General Electric Co, plans to cut $500 million from next year’s budget, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal on Sunday. NBC Universal said the cuts will amount to 3...
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Entrepreneurs Teen Machine Helen Coster 10.22.08, 6:00 PM ET Forbes Magazine Matthew Diamond Alloy comes up with some of the hottest books and flicks for teens. So why isn’t it, like, profitable? In the world of Alloy Entertainment’s books and television shows, the girls are naughty. In The A-List book series Camilla Sheppard...
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This is an article based on a TV report from Bismarck, ND. Incredibly, the school administrators in Bismarck are realizing that one hour a week of TV may not be the best use of school time. Here is a great example of how a school district is fleeced by Channel One News. The school...
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BusRadio is still advertising the adult-themed TV show 90210. Weeks after major critics expressed shock at the show’s extreme sexual content and reoccurring scenes of teens drinking, BusRadio has refused to take their 90210 ads off their children’s website. Below is a screenshot of BusRadio’s 90210 page as of October 13, 2008. They are...
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From Jim Metrock: What an ugly coincidence. A day after I wrote about Channel One News airing their bizarre “Rectal Experiment” commercial in middle schools promoting their sister Alloy Media and Marketing company FindTuition.com, I receive an email from FindTuition.com promoting Alloy’s newest sex/drug/alcohol movie for young people called Sex Drive. Notice that Alloy...
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A painful commercial that young people had to watch in September and October 2008. This commercial is for a sister company of Channel One News. "Describe the picture, please," the doctor says. This is suppose to be a "funny"ad that shows how desperate students have become in their search for tuition money....
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Forget Val Emmich for the time being. That’s a story for another day. It’s the "Win a $500 shopping spree" ad that should interest parents and educators. When a young person clicks on the box, they come to the page below. To enter the "sweepstakes" they have to give up a lot of personal...
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Above: “Star Wars Takes Over BusRadio” reads what appears to be a story on BusRadio.com. This is of course an advertisement, but BusRadio doesn’t inform children of that fact. Advertising on BusRadio.com is usually like this one. It is deceptive advertising. Below this promo is a banner ad (“For every deception, a villain”) for...
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On September 30, sixth grade students looked up as Channel One News began its daily broadcast. Something was different today. Instead of a Channel One reporter greeting the students, Kat Dennings and Michael Cera, two actors in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, introduced themselves. They plug their movie (a violation of Channel One’s...
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Tonight’s 90210 has more teen drinking scenes. We have asked Channel One News and specifically Dr. Paul Folkemer, VP of Education, to end all advertising for TV shows and movies that encourage and promote underage drinking. Dr. Folkemer refuses to respond to our pleas, so we have put some words in his mouth. Dr....
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From Jim Metrock: BusRadio’s "Top Requests" web page gives me a lot to think about. Below I have several sections of their top 100 song requests. I clicked "All" to show all the songs requested no matter the age. I noticed that some songs have pictures of the artist and some don’t. I noticed...
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From Jim Metrock: Welcome to a fake interview with Martha Doyle president of EF Educational Tours. Ms. Doyle’s company has recently started advertising on Channel One News. Her commercials are now frequently heard blaring from classroom TV sets. I wrote Ms. Doyle and asked her to reconsider her support of Channel One. She...
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EDITORIALS Published: Tuesday, September 16, 2008 BusRadio proposal should be silenced KEY POINTS: BACKGROUND: The Nashua Board of Education is again considering installing BusRadio on its 86 school buses. CONCLUSION: Exposing this captive audience to the radio ads that accompany this national programming is not in the best interests of either the...
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THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT Date: July 10, 2006 To: Superintendents of Schools District Superintendents From: Charles Szuberla, Coordinator Subject: Prohibition of Commercialism on School Buses In reply to: It has recently come to our attention that at least one vendor is actively marketing a
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