Can't sleep tonight
I woke up at 2 AM and just couldn't make myself settle down and go back to sleep. After tossing and turning for an hour I thought it would be best to just get up. I suppose I can be awake all night, what do I have to do tomorrow anyway?
Late-night, Vancouver TV is MUCH BETTER than US TV I think. There's a law here that demands a minimum percentage of TV broadcast hours go towards Canadian content, so most networks cram it all into the wee hours of the morning. Tonight it's a lot of music I've never heard of, sometimes with really cheesy videos accompanying. But I like hearing new stuff, and I am enjoying it.
Tonight we went to Seasons at the Park for dinner. It was one of the nicest restaurants I have been to in a long time. The view was fantastic, the food was great, and I don't think it was over-priced for the quality, location, and service. I ordered a steak, and it was fantastic. I usually don't eat steaks so maybe the steak sitting in my stomach is what is keeping me up. I don't know.
posted by gg @ 3:44 AM
5 Comments:
I slept from 4:30-6:30, and have now spent most of day cursing my bad luck.
Just doesn't seem to me like Canadian television would be any good...
I have seen a few short Canadian films though. They were quirky.
Wow, that restaurant looks like it is in a beautiful location!
Steak? Good choice. ;)Why does television engage in broadcasting, while radio engages in narrowcasting? Unless forced to do otherwise (e.g. via the Canadian content laws you mentioned), television shows are designed to appeal to everybody and their mothers (but not their grandmothers, who are outside of the target demographic). Meanwhile, radio stations create playlists that are as short as possible and are as devoid of variety as possible, to ensure that someone who really really wants to hear LBC hip-hop doesn't get offended by hearing Compton hip-hop.
Sometimes I wish they'd do things the other way around. Imagine a world in which ABC has a Tuesday 8:00pm show only of interest to people who recently moved to Canada (I know you'd watch), and in which a radio station successively plays songs by Hendrix, Snoop, the Partridge Family, Waylon Jennings, and Moby (I know I'd listen).
OE, I think the big networks go for the wide audience, but cable is becoming more and more specialized. Even if you look at solely music-related programming, you have MTV with pop and hip hop hits, VH1 with older stuff, CMT with country hits. No Moby station yet, but it's coming.
Also, Cable channels are slowly realizing that they will do better aiming at a specialized market and thus you get Spike TV, W, Bravo, Reality Central, G4, and tons of other networks.
And regarding the TV show for US Citizens who have moved to canada on ABC, the problem is that making a national tv show to major network quality standards costs anywhere from $50,000 an episode and up (usually WAY up, remember all the Friends were making $1mil an episode for the last few seasons). The network would have to devote that money, plus 30 minutes of national television time, for a minimal result of maybe a few thousand viewers. These companies are out to make money, and until that structure changes they will go after the most viewers possible.
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