Greetings:

I listen to the radio all day long whilst working on RF Cafe and my other websites (have done so for a long time). Is it my imagination, or has the number and frequency of Public Service Announcement (PSA) slots increased in the last few years?

I am utterly sick of PSAs about topics about parenting, handling money, why being on food stamps is a good thing, how to get more government money for school or a house, why financial literacy should be the next "civil right." Really, a civil right - on par with the right to vote? Fortunately, I can quickly hit the mute key to kill them. Are there really that many morons out there who need to hear this crap?

The FCC mandates that commercial broadcasters play a certain amount of PSAs as a stipulation for granting a license. A search on the subject suggests that the lousy economy has paying advertisers down in numbers, so the stations fill slots with PSAs, it also is due to stricter requirements from the Fed. As usual, the government's response to an activity faltering due to oppressive regulation is to regulate it some more.

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- Kirt Blattenberger
RF Cafe Progenitor & Webmaster