June 28th, 2008
TUSD Buses Get Music
By Rhonda Bodfield
Arizona Daily Star
Programming from national service touted as age-appropriate, calming
Tucson, Arizona—When they return to school in the fall, most of the students riding buses in the Tucson Unified School District will no longer listen to just the rumble of the engine or the whir of rubber on asphalt.
Students on 160 of the district’s 250 daily routes will tune in to a booming new service, BusRadio, a national radio network touted as an alternative to shock-jock banter and leave-nothing-to-the-imagination lyrics.
Not only does the service offer free screened programming for three age groups — elementary, middle school and high school — but, to sweeten the deal, the company also provides new equipment such as live GPS, public-address systems and an emergency panic button that activates two-way, hands-free communication to the local 911. In TUSD’s case, that came to about $300,000 worth of equipment.
That kind of hard-to-pass-up offer accounts for why the network has grown in two years from 100,000 listeners to more than 1 million in 170 school districts in 24 states. There’s even a waiting list for BusRadio, which also is used locally by the Sunnyside and Marana school districts.
Steven Hopper, a TUSD bus driver for 11 years, said he noticed markedly improved behavior in the few months of the last school year that the service was available.
“It’s pretty pleasant music — none of that rap stuff,” he said. “Or if it is rap, it’s really mellow. Sometimes they even sing along with the music. It just makes the day go by a little nicer.”
Attitude adjustments are particularly important since the transportation department cut 40 of its 180 bus-monitor positions, he said. “It’s not the total answer, but it does seem if we’re playing their music, they are less likely to cause problems.”
Although it seems accepted in bus circles that music soothes the wild adolescent, trying to find appropriate content on local stations can be dicey.
Lori Bomesberger, a 19-year driver for the Marana Unified School District, said she’s noticed the bus is significantly quieter with the service because students are so intent on listening to the music or to the personalized shout-outs they can call in for their schoolmates.
Bomesberger said she used to listen to one popular Top 40 morning show, but found herself having to keep turning it off and then having to listen to the grumbling afterward.
“It just kept getting worse and worse, and it’s totally inappropriate now,” she said.
Into the void stepped BusRadio, with its cleaned-up DJ chatter and screened music. Because the station produces its content a day in advance, its editing team cuts inappropriate lyrics, while still playing Top 40 singers such as Fergie, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus.
Although technically free, the service does come at some cost, which is why some national critics have mobilized against the service’s rapid expansion. Included in each hour-long broadcast are up to eight minutes of paid commercials, which some child advocates see as an inappropriate foray into public schools by advertisers who are marketing products to children as young as 6.
“Kids are besieged by commercial influences already, and school facilities — to the extent possible — should be a haven from those kinds of marketing pressures,” said Robert Weisman, managing director of Commercial Alert, a Washington, D.C-based non-profit that joined with other child advocacy groups to ask the nation’s 100 largest advertisers to boycott the service.
“The idea that it’s free is a deep and fundamental misunderstanding of what the arrangement involves.” Weisman said. “In fact, the district is giving something of enormous value to BusRadio, which is a captive, age-segmented audience that is very valuable for advertisers.”
And it is age-segmented in that you won’t hear home loans or oil changes being advertised. Instead, you might hear SpongeBob touting a new product, Answers.com explaining how it can be a study tool, or nighttime teen network The N offering its latest music soundtrack.
BusRadio spokesman Wesley Eberle said regular radio stations have three to four times the amount of advertising, and, unlike his service, aren’t picky about whether the paid ads are for junk food or alcohol.
And, he added, the company encourages its sponsors to deliver “a positive message,” in that a shoe company might encourage students to “go out and exercise,” instead of just promoting its product.
The big thing BusRadio offers is peace of mind, Eberle said.
“Generally, the content on AM/FM radio is wholly inappropriate for elementary school students, and, a lot of times, it’s even inappropriate for high school students,” he said.
Included in the goody bag of benefits BusRadio offers schools is a revenue-sharing agreement — if profits exceed projections, some small amount comes back to the districts.
TUSD is no stranger to the debate about advertising in schools. About 30 percent of district buses have some advertising on them, although they’re individually approved by the Governing Board and tend to trend more in the gentle direction of public-service announcements. That program generated about $20,000 in revenues last year — far less than the six figures it was projected to raise when first explored.
And since the 1990s, schools have been accepting as gifts marquee signs with the names and logos of commercial donors.
Alex Bendyna, TUSD’s transportation ombudsman, said staff was on guard against hard-sell advertising, but felt comfortable with the broadcasts.
“Kids are going to be exposed to advertising, but this is about as benign as advertising gets,” he said. “The most important thing is that we can provide responsible listening content to students without going to taxpayers.”
A few parents have called with questions, but there have been no objections to the service, he said.
TUSD Governing Board President Alex Rodriguez, too, said his initial concerns about commercialization were allayed, especially in light of how many other districts use the service.
“I felt confident going forward that the material played on the speakers was going to be appropriate. For me, the benefits outweigh any negatives.”