District Criticizes Channel One Service
CALUMET CITY D. 215 officials said they still need service connected
BY PHIL ROCKROHR
Times Correspondent
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Saturday, September 30, 2006 12:35 AM CDT
CALUMET CITY | Channel One has provided local high schools with the free TVs and VCRs it promised, but no connections and no instructions.
That was the complaint from Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 officials, who said their students cannot use the equipment nor receive the company’s free news and advertising service.
"We have all the TVs but nothing is connected and they haven’t shown us how to do it," said Adel Haddad, chief information officer for District 215. "We still need a little more equipment."
Last March the Board of Education of Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 approved a proposal to use the daily news service in Thornton Fractional North and South high schools.
The Washington, D.C.-based company delivered TVs and VCRs but not some of the wiring needed to use them, nor directions for how to connect them to its network, Haddad said.
"I want to start working with them to bring it to a close," he told the board this week. "I’m having a little difficulty. I personally am not pleased with Channel One’s performance."
Company officials could not be reached for comment Friday.
Haddad said he contacted Channel One three times in writing and by telephone but as of Friday had not received a response.
Board President Debra Waitekus asked District 215 officials how long they plan to wait for the service.
Superintendent Robert Wilhite said he expects a response from the company by October.
"They’ve been dragging their feet too long," Wilhite said.
Haddad said he will contact Channel One once more to warn officials of District 215’s concerns.
"I think if I threaten them with a letter to cancel, they might move on it," he said.
The company appears to be interested in District 215 but apparently is overwhelmed with all of the requests for the service, Haddad said.
The board voted 5-1 to use Channel One at TF North in Calumet City and TF South in Lansing. District staff spoke highly of the service which many used in previous jobs at other schools.
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From Jim Metrock: What is fascinating about this story is that school officials are upset about the wrong thing. They should be grateful that Channel One doesn’t keep its promises. This is not the first school that has been neglected by Channel One’s contractor Convergent Media Systems.
Despite what Channel One says about so many schools signing up, the truth is they have lost over a thousand schools in the last few years.
This school is intent on wasting school time. I am sure they will ultimately get their Channel One TV sets turned on and the students will be watching Hubba Bubble bubble gum commercials and ads for upcoming movies instead of doing math and English. When the TV sets are all wired up, District 215 students will begin to lose over one instructional week of school each year passively watching Channel One’s very controversial show. I get the sense that academics may not be on the top of District 215’s list of priorities. But this is a great country and individual school districts can choose to throw away time and taxpayer money if that is their desire.
I am not surprised that some teachers who had Channel One at a previous school want their current school to get the service. After all, these teachers have lost their ONE-HOUR-A-WEEK-PAID BREAK. Without the Electronic Babysitter, they are having to interact with the students in one way or another for 12 extra minutes 5 times a week.
This article confirms what we already know about Channel One: they break promises on a routine basis. Some examples:
1. They promised each show would only take up twelve minutes of school time – the show has sometimes nearly thirteen minutes.
2. They promised only two minutes of commercials content – they now mix the ads with feature stories and other segments and the commercial time can run over four minutes.
3. They promised to keep news and advertising separate – Channel One’s CEO boasts publicly about running "advertorials."
4. They promised not to advertise their raunchier PG-13 movies to their middle school audience – they allow guest hosts from raunchy movies to plug their movie on the show seen by teens and preteens. (This also break another promise to not allow guest hosts to plug any product.)
5. They promise to deliver a news show for young people – the show is dominated by feature stories that are cheap to produce and have no hard news connection.
I could go on.
On a broader scale what is important about this story is here is yet another indication of possible inflation of audience numbers by Channel One. For months Channel One has had a contract signed by this school district. Are the advertisers, including the Federal Government, paying a rate that includes District 215 students? Is Channel One telling advertisers that District 215 are viewing their ads and are the advertisers paying Channel One accordingly? I have been told by a former Convergent employee that schools that are not watching the show are often counted as viewers so Channel One will make more money from advertisers.
The citizens served by Thornton Fractional Township High School District 215 school officials ought to hope Channel One continues to ignore the district. They also ought to expect more common sense out of their school administrators. The better schools in our country don’t waste their time with Channel One. Having Channel One News is a "best practices" of desperate schools in lower-income communities.
