Don’t promote new and cool technology that’s not new or cool
So I'm listening to Radio Disney with my kids in the car and I hear a promo saying that you can now listen to Radio Disney on your smart phone. Given that my iPhone qualifies as a smart phone, I was all ears (pardon the Disney pun).
The promo mentioned that to start the process of listening to Radio Disney on your smart phone, you need to text the word LISTEN to 347639 (which spells DISNEY on your phone).
I couldn't resist trying something new and cool
Excited to see how this worked, I quickly sent the text message and immediately received this message back:
WaltDisneyIntGrp: Listen 2 Radio Disney live, request a song, shoutout & more at http://radiodisney.mobi Std msg chrgs aply.
So I followed the link to radiodisney.mobi (for noobies the .mobi usually represents a mobile phone specific version of a web site) and noticed a prominent "Click here to listen live" link. My excitement was building.
The next screen had a big red button surrounded by the words LISTEN NOW! I was almost there. Then I saw this:
Clicking on the button above will prompt you to make a phone call to listen to Radio Disney.
Followed by some more mumbo-jumbo and then this:
By clicking on the link for Listen Now!, you will initiate a phone call to a number that plays audio and also uses minutes from your calling plan. Standard data and airtime carrier fees may apply and will depend on the specific terms and conditions of your voice and data plan.
What?!?!?!
Giant let-down
This is not new technology! Not even close. All I could picture when I read this was some intern whose lousy job it was to hold up a portable radio to the phone every time someone called in.
Of course, that's not what is happening but it may as well be. It's just as un-cool as how it is really done.
I can't wait until one of my kids gets wind of how to do this and runs up a $3,000 cell phone bill just so he could listen to the Jonas Brothers or get more details on High School Musical 4.
I feel the same as the day I found out that OnStar is nothing more than a cell phone. Ugh!
6 comments for this blog post so far...
May 19, 2009 at 3:49 pm
bnpositive
Oh man! That’s classic. Somebody should add that to the Epic Fail blog.
May 20, 2009 at 8:12 am
Patric Welch
@bnpositive: Glad I’m not the only one who thinks this is ridiculous!
May 26, 2009 at 9:38 pm
Brian
FAIL!
June 08, 2009 at 6:41 pm
bill
Sweet. Hold music on demand.
June 08, 2009 at 9:40 pm
Patric Welch
@bill: Exactly!
May 08, 2011 at 3:57 pm
mikayla
Holy sh..sheesh… I was listening to it and I read this article and Hung up immediately...darn it. Hope the cell phone bill’s not too much. Man, that sucks. I think that is unacceptable. If an 11 year old went a long and listened to Disney radio, think of the expense of the cell phone bill. just because she or he wanted to listen to the disney radio. The bill would be HUGE. I hope this stops soon… The parents would not be to thrilled about receiving about a 5,000 dollar cell phone bill. I thank you for informing me of this situation.
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