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Petition drives against T-Radio

Some buskers are now carrying petitions you can sign against this aural abominiation MBTA experiment. There's also an online petition, but, what do you think the odds are the T will care about that? Better to start looking for scruffy looking people at South Station with clipboards and ask if they're those Emerson kids the T has supposedly hired to gauge public opinion. Also, even if you don't read it, write to the Metro - who knows, maybe Dan Grabauskas will answer your note in his column?

Petition info via the Accidental Fiddler, who recounts her experiences playing fiddle in South Station with T-Radio going:

... It's possible to play in South Station with T-Radio at its current decibel level, but it's much like having someone muttering unintelligibly in your ear while you're trying to give a speech: it can be done, but it's annoying. This does not, of course, speak to the possible annoyance level of people waiting for the train who can hear both the busker and the radio. ...

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Comments

That particular petition isn't going to go to the T; it's going straight to the Governor. At some point.

Someone really should write the question to Grabauskas's Metro column.

That someone should not be me, because my name's splashed about enough as it is, and this really isn't a one-busker (or even only-busker) crusade.

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with this letter...feel free to copy and paste it on letters to editors everywhere...

There is absolutely no way that T Radio would help buskers get more exposure than they already get by putting on live performances for thousands of commuters every day. But there are dozens of ways that T Radio will harm buskers by gobbling up any audible space, but the issue of buskers is really the least of my concerns.

The gargantuan debt accrued by the MBTA is shored up by public tax dollars. The MBTA is a public institution that works for the public good. Therefore, its stations are public property. Allowing a radio station – any radio station – to broadcast there is analogous to a station being able to broadcast at a public park, like the Boston Common. Can you imagine how soiled a visitor’s experience would be as a result? Or, for residents who cannot afford their own car, you can ask the cushy decision-makers at the MBTA and the State House if they’d appreciate a car whose radio turns on when the engine starts. And this radio is stuck on one station. And the volume knob doesn’t work.

I’ve lived in Boston for eight years, and this is probably one of the worst ideas for a public space I have ever encountered.

Adam Friedman
Somerville MA

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This is at least the second attempt by the T to marginalize or get rid of buskers. It wasn't too long ago that they demanded that all buskers perform at inaudible levels; that failed. T Radio sounds like Dan Grabasskiss's revenge.

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Sign the Stop T-Radio Petition at

http://www.Petitiononline.com/TRADIO/petition.html

the official petition sponsored by Community Arts Advocates.org.

Ask Deval Patrick to stop T-Radio with an injunction.

Complaints to MBTA's email can be doctored.

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T-Radio is such a ludicrous idea. Let's hope it fails to go through.

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