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By Paul Thurst, on September 2nd, 2011
I found this article in Boston.com an interesting read:
Vermont’s unsung Hurricane Hero
Just as the flood waters were rising and people in Vermont were struggling to escape their homes with merely the clothing on their backs:
…when I checked the CBS Evening News moments later, I watched in astonishment as the head of the National Hurricane Center, with a sweep of his hand toward Vermont, declared that the danger had passed. The storm was over, and overblown. The national media, focused on New York City, missed where Irene hit hardest. Vermont simply didn’t exist.
This is why radio, localy owned, locally run radio is vitally important. In the midst of disaster, WDEV opened it’s phone lines to the listeners and received information about flooded roads, people needing to be rescued, evacuation centers and a whole host of other things that kept the people informed and the potential death toll low. All of this while the power was out, the cable system disabled, the internet unavailable and battery powered radios were people’s only information source.
I have driven by the WDEV AM site in Waterbury, VT several times. It sits back on a hill side off of US Route 2/I-89 with three, what look like Miliken self supporting towers. It signed on in 1931 and has been owned by the Squier family since 1935. An FM signal was added in 1989. Stations like this are one of the reasons I still work in this business.
By Paul Thurst, on June 11th, 2010
 National Public ? NPISAIPD: National Public Internet Streaming Audio with I-Pod Downloads. Lets face it, when the National Public Radio CEO, Vivian Schiller, basically talks about doing away with radio in the next 5 to 10 years, what are they going to call the network? I suppose they could just say “National Public Media” or something like that. With radio’s current trajectory, she might not be wrong.
Of course all of the NPR affiliates that kick large sums of money up the chain to the network may have something to say about all this. After all, they are the one heavily invested in transmitters, towers, STL’s and all the other equipment, buildings and real estate required to transmit radio signals. Not that I particularly dislike NPR, I think they have some fine programs, but much of it is syndicated and this is where radio is falling apart. Non-local radio stations will perish. Only stations that offer something different and not available through other sources will survive and thrive, voice tracking and syndication will become the kiss of death.
This also leaves a bit of a problem for NPR itself. Much of its revenue (more than 50%) comes from network affiliation fees with member stations. If they intend on short circuiting those stations cutting them out of the programming loop (Schiller says no but we’ll see), they are going to have to figure out how to make up that lost revenue. If I were an NPR member station, I’d surely be looking at my network affiliation agreement and looking for ways to replace some of that content with something local. That would be planning ahead.
Local Radio.
Local news, local music, local arts, local sports, local weather, local content. I can find out what is going on in China, Israel, India or almost any place around the globe with a few key strokes on the computer. I can’t find out what happened at the local town board meeting, what the county legislature is up to, or whether the school budget passed. All of those things have immediate affects on my taxes and therefore my family finances.
Local radio. Fill in the void left by dead newspapers. That is what radio stations need to do, go local or perish.
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Axiom
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
~1st amendment to the United States Constitution
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
~Benjamin Franklin
...radio was discovered, and not invented, and that these frequencies and principles were always in existence long before man was aware of them. Therefore, no one owns them. They are there as free as sunlight, which is a higher frequency form of the same energy.
~Alan Weiner
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes the freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers
~Universal Declaration Of Human Rights, Article 19
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