Because Video Didn't Kill the Radio Star

If Andy had it his way, we would never turn off the radio in the cabin. I structure my Saturdays around listening to Car Talk and Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me, and I try to catch This American Life, The Splendid Table, and Marketplace Money as well. We don't have a t.v. (just Netflix) so we depend on both the local community radio station and NPR to supply our daily dose of news. Radio was an important component of my childhood and it remains important to me to this day.

The U.S. Congress has recently  introduced not one, not two, but three bills to cut federal funding for the country's public broadcasting services. These services reach out to approximately 170 million Americans every month.

Colorado Representative Doug Lamborn, one of the movers and shakers behind these bills, seems to view public broadcasting as archaic and has stated: The original purpose of federal funding for CPB in 1967 is no longer relevant. The intent of federally-funded public broadcasting was to make “telecommunications services available to all citizens of the United States.” Today, over 99 percent of Americans own a TV and over 95 percent have access to the Internet. In a world of 500-channel cable TV, streaming radio over the Internet, and cell phone Internet access, government-funded broadcasting is completely unnecessary.

As a resident of a rural area, about half of his argument above doesn't pertain to life around here. I can't stream radio over the internet. We don't have cell phone service. And somehow, having all my news come to via private news organizations, like, oh, I don't know, FOX, doesn't seem like the best idea. 

Remember that line from John Mayer's song "Waiting on the World to Change?" Because when they own the information, oh, they can bend it all they want.  

If we remove all venues for unbiased reporting, like NPR and local independent broadcasting services, that means all our information will come to us through a glass darkly. As a writer, I find the prospect of living in a world where objectivity is unnecessary and fact checking "a waste of time" down right terrifying. As educated citizens, we desire to know both sides of the story before we make up our minds and opinions. It  is our responsibility as free-thinkers to foster as many forums for thought as possible. We should have the opportunity to blog, and write letters to the editor, and pen radio commentaries to our heart's content.

If you feel radio is an important part of your daily life, I encourage you to join me in the 170 Million Americans for Public Broadcasting campaign.This is not plea for your personal monies (let's be honest, we heard enough of those pleas from public broadcasting) and the campaign promises to treat your personal information with care and integrity. This is your chance to stand up and be counted as a public broadcasting beneficiary. If you learned your alphabet from Sesame Street, if you tune into the local radio station for weather alerts, this is a campaign for you.

After all, public broadcasting has always been about making your voice heard.