Back to the Future – TV Chapter

That consumer hatred is turning to gold for Joe Bingochea, president of Channel Master.

Consumer Reports published an item about a lawsuit Comcast settled recently with the Massachusetts attorney general. The cable provider agreed to refund $700,000 in overcharges and cancel debts of 20,000 customers. It seems Comcast’s advertising neglected to disclose fees that typically increased the price of multi-year packages by 40%. Unhappy customers were required to pay as much as $240 to cancel or change a subscription.

An estimated 25 million subscribers broke free from their pay-tv service this year, a 33% increase over 2017.

Who doesn’t hate their cable or satellite television provider? The cable and satellite companies force customers to pay for unwanted channels to get the channels they do want. Because they sold only package deals. The television providers refused to remove their blinders; they thought they could resist a la carte pricing forever. Although they also provide Internet service – and lobby against net neutrality – they didn’t see the Internet would soon wreck their business model.

That consumer hatred is turning to gold for Joe Bingochea, president of Channel Master. The seventy-year-old company has doubled the size of its Arizona factory to meet surging demand. Its product? Television antennas.

Internet television allows viewers to subscribe to only channels they want. They don’t need to pay for ESPN2 to get HBO; they only pay for the HBO channel. And they’ve learned what mom and dad knew: the local stations, including major network affiliates and PBS, broadcast their programming for free. All one needs is an antenna to grab the signal from the atmosphere.

Which explains why Joe Bingochea is so happy. After years in the doldrums, his company’s products are in demand again. Channel Master also offers DVRs that work with antennas, because today’s viewers are accustomed to watching what they want when they want. For less than a hundred bucks, a person can become an ex-customer of the pay-TV companies.

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Some New Year’s Reading (Trigger Warning: It’s About Current Occupant of White House)

“Trump is not much different than most of the NY real estate developers. Obnoxious, liar, screws people, impossible to trust, etc.”

If your brain can handle more background on the perpetrator of multiple business failures who occasionally spends time in the Oval Office, Foreign Policy magazine – not known as a left-wing propaganda organ  – has published a well-researched and dispassionate overview of business dealings with Russia.

A couple fun quotes:

“I think part of it was he was toxic to the banks. I think he also probably learned that personal guarantees [on loans] weren’t a brilliant idea either. So he was saying to himself, ‘What else could I do in the world? I’ll just convince people to buy my brand.’ And the only people who were willing to buy it were tasteless Russians, people who like the absurd, ostentatious gold-leaf lifestyle he has.”

 – former business associate

“Trump is not much different than most of the NY real estate developers. Obnoxious, liar, screws people, impossible to trust, etc, but in NY real estate–not unusual. None of any of that is proof of anything other than Trump was considered a bad guy who nobody trusted to do business with in the US banking world. That is far from any proof he did anything wrong as to collusion which there was none.”

-Joel Ross, investment banker

Read the whole article here.

Bonus Reading: a couple deep dives from The New Yorker – well-known for its fact checking:

Donald Trump’s Worst Deal

“The President helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.”

Trump, Putin and the New Cold War

“What lay behind Russia’s interference in the 2016 election—and what lies ahead?”

Happy New Year!

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The Power Chord – Parts I & II

“In guitar music, especially electric guitar, a power chord (also fifth chord) is a colloquial name for a chord that consists of the root note and the fifth. Power chords are commonly played on amplified guitars, especially on electric guitar with distortion.”

Dick Dale and the Del-Tones gained fame in southern California in the late fifties, working from their home base, the Rendezvous Ballroom near Newport Beach. The story goes that in 1962, on a bet that he couldn’t play a song using only a single guitar string, Dick Dale (née Monsour) reached back into his Lebanese roots and remembered his uncle playing a song on one string of a lute. Dale upped the tempo – and the volume – several magnitudes. The song was “Misirlou,” (or “Miserlou”) meaning “Arab Land.” The song had been recorded many times since the 1920s, but never like Dick Dale. “Misirlou” entered the rock canon and established Dale as “King of the Surf Guitar.”

Continue reading “The Power Chord – Parts I & II”
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Christmas Trees to Oregon? Coals to Newcastle?

“Coals to Newcastle” – something brought or sent to a place where it is already plentiful. Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England was an abundant coal producer. “Carry coals to Newcastle” has been an expression for an unnecessary activity since the mid 17th century.

“Coals to Newcastle” – something brought or sent to a place where it is already plentiful. Newcastle-upon-Tyne in northern England was an abundant coal producer. “Carry coals to Newcastle” has been an expression for an unnecessary activity since the mid 17th century.

You probably bought your Christmas tree from your local Boy Scout troop or the people who set up every year on a corner close to your neighborhood, right? Or maybe from a nearby big-box store? If it’s the latter, you may have also brought home some elongate hemlock scale insects.

The Oregon Department of Forestry alerts that trees imported into Oregon may be carrying invasive pests, such as the above-mentioned elongate hemlock scale. Although Oregon is the nation’s largest producer of Christmas trees, retailers such as Home Depot may bring theirs in from as far away as North Carolina, bugs and all.

The Department of Forestry warns that trees dumped wherever may result in the hatching of eggs laid on them and the pests escaping into living trees. They urge you to inspect your tree carefully. If you find indications of unwanted bugs, they advise against recycling it or throwing in on the grassy median on Ainsworth Street. Instead, cut up the tree, seal it in a plastic bag and dispose of it in a closed garbage receptacle.

It’s a little late. So now they tell us?

And all those Oregon trees? Most are exported out of state, half of those to California.

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Something New to Worry About

“Stacking up stones is simply vandalism.”

Are you anxious because you do not have enough to worry about? How about piles of rocks? Stone stacking is the latest thing on Instagram and Facebook. Posters put up selfies with hashtags #RockStacks and #StoneStacking. (Facebook owns Instagram.) In your travels you’ve probably seen and marveled at cleverly-built small stone towers.

Killjoys, though, are not pleased. Zion National Park posted a photo of someone’s artistic rock piling with the caption “…leave rocks and all natural objects in place.” The post went on to say, “Stacking up stones is simply vandalism.” The problem? Moving a lot of stones can result in erosion, damage to animal ecosystems and disrupt the flow of rivers. Hikers depend on sanctioned cairns for navigation in places without clear trails. Park rangers, environmentalists, and hikers have reactions ranging from annoyance to alarm.

Vikings built stone cairns (worked better than bread crumbs) to find their way back from explorations of Finland in the ninth century and as markers for those who followed. Now tourist guides are pleading for them to be left alone and not mucked up with twenty-first century imitations.

Proponents call it artistic and meditative. Critics rail that social media has made it a global phenomenon and so reduces the amount of wilderness left in its natural state.

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