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Login to post Forums » Off-topic discussion » Looks like SyFy channel is the next one going down hill.

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Feb. 14, 2011 8:05 p.m. Rumnhammer Reader

I used to watch IFC a lot, but now they have commercials on it so it is like watching FX only they didn't edit out the cursing........so now I don't watch IFC really sucks.

TLC used to rock, back in like 94 they used to have real educational stuff on there. Paleo world, and the operation come to mind. Now I call that one The Ladies Channel, never been good since they started putting trading places on there.

I still watch the history channel, but for more historical stuff I watch the military channel.

Man talking about IFC has just pissed me off again, probably because it only just changed..

Chris Rummel
Feb. 14, 2011 11:35 p.m. neon4891 SuperDork

SGU is back on March 7. Till then, I probably wont even turn on the dish
Feb. 15, 2011 12:29 p.m. SyntheticBlinkerFluid Reader

JoeyM wrote:

Appleseed wrote:

SciFy has been dead since they stopped making MST3K. Dead.

+1 for truth

I was gonna put that in there too, I haven't watched much SyFy channel since they stopped MST3K.
Feb. 15, 2011 10:17 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

More evidence that Cable TV is dying..we're laying off almost 70 people in "Traffic" (the folks that keep track of the sales orders/promotional plans/etc. and place it all on a paper document for others to follow), in "promotions" (the ads you see for other shows aren't really commercials to us, they're created to keep you watching our channels), and in "operations" (the folks that assemble & monitor the signal you see on your set at home).

I am among them. The company's actually being quite cool about it (great severence package..including resume/interview help, reccommendations to other media companies, and a pretty big stack of money!), but it's another indication that this form of media is on the way out.
Feb. 16, 2011 8:22 a.m. Otto Maddox HalfDork

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

Sorry to hear that. What are you going to do now?
Feb. 16, 2011 10:41 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

Otto Maddox wrote:

In reply to friedgreencorrado:

Sorry to hear that. What are you going to do now?

At the moment, the plan is to liquidate the 401k and all the stock options. We've only scratched out the math with pencil & paper, but it looks like there will be enough after the penalties & taxes to buy a "fixer-upper" house outright without having to look for a loan. Without a morgage (or rent) payment, I should be able to take a job that pays half of what I make now with no reduction in comfort level. I really think that a "Netflix" type company is where I need to go if I'm going to stay in media, but I don't know of any that are based in Atlanta Metro. I really don't want to relocate..I wasn't born here, but I've lived here for 25yrs, and it has become home. Yeah, I could find a job paying what I currently make in a heartbeat if I moved to NY, LA, or Miami..but I really don't want to move. My daughter is here. SWMBO is here. Road Atlanta is here. Besides, any of those hypothetical jobs would be in the same industry (Cable TV). Do I really want to move across half the continent (or in the case of Los Angeles, all of it) just to have the same stinking thing happen again in five or ten years? Besides, if my corporation cuts me loose because I'm 50yrs old, what other corporation would hire me? I'm still 50..

As far as retirement goes, even though all the financial advisors I've talked with are damn near peeing their pants over my wish to liquidate my 401k, I think they're not really understanding the continuing decline of the "middle class" in the US. IMO, they're still thinking 20th century, rather than 21st. Technology gets better every day..it isn't just manufacturing jobs that are being outsourced to other countries anymore. I consider myself very lucky that this happened to me at the birth of this phenomenon, rather than at the height of it. Considering what I think is coming, I'll take a long "semi-retirement" (I'm 49 in April) over a short "full retirement" at 65yrs old.
Feb. 17, 2011 7:45 a.m. Ian F SuperDork

Damn...

Unfortunately, I can see the writing on the wall in the industry I'm in (architectural engineering) and I'm trying to position my finances so that my options are more flexible within a few years: House paid off and fixed up. Zero debt. Reserve money in the bank. Retirement "toys" already bought and paid for. Fortunately for me, I have no children to worry about and I won't have to touch my 401k. If all goes well, I should be there within about 10 years at which point if the job market goes south (or in my case, to India...), I can walk away without much concern.

The next 10 to 20 years could very well be interesting...
Feb. 17, 2011 8:21 a.m. Otto Maddox HalfDork

The job discussion really is a good tie-in to the original topic. In a few years, we'll all be sitting around unemployed watching horrible reality TV, kinda like in Idiocracy.
Feb. 17, 2011 10:53 a.m. m4ff3w SuperDork

Otto Maddox wrote:

The job discussion really is a good tie-in to the original topic. In a few years, we'll all be sitting around unemployed watching horrible reality TV, kinda like in Idiocracy.

