January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are open to all

Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by AlbertCory on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @08:00PM (#34075322)

I was surprised to see WKRP in Cincinnati in the TV listings. It was my understanding that all the old music in those shows made them impossible to broadcast anymore, because (1) the copyright owners wanted too much money, and (2) for some of the music, it was impossible to find the owners.

Maybe they got past that, at least for some of the episodes.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by autoexec on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @09:45PM (#34076083)

Maybe they replaced the music? That's what they did in order to be able to release the series Daria on DVD. Included in the package was an apology letter explaining why they had to replace all the music.

They might have also secured some of the rights and just dropped the episodes containing songs where they couldn't. That's what Disney did when they put The Muppet Show on Disney+. A few episodes are missing because even with Disney's money they couldn't get the rights to all the songs.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by AlbertCory on Tuesday December 20, 2022 @11:10PM (#34076531)

I haven't watched it yet. I doubt they replaced the music, since it IS about a radio station.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by fmdragon on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @07:31AM (#34079826)

That's exactly what they did for the first DVD releases in the mid-2000s. Made it a bit jarring for some of the iconic scenes.

I believe the Shout Factory releases a few years back restored the majority of it though.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by AlbertCory on Thursday December 22, 2022 @01:03AM (#34090321)

OK, you made me look at that channel again. I thought WKRP was on at 5:30 (remember the days when you could only watch a show when it was "on"?) but it turns out it was 9:30 today.

I only heard a few seconds of Another One Bites the Dust and I'm not sure if it was the Queen version or not.

The closing music was custom, I think. So maybe they are just using the non-problematic episodes.

So fun to visit the backwaters of the TV world. They had a commercial for a product that helps you GAIN weight!

https://www.cb1weightgainer.com/

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by fmdragon on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @10:04AM (#34081556)

Where do you see WKRP listed?

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by AlbertCory on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @11:23AM (#34082691)

I don't have an online guide handy, but I do have a digital antenna (something I've written about before). (If you have line-of-sight with the tower, you can still watch major sports events for free. It's not dead.)

However, I think I saw WKRP in the "broadcast TV" popup on my TV. You can tell that they're going out on the web to get it, because at first it says "no information available" and then it populates the channels. It was on Channel 1 in the Bay Area, which shows almost all ancient shows.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by fmdragon on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:35PM (#34083718)

You actually meant your local TV listings! I thought there was a TV listings section in the article, lol. I was confused as to how WKRP could've been in the public domain.

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Re:January 1, 2023 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1927 are... by AlbertCory on Wednesday December 21, 2022 @12:38PM (#34083765)

> your local TV listings

yes. Those still exist; still free.

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