Nothing is real
Holy cow. It's worse than I thought.

PhotoDude commented on a story originally in the Charlotte Observer. I know this is a blinding flurry of links, but the core of the story is this: "John Boy & Billy" host a radio show syndicated to numerous stations. It's hard to say just what kind of show it is, because different stations get different music. At 6:40 Tuesday morning, right after the news, oldies stations got "But It's All Right" by J.J. Jackson, while country stations got "Wish I Didn't Know Now" by Toby Keith.

And classic rock stations, immediately after a report of the latest sniper attack, played Queen's "Another One Bites the Dust".

[Executive producer Randy] Brazell said that during a break, the morning team discussed whether to address the issue on the air and decided against it. "We decided that if we called attention to it, people who didn't notice it, then would," he said.

People who didn't notice what? This terrifically unfunny accident? Or the fact (rapidly becoming a fact of life) that there is no such thing as a local radio show anymore -- and almost no judgment applied to what you hear?

My point here is not that accidents happen. Of course they do. This program is syndicated to over a hundred markets. There's always the possibility of an unfortunate justaposition with a local news story. One shouldn't read too much into that, per se.

What worries me is that nobody is taking responsibility. Nobody decided to play that song: A computer did it. The DJs weren't even aware of it until the affiliate stations called in. Everyone is sorry it happened, but it's nobody's fault.

How important can the programming be if the programmers are paying so little attention to it? If it's not worth their time, what makes it worth mine?