Thoughts on the week's events & coverage

[TC Cheever <tc@chaostheory.com>]

All-

I have been a longtime 'lurker' on this list, and I post very
infrequently. I learned early on that most here know a hell of a lot
more about radio (both the technical end and the business end) than I
do, and often when I have something to contribute, somebody else has
already expressed it (faster and usually with more eloquence). With the
tragedies this week, and the threads on the list in the aftermath, I did
feel the need to make the following observations:

-regarding radio stations continuing to play music vs. going to news. 
I have to vehemently disagree with the idea that any station's ownership
or management, TV or Radio, is somehow unpatriotic, cold-hearted, or
purely profit-minded because they didn't switch to all-news coverage
after the attack, or because they did but didn't keep that up for more
than a day. There are many viewpoints on this list, liberal and
conservative, devout and secular, but the one thing that appears to bond
everyone on this list is that we are much more acutely aware of the
broadcast industry. We are media junkies. Not everybody is. Being
media-savvy gives us a luxury the average person wouldn't have in such
an event- when the sheer enormity of the tragedy becomes too large to
understand, we can continue to listen to and/or watch the coverage and
lose ourselves in the minutia-- which anchor is holding up best under
the stress? Who is scooping who on new information? Who has new
exclusive video? The average person doesn't have that kind of interest. 

Every station I heard on Tuesday- and admittedly, that's a small
unscientific sample, but I'm comfortable in saying that it's probably
indicative of most people's experience-- either went to news, or
consistently directed people to other outlets where they could find
news. I find it hard to excoriate a station manager for continuing
format if announcements with other stations call letters & frequencies
are being made. Now, like most of you, I found it difficult to tear
myself away from the news-- and still do. My wife, on the other hand,
was openly grateful that WCRB (as one example) was just playing music,
because she had reached her saturation point after just one day. She
needed that distance-- just music, and an occasional update-- to be able
to deal with the enormity of the situation, and to keep calm while we
waited to hear whether anybody we knew in NYC was missing. (Thankfully,
everybody we know there is fine.) That music (and being around our 16
mo. old daughter) kept her from losing it completely. And that is as
much of a public service as news. 

-regarding the power of radio...

I don't have many specific comments- I was morbidly curious Tuesday
morning how Stern was reacting to the tragedy and tuned in just in time
to hear BCN's Nik Carter throw the station over to a simulcast of WBZ,
which I think is doing it's usual fine job. WBUR is my other primary
news source; there was an amazing piece  on NPR where Robert Siegal
(sp?) walked down to the stricken area and picked up a few pieces of
paper from the fallen debris- one man's resume, a page from a legal
deposition- and was able to contact those people. That is the kind of
personal story I haven't seen television do yet. (Though many people
here at the office are talking about the Connie Chung interview
mentioned earlier today with the CEO of 
 This morning as I drove into work I had on BBC NewsHour on WBUR, and
the lead story was about the service at St. Paul's Cathedral in London.
They played audio of the service-- the service at St. Paul's began with
the playing of The Star-Spangled Banner on the organ, and I listened to
an estimated 2400 congregants- mostly British subjects, including Queen
Elizabeth, Prince Philip & Prince Charles-- sing the National Anthem of
the United States of America. And I suddenly realized it was the first
time since Tuesday that I'd heard the National Anthem anywhere.  Had it
been on television, I think it would have been another image that passed
quickly & became part of the montage of the week. The repeated images on
television, they drill and they numb. But on radio.. the images don't
flash quite as fast when you're listening to radio. They linger. They
burn. 

Peace.


-TC Cheever
http://www.spontaneousbroadway.com