A Generation Deprived of Art
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Some people say that the music industry has not gone too far. Those people must be heartless, soulless lunatics. We have just learned that perhaps the most influential television show of the seventies, perhaps of all time, can not be released to DVD because of the cost of music licensing.
WKRP in Cincinnati, centered on a fledgling radio station named WKRP in the city of Cincinnati.
The show, WKRP in Cincinnati, centered on a radio station named WKRP in the city of Cincinnati. The show had a soundtrack comprised of small snippets of the most popular music of the time. "The indication from the studios is that we may never see (WKRP in Cincinnati) because of all the music that would have to be licensed," said David Lambert, of TVShowsOnDVD.com. "As the DJ spins the record as he's talking to Loni Anderson, if there is music playing even for a couple of seconds, then the people producing the DVDs would have to license it."
Prevalent shows that drove the popularity of a song may never be released in their entirety.
Ironically, the music industry is hardest of shows that glorify and promote its music. Shows where the experience of music is central to their storylines my never see the light of day in DVD distribution. Because of the cost of licensing, prevalent shows that drove the popularity of a song may never be released in their entirety. Many shows have gone as far as to replace some songs, much to the chagrin of their fans.
This is a sad day, not only for the fans of the show, but for an entire generation of children deprived of seeing a grown man yell “booger”. Because of the inscrutable wiles of the recording industry, children who may have one day believed that Cincinnati had at least one redeeming quality will never get that chance.
Adrian Chevelle, Arts & Leisure
