Category Archives: Radio

Economic Development, Radio

This American Life on economic development

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There’s a Public Radio show called This American Life, hosted by Ira Glass, that I enjoy. They have a theme for each one-hour episode, and the episode is split into several segments, or “acts” as they call them, with each act looking at the same theme in different ways. Back in May, they had an episode with the theme of “How to Create a Job,” and I found Act 3 especially interesting. There’s not a way to embed the audio here, but if you follow this link, it will take you directly to Act 3 of that program. The segment lasts about 15 minutes. Take a listen. It will help you understand the rhetoric that comes from our own economic development gurus in Peoria.

This American Life: How to Create a Job (full program)
Direct Link to Act 3: Job Fairies

Radio

WCBU changing format to all news and information

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From my inbox:

Beginning March 7, 2011, WCBU will expand its offerings for Peoria area public radio listeners. The station will offer all news, information and entertainment programming on 89.9 FM, and expanded classical music to be aired on its digital frequency, WCBU 89.9 HD2.

“We believe this is a win-win for our current listeners,” says WCBU Executive Director Thomas Hunt. “It also gives us an opportunity to increase membership and do an even better job of meeting the needs of our audience.”

“We have heard from many members who have asked for additional news and information programming,” says Shelli Dankoff, President of the WCBU Advisory Board. “We’ll be able to give listeners even more opportunities to hear different viewpoints and to learn and discover new things. We are excited about what this means for our listeners.”

The station will continue to air popular shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and will expand information and National Public Radio (NPR) programming — adding new shows like BBC News, the Diane Rehm Show, Fresh Air and The World, all aired commercial-free. Listeners will also continue to enjoy entertainment programs like Prairie Home Companion, Car Talk and Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! and local programs like Outside the Horseshoe, Out and About, theater reviews and more. Local music programs, such as Music from the Heartland and Jazz from the Hilltop will be heard on both WCBU and WCBU HD2. The station will also maintain its dedicated newsroom and reporting staff for local and regional news coverage.

The change will also allow WCBU to offer central Illinois’ classical music listening audience more music in a superior format: Digital radio, which delivers CD-quality audio with crystal clear reception. Digital listeners can tune in on a digital radio or listen online at www.wcbufm.org, with minimal interruption and the familiar voices of WCBU on-air personalities.

“We’re committed to being stewards of art and culture in our region, giving the Peoria-area community access to many viewpoints and classical music programming,” says Hunt. “These format changes will help us deliver on that commitment.”

“As the Internet continues to expand our broadcast world, and with our move to digital broadcasting in 2007, the launch of WCBU2 provides a 24 hour opportunity to serve more listeners by consolidating all news programming and all music programming to their unique streams available on air and on-line all the time,” added Dankoff.

The new WCBU and WCBU HD2 program schedules and more information on HD radios will be available on the station’s web site www.wcbufm.org.

WCBU is the public radio service of Bradley University, and has served listeners in Peoria and central Illinois for more than 40 years. The station broadcasts daily from studios on the Bradley University campus.

You can see the new schedule for WCBU here, and the new WCBU “HD2” schedule here.

Museum Block, Peoria County, Radio

WCBU news misses the mark

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WCBU News this morning said that a successful effort to stop the issuance of general obligation bonds for the museum would be “a moot point” because the County Board could just use a different kind of bond to fund the project. Apparently the reporter fails to understand that the type of bond being used is the issue. If we were to stop the issuance of general obligation bonds and the County issued revenue bonds instead, then we will have prevailed. Hardly a “moot point.”

Usually WCBU does a good job reporting the news, but this story sorely missed the mark.

Radio

WCBU has new website

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Actually, WCBU has had a new website for a little while now, but I’m just getting around to blogging about it. WCBU is, of course, the public radio station in Peoria (89.9 FM) with studios at Bradley University. If you haven’t checked it out their new site, take a look: http://www.wcbufm.org/.

The local news is posted in a blog-like form. Shorter stories are text-only. Longer stories are posted as an audio clip. Each story has a permatag, so if I want to refer to a specific WCBU story, I can link directly to the post on it. For instance, if I want to talk about the big District 150 meeting yesterday, here’s what WCBU had to say about it. There’s also a section devoted to their Outside the Horseshoe program, which airs just before the Peoria City Council meetings.

The old site was largely static and hard to navigate. The new site is much improved, with lots of dynamic content and an improved menu system.

Radio

WAZU simulcasting Cabool station

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There’s a new radio station on Peoria’s dial: WAZU 90.7 FM. Since I read about it in Steve Tarter’s column in the Journal Star, I’ve been checking it out regularly. It’s “a non-commercial station operated by Illinois Central College.” The format is community radio, which is described by Wikipedia as “a third model of radio broadcasting beyond commercial and public service.”

The station is just getting started, which is obvious from all the signal drops over the past few weeks (it’s gotten much more stable in the past week or so). Tarter quoted ICC President John Erwin as saying, “We’re in the beta stage working out all the engineering pieces.” During this “beta stage” they are also doing no original broadcasting, but instead simulcasting KZGM (KZ-88) out of Cabool, Missouri.

