This Saturday is
Weekend America's last broadcast. This makes me very upset for a number of reasons, but mostly because many bright, talented producers and editors will be forced to live on the street in St. Paul, Minnesota, where it's currently 1 degree F. The cold, barren Twin Cities are no place for good, honest radio people to live, so if you've got an extra room and you see what looks to be a snowman wearing headphones and a shotgun mic roaming through your town, open your door and invite them in. I guarantee he or she will be a great conversationalist.
While I'm on the subject of barren public radio things, I need to say this. If you subscribe to the
This American Life podcast, and you have some coin, send it to Ira Glass and company. According to Glass, 400,000 people download TAL every week and that costs WBEZ around $150k a year in
bandwidth alone. Apparently only 20,000 people contribute directly to TAL, which is pretty sad when all he's asking for is a dollar.
I know, I know, you contribute to your local radio station (or do you?) and you don't feel as though you need to give any more money to TAL, because
they have a TV show on Showtime. But that's lame and you know it. Last week I coughed up $20 and, you know what, I feel richer for it, not poorer. Unless of course I get fired from my job, in which case I'll want at least $3 back.
At a time when more and more longform mass media is vanishing, it's our responsibility as concerned citizens to help them survive this, um, clusterfuck.
Labels: American Public Media, APM, Chicago Public Radio, Ira Glass, NPR, St. Paul, This American Life, WBEZ, Weekend America
