New School Program Will Exploit School Kids For Private Financial Gain

Kids, Listen Up--or Maybe Not

Is Bus Radio "a low-grade form of child abuse" or a clever way to protect schoolchildren from inappropriate, sexually-loaded advertisements?

I guess it all depends on whom you listen to.

BusRadio is a start-up company in Massachusetts, the latest brainchild of the kids-marketers who gave schools free book covers full of bold, colorful ads for Kellogg's, McDonald's, Calvin Klein, Nike and other major national advertisers.

Now, Michael Yanoff and Steven Shulman want to create a private radio network that plays music, public-service announcements, contests and, of course, ads, into school buses.

As BusRadio's Web site explains: "Every morning and every afternoon on their way to and from school, kids across the country will be listening to the dynamic programming of BusRadio providing advertiser's [sic] with a unique and effective way to reach the highly sought after teen and tween market."

BusRadio, the Web site adds, "will take targeted student marketing to the next level." Marketers can advertise and sponsor contests or provide a celebrity deejay (perhaps to promote that next CD or movie). They can also use BusRadio's Web site to conduct surveys and test songs, CD covers, packaging and ads. In an hour's broadcast, 44 minutes will be devoted to music and news, six minutes to public-safety announcements, two to contests and eight to advertising. On most commercial radio stations, usually 10 to 12 minutes, sometimes more, is devoted to advertising.

BusRadio says pilot tests have shown that students behave better when its programs are on. Noise is reduced, and students are more likely to remain in their seats and more willing to follow school rules. What's more, it says the private network guarantees kids won't be listening to songs, DJ's or ads that are inappropriate for their ages.

But U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) has a different opinion about BusRadio. "I think it's absurd, a low-grade form of child abuse, that forces a captive audience to listen to commercial messages. I don't think parents want it either," said Dorgan, whose two nearly grown kids used the school bus regularly when they were younger.

In late June, Dorgan persuaded the Senate Commerce Committee to unanimously pass a measure that would direct the Federal Communications Commission to study the concept of BusRadio and the advertisements it carries, to see whether its material is age-appropriate and in the public interest. The provision hasn't been approved by the House, so the FCC isn't yet required to conduct such a study. But Dorgan said he hoped the agency would see the lopsided nature of the committee vote as an indication that the agency should go ahead and study BusRadio---before the company starts operating in earnest this fall in Massachusetts, broadcasting to more than 102,000 students. By September 2007 it plans to take its programs national, reaching 1 million students.

BusRadio, in an e-mail, said its "interests are aligned with Senator Dorgan and we look forward to showing him and his colleagues in Washington, D.C., that Bus Radio is offering a superior alternative to the commercially available AM and FM radio programming currently played on school buses. Existing programming is geared towards adults 18-34 and features adult lyrics, advertisements for alcoholic beverages and R-rated movies, and sexually explicit DJ banter."