HazzardJournal: Just who are those gals on those Match.com banner ads?

You see them every day. Banner ads from dwindling in market share Match.com , banner ads, those gals that asks you do ya wanna? Now lets examine this a bit.

From extensive research from Hazzard County University, there is no simple who is it results from a Google or other search engine inquiry.

Of those gals on those ads, I’m kinda partial to the one in the short hair looking over her shoulder. Thing is you know and I know, none of these gals are looking for a guy. Pal or otherwise. They have several if not one sig other, and more over it’ll be some guy that has no neck and goes by the name of Bubba. But don’t you really want to know who they are? Oh sure you could sign up, go through the introductory stages and in the end before ya’ll can even say howdy, ya’ll got to pony up some serious cash.

I hate bait & switches. But this is not limited to online dating. Cable-One does the same thing. They offer $35.00 a month for Internet service, in reality its only $35.00 for three months, afterwards expect to rake out about $102.00 a month, add TV and or phone and your looking at $150.00 a month or better. And even then ya’ll got to rake out money for three months more of service. Watch your bill go from a near affordable thing to way over the top, of $600.00. Can you afford that? And this is not limited to consumer intro gigs on Cable Internet/TV packages. Oh and that no bundle, hmmm lets see. Internet,TV, Phone, sounds like a damn bundle package to me. Why not just tell people what the rate is, charge accordingly? Why not? Because few in the depressed economy would sign up, especially when such services as HULU are out there. It’s the same for business service.

I signed up for Cable-One reluctantly, and only so I could catch SOA this season, but I signed up. The $212.00 a month while steep was about what I’d pay for things at both EarthLink, and MegaPath had they even been able to supply service. But immediately got a bill for $424.00 Really? I only contracted for $212.00 . Could I make them hold to that? Probably, if they were able to supply quality service without a ton of computer virus’s and such. Funny , with SpeedConnect, except for occasionally drop off signals, still not many downloading virus’s and headaches. You call SpeedConnect with a problem today, you get someone fixing it in the morning, not two weeks out. With a radio station that is dependent on streaming and uploading as HazzardAyre Radio is, every hour down is the loss of $100.00 If I’m out of service for a night is a loss of $2400.00 more than a day, as I was last month with Cable-One, it’s a loss of near $50k. and they are barking for bill payment. Of course calling Cable-One, is not talking to the same person. And getting a real application of credit for loss of time due to their hiccup, rarely happens fully. Call it a deductible. Of course if you press it, they’ll escalate the problem. In short not a good vale. In the words of that lady in the white suit, Common Sense says, sign up with SpeedConnect, not Cable-One. Heck I didn’t even see a credit for the loss of those channels in October from Turner Broadcasting.

The list goes on and on, but the bottom line, don’t expect to get anywhere negotiating with any mega company, be it Cable-One, T1-Shopper, EarthLink. There ought to be an examination of this by at least the FTC or FCC or both. Tell the truth friends or shut up.

Okay then, on our radio gig. I made an appeal to the Chair of the FCC over the weekend to get an extension for us to refile for our LPFM license. Be that what it is, we are not dead just need to take a different course. Go streaming Internet Radio. This means an even bigger effort. Both in equipment and people. Its going to require two IT engineers on staff and on call. Its going to mean a real live person be in the pilot seat every hour of every day and over night for On demand listening. Plus hitting major and minor markets doing TV ads etc. Until a new filing window for new FM allocations to come open. In the short time we’ll hang on to our facilities in Both Buhl, Malta, and American Falls Idaho, Woodruff Utah, and Fort Bridger Wyoming. More in coming weeks.

So we suffered an injury, but we are not yet dead.

More Monday.

L8R Ya’ll