“Not only has it not worked, it has sucked—and sucked the life out of the very entity that made it possible (WBEZ).”
Anyway, it’s clearly not just a matter of fiscal resources, it’s a matter of human resources being misused…
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Like the people in the article, like the folks at the station, like the posters on this forum… I too am torn. I understand the concept. Build something new, something fresh, something hip, something to deliver news and arts and culture to those under 30, to those would never ever consider tuning in public radio. But as the piece points out, not only has it not worked, it has sucked—and sucked the life out of the very entity that made it possible (WBEZ)… at the very moment in time when that entity needed the money most to fulfill its dream of producing the best local coverage anywhere in the country. Mr. Malatia will be remembered as a visionary for giving airtime and incubation time to such worthy projects as This American Life, the Third Coast festival, Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, etc. However I fear that hubris has taken over and he’s become Nero, fiddling while WBEZ burns
Your complaints about the content are warranted, but realize that it takes user-submitted content. Instead of squeak-leaking mealy fibrous steaming coils of rage via comments on the Reader site, go contribute some content if you’re convinced you know what would make for good radio.
It’s hard to say how much of Vocalo’s trouble stems from a lack of decent submitted material. But it’s worth considering that other problems contribute to the dearth of user-generated content. In anything like this there’s a push and pull between the structure of the network and the people who use it. And the structure has to do its part.
Meyer’s incisive point about Mission of Burma is well taken, I guess, but he should be aware that the comment “it became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it” is probably a fabrication and an urban legend—no one has ever tracked down the source for this supposed quote. He should also be aware that grafting dual irrelevancies—the wars in Vietnam and Iraq—onto a review of a largely forgotten punk group makes for quite awkward and amateurish-sounding writing. Finally, while I bow before Meyer’s evidently encyclopedic knowledge of Boston-based punk bands, I’d be willing to bet that his awareness of the actual situation in Iraq is much lower than his awareness of the implicit pressure placed upon writers for indie newspapers to have the exact same political opinions as all of their colleagues.
And for what it’s worth, the peer group that influences my politics most is composed of social workers and counselors, not indie newspaper contributors.
