Upping the Pressure on Sacramento

I’ve been reporting on the changes at Capital Public Radio in Seattle and today came across a thoughtful, well-written article by Cosmo Garvin at Newsreview.com.

the real problem is not that there’s going to be less jazz, it’s that there won’t be enough of anything new… no new local shows added to the new lineup, and nothing that isn’t standard fare for the NPR station in Anytown, U.S.A.

… CPR general manager Rick Eytcheson assured Bites that, “The changes will allow us to do a lot more news programming.” The station has added reporters and a new documentary unit. There will be local newscasts in the evening, and Eytcheson said the station is even planning a weekend, local public-affairs show, along the lines of Insight.

But local programming is hard to do, and expensive. Why not turn to the university which holds the license, and to its students, for help?

Certainly, Sacramento State students, among others, could cheaply produce something more exciting and more relevant to Sacramento than another big slab of BBC.

There are always listeners who get upset when a station changes programming.  Sacramento now has the challenge of providing programming that’s as good or better than what they’ve  taken away.