Re: Bill whining (was CNN anchor endorses satellite over cable)

["Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>]

Dave Faneuf writes:
I headed back to the cottage and flipped
> on the radio....up and down the AM dial there was nothing but
> syndication, even at the top of the hour just network news.  When
you
> condition listeners that they are no longer going to get local
> information when they want it then you get the homogenized
syndicated
> radio that we are seeing today.

I suspect that the "conditioning" is long underway.  Here in VT, if
it's not heritage signals like WDEV AM-FM (Montpelier area) or WVMT AM
(Burlington area), there's no local news to speak of.  VPR does a
_very_ good job at covering the state, and is (surprisingly) balanced
in its reporting.  WVMT has open local talk in AM drive, VPR offers
focused talk twice a week for two hours in the evening.

The local AMer here in Addison County tossed in the towel awhile ago.

I've asked local officials how differently they'd either behave or
even vote at board meetings, etc., if they knew that <gasp> a local
signal would be there with a microphone or camera.  Generally, the
reply was something like, "Not going to happen."  Sad, but true.

Bill O'Neill