In and attempt to fulfill my contractual obligations as a member of the Net Generation, for years I’ve been trying to get my parents to buy something online. While they have “stubbornly” refused for a variety of reasons, this changed yesterday when I got an email from my Dad who was looking at his first web purchase - a complete DVD box set of his favorite show from many years ago called WKRP in Cincinnati.
Boy did he ever make the wrong choice about where to start in the whacky world of digital commerce today - as he’s now recieved a crash course in the fraudelent looking retailers that float around out there, and all the funny things that happen when the music labels are involved with anything.
So things immediately got off on the wrong foot when I looked at the link he sent me - promising seasons 1-4 for $55.99 (versus a regular price of $199.99). The site just a looked little bit shady. Among other things, there was no company address anywhere, and a phone number that just went to an automated voice system. So I did a quick search for the site name, and lo and behold 1/2 of the hits led to sites complaining that the “company” was basically just ripping people off. I’m not sure if it’s true… but don’t want to take the chance.
But that’s not the big problem, because I was undeterred and hit Amazon and eBay trying to to find the DVDs from more reputable retailers. From this search I found out there were no “complete sets” out there. In fact, only season one was being released - and not even the real season one at that. To quote Fox on the release:
“Some fans are going to look at this and say, ‘Well, this isn’t the show I saw on television.’ It’s not, but it’s the only show we could bring out on DVD.”
Awesome. You see (for those that are unfamiliar with the antics of Les Nessman and crew) WKRP was a show about a fictional radio station in Cincinnati from 1978-1982. As one would expect, a lot of music from the time was being played in the show in short snippets, and that music was kind of critical since it’s about a radio station and all. But it seems that WKRP only had music licensing deals cut for a limited amount of time, and these would have to be “renegotiated” in order to things like DVDs to be released.
So this is where the music labels get involved, and anyone that’s been following what happens when the music labels get involved won’t really be surprised by what follows. Re-licensing the songs is prohibitively expensive (tens of thousands of dollars for even short pieces of songs, which adds up quickly if you have a lot of them), so WKRP can’t be re-released at anything close to a reasonable price point. In turn, for season one, nearly all the music has been replaced with “generic” music, and some scenes have been cut all together or truncated to avoid using musical content. On a show about a radio station.
Let’s just say my Dad’s excitement level dropped a fair bit upon hearing this news - and a list of just a few of the cuts puts it in perspective. Mr Carleson and Johnny discussing the merits of Pink Floyd while the band’s song “Dog” plays in the back ground? Gone. Les Nessman famously jumping around to “Hot Blooded”? Well he’s still jumping around in a funny manner… to some unnamed generic song. Over, and over, and over again the pattern repeats itself. The music, and many of the stories and jokes around it, is just gone.
Now of course it’s important for music labels to protect their IP, make money from it, and all the rest. But for some reason I have this notion that if my Dad got to re-live one of his favorite shows (while paying for the privilege), and be reintroduced to some of his favorite music from the time he might do something crazy like try to buy the full songs or CDs! Or he might have me watch the show with him, like I vaguely remember doing many years ago - and I might hear music I never even knew existed! And I might buy something too!
Nope - can’t have that. If someone had an emotional reaction to Johnny Fever blaring the Ted Nugent rocker when the station mercifully flipped back from a temporary move to easy listening… can you imagine the chaos that might ensue? It must be far, far better to keep the music under lock and key and make sure no hears it so, er, money can be made. Right.
I find this story to be a great example of many of the problems that continue to exist in digital commerce today, and how little progress has been made on many fronts. My Dad has no desire to steal anything or rip anybody off. He’s got some cash burning a hole in his pocket that he wants to give to someone in order to enjoy a show he remembers from a long time ago. He’s pretty sure that getting this pre-recorded video onto a Disc and mailing it to him shouldn’t be that hard, and there would seem to be a whole lot of money that could be made if someone offered him this - and he’s right.
But in sticking with the pattern the music labels have been following for years, they’ve managed to get $0 for their content, annoy a whole new group of consumers, missed a promotion opportunity, and given the Boomers a lesson on why so many of their kids are on file sharing networks a lot.
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I had heard that one of the reasons for the delay in getting WKRP onto DVD had to do with licences to the songs played in the show. When I read that WKRP was finally coming out on DVD, I was excited - it was one of my favourite shows. But now, reading your post, I’m not inclined to purchase the DVD.
A big round of applause to the lawyers and greedy music companies. You win again. Thanks for destroying yet another good thing.
Comment by Vincent Clement - April 26, 2007 9:25 pm
“my Dad got to re-live one of his favorite shows”
(one day you’re going to learn how much those words can hurt)
You darn kids!
Just to prove what a poo-headed fossil I am…
I think if you check you’ll find the song that Johnny Fever blasts out in the first show was “Leila” by Eric Clapton….
I think, but I’m old…my memory plays trick on me…
BOOGER!
Oh, never mind….
Comment by Ian - April 27, 2007 6:09 pm
Great post. Great example of how the philosophy of IP which we all did so well by is becoming a stranglehold in the emerging connected world.
We’re going to have to figure out new economic models and new ideologies of profi and capitalism if we’re going to sort through this. Continued blind insistence on “property rights” and “IP law” are just annoying, and–examples like this show–increasingly stupid.
Comment by Charles H. Green - April 28, 2007 10:00 am
While you may be right about a factual error, if you look closely I have what I consider to be the equivilent of virtual tape around my post and I closed the virtual tape door. In turn, I did not hear it and request you knock next time.
Comment by Denis Hancock - May 7, 2007 6:29 pm
The first song Johnny Fever blasted out was “Queen of the Forest” from Ted Nugent’s first solo album.
At one point “Layla” was probably played on the show, and I’m sure they spelled it correctly.
Comment by Bruce - December 12, 2007 1:40 pm
Denis is not what we call a “speller.”
Comment by Mike Dover - December 12, 2007 1:47 pm
That really is to bad because it’s a great show but depending on how picky your dad is about the technical quality the solution is easy. Put a bittorrent client program on your system (free) and download the whole thing, uncensored, for nothing.
If the entertainment industry wants to screw itself mercilessly let them.
Comment by Father Snitsky - January 31, 2008 4:27 am
Many fans have compiled their own “complete series” collections via the 80s/early 90s reruns, before they started making the music changes. Only way to watch a classic show like this, IMO…can’t have the infamous wig scene w/Les unless “Hot Blooded” is playing under it, to say nothing of the more obscure tunes of the era that they played snippets of (remember the Mike Fright ep, which starts w/Johnny playing the Sports’ “Who Listens to the Radio”?).
Comment by Chuck - June 25, 2008 12:00 am