The Sunday Show

How exactly does a supposedly successful businessman (Larry Nelson) come up with the decision to sack an institution like Dick Steele? Whether you are a fan of Dick and Don, you cannot deny their importance to this town. The fact of the matter is that The Sunday Show provided more public service, and real news, than the entire rest of the week's programming. (Even with the softball questions Steele asked, he still got more out of an interview than Capron.)

Now, I don't know the first thing about running a radio station. It is however, very hard to believe that the Sunday Show could not have paid its own way. Furthermore, Nelson is throwing away "goodwill" (there's a concept you don't hear mentioned much anymore) and the backlash from this could be substantial.

Is there more to this story than we are hearing? Could Nelson be preparing to sell or shutter the station? Info is in short supply.

Links:
MDH story by Christina Chapman
Bring Back The Sunday Show

Helpful Hints for Mr. Capron

Apparently, someone at the radio station reads us, so here are some suggestions to improve the newscasts:

1. Learn the local geography. For example, just because it has a Gardner Road address, doesn't mean it's in Gardner.
2. Local geography, part 2: No need to report items from towns outside the signal area. If you're not sure who's listening, check which schools call in their closings, which towns the obits come from, which towns the ads are for.
3. Break the unwritten(?) rule of at least one Illinois Information Service press release per newscast. There's more than enough local action, without having to use filler.
4. Less meeting agendas, more hard news.
   
5. Ask the "locals" how to pronounce names you're not familiar with.
6. Give the area code with the phone number.
7. Tell which town or jurisdiction an arrest was made in.
8. Stop the "news in review." (Although it was sadly comical to hear the accident story told twice each newscast.)
9. Be careful what you put in a recorded newscast. Breaking stories and weather warnings can quickly become irrelevant.
   
10. Listen to the Sunday newscasts so you don't repeat all of Don's stories on Monday.
11. Stop getting news from the Streator newspaper.
    

Capron reports email spam as fact

This morning, Jay Capron reported that cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketers. We must assume that he learned this information from some email spam that he received, since no reputable news sources were reporting it. And thanks to the marvel of recorded newscasts, he repeated it for hours before finally confessing his error at noon. (Of course, he tried to mitigate his mistake by invoking the "only trying to protect our listeners" defense.)

He must have some really slow email, because this rumor has been circulating (with revised dates) for at least five years.

Oh, well, at least now he knows that he's qualified to work at the Morris Herald if he loses the radio gig.

links:
Federal Trade Commission
snopes.com