Howdy,
In the rush to beat postmark deadlines for grant applications, I couldn't
help but notice that some of the news drifting over the e-mail transom these
past days has been pretty depressing.
It seems every bit of music I personally enjoyed in 1998-- Dolly Parton,
Chris Knight, Radney Foster, etc. -- has now been rejected by the folks in
charge of the record studios.
Charles Brown died.
And now, in local news, this...
Metropulse 1/21/99
Ear to the Ground column
"Radio Waves"
A half-century old this year, WUOT is East Tennessee's oldest and strongest
public radio station. Two of its longest-running shows are the locally
produced "Music of the Southern Mountains," a half-hour show of bluegrass
and old-time music hosted by Paul Campbell; and "Live at Laurel," hosted by
Craig Walker, which broadcasts recent live performances of folk music at the
Laurel Theater. Moved from their original Sunday night berths, both have
been running starting at 8 on Friday nights for the past several months.
The shows have been consistently excellent and diverse, but their volunteer
hosts just heard just this week that they're both being cancelled. "With
WNCW and WDVX in the market already playing that sort of [folk music]
format, we don't want to compete," says WUOT program director Daniel Berry.
"That gives us a chance to narrow our format." The shows will probably be
replaced with more classical music programming. It's another step away from
local productions for WUOT, which has been moving in that direction for
several years.
Unfortunately, WNCW (in Spindale, N.C., with a transmitter in Knoxville) and
WDVX (in Norris) are not accessible to thousands of Knoxvillians who can't
pick up their relatively weak signals.
WUOT also plans this spring to start a second weekly airing (probably on
Sunday afternoons) of Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion," a show
that -- like "Live at Laurel" and "Music of the Southern Mountains"--
celebrates folk music and community spirit. Unlike them, however, "PHC"
broadcasts from Minnesota. (Well, it is coming to Knoxville for one night
later this year...)
# # #
Damn. WDVX, relatively speaking, is just a piddly little station next to
WUOT's 100,000 watt signal. I knew that some of the folks at WUOT weren't
amused when WDVX stuck its 250 watts in the air, but I don't really see how,
realistically, they can put the blame for a poor programming decision
(canceling the two best local radio shows currently on the air) on a little
upstart's so-called "competition."
This move marks another notch in the handle of the powers-that-be who have
been dedicated to converting WUOT into a generic NPR station. Other recent
casualties have included the local noonday talk show (cut back to one show a
month), the live broadcast of Friday night jazz performances at the
Knoxville Museum of Art, live local news mixed in with "All Things
Considered" and "Morning News," and other similar bonehead decisions.
Some local programming still exists, but I won't be surprised to see the
locally-produced storytelling show ("Mumbleypeg"), the free-form music show
that regularly features alt.country, avant-garde rock, and other
non-mainstream sounds ("Unhinged"), and the one or two other local shows
(which have mostly been moved to the 2-4 am time slot on Sunday mornings) go
the way of the radio dodo soon.
I want to rant. But I'll hold off a moment...
Take care,
Shane Rhyne
Knoxville, TN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
NP: Elena Skye
