Good Job: WCBU, WOAM

In tribute to the great job Jonathan Ahl does on his WCBU program “Outside the Horseshoe,” the city council defeated a motion to move the council meeting start time back 15 minutes to 6:00.  That move would have caused the cancellation of Ahl’s much-liked interview program that airs every Tuesday night at 6:00 when there’s a council meeting.  What a compliment to local radio that the city council recognized the value of this program to the community.
 
Also, I listened to the Midwest League All-Star game tonight on WOAM.  In addition to the usual play-by-play, they also included interviews with Pete Vonachen and the president of the Midwest League, among others.  Way to add value to the program!  WOAM also broadcasts all the regular-season Chiefs games and other local sports games.  Just another example of good local broadcasts.

Don’t cut funding for public broadcasting

What hath man wrought–and how will man use his inventions? The law that I will sign shortly offers one answer to that question. It announces to the world that our Nation wants more than just material wealth; our Nation wants more than a “chicken in every pot.” We in America have an appetite for excellence, too. While we work every day to produce new goods and to create new wealth, we want most of all to enrich man’s spirit. That is the purpose of this act.
 
— President Lyndon B. Johnson, upon signing the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 (11/7/67)
Republicans have put funding for public television on the chopping block, wanting to cut it by 25% this year, and eventually do away with it completely.  The reasoning given by the committee recommending the cuts was “something’s got to give.”  In other words, the budget has to be cut somewhere, and public broadcasting is one of the less-necessary expenditures. 
 
And that would mean something if they were submitting a balanced budget.  But they’re not, and one has to wonder if all the other deficit spending is really more important than public broadcasting ($3.1 billion for a mission to Mars, for instance?).
 
I know there are those that think public radio and television are politically liberal.  And they’re probably right.  But public radio and television is more than just news programming.  Most of WCBU’s day is spent playing classical music; WGLT plays jazz.  There are also entertaining shows like A Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk, and locally there’s Outside the Horseshoe and the weekly broadcast of the city council meetings.  WTVP offers concerts, plays, musical theater, ballet, opera, British entertainment and news programming, documentaries, local sports (Lady Braves), and other local programming such as Illinois Adventure and documentaries on Grandview Drive and Peoria in general.  And all these programs are commercial-free.
 
There’s another thing that public TV offers that’s becoming an endangered species on television:  children’s educational programming.  Kids programming on network television is dwindling, and none of it is what one would call educational.  Meanwhile, PBS regularly offers entertaining and educational children’s programming, like Sesame Street, just as it has for the past 35 years. 
 
And that’s why I find it odd that Republicans are anti-public-broadcasting.  I would think that conservatives worried about the dearth of family-friendly programming would be the first in line to support quality programming on radio and television.  Why sacrifice all the good of public broadcasting just because a few political programs tilt to the left?  I’m a moderate Republican and I wake up to NPR news every morning.  While I have heard some biased reporting (it’s inevitable, in my opinion, regardless of whether you’re a conservative or liberal reporter), by far most of the news reports are well-balanced, and opinion pieces are clearly identified as such.
 
Public broadcasting should be preserved and it should be funded.  President Johnson’s argument is still persuasive:  how will we use our inventions?  We already know what television looks like in the “free market,” and that has its place.  But our nation “wants more than just material wealth”; we want “most of all to enrich man’s spirit.”  It’s a noble and worthy goal.  And that’s just what the arts, educational, and entertainment on public broadcasting provides — and, I might add, provides to everyone on over-the-air broadcast stations.
 
I encourage everyone to call or write their representatives and ask them to keep funding public broadcasting:
 
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) 1-202-224-2152
Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) 1-202-224-2854
Rep. Ray LaHood (R-18th) 1-202-225-6201
Rep. Lane Evans (D-17th) 1-202-225-5905
Rep. Tim Johnson (R-15th) 1-202-225-2371
Rep. Jerry Weller (R-11th) 1-202-225-3635
 

Why not put MWL All-Stars on TV?

Tonight is the Midwest League All-Star Game, which is in Peoria for the first time since 1992. It starts with a home-run derby at 6 p.m., followed by the first pitch at 7 p.m. Here’s the roster for tonight’s game.

When the Chiefs played their first game at the new O’Brien Field, it was broadcast on WEEK-TV. It was a very exciting event — they even had Cardinals pitcher Steve Kline pitching that night as part of his rehab. Channel 25 did a good job of covering it — the camera work was professional, the play-by-play was entertaining, and it was just like watching a big-league game.

I can understand why regular-season minor league games wouldn’t be the most exciting television on a regular basis, so I can see why they haven’t broadcast any since O’Brien Field opened. But why not televise the all-star game? WEEK shows regular-season Bradley Basketball games every year, and WTVP broadcasts some of the Lady Braves games. It seems like the MWL All-Star game would be a natural for local sports broadcasting, with all the minor league stars destined for the big leagues right here in Peoria.

Instead, all we’ll see of them on TV will be coverage on the local news tonight, which will probably be about the same length segment as they devote to White Sox highlights. That’s too bad.

Just out of curiosity, I looked up what was on TV tonight that would have been preempted if they showed the All-Star game:

WEEK: “A Katie Couric Special” on Jennifer Wilbanks, the ditz who faked her own abduction (big loss to preempt that); “I Want to Be a Hilton” (Premiere: “Kathy Hilton works with 14 young contestants, who compete for the chance to live a champagne-and-caviar lifestyle for a year”), “Law & Order: SVU” (repeat)

WTVP: “Nova” (repeat), “The Harlem Globetrotters: the Team that Changed the World” (repeat), and “Frontline” (which is new, but will be rebroadcast on the 23rd and 26th)

WMBD: “AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movie Quotes” hosted by Pierce Brosnan

WHOI: “My Wife and Kids” (repeat); NBA Basketball (okay, that one’s gotta stay)

WYZZ: “Trading Spouses” (repeat); “House” (repeat); News; “M*A*S*H” (repeat, obviously)

WAOE: “All of Us” (repeat); “Half & Half” (repeat); “Girlfriends” (repeat); “The Bad Girls’ Guide” (new); “Becker” (two repeats)


Based on these lineups, I think there are several stations which could have preempted (or time-shifted, in a couple cases) their programming to broadcast the All-Star Game.

Jeff Melbourne recently alerted us that Peoria’s TV station’s FCC licenses are up for renewal at the end of the year. The FCC has established a Localism Task Force to “promote localism in radio and television broadcasting.” I’ve already acknowledged that a couple of our local stations have shown a commitment to local sports by showing Braves games, and of course WTVP does the most local programming of anyone, so I want to be careful to give credit where credit’s due. But I think showing repeats of network shows instead of tonight’s baseball game is a big missed opportunity for more local broadcasting here in Peoria.