I'm going to do something out of the ordinary by stepping in as a Michiana Chronicles commentator. Of course this is the Fall Pledge Drive, so maybe it won’t sound too different. WVPE has been a part of NPR since 1991. That's 28 years of service to the community.
We weren’t original National Public Radio members; that started in 1970. Today, it's a news source heard by 40 million people each week. No change was more significant than that infamous day in Sept. 2001 when the network audience doubled, and the network became less analysis of news and more live coverage…
Tom Gjelten retold what happened to him when he visited our region in February. After being evacuated from the Pentagon, he came out of the building to a locked down city. All traffic around DC was grounded; cell service suspended; the military was out in full force. While momentarily idled, Tom walked across the Pentagon’s parking lot to the nearby neighborhood and knocked on doors until he found someone home who answered, and would let him use their land line to call back to NPR to continue reporting. After several hours, he interviewed a few people at the Pentagon and walked back to NPR’s studios then 635 Mass Ave (just north of the Capital).
A lot of news has been reported by NPR since then, but a lot of internal changes have happened too including Bob Edwards stepping down as the sole host of Morning Edition and fellow Hoosier Steve Inskeep and Renee Montagne replacing him followed by Rachel Martin, David Greene, and Noel King becoming hosts too. We’ve lost several ME commentators including Red Barber, Frank Deford, and just last month, Cokie Roberts. While some of the internal changes have been difficult, opportunities for new voices have been good for NPR, and the reporting is better than ever.
Indeed, the entire public radio system is stronger than ever because collectively, donors and broadcasters all upped their game. There’s so much good public radio programming from the networks and member stations out there, we could add several digital channels and not repeat ourselves. As it is, we’ve added one HD channel devoted to repeating the best programming on our main channel and still air 50 additional hours of new programming not heard on the main channel PLUS over 60 hours of original BBC and Traditional Jazz content each week.
If you’re not a member, you didn’t receive the e-mail telling you about a new program during the 1:00-2:00 hour on the main channel; a new, statewide program from WFYI called “All IN.” All IN-diana public radio stations are collectively giving a regional talk show a try. [Matt Pelsor] is the host. The time the show airs has to do with when all stations including two on Central time can carry it. In our case, it means that we’re not airing the 2nd hour of “Here and Now” on our main channel. But we are carrying the second hour on our HD2 or NEWS2 channel twice--at 1:00 and 3:00 pm. You can listen on our WVPE Apple or Android APP, or through a smart speaker when you say, “[WAH-WAH-WAH], play TuneIN WVPE-HD2.”
It’s difficult to listen to everything we carry, so I’ve begun listening to podcasts. Some good HD2 programs/podcasts to recommend include Innovation Hub, RadioLab, Only a Game, Planet Money, How I Built This, Out in the Open, It’s Been a Minute and Freakonomics, but I also seek out other programs that might be up for consideration should a hole open up in our lineup like when some Boston Brothers quit producing their show a couple years ago. Well, this week, we started broadcasting one of those discovered shows produced by KERA in Dallas since 2006.
It’s called THINK, and it’s hosted by [Krys Boyd], a nationally recognized journalist. THINK can be heard on HD2 weeknights at 9:00 pm. [Krys Boyd] usually has one newsmaker during the entire hour to dive deep into conversation with Margaret Atwood, Melinda Gates, Malcolm Gladwell, or Madeleine Albright, and that’s just some of the Ms. I’d highly recommend checking it out...it’s Marvelous...
I’m about out of time, but I meant to suggest you consider listening to public radio podcasts when out walking your dogs or having them trot with you while you slow-ride your bike...it’s a good time to listen...as if there’s a bad time to listen to public radio. By the way, have you called in your support yet? Most of the network is based on funding the programming and the podcasts through all the member stations, so if you listen to public radio or any of our podcasts, please support the system by supporting a local station...like WVPE. If you do that, thank you. If you haven’t, I know a number... 888-399-9873.
