So what has happened to…-

It's time for following up on some previous column topics

I wrote last year about Channel One, the commercial news and entertainment TV show, shown to 6 million U.S. schoolchildren and 100,000 students in mostly lower-income Virginia schools. 

After many years of declining ad revenues, parent company Primedia "sold" the entire operation to Alloy Education Inc.

Actually they "gave" it to Alloy admitting the future prospects for the service were dim. Alloy vows to upgrade the equipment, but there are doubts the much smaller company has the resources. Alloy says it will air only "responsible" ads (read no junk food), further limiting the company's financial prospects.

It was easy for Alloy to accept this free gift. But as the company more carefully examines the details, the true nature of the gift will become all too apparent. Look for Channel One to finally go dark after this school year.

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AMENDMENT 2: Last fall saw perhaps the most contested ballot initiative in Virginia history. Amendment 2 - the so-called Marriage Amendment -  defined marriage as between a man and a woman and included some vaguely defined legalese. Now that the amendment has passed and become part of the Virginia Constitution, I wonder what practical effect it has had.

I've heard absolutely nothing about it since. Maybe some future court cases will more clearly define its effect. It was never clear to me what "preserving" marriage meant. Neither have I heard that gay citizens have been appreciably harmed in their daily life. I know the campaign was great for the sign manufacturers, but was it really worth all that effort-

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NCLB: A few months ago I wrote about a brushfire of dissent in Virginia concerning opposition to provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act that would require that the same SOL tests be given to new English language learners as all other students. Districts feared a few new students could give school districts a "failing" label. Harrisonburg, Fairfax, Loudoun, Arlington, and Prince William school districts all risked losing federal funds by giving other tests that didn't meet federal muster. The Virginia General Assembly even passed legislation enabling the districts to sue the federal government for withholding money.

But by last week all those districts caved. They did lose the battle, but the war isn't over. Their concerns will be part of the discussions about NCLB by Congress later this year.

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IMUS: I wrote recently about talk show host Don Imus being fired for referring to the Rutgers women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos."

I called for all groups to excise those terms from the English language.

Recently hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons said that the recording and broadcast industries should ban three racial and sexist epithets, "ho," "bitch," and the "n-word."

I think the music can still work without (as Simmons puts it) those "extreme curse words."

This is not a follow-up, but I wanted to register my disappointment regarding the sudden dearth of radio news programming available in these parts. For decades, I've been able to tune in to WAMU and WETA for quality news programming, especially National Public Radio's All Things Considered and Morning Edition. WAMU's signal doesn't come in strongly any more but in 2005 WETA went to all news and information, which I really liked. I also liked all-news WTOP for news, sports, and weather.

All this ended recently when WETA returned to all-classical music and WTOP moved to a frequency that doesn't reach this far out. WTOP's frequency was taken over by WTWP- Washington Post Radio. And even though WTWP is all news and talk, I have been mostly disappointed in the programming.

WTWP has a wonderful opportunity to make use of their hundreds of excellent reporters to expound on articles they had researched and written. 

And they do have their moments. But far too often they insist on sophomoric blather.  I know there is satellite radio, but that is neither free nor as convenient. 

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