[BC] Religious radio/localism/generations?

[Barry Mishkind]

At 10:32 AM 12/28/05, Karen Veazey wrote
>Not in the traditional sense.  I guess we're redefining localism to 
>make it work.  We don't have as much as I'd like, but with a spread 
>this far it is difficult.  We don't do local traffic reports, which 
>has been my one thing I'm still chewing on.  We do have news in the 
>morning, and our jocks are required to search for news across the 
>state.  We run public service announcements continually for local 
>events and those come in from all our translator communities.  In 
>the summer we go out to county fairs, or local celebrations and do 
>remotes.  Since we work with churches in all the communities we do 
>have fairly good connections locally.

         Interesting.  It sounds like you present yourself more
         as a "state" station than a local one?

         Perhaps you can share how you handle the Issues
         and Programs aspect for the city of license?

>One ongoing dialogue I have with several broadcasters is the need 
>for localism in radio across generational boundaries.  For example, 
>I know that I, in my 30's listen to radio for very different reasons 
>that my board members in their 50's and parents in their 60's.  If I 
>want local news, I go to the online version of our local TV stations 
>or newspaper.  If I want national news I go to SEVERAL different 
>national news websites.  I never take one news source at face 
>value.  I think they're all biased, so I cross-check several sources 
>until I feel like I'm starting to get a picture of the truth.

         It *is* different these days. That is for sure.
         You make a good point about using several
         sources. Sometimes I am almost ashamed
         to tell people I work in broadcasting, since
         between the complete lack of news on some
         rock stations to the the scandal-plagued "news"
         on TV and cable (can you say "Natalee Holloway"?)
         has made many people regard "news" as little
         more than gossip.

         In fact, wasn't it here a few days ago that someone
         pointed out TV Guide itself is little more than
         a gossip magazine now?