In August, I wrote about C-SPAN's telecast of a town hall meeting in Virginia as one of TV's best moments of health care coverage. Amid all the confusion, here was one program that showed the warfare up close and personal and offered you the chance to get up from the TV set smarter than when you sat down. Read it here.

I didn't think C-SPAN could do much better than that, but last week it did with overnight radio broadcasts of the Senate Finance Committee mark-up sessions. They started at 11 p.m., and ran almost all night. They are replays of broadcasts on C-SPAN radio, WCSP-FM (90.1), that aired during the day, and they will resume this coming week when the committee goes back to work on the legislation it is drafting. 

What a fabulous inside look at the manuevering, compromising, character and politicking of the handful of men and women who to large extent are deciding the shape and scope of health care reform (or non-reform) for the nation by nature of the bill they will send to the floor of the Senate. I learned more in two nights of lying awake and listening than I did in two months of watching TV coverage of President Obama's smile-for-the-camera super-spin and oppositional "Death Panels" counter-spin. Finally, with C-SPAN radio, some clarity!

Continue reading "Go to C-SPAN radio for the hard truth on health care" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 7:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (18)
Categories: Radio
        

No major personnel changes are planned, but WBAL radio is going to shift to a harder news format from 5 to 9 a.m. weekdays starting Aug. 31, station mananger Jeff Beauchamp said Wednesday.

Long-time morning show host Dave Durian, a former TV anchorman, will stay in the anchor seat, but the station will focus on "what it is known for -- news and information," Beauchamp said.

"This is something that has been in the works for months," Beauchamp explained. "When Mark Miller [news director] and I talked about this, we asked ourselves, 'What do listeners come to WBAL radio for?' They come for news and information, and that's what the station will offer."

(Dave Durian: WBAL photo)

Continue reading "WBAL radio going to harder news in the morning" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)
Categories: Radio
        

Jeff Beauchamp, vice president and station manager at long-time powerhouse WBAL radio, is leaving the station after almost 34 years on the job, he said Thursday in a Sun interview. His last day at the 50,000-watt station he that he transformed from an adult contemporary music operation into one of the most honored news-talk stations in the country, will be next Friday.

"The company presented me with a package that is fair, and I'll be doing some consulting work for WBAL radio in the months and year ahead," the 58-year-old Beauchamp said.

"This is a great company to work for, and the proof of that is that they put up with me for 34 years -- but I wanted to be here every day for 34 years. This place is like a part of me... I've been here over half my life, so I have a lot of emotions right now."

Beauchamp, who joined the station as a news anchor in 1976, said, "The thing I think I'm most proud of is being part of the transition of WBAL from a station that played music and had a lot of other kinds of programming that they called Adult Contemporary to a news-talk station."

Continue reading "End of an era: Jeff Beauchamp leaving WBAL radio" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 3:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (12)
Categories: Radio
        

In case you have noticed, the economic misery is hitting everyone in the media -- commercial and public broadcasters, local and network operations, cable and Internet.

The latest victims are at WHYY TV and radio in Philadelphia where 16 full-time employees were laid off Thursday, after months of reassurance that the stations were in sound fiscal shape and no such actions were imminent, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. WHYY radio is the home of NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.

The layoffs were necessary to "keep our fiscal house in order," WHYY president and CEO William J. Marrazzo wrote in an e-mail to the staff that was cited by the Inquirer.

Continue reading "WHYY, home of NPR's Terry Gross, hit by layoffs" »

Posted by David Zurawik at 9:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Radio