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6A Daily News – Thursday, September 19, 2013 Opinion DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 AM Radio: Can/should it be saved? I don't think my relationship with AM radio is particularly unique. I have priceless memories of the early morning drive to college, listening to bluegrass music on "clear channel 650WSM, the Air Castle of the South." But 30-plus years later, I find myself habitually relying on FM stations or CDs. According to the New York Times, there are still a few powerhouse AM stations; but AM in general is struggling for listeners (especially listeners in the younger, more desirable demographic) and revenue. Federal Communications Commission member Ajit Pai is waging a valiant effort to ensure the long-term viability of the venerable AM method, through relaxed regulation and technical fixes. Technical fixes? Yep, the 21st century has played havoc with the process. The AM signal can be mangled by tall buildings, smartphones, plasma TVs, cable boxes, LED traffic lights, energy-efficient fluorescent bulbs and other staples of modern life. The undeclared war against AM is even holding medical progress hostage, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tells patent seekers, "We'd love to approve your new cancer drug, but it doesn't do enough to hamper AM reception." Indeed, one of the brainstorms for financing the shoring up of AM is to charge Kellogg for decades of free advertising of Rice Krispies, assessing a retroactive fee for each snap, crackle and pop. While many listeners cheer Pai's attempts, others think he's barking up the wrong tree. They say it's the programming, not the static, that is the primary turn-off for listeners. Even some fans of AM have derided the current landscape as being full of unadventurous, "calcified" formats, soulless automated programming and a general acceptance of second-class status. Apparently AM is having a hard time shaking the image of the long-in-the-tooth religious broadcaster whose original pleas for contributions involved sheep and goats — and the behind-the-times station owner light of the repeated insistence whose concept of innovation that the Original Intent of the involves figuring out a Founding Fathers way to piggyback was to have Paul smoke signals with the Revere shout, "Set AM signal. your dial and rip off Don't think of AM the knob! Set your radio as a relic ready for dial and rip off the placement in the scrap knob!" heap of history. TwoGranted, for the thirds of the Major millennial generaLeague Baseball teams tion, the whole idea still use it. Two-thirds of balancing AM and of minority-owned staFM is a moot point. tions broadcast on the One too many techAM spectrum. AM savvy youngsters has Danny radio ties together rural condescendingly communities. Batterygroused, "Radio is powered AM radios are for old people." invaluable for providing emerUm, actually, young man, gency information when disas- what is reserved for old people ter takes listeners "off the grid." is (a) deciding for whom to co(Modern priorities make it sign a loan and (b) deciding supremely important to transmit whom to exclude from a last messages such as ROFL, even if will and testament. it leads to messages such as Hmph! Remember our battle ROFDDFATIHNWO: Rolling cry: Let's Not HISS At AmpliOn Floor Dodging Debris From tude Modulation! A Tornado I Had No Warning Danny welcomes reader eOf.) responses at AM stations form the back- mail and bone of talk radio, so conserva- tyreetyrades@aol.com tives should be willing to come visits to his Facebook fan page to the rescue -- especially in "Tyree's Tyrades" Tyree Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Commentary Academe's money tree WASHINGTON -- Like baby birds with yawning beaks, college football fans clamor to be fed. So fasten the chin strap on your helmet -- ignore the warning label on it ("No helmet system can protect you from serious brain and/or neck injuries including paralysis or death. To avoid these risks, do not engage in the sport of football.") and enjoy the seasonal festival of physical carnage, institutional derangement and moral seaminess. LSU offensive tackle Josh Williford, 22, will, however, leave his helmet off, having just retired rather than risk another concussion. A third concussion triples the risk of clinical depression for those with no prior symptoms, and autopsies performed on 334 deceased NFL players "found that they were three times more likely than the general population to suffer from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease)." These figures are from a Wall Street Journal essay defending football from critics. These critics must admit that big-time college football, although a peculiar appendage of institutions of higher learning, is at least adding to our knowledge of brains by fueling studies of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the cumulative effect of repeated small "subconcussive" blows to the head. Football's doughty defenders note that other recreational activities, such as bicycling, injure more participants. But only in football is long-term injury the result not of accidents but of the game played properly, meaning within the rules. Rules could be changed by, for example, eliminating kickoffs with their high-velocity collisions and barring the three-point stance whereby linemen begin each play with their heads down and helmetto-helmet collisions are likely. But such changes could be made only over the dead bodies of fans who relish mayhem from safe distances. The broadcast and cable organizations that pay billions for the rights to televise football have an incentive to not call attention to health problems. Gushers of money are generated by football's amateurs, who enable other people to get rich while getting fired. Gregg Easterbrook, an intelligent journalist who nevertheless loves football, has a new book ("The King of Sports: Football's Impact on America") that is hardly a love letter. "At many big-college sports programs," he writes, "the athletic department is structured as an independent organization that leases campus space and school logos, then operates a taxexempt business over which the school's president and board of trustees have little control." Easterbrook notes that when Auburn won the 2010 national championship, its net football ance. That was the same sum income was $37 million, just a Michigan had paid in a buyout bit less than the $43 million of to pry the coach it was firing that season's NFL champion, away from West Virginia. In 2011, Texas Tech the Green Bay Packers. gave its head coach a Auburn's head coach, $500,000 raise while Gene Chizik, was paid freezing faculty $3.5 million that year salaries. (in most states, the Payoffs can be highest paid person on financed by selling the public payroll is a everything, including university coach), a the naming rights to sum justified because, football positions. said Auburn's The 2007 North Car$600,000 athletic olina State media director, "Coach guide thanked people Chizik is a great men"scholarship tor to our student-ath- George F. for endowments," letes." including the "Ed Two years later, 'Scooter' Mooney Chizik's mentoring greatness counted for less than Nose Guard Scholarship," the his 3-9 record. He was fired, the "Longley Family Punter Scholblow cushioned by a $7.5 mil- arship" and 12 others. Meanwhile, to preserve collion buyout, more than the approximately $5 million lege football's purity, the NCAA Auburn had paid to buy out has approximately 70 pages of Chizik's predecessor. In 2012, stern rules about dealing with the University of Tennessee recruits: "An institution may fired its losing coach with a $5 provide fruit, nuts and bagels to million severance -- and the a student-athlete at any time." athletic department (annual rev- Cookies? See the relevant reguenue, more than $70 million) lation. In 2008, Easterbrook was given a three-year exemp- notes, the Raleigh News & tion from its annual $6 million Observer "reported that Univercontribution to the university's sity of North Carolina football academic side. In 2011, Michi- and men's basketball players gan paid $1 million to San were enrolled in email Swahili Diego State University so 'courses' that had no instructors Michigan could hire SDSU's and never met and always led to coach, paying him $3.3 million A's." There was, however, no (plus up to $500,000 in bonuses evidence of cookie corruption. for victories) to replace the George Will's email address fired coach to whom Michigan had paid a $2.5 million sever- is georgewill@washpost.com. Will