The programming is pretty diverse (in type and style, if not political viewpoint). Unlike commercial and public radio stations, community radio doesn’t limit itself to one musical format. Music on WAZU/KZGM runs the gamut from Bing Crosby (who has a whole one-hour show dedicated to him Saturday mornings), to rock ‘n roll of the 50s and 60s, to Trance Music and progressive music, to folk music, to local musicians.

There are also a number of local (for Cabool) music and talk programs; in fact, more local programming than anything we’ve seen around Peoria in decades. The talk programming is not just news, but also gardening, puzzles, schools, health, etc. The news programming is decidedly liberal; they make NPR sound like Fox News. National news shows include Pacifica Radio’s “Free Speech Radio News” and “Democracy Now.” The narrow political viewpoint is a concern to at least one listener who has contacted me, saying:

From the December 17, 2009, ICC Board of Trustees meeting minutes, page 3, “Dr. Robert Ehrich commented that he is concerned with political views, and Dr. Erwin responded that the commentator is restricted from giving political opinions.” […] So far, it’s the only thing that I’ve heard on WAZU FM. I’m curious if WAZU will program a wide variety of political viewpoints, or not.

I don’t know if this answers my reader’s question, but according to WAZU’s new website:

WAZU hosts, who are referred to as “programmers”, are to be accorded the maximum amount of editorial freedom possible. The only requirement is that they adhere to WAZU’s mission statement, all programming must be educational and non-commercial, must serve the cultural welfare of the community, and must contribute (or at the very least not be a detriment) to a lasting understanding between nations and between the individuals of all nations, races, creeds and colors.

I’m looking forward to hearing what kind of local programming will be produced here in Peoria. So far, I’ve found community radio to be a welcome addition to Peoria’s radio dial, offering something completely different from existing radio stations. The Cabool hosts are interesting and entertaining; hopefully Peoria hosts will be also.

In other radio news, Peoria Pundit is reporting that four local FM stations have changed ownership recently.

Radio

Debate: Are teachers unions to blame for failing schools?

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I heard this debate on WCBU tonight. It’s from the program “Intelligence Squared U.S.,” which features an Oxford-style debate. There’s a different topic, or “motion,” each week. The motion for this debate was “Don’t Blame Teachers Unions For Our Failing Schools.” Three people spoke in favor of the motion, and three spoke against the motion. Here’s the debate — which side do you think won?

Radio

WOAM off the air . . . again

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Radio station WOAM (AM 1350), which went off the air in 2008 then popped back on unannounced in the fall of 2009 without commercials or disk jockeys, has once again gone off the air. WOAM is owned by Kelly Communications, which is trying to sell the station. According to published reports, the station had to temporarily resume broadcasting to keep its FCC license.

Radio

WOAM only half on

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Radio station WOAM (1350 AM) has been broadcasting the past few months in an apparent effort by the owner to keep his FCC license while he tries to sell the station. There are no DJs, no commercials, and no news or weather breaks. Just easy listening music and station IDs.

I’ve listened to it a few times the past several weeks, and I’ve noticed that they don’t have their equipment hooked up properly. You see, they’re a mono station, but they play music that was originally recorded in stereo. If you’re going from stereo to mono, you need to combine the two stereo tracks into one mono track using a Y-adapter (or, alternatively, using an audio software program to combine the tracks). What WOAM is doing is just playing one of the stereo tracks and not the other.

That’s a problem — especially when they play songs from the early days of stereo recording, like songs by The Association or Simon & Garfunkel. In those early, experimental days, bands would do some crazy things by today’s standards. For instance, they might put all the percussion in the right channel and all the vocals in the left channel. So if you only hear one track and not the other, the song sounds weird at best. And WOAM plays a lot of songs that suffer from that problem.

So, WOAM station owner, while I know this is just a temporary thing and you’re losing money anyway, why not spend a couple bucks on a Y-adapter, just out of the goodness of your heart? Your listeners will appreciate it.

Radio

April Fools Day 1993

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Gary Sandberg sent me this April Fools Day report from WCBU in 1993. It’s a hoot:

[audio:http://peoriachronicle.com/wp-content/uploads/Audio/HISPEED.mp3]

The best part is, according to a Journal Star article from April 19, 1993, “The story sounded so authentic that one local television reporter tried to follow up on the report for his evening newscast. Some Caterpillar Inc. engineers contacted colleagues around the country to see if they had heard about the barges.”

Radio

Smart City Radio

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Awhile back, my friend Beth Akeson told me about a public radio show called Smart City. It’s not broadcast on our local public radio affiliates (although I’ve recently put in a request for it at WCBU), but it is available on the internet:


Join host Carol Coletta for a look at the trends and ideas shaping our cities. Only on public radio.

As you can see, the synopsis/tag-line for the show is, “Join host Carol Coletta for a look at the trends and ideas shaping our cities.” It’s an interview show, so there are always interesting guests with thought-provoking points of view. Throw it on your iPod and take a listen — I think you’ll find it interesting.

I’m hooked. I’ve been putting past shows on my mp3 player and listening to them in the car. Especially interesting to me recently is an interview she did with Heywood Sanders called “Are Convention Centers a Silver Bullet?” and her interview with Andres Duany, who put together the Heart of Peoria Plan in 2002.

I think all civic-center-expansion and convention-hotel supporters should listen to the Heywood Sanders interview. His points are worth consideration.