Pimp my airwaves?

But first, short remarks about the LT who has refused to go to Iraq. h/t to blackfive and heidi.

For me, anyone coming in the service after 9-11 should understand one thing: you will very likely go to Iraq. You may not go now or next year, but you have a very good chance to go. Understand that before you raise your hand, take the oath and take a paycheck.

Make your decisions now about whether or not you think it's a lawful order to go. Yes, you have an obligation to disobey an unlawful order, but it's not like you don't see this coming.

I’m sorry it takes someone this long to make this kind of decision. Make the decisions you can live with, but understand the consequences. Refuse to go and pay the price.

No whining…pick up a jumpsuit and stand inside the bars.

Now for some news about American Forces Radio:

Stars and Stripes has published a story concerning a recent study by Lund Media Research. The study recommends changes to various radio services and formats that American Forces Network provides. It’s the first major study in more than ten years.

And the bottom line is that no one has made any decisions about anything yet…

You’re going to hear, read and see lots of accusations in the near future. People want to fill in facts where there aren’t any and speculate over “what it all means”. Some folks see this as an attempt to get rid of certain programs such as Rush Limbaugh (whom I happen to like).

Others, such as John Gibson over at Fox, think that AFN radio is going to become Hip Hop Nation, serving up a “steady diet” of nothing but Hip Hop…

No we’re not.

We’re not going to serve up a steady diet of any one food. We understand that we have lots of audiences to serve. Right now we’re just happy to have some better information about our audiences and what they’re interested in.

You’ve all seen this before. An organization—any organization—wants to change things, so they bring in some experts in a particular field. They do some surveys and get a list of recommendations. Then the real work begins when we sit down and start to look at the details. That's where we're at now. Do you think we—or anyone else—is going to start making any changes before we figure out what it will cost and how it will affect us in the long run? We have to answer a lot questions. Will this affect our core values as an organization? Will we be able to sustain it? Will it make things better or worse? Will we have to stop doing something else to make this happen?

Organizations look at all options and consider each one carefully before acting, especially when they’re trying to make things better. These are decisions we’re all going to have to live with for a while so we’re going to take the time to make the right ones.

We understand that our main mission is bringing service members to the information commanders want them to have. We also understand that if we don’t make our products entertaining then the information won’t matter at all. People have to want to tune in and that means giving them something they want.

But anyone who tells you that AFN is “definitely going to do” anything doesn’t have a clue.

The bottom line is this: We ain’t going all Slim Shady on ya…peace out dawg!