More on Little Local Radio Content
Kai -- September 9th, 2007
Anyone on WMRA-WEMC’s email lists received a notice last week that the stations are now (both) being streamed at www.wmra.org. What’s interesting to me in the context of the recent discussions about applying to start a station with more local content is the email’s description of the two stations – and that not even one listed program is local (even though they have shows like Insight):
WMRA broadcasts the flagship NPR news programs, Morning Edition and All Things Considered, the popular programs Car Talk and A Prairie Home Companion, and classical, folk and blues music.
WEMC airs BBC News and NPR’s daily talk shows, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Talk of the Nation and On Point, as well as The Story, Democracy Now, jazz, world, folk and bluegrass music, a variety of public affairs programs and Sunday morning religious music.
To be clear, I regularly enjoy most of this programming and value it being available. The point I’m making is even what some regard as more nuanced and informational radio is NOT local in focus. NPR shows being syndicated nationally, while valuable, contributes to the homogenization of the popular media and, thus, culture and thinking.
What’s nice about this commentary is, if you agree, you can support a chance to create an alternative. Support OrangeBand’s application for new FM frequency (raised $1800, need $1700 more).
What are your favorite media providers of local information (besides hburgnews of course)?
By the way, just got an email from WXJM 88.7 managers.
There are 4 slots left if anyone is interested in having a show:
Monday: 6AM-8AM (Freeform), 12PM-2PM (Americana)
Saturday: 6AM-8AM (Freeform), 3PM-6PM (World)
do you have to be a jmu student? how prescribed are the non-”freeform” shows?
oh, and I have to say that WMRA streaming is awesome! I love having it in my itunes like any other mp3.
Kai,
NPR is a funny thing. You have stations like WVTF in Roanoke that have an amazing amount of local content and news and then you have stations like WMRA that devote very little time to it. I’ve always wondered why NPR had individual stations instead of a series of repeater stations that simply piped the “national” shows and content via satellite.
You asked about our favorite local information provider. I’m obviously biased, but it leads to an interesting question raised in the latest poll by the Breeze. The paper asks a similar question to yours and offers several choices…none of which are radio. It may seem like an insignificant snub to some, but I find it to be a commentary on the lack of awareness that college age folk have to radio that is not music related. It’s not a new problem, but I think it’s a growing one. I’d be curious at what age (if ever) that readers of this blog crossed over to the AM side of the dial.
My reasons and timing for “crossing over” were um….unique. But, I’ll say that I know that a lot of people my age go to the internet for news and no where else. If they want more local content they’ll go to the paper or TV next. I really think that AM radio is something that a lot of people forget about in this age of instant gratification. My first instinct is always the major news websites. I watched CNN.com all day for news on the VT shooting, but never thought to turn on the radio. I agree that most college age people think that the radio is only for music. I know a select group of people that listen to AM and they are all smarter than the average bears.
Karl M.,
I started listening to the AM side of the dial ( talk radio) when
I was around 27 years old.
I have less and less tolerance for commercials, so radio and TV are ‘out’ as news (or even entertainment) sources for me. Reading the news online is the best option I’ve found. When I want video, Reuters online doesn’t make you sit through commercials. I get local content from DNRonline (although I can’t stomach their letters to the editor) and hburgnews!
There are no good local news providers. (There, I said it). Its sad.
And I have no illusions about how difficult and expensive local news can be. That’s why WVTF has two on-air fundraisers per year and raises more than $500,000 from its listeners. It also gets lots of organizational support from Virginia Tech (the staff are salaried VT employees with benefits)
I’m inclined to believe that without a core national news and entertainment feed from NPR and American Public Media, along with organization support, a community radio station would have a hard time drawing a critical mass of donating listeners, and a viable news staff.
Sorry you’re dis-serviced by the local media Bubby. What would you do differently?
Out of complete curiosity, what type of business are you in?
I agree with you Bubby, the local media, in almost all its forms, is pretty lame. I’ve lived in many different cities so I have a lot of markets to compare it too.
The DNR is a joke, “Candid Comment” is just an outlet for yahoos who are best “seen and not heard” (I take that back, these folks are also best not seen).
And any station director that allows the likes of Boortz and Coulter to be heard deserves to be demoted back to Mississippi.
Karl Magenhofer does a great job at WSVA all things considered. The last time I was trying to find out about a local news story and listened to both WSVA noon news and WHSV, it seemed like there was more content in five minutes of the radio broadcast than a half hour of TV nes.
news.
WHSV and the DNR are kind of like Wikipedia – you might start your research there but if you count on them to give you the whole story without bias or outright falsehoods, you end up sounding like a schmuck. If a story is worth learning about, I almost always look for related websites or talk to people in the know.
WSVA is a good resource, but because it’s radio and their website isn’t formatted well, stories vanish into the ether after going over the airwaves.
WMRA’s local programming (especially Insight, With Good Reason, and Martha Woodroof’s reports) are excellent, and their website makes it easy to use what they produce.
Not that anybody asked my opinion, but there it is.
Karl: You could quit facilitating divisive right wing nuttery. Providing an outlet for Boortz and his VT shooting oral diarrhea was disappointing, but ginning it along via “Candid Comment” took WSVA straight into willful pandering and showed little respect for your community. There was a chance to guide a discussion about wrongly using tragedy to score culture war points, and you folks didn’t just miss it, you piled on.
I provide professional services to a client base that I’m fairly certain does not find a call in comment free-for-all to be entertaining, enlightening, or a productive use of time. Sort of like my family, we don’t put our crazy relatives at the head of table – it only encourages them, and annoys the rest of us.
