Sporcle

I don’t have a single favorite website, but Sporcle.com is definitely one of my favorites. It’s a trivia website with full of random pop culture quizzes covering a massive array of topics. There are quizzes about movies, TV shows, music, geography, literature, sports, and almost anything pop culture related. A lot of the quizzes involve some sort of wordplay or clever arrangement which increase their fun factor. The website’s tagline, “Mentally Stimulating Diversions,” is exactly what I use it for.  I go to the site for entertainment, homework avoidance, study breaks, and random other times if I’m bored.  I don’t use Sporcle every day, but I definitely visit the site multiple times throughout the week.  It may not be my most visited site- according to my browser history, that’s taken by Facebook- but Sporcle is a favorite for sure. 

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ESPN dumps Hank Williams Jr

     I definitely support ESPN's decision to drop Hank Williams Jr. While I realize that the singer has a right to espouse his political views, ESPN has an equal right to decide who is associated with their network. The comments that Williams made were offensive and unprofessional and I think it makes sense for a network like ESPN to want to dissociate with such a person. Regardless of your political views, comparing the president of the United States to Adolf Hitler is bad for business. The decision to drop Williams may not be supported by long lovers of the Monday Night Football anthem, but in terms of corporate image, I think it was a wise choice.
      I think every network or corporation should be able to decide who is associated with their brand. The power of association is extremely important for companies, and ESPN realized this and acted swiftly. When I think of Monday Night Football, I think of Williams song, and after watching the ESPN video, I think of his remarks about the president. The association between the singer's comments and the network's broadcasts were unavoidable.  When it comes to the issue of freedom of speech, I think ESPN did nothing wrong. They placed no limit on his freedom of speech and there was no government intervention or regulation over what he said. The network's decision was, if anything, a public relations decision, not a freedom of speech issue. I think it's easy to say that the song itself has nothing to do with Hank's comments and that viewers won't associate Williams' comments with the network, but I don't think that is realistic.

Payola

     I’m not sure if there is a feasible way to completely resolve the payola issue, but one way to help eradicate it would be to create quotas of non-payola music to be played on the radio. While banning payola completely would be ideal, it’s extremely unlikely to ever happen. Radio is a business. It provides a service and gets paid for it.  With this outlook, it’s difficult to mandate that radio stations not get paid for a product they mass market: music. The musicians are the suppliers, the DJ’s and stations the vendors, and the listeners are the customers- who consume for free.  The limitations this places on independent artists are disappointing to be sure, but in a way they’re inevitable.

     The small form solution to the problem would be to create a quota or requirement of non-payola, independent music to be played on radio stations. Radio stations would be permitted to continue payola practices, but would have to include non mainstream or paying artists in their broadcasts. There isn’t a realistic way to ban payola, it’s not illegal and there’s not enough current opposition to instigate such massive changes. The easy alternative would be to force a form of variety- whether it be large or small. Independent artists obviously do not have enough money to fund payola, and by enacting a mandate of small name variety, all parties involved are pleased. DJ’s are able to continue being paid, big name artists are still able to be played and consistently heard on the radio, and smaller independent artists are able to get their foot in the door.