[Imc-newsroom] IMC News Hour vs. FSRN

[Paul Riismandel]

I want to second Mike's suggestion of a half-hour, perhaps produced more 
than once a week.  I know from experience (though not the Newshour) that an 
hour can be tough to fill -- heck a half hour can be tough to fill.  But 
I've found that it's easier to do a tight, but still full half-hour with 
very little filler or slack.

I think we also might reach more people with two half hours, since not 
everyone can tune in at 5pm Monday.  That would be something to look to 
build towards.

Also, as you probably know, the WEFT Programming Committee has gotten some 
criticism over their decision to replace Free Speech Radio News with the 
Newshour.  Some folks, like me, are concerned with the process leading to 
the decision, while others are more concerned with losing FSRN on 
Mondays.  If the IMC can be flexible here it will be a help to the WEFT PC 
and also to our listeners, who might also be torn, wanting to have the 
Newshour, but not wanting to lose FSRN in the process.

Although I haven't yet produced a Newshour myself (I have contributed and 
engineered), I would be FAR more likely to volunteer to do so if it were 
only a half-hour.

And I do want to let everyone who has done or worked on a Newshour that I 
am immensely grateful for your efforts.  Because of you the IMC well on its 
way to setting a new standard for local in-depth journalism.

--Paul

At 04:41 PM 9/20/2001 -0500, Mike Lehman wrote:
>Danielle,
>I think running the FSRN headlines is an excellent proposal to at least
>partly resolve this conumdrum for the time being.
>
>I am not normally involved with the Newshour, so this just a thought off
>the top of my head. Making the Newshour into a NewsHalfhour might be
>another option, particularly if it could be a more than weekly show (not
>daily, but maybe Monday-Thursday or some other combination.) This would
>be a big change in some ways, but not so big in others. It would also
>make the show have to be a little more tightly produced while keeping
>the news fresher. Just a suggestion if you need some other options to
>consider in the future.
>Mike Lehman
>
>Danielle Chynoweth wrote:
> >
> > We have been granted the IMC News Hour Mondays 5-6 PM at WEFT starting
> > this Monday.
> >
> > Unfortunately, we will be bumping Free Speech Radio News which used to air
> > during the first 30 minutes of this slot.
> >
> > As an listener of, journalist for, and ally of FSRN, this bothers me.
> >
> > As a person who loves WEFT, I'm also concerned about some (respectfully
> > submitted) concerns about this bumpage from WEFTies which have been
> > written to the WEFT-A listserv.
> >
> > For these reasons, I would like to propose at Sunday's News/Radio meeting
> > that the IMC commit to airing Monday's FSRN headlines which run 5-7
> > minutes at the beginning of all IMC NewsHours.
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