T-Radio: we're doomed

Published Oct 11 2007, 08:04 PM by Adam Reilly

First off, a confession--I don't like T-Radio. I'll never like it. It's intrusive and asinine and filled me with rage in the two minutes I heard it today at North Station.

Now that that's out of the way, compare and contrast:

--"[MBTA general manager Dan] Grabauskas said he does not know how much profit, if any, the MBTA would reap in the deal."--from today's Globe write-up on T-Radio's Boston debut.

--"Most importantly, as a Pyramid Partner you will share in the revenue generated by the advertisements which we sell."--from the Web site of Pyramid Radio, the Boston-based company behind T-Radio.

If this is a money-making proposition for the T, I'm guessing that T-Radio won't be going anywhere, even if there's a deluge of complaints at MBTA.com.

More* reason for cynicism: according to the T's own press release, the primary measure of rider feedback won't be comments left at MBTA.com. It'll be "Pyramid work[ing] with a team of Emerson students to survey T-customers [sic] at the three stations on whether they like the overall concept, and if so, which features they like the best and which ones they like least."

Get used to it, everyone.

*NOTE: I'd initially offered the non-functionality of the MBTA's online feedback mechanism as Reason #1 for more cynicism--but I was wrong! Thanks to Universal Hub, I know that it's up and running (though you'd never know that from MBTA.com's front page.) Still, I'm pretty sure we're screwed.