Privacy Regained

At one time, it seemed to Transit Radio Inc. like a fine idea. With busloads of hapless passengers as audiences, music--and commercials--could be broadcast in urban buses all over the U.S. The plan was fought by groups of indignant passengers, by newspaper editorials and magazines (notably The New Yorker), all charging that bus broadcasts were an invasion of the bus rider's privacy. Last year the company won a favorable Supreme Court decision and thought its troubles were over. But the bus-riding public and the nation's advertisers combined to overrule the Supreme Court.

Transit Radio's President Richard Crisler this week admitted that bus broadcasts have already been abandoned in St. Louis and Omaha, will be dropped this week in Washington and Cincinnati, are losing money in Tacoma, Wash., Worcester, Mass. and Trenton, N.J. The reason: loss of national revenue.

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