HD Radio, Satelite Radio...Bus Radio?

While searching for information on the latest news in Marketing to Children I stumbled upon an article from Palm Beach County. Apparently the county's school district is considering an alternative option to normal radio on buses. Their plan is to equip 200 of the district's 645 buses with what they refer to as "Bus Radio". The "Bus Radio" will play preprogrammed Top 40 songs with “age-appropriate content,” public safety messages and commercials.

The district's reason for the "Bus Radio" is to help prevent student fights and disruptions. The district feels that by removing exposure to offensive and sexually explicit lyrics on local radio stations they will see a lower rate of student fighting. My response...how?

How does the district feel that by changing what the students listen to on the bus to and from school will have a significant affect on their behavior. I'm not sure how long children in Palm Beach County are typically on a bus for, but the longest I remember being on a bus was about 15 minutes, so half an hour total. The children are exposed to this music in the car to school, they download it on their computers on to their iPods which they bring with them on the bus. I personally think that they are wasting their money trying to impress the parents of the district.

Another thing I found to be interesting was that the same school district has recently allowed advertising on the bus. Their rules for advertising...ads are OK as long as they don’t promote tobacco, alcohol or condoms. I find it contradictory that they are trying to "protect" the students from music, but they are allowing advertisers manipulate them by placing ads in their buses so that they receive a cut of the profit.

Inspiration for this post provided by Commercial Alert