Show could be over for Bus Radio on Seminole County school buses
Dave Weber
Orlando Sentinel
May 8, 2008
SANFORD - So much for canned music on Seminole County
school buses.
A committee of parents and school officials that has
monitored the experiment with Bus Radio -- a daily
program of prerecorded music and ads piped into buses --
recommended Wednesday that the School Board pull the
plug when classes end in June.
Committee members said concerns about songs the kids
were hearing outweighed the soothing benefits of music
for the ride.
"Bus Radio couldn't agree they wouldn't play songs from
albums that had parental advisory warnings on them, and
that was pretty much a deal-breaker," said Amy Lockhart,
a Sanford parent who served on the committee.
While the School Board will make the final decision May
27, it's expected to go along with the committee's
recommendation.
If judged a success, the radio show would have been
expanded to all of the district's fleet of about 400
buses next school year.
The experiment with music on 53 county buses has been
controversial since its start last fall. Criticism
centered on kids being captive audiences for ads and
sometimes suggestive songs, which the committee had
struggled to weed out.
"Bus Radio needs to be more savvy to meet the needs of a
conservative school district like Seminole," said Ken
Lewis, director of transportation for county schools.
Drivers will be allowed to tune in regular radio
channels next year, but Lewis said they will have to
choose carefully to avoid offensive songs and chatter.
When local officials were approached by the
Massachusetts-based Bus Radio last year, they quickly
agreed to its offer of free programming through special
radios in exchange for an audience that is ready made
for its sponsors who target the youth market.
But the district stepped into a nationwide controversy
over Bus Radio and its mix of music and ads. Critics
range from the national PTA to the pro-family Eagle
Forum and the Center for Science in the Public Interest.