Broadcasters scramble for eyes and ears

Overlooked in the Tuesday Times-Picayune story about the changing broadcast market is the fact that the media market is about to get a dose of fire and brimstone religion once the reprieve from Arbitron and Neilsen ratings is lifted, and once the ratings reflect the fact that more than half of New Orleanians no longer live here.

Most locals are familiar with how dramatically New Orleans media, in particular radio, changed after Hurricane Katrina. The Times-Picayune suddenly became an investigate newspaper, and radio companies merged resources and announcers as United Radio Broadcasters of New Orleans to report on such things as the whereabouts of lost friends and family, on the condition of different neighborhoods, and round-the-clock interviews that helped shape our understanding of what was happening in our world turned upside down. I tuned in 870 AM every opportunity I could while I was in Pensacola so I could pick up WWL (yes, the signal actually traveled that far -- a little fuzzy, but AM has the advantage of distance over FM).

United Radio Broadcasters was slowly replaced months ago with the dull standard of niche formats, playing the same songs by the same artists over and over ad nauseum. WWL, however, continued to focus on local issues, continuing with its call-in format, broadcasting on both 870 AM, and 105.3 FM. A couple of months ago, the WWL parent company attempted to revert back to music programming on 105.3. In the last week, however, Entercom ditched the music format to resume broadcasting the same call-in program heard simultaneously on 870 AM.

I suspect that a few things are happening at Entercom: 1) They came to realize that most people don't bother to hit the AM button on their radios; 2) they found out that they had more listeners on 105.3 when they were doing issues programming; and 3) they wanted their signal to get to listeners inside of buildings downtown (FM can do that, AM is next to impossible).

I'm not especially pleased with the objectivity of WWL hosts. I wouldn't mind if hosts expressed their opinions, if only they played against their own biases and asked their guests tough questions. The most egregious biased offenders are Garland Robinette and Spud McConnell, who frequently use guests to confirm their own views, and to confirm the views of listeners who tend to hover around to catch the three hours of Rush Limbaugh in the middle of the day. They also tend to pontificate endlessly before asking their guests a question (Robinette prefacing seemingly every question with a boast about how he was a business owner for a year, McConnell more often than not mumbling, stuttering and rambling), then asking the pardon of their guests so they can break for the 10,000 commercials per hour the station airs. Still, I celebrate their use of the airwaves to stimulate the minds of their listeners, rather pander to the mindless lowest common denominator.

There are few-to-no alternatives on the radio. I don't consider any TV changes as meriting attention, a view summarized by Groucho Marx quote I read recently in Amy Goodman's, The Exception to the Rulers: "I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book."

One glaring shortcoming in the Times-Picayune story was the changes in programming left of the dial, including local headlines on WWNO (a small feat, but long overdue), and WTUL's budding Saturday morning community affairs program, Community Gumbo. It may not have been within the scope of the article, but there also was no talk of alternatives that have blossomed since Katrina -- like blogs, and citizen journalism found at New Orleans Indymedia.

I view the local interest in issues programs as a promising sign that New Orleanians have a long attention span for news that really matters to them. I hope the media market continues to experiment, and to expand the available offerings.

4/18/06 update: I forgot to mention -- one of the really cool things about WWL broadcasting now on 105.3 FM is that I can switch back and forth from 105.3 FM to 1350 AM for Air America without moving the radio dial.