Snooze-button issues
You've got to give it up for Dan Roberts. The affable UR professor really does try his best to use his "A Moment in Time" radio spots to make history come alive, despite the undeniable fact that not a single person listening gives a flying crap about what he's talking about.
What's even more amazing about "AMIT" is that it's not even the least interesting facet of WCVE's non-music programming. That honor goes to the Virginia stock report, which I convinced has never held a listener all the way through. (I mean, are there still that many people who don't check their stocks on the Internet?) Still, for sheer what-the-fug-ness, I gotta hand the crown for Dan's three-part reports on the seeds of the Protestant reformation, the grisly end of Henry VIII's fifth wife or the behind the scenes machinations at the Concordat of Worms. (I made my own "Moment in Time" lede, which you can listen to here.)
Both programs would be kind of charming in their cluelessness if they weren't so indicative of the contempt with which CVE regards its audience. After "All Things Considered" in the morning, the station blares old-lady classical warhorses for five hours. No "Talk of the Nation" or "Diane Rehm Show"--not even that half-assed Slate/NPR program!
Every time anyone I know has approached WCVE with an idea of creating a less fusty music program or encouraging them to buy a call-in program other than "Car Talk," they've been essentially told that CVE likes things the way they are, and if you'd like to change it, you're welcome to contribute $100,000. Bottom line.
Well, I have an idea about this. You know those XM and Sirius satellite radios? Between them, they carry a lot of public-radio programming, except "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition," which public radio stations are pressuring NPR to reserve for them. What's to prevent someone with satellite radio, though, from "going terrestrial" for an hour or so a day? Nothing, and if nimble enough, that person will never have to listen to the Virginia stock report ever again. In its own small way, that's historic.
What's even more amazing about "AMIT" is that it's not even the least interesting facet of WCVE's non-music programming. That honor goes to the Virginia stock report, which I convinced has never held a listener all the way through. (I mean, are there still that many people who don't check their stocks on the Internet?) Still, for sheer what-the-fug-ness, I gotta hand the crown for Dan's three-part reports on the seeds of the Protestant reformation, the grisly end of Henry VIII's fifth wife or the behind the scenes machinations at the Concordat of Worms. (I made my own "Moment in Time" lede, which you can listen to here.)
Both programs would be kind of charming in their cluelessness if they weren't so indicative of the contempt with which CVE regards its audience. After "All Things Considered" in the morning, the station blares old-lady classical warhorses for five hours. No "Talk of the Nation" or "Diane Rehm Show"--not even that half-assed Slate/NPR program!
Every time anyone I know has approached WCVE with an idea of creating a less fusty music program or encouraging them to buy a call-in program other than "Car Talk," they've been essentially told that CVE likes things the way they are, and if you'd like to change it, you're welcome to contribute $100,000. Bottom line.
Well, I have an idea about this. You know those XM and Sirius satellite radios? Between them, they carry a lot of public-radio programming, except "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition," which public radio stations are pressuring NPR to reserve for them. What's to prevent someone with satellite radio, though, from "going terrestrial" for an hour or so a day? Nothing, and if nimble enough, that person will never have to listen to the Virginia stock report ever again. In its own small way, that's historic.
posted by Andrew Beaujon at 11:14
1 Comments:
Don't give up on WRIR.org
There are new people on the VCPP board who are working their way around the hippie drone.
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