Bus driver
questions satellite radio service for children
John Gleason
Archdiocese of Denver
December 12, 2007
Daniel Kenny is concerned and wants people to know what
he’s concerned about. Kenny is a member of St. Frances
Cabrini Parish in Littleton. He is also is a bus driver
for the Littleton School District. It’s what’s happing
on the bus that he wants people to be aware of.
“Two months ago, the drivers were told that the busses
were being installed with a satellite radio service
called Bus Radio,” Kenny said. “The kids are being
forced to listen to music that may not be
age-appropriate.”
Bus Radio offers kids a music alternative to what they
hear on regular commercial radio. A description on the
company’s Web site says the music programs are tailored
to elementary, junior high and high school audiences. In
addition to the music, students are encouraged to log
onto the Bus Radio Web site where they can enter
contests, rate songs, make requests and participate in
polls. School districts that sign up with the service
can share in ad revenues generated by it. That is one
issue that bothers Kenny.
“Up until this story broke on KOA radio, we were told we
couldn’t turn the volume down,” Kenny said. “Otherwise,
the district couldn’t receive any revenue. They were
also able to monitor how long the segments played.” Some
songs contain explicit lyrics or suggestive themes,
according to Kenny. Others deal in profanity,
promiscuity, even suicide. School districts can sign up
for Bus Radio without notifying parents. In a manner
that can be described as Orwellian, the children have
become a captive audience, forced to listen to music
they may not want to hear or that their parents wouldn’t
approve of.
The Archdiocese of Denver does not operate an overall
bus system for Catholic schools and none of the busses
operated by individual Catholic schools subscribes to
Bus Radio. Still, Superintendent for Catholic Schools
Richard Thompson said this should be of concern to all
educators.
“I know we have many Catholic children who ride busses
to public schools,” Thompson said. “This is an issue
that warrants parental involvement and parental
scrutiny. It’s an example of how parents need to be the
primary educator of their children.”
Meantime, Kenny has tried repeatedly to obtain advance
copies of playlists to see what Bus Radio will be airing
and has met with little success. Bus Radio has stopped
responding to his e-mails, he said. But he’s not giving
up. Not when he feels that this service is detrimental
to the kids.
“We’re talking about God’s children here,” he said. “Why
should we support a company that degrades people
nationwide? This needs to be answered by the school
districts.”