Hey, Yupette,
Thanks for this blog.
I grew up in a county of about 5,000 in a rural part of the Midwest and my Dad was a farm equipment dealer. My younger brother runs the business today. Population is still about 5,000.
Where did we go for news fifty years ago? A woman in town published a weekly community newspaper with upcoming events that was distributed to the stores around town (population about 800) with a few ads to pay for the cost of printing.
Current local news and events were broadcast on the county's 500 watt daytime AM radio station. What did the station have in common with local media in Arlington County today? Nothing.
Our local AM station was all about the community. Starting with farm news at daybreak. Perhaps 10% of the station's broadcast time was dedicated to commercials. Lots of music played during the day, a little rock n roll. Interviews and local news were non-controversial and were about topics that directly affected our daily lives, e.g., curriculum changes by the State Board of Education. Someone from the County Board of Supervisors would announce whatever new they had planned for the county and invite everyone to attend meetings and comment. No open meetings to hold closed meetings to approve what was decided in secret meetings, like today in Arlington.
Also, although there were farm accidents and highway accidents the station's emphasis was on accident prevention, not chasing the volunteer fire department around the county to report accidents. There were lots of public service ads for seat belt wearing and getting farmers to replace old unsafe farm equipment. If you wanted to listen to Rock n Roll and the national controversies of the day you could tune to a 50,000 watt station in Chicago or Denver or Des Moines after dark.
Owner of the radio station also owned a big family farm. His father started the station in the 1930's. His son later started an FM station and both the AM and FM station are still broadcasting, with about the same format.
No one had the time to publish the "fake news" the Amazon Post, InsideNova and ArlNow publish today.
Brad - 22207
21 comments:
I'm 62 and also grew up in the Midwest. Right about now our county's 250 watt daytime AM station would be doing live coverage of the county fair.
What's the difference between the Sun Gazette and ArlNow? Sun Gazette is squirrel-centric, ArlNow is raccoon-centric.
Multi-modal traffic safety ads on the local media? But that would prevent accidents and then the local media wouldn't get to chase fire trucks and EMS vehicles.
What does Arlington's new FM station WERA broadcast...besides Smart Growth propagaganda approved by the Democratic Machine?
Right. WERA = Young Democrat Urban Hipsters for More Smart Growth
Yupette/Cindy try asking AIM for a time slot for a broadcast version of A.Y. on WERA. Hear the excuses why it can't happen.
WERA + AIM + AVN = The Smart Growth Progressive Broadcasting System
How much does all the aforementioned Limo-Liberal propaganda cost Arlington's taxpayers?
Between $10 - $20 million per year for the entire County propaganda machine.
Arlington is a County, right? Arlington ha a County Fair, right? Why no live coverage of the County Fair by WERA?
Because WERA is for urban hipsters to play their favorite music between informercials for Smart Growth, that's why.
Because ArlNow, InsideNova, and Amazon Post want to make mega-millions turning local news into advertising revenue, that's why.
Local Media in 2017 are f***** Elitist misers who want the grunt work of Local Media to be performed by unpaid Urban Hipster interns, that's why.
All Arlington's media movers and shakers want is to get rich quick.
Brad - 22207 - Were any of the station employees unpaid interns?
So why didn't the local media cover the Arlington County Fair, except for taking some photos of the Fair?
Whomever posted this must have grown up in NW Iowa fifty years ago.
The husband and wife who owned the station weren't in it for the money, they paid us good wages for the work we performed.
Station was not located in Iowa.
Agree. Inside-the-Beltway Media Owners and Publishers are only in it for the money.
Every Arlington community is a redevelopment opportunity. Except where the Elite decision makers live.
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