Stop and listen radio

Roman posted on Monday, September 20th, 2010 | cool, shows

I love intricate stories and sound design, but my weekly, can’t miss radio show is On The Media produced out of WNYC. I hope to get rights for a few of their evergreen pieces to put on the ol’ REMIX, but for now, their podcast steadfastly serves as my Saturday morning dishwashing accompaniment. The show is always killer, but this week featured an interview with Richard Connor, editor of the Portland Press Herald of Portland, Maine that made me turn off the water and pay close attention. There are so many great things going on here of note: (1) there’s a level of feet-to-fire holding that you rarely hear on public radio, (2) the interplay gets contentious, but never overly aggressive or mean spirited (to my ears, there is plenty of disagreement in the comments), (3) there are several points where I expected Bob to drop it, and let the newly modified presentation of the point of view stand (because that’s the way it’s usually done), but Bob never lets go, (4) the piece is called “For Some, An Apology Offends”, which is a very nice (and knowing) reference to the media’s long standing tradition of using some form of “some have said…” when they really mean “I” or “we.” I know this fact because On the Media taught it to me.

The short story is, it’s riveting radio and you should check it out.

Side note: this codified another new habit I have when I listen to the radio. Whenever I hear something tense or controversial on the air, I run to the program’s comment page and look at what people are saying about it. I rarely comment myself.