Is it retro or futuristic to live without a television?

I do watch television shows and movies, on my computer–BSG, Heroes, the Wire.

But I got tired of the tv yelling at me.

It seemed the newscasters were always on the edge of hysteria and the commercials kept saying “hey, hey, look at me, hey, hey, hey you, look at me, hey, hey, hey….”.

Same with radio. I listen to NPR, where there is very little yelling. Sometimes there is an underwriting spot, where someone says in a calm voice something about the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation or the pharmaceutical company Merc. I was curious about this and checked out NPR’s specifications for on-air-credits.

Credits are 10 seconds long.
Credits include the organization or company name, the name of a subsidiary, operating division or parent company, and additional language which further clarifies the identity of the underwriter. This language may contain:
A neutral description of products or services
A recognized corporate slogan that identifies the company or products
A statement of business locations, a World Wide Web address, or a toll-free phone number
The organization’s mission
A mention of the particular NPR programming being supported (ex: “for coverage of Eastern Europe…”)
The duration of the business or service (ex: “providing services to businesses for over 50 years…”)

I love the neutral voice part.

With the web, I pretty much steer clear of the sites with pop-over ads and flashing banners. The simple text ads placed on google searches strike me as quiet enough. Useful when I need them, but demanding little otherwise.

In my work with WOWIO, we are in an interesting situation of giving high-quality, copyrighted books to people for free, while still being obligated to compensate the authors and publishers that have created these works. We work with businesses that are interested in providing free books to people in exchange for an opportunity to share their message. Like sponsoring an NPR program, we have specification for these sponsors that essentially say that you can talk to people, but please don’t yell at them.

And what we have found from surveys of our readers, is that people like to hear from the people that pay for their books, when they are not yelling, when the conversation includes a give and take of value and information.

It is tricky though. It’s like telling anyone that is used to yelling that a quiet voice is even more compelling, alluring, intriguing. We are working to convince a sometimes skeptical audience of potential sponsors.

Here is the ebook package.

Bookplate …………………………..Sponsor message page

Reader choses to play video, if they want to

The book begins

Title page of ebook ……………Title information

All the pages of the book, uninterrupted

End page of the book ………Closing bookplate with sponsor info

So I’m curious, does everyone win with this proposition? Writers and publishers paid, people having access to high-quality content, businesses sharing their message.

The balance seems to be in the volume.

Is it quiet enough to hear?