Idiocracy was an excellent film and poignant reminder of how stupid "we" are making "ourselves."
Feb. 17, 2011 11:10 a.m. racerdave600 HalfDork

I came from a TV production background too. A couple of years ago the industry here absolutely tanked. Lots of us unemployed in the industry. In a bad economy, TV and video production is one of the first things cut.

Anyway, I got a new job doing more or less the same things, just this time with a private company in the energy field. It's been a steep learning curve as far as learning the industry, and a real eye opener in regards to energy in general. it's so, so different than what you see on the news.

Anyway, I thought maybe SyFy had gone and started showing Nascar like everyone else! It's a bit like Science Fiction!
Feb. 17, 2011 6:15 p.m. JoeyM SuperDork

Otto Maddox wrote:

The job discussion really is a good tie-in to the original topic. In a few years, we'll all be sitting around unemployed watching horrible reality TV, kinda like in Idiocracy.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703439504576116340050218236.html?mod...
Is Your Job an Endangered Species? Technology is eating jobs—and not just obvious ones like toll takers and phone operators. Lawyers and doctors are at risk as well.

[...]

But eDiscovery is the hottest thing right now in corporate legal departments. The software scans documents and looks for important keywords and phrases, displacing lawyers and paralegals who charge hundreds of dollars per hour to read the often millions of litigation documents. Lawyers, understandably, hate eDiscovery.

Doctors are under fire as well, from computer imaging that looks inside of us and from Computer Aided Diagnosis, which looks for patterns in X-rays to identify breast cancer and other diseases more cheaply and effectively than radiologists do.
Feb. 17, 2011 6:26 p.m. triumph5 Dork

Name a single channel that airs every program you love and can't get enough of......

Do you have any idea who has more original productions/movies than any other channel? Hey they often surpass campy to the absurd, by, the productions employee a LOT of people and related industries. Don't like the wrestling and junk, grab the remote.

And yes, Industrial photo and Video production is very different for production for the air. In many ways much more of a challenge. Been there, sometime do that.

This crapping about this aired that, and that's garbage, and they're all the same. Hey, if they were all the same they'd all get the same ratings. NO? AAARRRGGGHHHH...

I just want to work on my Triumph in a warmish garage.......and find a bit more steady work for the benefits. Apologies.
Feb. 17, 2011 7:34 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

racerdave600 wrote:

I came from a TV production background too. A couple of years ago the industry here absolutely tanked. Lots of us unemployed in the industry. In a bad economy, TV and video production is one of the first things cut.

I also came from video/Television. I had just gotten myself a great job shooting video for a company that taught teachers online when 9/11 happened. We lost people AND our servers when those towers came down.

I now work in the casinos doing theatrical lighting at the Borgata and A/V at Harrahs
Feb. 17, 2011 11:43 p.m. friedgreencorrado SuperDork

Everyone (and especially SyntheticBlinkerFluid), my most profound apologies for the thread hijack..I thought my current misfortune was appropriate to the thread, since we were talking about how & why cable TV now sucks.

SBF, say the word, and I'll make a new thread about this stuff, but for now, I'll try to reply to the folks that responded to my hijack, since they replied with such honesty.

IanF, good job. Having the house paid off is a good thing (and the reason I'm going to liquidate my "retirement" nonsense in the first place). Seems to me that if you have a roof over your head, everything else is a secondary concern. IMO, you're right about the "next 10 to 20 years"..this may be the birth of the Lib'ruls Gun Owners' club! The house is paid for, the food comes from my CSA, and I'll go straight to defending the property when things get worse!

racerdave, Yah..me too. Weird thing, I actually went back to a "master control" position because I couldn't write worth a E36 M3, I couldn't shoot pretty pictures, and I wasn't the best editor on the face of the planet.

mad_machine, I'll probably do the same thing. There's a big company here in Atlanta that offers freelance work for folks that can set up the video stuff at conventions/etc. It kinda tickles my sense of humor that I could actually get paid because so many corporate folks can't tell an RCA plug from an s-video. Jeez, perhaps I should rent m'self out as a "consultant" to help them get their "home theatre" crap running up in their penthouses!

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