[Imc-newsroom] IMC News Hour Proposal

[Peter Miller]

It looks great, Danielle--just a couple comments below.

regular time slot for its one hour show, the IMC News Hour.

>PREFERRED TIME SLOT
>Choice #1 ­ Mondays 6-7 PM.  Reason: Because 40-60 hours go into producing
>the IMC News Hour, our volunteer journalists need the weekend to produce
>the show.  Because it is a news show, it needs to be broadcast on Monday
>to maintain relevance.  6 o¹clock is preferred because we feel that an
>audience interested in local, independent news will be most available
>after they have returned home from work.
>
>Choice #2 ­ Mondays 5-6 PM.  Reason: all of the above, except we are
>concerned workers would miss the first half of the show.  We may also lose
>the audience we have built, who have learned to tune in Mondays at 6 PM
>for the IMC News Hour.
>
>Note: The IMC News Collective is eager to continue producing work for
>broadcast on WEFT after its temporary slot is up September 3.   Our
>preference is to be assigned a slot as soon as possible, rather than
>waiting for our ideal slot to open.  Although there was a strong consensus
>reached on our preferred time slot and duration, the IMC News Collective
>is open to negotiating these with the Programming Committee to make our
>offer fit within existing opportunities at WEFT.

Choice 2 would displace FSRN...

Coice 1 is really the only option, and that would displace the Friday 
Forum, but maybe FF could be moved to a different slot since it's been 
difficult to find people to deal with it, and I think they only have a 
fraction of the speakers lined up.


>SHOW DESCRIPTION
>IMC News Hour is an hour-long, non-corporate, local news show.  In that
>hour, roughly 10 minutes are given to news headlines, 15 minutes to focus
>news pieces 3-7 minutes in length, 5 minutes to announcing upcoming local
>events, and 30 minutes are given to an in-depth feature-length look at a
>particular issue or event.  Although national and international events are
>covered, emphasis is given to stories of local and regional significance.
>Emphasis is also given to voices, stories, and points of view
>underrepresented by other local media outlets.
>
>THE SHOW¹S HISTORY
>The IMC News Hour was produced and broadcast on WEFT both last Winter and
>this Summer on Mondays from 6-7 PM.  During that time, IMC News Hour
>features have provided an in-depth, local perspective on topics including:
>The Champaign School¹s Racial Climate Survey, Local Latino Migrant Farm
>Worker Issues, Local Biotech Issues, Local Grassroots Efforts to Curb
>Illinois Power Tree Trimming Practices, and Local Urbana Gardening and
>Permaculture projects.
>
>We have also produced shows of regional significance such as a feature on
>the Timothy McVeigh Execution in Terra Haute Indiana, the arrests of Gay
>Rights activists in Springfield, the Tree Sitting Protests in Bloomington,
>Indiana, and a report-back from the Alternative Energy Fair in Wisconsin.
>
>Several shows have had international significance.  The IMC sent 16
>citizen-journalists to report on the protests against the Free Trade Area
>of the Americas in Quebec City.   The IMC then produced daily pieces for
>WEFT¹s morning menu, offering an on-the-ground perspective of the
>protests.  No other media outlet in the twin cities sent their own
>reporters to cover the event.  The IMC also produced a show on recent
>anti-globalization activities in Brazil with footage gathered by IMC
>reporters on the ground in Brazil.
>
>The IMC has nationally syndicated segments of a number of its shows for
>Free Speech Radio News and Independent Native News including the
>Bunge-Lauhoff strikes, Bloomington Tree-Sits, local Chief debates, and the

We didn't cover the Bunge strike for FSRN, but we did cover the closing of 
Decatur's Bridgestone-Firestone factory.


>Brazilian anti-globalization movement.  The IMC has a strong commitment to
>being a regional provider for nationally syndicated news casts.
>
>HOW THE IMC NEWS HOUR SERVES LISTENERS
>The IMC News Hour is the only general, local news source without corporate
>underwriting or sponsorship in town.  In a town dominated by a staunchly
>conservative newspaper notorious for its bias and lack of fact-checking,
>the IMC News Hour has consistently highlighted stories and points of view
>otherwise buried or butchered by the mainstream.  Often the IMC is the
>only source in town helping news consumers "read between the lines" and
>hear essential facts missing from mainstream renditions of stories.  In
>short, the IMC News Hour helps listeners be better participants in the
>political decisions which affect their lives and their town.
>
>HOW THE IMC NEWS HOUR DIFFERS FROM OTHER WEFT SHOWS
>WEFT does not currently offer its audience a general local news show.
>During the afternoon Courier, WEFT offers no locally produced content at
>all. Locally produced, multi-issue news sorely lacking from WEFT¹s public
>affairs line-up.
>
>PROPOSEES CURRENT INVOLVEMENT AT WEFT
>There are a number of IMC News Collective members who are involved with
>WEFT, and the number continues to grow as the IMC encourages its members
>to become trained airshifters and associates at WEFT.  Currently there are
>six active WEFT volunteers in addition to eight to ten WEFT members in the
>News Collective.
>
>A NOTE ON ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE
>The IMC News Collective wishes to propose the IMC News Hour as a
>collectively produced and run show, similar to other WEFT collectives such
>as Womyn Making Waves and RadioGirl!
>
>Being a WEFT airshifter or associate is not a necessary prerequisite to
>participation in the Collective. Collective members who are trained
>airshifters and WEFT associates in good standing will rotate
>responsibility for airshifting a show.  Shows may be produced and hosted
>on-air by non-WEFT airshifters as long as the show is engineered by a
>trained WEFT airshifter.
>
>Efforts have been and will continue to be made to have IMC News Collective
>members become WEFT associates.
>
>Members of the collective are individually and as a group bound to the
>rules and regulations that govern WEFT¹s operation as a licensed radio
>station and as a progressive and community-centered organization.
>Collective members should be familiar with WEFT policies and documentation
>surrounding those policies.
>
>To ensure effective and consistent communication between the RadioGirl
>Collective and WEFT, the Collective will choose one member to serve as the
>IMC News Hour liaison. As of the date of this document, 8/20/01, Danielle
>Chynoweth will act as the IMC News Hour liaison for WEFT.  When the person
>in this liason role changes, the Programming Committee will be informed in
>a timely manner.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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