On Wednesday, March 24, 2004, at 07:29 PM, Dwayne Monroe wrote:
>
> My city, for example, hosts one of the major NPR/PBS
> outlets -- WHYY radio and television.
isn't "fresh air" out of whyy? so you ARE the center! ;-)
>
> Although there's some amount of local programming,
> you're much more likely to see a soberly narrated
> documentary about the trials and tribulations of the
> Windsors of un-Merry Nu Britain than a program about
> the goings on in City Council, a group which meets
> about a fifteen minute walk from the station's
> multi-million dollar "media center" ('built with your
> loyal support -- Thanks").
>
> Practically all of the programming is pushed from a
> center to the affiliates.
i wonder how true this is, nationally. i've noticed a huge difference in public radio programming moving from chicago to west virginia. in chicago, it was *chicago* public radio; here it's *west virginia* public radio. you see where i'm going? in chicago, i could listen all morning and get morning edition spotted with significant local/state news, then from that all the way to "all things considered" were local shows; i'm thinking of "848" and "odyssey", mainly. often, these shows were precisely about chicagoland politics or state politics, with carlos hernandez gomez reporting from downstate. here on WVPR, the weather is west virginia weather. you can imagine how helpful that is. and the programming is all straight NPR/PRI programming until some evening programming some evenings.
it seems to me that the domination of the center in NPR affiliates is tied directly to local resources. now, mind you, i recognize chicago is going to be the exception to the rule, but . . .
j