September, 28 2009, 03:15pm EDT
The Song Is Over for BusRadio
After three years of parent protest and opposition, the school bus radio network ceases operations.
BOSTON
After a three-year campaign by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free
Childhood (CCFC), BusRadio - the highly controversial company that
planned to "take targeted student marketing to the next level" - has ceased operations.
BusRadio had hoped to play its highly commercialized broadcasts for
students on buses around the country, but CCFC and its network of
parent activists opposed the company's plans at every turn.
"This
is a tremendous victory for families and the growing movement to
protect children form exploitative marketing," said CCFC's Director Dr.
Susan Linn, a psychologist at the Judge Baker's Children Center. "No
child should be forced to listen to advertising on their way to and
from school."
Shortly after BusRadio was founded, CCFC
organized a demonstration to call attention to the myriad ways the
company hoped to use its school bus broadcasts to market to a captive
audience of students. CCFC and Obligation, Inc. - another advocacy
organization that opposes school commercialism - monitored BusRadio's
content and advertising and shared their findings with parents, school
administrators and the media. CCFC and its membership were instrumental
in stopping BusRadio in school districts around the country, including
large busing districts such Montgomery County, Maryland and Louisville,
Kentucky.
In 2009, CCFC requested a study of BusRadio by
the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC delivered that
report earlier this month. More than 1,000 CCFC members filed comments
with the FCC opposing BusRadio and the FCC's report agreed with many of
CCFC's core concerns. CCFC shared the FCC's findings with school
transportation directors around the country while CCFC members have
been sending the report to their local school boards.
"BusRadio
severely underestimated parents' determination to keep advertisers off
of school buses," said CCFC's Associate Director Josh Golin. "As
marketing aimed at children becomes more pervasive and ubiquitous, it
is more important then ever to protect commercial-free spaces for kids."
Fairplay, formerly known as Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, educates the public about commercialism's impact on kids' wellbeing and advocates for the end of child-targeted marketing. Fairplay organizes parents to hold corporations accountable for their marketing practices, advocates for policies to protect kids, and works with parents and professionals to reduce children's screen time.
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