An excellent NPR story this week examined the broken promises of American TV stations, which swore in the '90s to offer a spate of extra digital channels to over-the-air television viewers if given a generous share of the digital airwaves. Now that the digital transition has arrived, though, very of these stations are being used to their potential: Many extra channels remain empty, while others primarily display automatic Doppler radar feeds or rerun old movies or television shows of very little interest.
Milwaukee's apparently doing better in the digital department than some cities, though, and at least stations like PBS are making good use of the newly available airwaves. Also of interest to over-the-air viewers like myself: TheCoolTV, a new music station that debuted this July on channel 4.3, hosted by Journal Communications. It's a grab bag of old music videos and live performances from the '70s onward, supposedly tailored to Milwaukee tastesan assertion that's a little offensive when you see what the station is actually playing. Apparently, Milwaukee listens mostly to the Electric Light Orchestra and Phil Collins. Lots and lots of Phil Collins.
The station's musty selection begins to make more sense, though, when you take into account that it's partnered with 94.5 Lake FM, also a Journal Communications offshoot, one of those stations that promises to play everythingexcept, apparently, for anything that people under 30 enjoy.
But TheCoolTV holds real promise, and its playlist has grown more eclectic in recent weeks, as in between the heaps of Jefferson Starship and America deep cuts, it's aired some unlikely oddities, like videos for Belly's "Feed the Tree" and, this morning, Clipse's "Kinda Like a Big Deal" (which, with its abundant cocaine imagery, is a curious song to hear on any TV station at 7:30 in the morning). It's a weird and sometimes painful but mostly compulsively watchable station, and hopefully soon the digital airwaves will be filled with many more options like it.
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