All That Radio

For my next blog post, I decided to listen to the Allentown AM radio station 790 WAEB, and 95.1 WAYV, a FM station.  My goals were to compare and contrast these two radio stations, and to figure out the differences between these AM and FM stations.

One major comparison that I noticed was the ratio of commercials to the content of the radio stations.  Both stations had about the same percentage of commercials with only a 7.05 percent difference.  95.1 had the most commercial time, coming in at 38.5 percent, while 790 contained a 31.45 percent of commercial time.     

One major difference between the two radio stations that I noticed was how much time each commercial break was comprised of.  I found that as well as having more commercial time, 95.1 also had the most commercial break time.  The longest commercial break was seven minutes and forty seconds.  During the twenty minutes that I was listening to 95.1 there were a total of eight minutes and sixteen seconds of commercial time.  On the other hand, while listening to 790 for the same amount of time I found that the longest commercial break was only four minutes and twenty seconds.  And the total minutes of commercials for this station were six minutes and forty-eight seconds.           

While changing the radio stations, another thing I noticed was that the AM stations are all comprised of news and talk shows, while the FM stations play music.  790 WAEB was a more informative station than 95.1 WAYV.  I learned a lot by listening to this station.  The talk show hosts were discussing the ISIS attacks happening in Iraq and what President Obama had to say about this situation.  According to Obama, we should all be more knowledgeable about their religion in Iraq so that we can all make peace with each other.  While listening to 95.1 I found that station to be more entertaining, however the problem with this station was that there were more commercials than actual radio content.  This station played a total of three songs, all included in the rock genre which, unlike some people, I found to be entertaining.     

Below, I have included the URL's to both radio stations.  I encourage all of you to visit these sites and see for yourself which station you find more entertaining.                       

http://www.790waeb.com/main.html

http://www.951wayv.com

"Cinderella Story"

Shaer, M.  (February 2015).  Cinderella Story.  Smithsonian, 45(10), p. 32-41, 82.

Before I had read “Cinderella Story” I knew that tigers were endangered.  What I did not know, however, was how tigers were being helped to not becoming endangered any longer and who was helping tigers on their path to recovery.

I recently got my answers while conveniently reading “Cinderella Story” from the library’s issue of the Smithsonian.  Matthew Shaer’s “Cinderella Story” is about an orphaned Amur tiger cub that was rescued by a pair of hunters and then rehabilitated upon being released into the wild.      

Zolushka’s story started on a February afternoon in 2012.  Zolushka, Russian for Cinderella, was taken to a wildlife inspector where she was properly fed.  After receiving proper care, she was then relocated to a rehabilitation center for tigers and rare animals where she was introduced to surroundings familiar of that to the wild. There, she was given food that she had to hunt herself, to prepare her for the wild.  After about a year, Zolushka was released back into the wild with her new hunting skills.   

Having read the article, I was curious to see what advertisements surrounded the piece.  I found a traveling ad and an ad advertising a new television series on PBS, called “Earth a New Wild”, surrounding “Cinderella Story.”  As a whole, I found out that the magazine contained 26 total pages of ads out of 96 pages, which means 27 percent of the magazine is comprised of ads.  Some of the ads do relate to this piece and the magazine, such as the traveling ads and the new television series.  The reason why these particular advertisements are relatable to this magazine is because Smithsonian is an educational magazine and so are these two ads.     

One other thing I found interesting while reading the article was that “Cinderella Story” is cut off at page 41 and resumes at page 82.  One question entered my mind when this occurred – why is the article not continued on to the next page?  One possible answer came to mind as well – maybe to keep the reader engaged not only in the one article, but to keep the reader engaged with the magazine as a whole.  And while I was looking for page 82, I found that four other articles stood in my way.  I figured that as the reader is reading, he or she will stumble upon an ad, or another story, and is forced to look at it for at least a few seconds, and perhaps if the reader finds either that ad or story interesting then a few seconds may last for a few minutes.  As a result then, that ad will then have served its purpose of being encoded by its audience. 

Article Review

Recently, after reading The Keystone Newspaper, I came across an article on page 5 titled “Why students should learn Spanish.”  The article explained that the percentage of Latino/Hispanic people that live in Berks County is 18.1 percent, and that Spanish is a growing language, not only in Berks County, but also in the United States. 

I found the article clearly biased because of the fact that the author is trying to convince her audience to learn Spanish.  My question is, why does the author only want us to learn Spanish?  A more appropriate title for this article should be “Why students should consider being bilingual.”  In the article, the author explains that if we know another language then we will benefit from the following: gaining better understanding of other cultures, being able to find a job easier than the person who does not speak another language, helping the company expand internationally, and gaining a better pay rate, according to salary.com, between “5 to 20 percent hour more than the position’s base rate.”    

Although I do agree with the author’s reasoning, I do not agree with her conclusion of just learning Spanish.  Yes, Spanish is a growing language in America but the above is also true if you are able to speak any language.  For example, I am learning German, not only for the above reasons, but also because I want to gain better knowledge of my ancestors.  The author explains that if we know other languages besides English then we will be losing insight of our own culture here in America, when in reality that is the total opposite.  America wasn’t around forever.  America didn’t just come to be one day.  It took many people from other cultures to create America, and by knowing those cultures and their languages will we then be able to better understand our country.   

Another reason why this article is biased is because the author claims that we live in an English-speaking country, when in reality America does not have an official language.  To think that most Americans only speak English is ignorance.  The author also goes on explaining her shocked reaction about people in Spain not only speaking Spanish, but also speaking a good amount of English, German, and Latin.  Most countries in Europe teach their students different languages at young ages.  And some countries in Europe even have more than one official language.