In all fairness, I don’t think Karl is in charge of programming for WSVA, is he?
Boortz and his VT shooting oral diarrhea? You disagree with the statements Boortz made about this country turning into a bunch of passive sheep?
Go into any government school on one of their intruder days, you’ll see all of the kids piled into a corner of any given program.
Watch Glenn Beck on Headline News tonight…you’ll learn what the terrorists have planned for our schools and our kids.
BTW, given the meager resources Karl has, there is no single better reporter in the central Shenandoah Valley…Dave Reynolds is close.
And I’m pretty sure that Candid Comment’s has likely been on WSVA longer than you’ve been in the Valley. It exists solely by squatter’s rights. But would be a lot more interesting if Karl or Kacey were running the show.
Boortz spewed nonsense and his listeners, including fellow Virginians bleated the message like sheep.
I do have to agree that Candid Comment is not what it used
to be.
So, because some people in your “community” say something you (Bubby) don’t agree with or find laced with fault, THEY are wrong.
Change the channel big boy, just change the channel.
Free your mind, and the rest will follow.
What does CC, Boortz and Alton have to do with Karl and his news?
Ah, professional services. That explains a lot.
A little trivia tidbit .. When Bob MacNeil hosted CC, he never commented – because – he shaved and did other things rather than pay attention to callers. That is how he lasted so long. No joke!
Benny’s right from the stories I have heard about Bob. I guess I was asking news specific. That was my mistake since the conversation was about local information and not just news.
Bubby, asked about your job as a point of reference. Basically trying to figure out if you were part of the target demo. Hope no one was under the impression I would spin that info around in a negative manner. Sorry you feel the need to be so vague.
On the Boortz issue. Pretty easy to say his comments were misguided, but they achieved what he is paid to do. Radio commentators opinions are like wrestlers, if they are not loved or hated they are irrelevant. Candid Comment is another animal. The shows format hasn’t changed, so blame humanity if you think its worse than it used to be.
I’m envious of WVTF in the sense that they have a lot more air time to work with and the reporters to fill that time. They run the nx department there like a newspaper, each reporter has about one story to do. It wastes a lot of money, but you can’t argue with the final product.
BTW, thanks for indulging me in this conversation. No one better to learn from than the (potential) listening audience.
Wow, I remember the days of Bob MacNeil, Benny. I rarely listened to Candid Comment back then also. I never listen to it at all now. Not that it’s a bad show.It just grates on my nerves…the people who call, that is. I listen to WSVA on my drive to work from Broadway…..I get the local news and weather and off the radio goes. I watch Fox News at work for an hour or so,then cut it off also. I just like to hear what’s going on and hate all the other crap in between.
So when you say Benny that CC isn’t what it used to be? It never was much to begin with. Some things never change.
First, a disclaimer: I work part-time for WMRA, but any comments I make are my own and do not represent the station.
I get my local information mostly from the DNR and this blog.
I lament the loss of “community” radio – I love hearing the “flavor” of an area through its programming and when I travel, I seek out those stations. However, these days they’re a lot harder to find. As the government is providing less funding for public radio, stations are having to be more concerned with how to pay for staff, programming, equipment, etc. So many [most] stations are streamlining their programming to include the more popular programs, and cutting back or completely eliminating niche or costlier programming. And to do news/information shows WELL is expensive. (I’d heard that there was a movement away from even using the term “local” since it’s often seen as synonymous with “amateur”.)
NPR (and other network) programs are high-quality, consistent, and have a proven track record. That’s why the programmers and listeners like them. It’s just too bad that we have to give up so much local content in order to get them.
Dave,
Are you talking about the same Glenn Beck who called Al Gore “Hitler”, the same Glenn Beck who accused Jimmy Carter of not believing in the Holocaust, the same Glenn Beck who has a history of making flagrantly false and offensive statements. I think I’ve heard of him. I think it was when he expressed his wishes for a certain female presidential candidates death. No I think it was when he accused the sole Muslim congressmen of “siding with the enemy.”
If we are speaking of good reporting and quality news, it would probably serve you best not to discredit yourself mid-argument by pointing to one of the most pathetic examples in the national media.
Bob MacNeil would comment every once in a while. He came out in support of Ollie North’s campaign towards the end of his career. But Benny’s right, it was pretty funny to have this host with an awesome pro voice who wasn’t actually paying much attention to the caller.
Just found this over at vartv. Forgive me if this is old news.
Eastern Mennonite University’s News/World Variety WEMC/91.7 Harrisonburg (run by James Madison University) has requested from the FCC to move its antenna 10 miles to the NNW of its current location and increase its power and antenna height. Currently, the station is a Class A doing just 1.85kW at 190 feet. They are requesting to be a directional Class B, doing 9.5kW at 653 feet, adding significant coverage further up and down I-81.
I heard some big news from Kai last night. Probably justifies another posting…
I’ll post when it’s confirmed, but right now there’s a chance we’ll be able to apply for a frequency that would have coverage more relevant to this blog’s reading audience, i.e. cover Staunton, Waynesboro – and Harrisonburg! It’s in the works right now.
If this excites you, consider donating at http://www.orangeband.org to help cover the price of the engineer who found this!
Kai is correct that I should have mentioned “Insight” in the email about streaming WMRA and WEMC programming. My mistake in being too hasty to get the word out. However, since I did mention classical, folk and blues, Kai’s contention that “not even one listed program is local” is untrue. Those genres account for 31 hours per week of local programming, and area musicians are heard every week on most of the shows. Additionally, local content is included within NPR’s Morning Edition and All Things Considered – news stories, Civic Soapbox essays, excerpts from “Insight.”