Kansas City Playlist: Local Legacy News Media Stays Losing

The demise of dead-tree media in Kansas City is nearly complete and so far spyware technology hasn't emerged to "replace" the newspaper — Instead, we're now awash in all manner digital options working to capitalize from influencing, distracting and captivating so many people who can't seem to exist without constantly gazing at a screen of some sort.

Currently . . . Non-profit news dominates what passes for the local discourse if only because it's a model that allows both Conservatives and Progressives to pass money along to journalists so that they may write/speak something agreeable . . . This is basically the same revenue model as street organ grinders used in the late 18th century with the help of dancing monkeys.

Meanwhile . . .

We'll entertain a contradiction to our cynicism from a local source offering a grandiose premise . . .

Northeast News: Capitalism Has No Place in Media

Money line . . . 

"Where do we go for free reliable media? Non-profit papers are a great place to start . . . We are trying to provide a service to this community we have all grown to love. As a reporter who would like to stay serving this community, I ask that we come together to help each other. Keep this media-free."

The rest is a nice homespun column that reads more like a pledge drive. 

But that's just a local snapshot of bad news for legacy media all the way around . . . 

Even the funny papers now confront harsh times . . . A source that isn't as funny as they used to be is now trying a dead-tree comeback that seems like a bit of an inside joke:

No Joke: The Onion Thinks Print Is the Future of Media

The funniest writers at The Onion shuffled through dozens of news stories at a meeting last week, trying to discern

More importantly . . . News radio both public and private struggles and sheds employees . . .

Once a mainstay of the radio dial, local news is signing off as stations struggle to survive in the digital age | CNN Business

For more than a century, Americans have been turning to a trusted and reliable source for local news: the radio. Now, the terrestrial broadcasts are facing an existential threat as listeners and advertising dollars rapidly shift, forcing stations to slash staff and even sign off the air for good.

And so our conclusion isn't despair or glee . . . Nothing lasts forever. And anybody who wants to deny our observations merely has to pick up a Sunday paper in the morning to witness the transition of local news. 

Instead, here at www.TonysKansasCity.com were merely serve to notice the news changing formats and share a few of our favorite songs that are somewhat connected to the trend . . .

As good of a place to start as any . . . "Sunday Papers" was written by Joe Jackson as a critique of the British tabloid press. In the lyrics, Jackson, a vocal opponent of the press, sings of the trashy and inaccurate stories printed by the papers. He recalled, "An image that came into my mind was, like, if someone just more or less lived on a diet of these kind of papers, that they might turn into a complete idiot".

Pro-tip . . . 

The more dudes age gracefully or otherwise . . . The more they start to like Steely Dan . . . Accordingly, here's the description of their movie soundtrack radio tribute: A complex jazz-rock composition driven by its bass, guitar and piano parts, typical of the band's sound from this period; its lyrics look askance at the album-oriented rock format of many FM radio stations at that time, in contrast to the film's celebration of that medium.

We dig deep to come up with this nearly lost track from one of our all-time favorite artists . . . Lyrically, this early version was, according to Elvis Costello, about "the idea that the radio broadcasting from within you was ultimately of more value than the radio in the dashboard or the wireless on the shelf"

To keep the momentum going for our fellow Gen-Xers . . . We share an old school classic that was really nothing more than pop culture criticism masked with one of the best guitar riffs from the 1990s. “Cherub Rock”—the opening track to The Smashing Pumpkins’ sophomore album Siamese Dream— Billy Corgan clapped back at indie purists. In a 1995 interview with Us magazine, he said, “‘Cherub Rock’ is about my relationship to the indie world and the media.”

Finally . . . No late night TKC playlist is complete without a sentimental tribute to 90s-era culture . . . Apropos for tonight's musings . . . This song criticizes the Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, with lyrics such as "the lunatics have taken over the asylum" and "we'll feed you to the hounds / to the Daily Mail". Vulture described it as a "piano ballad that grows, bolstered by fury ... into a swaggering anthem"

As always, thanks for reading this week and have a safe & fun Saturday night.