In early October I sat down with my 11 year old to watch the first of the Presidential debates. He whined loudly, while I claimed that our time together would be an educational opportunity. But even I had to admit it was out of the box boring with a capital B although when Mitt Romney looked Jim Lehrer in the eye and promise to cut funding to PBS, I had to squawk. Big Bird jokes aside, Romney's remark was particularly ludicrous considering only about 10 percent of public broadcasting funds come from the government according to the Nieman Journalism Lab. Why do public stations have all those admittedly annoying fund raising campaigns? Because they need the money- that's why!
And we need them.
Commercial radio, at least here in Washington, is a veritable wasteland. Many of the true talents of the airwaves have been forced underground, but the world wide web has given us a safety net, and broadcasts aren't limited to tiny stations with weak antennas anymore. In DC WPFW keeps jazz and zydeco alive while WTMD in Towson is bringing back the unique voice of Weasel. Yes, it's the same crazy guy whose name was synonymous with Bethesda's home grown radio station WHFS. The same man who kept us fellow late night lunatics company back in the 1970s, and whose musical knowledge must be encyclopedic by now.
(I'd love to see him moderate a debate- at least it wouldn't be a snore.)
Catch Weasel's show Friday nights and Saturday afternoons.
I had my younger son sit down for a few minutes... if nothing else but to see what it is... to know what people are talking about... and then to grow up and say... I remember seeing my first presidential debate
ReplyDeleteno words on this on my blog
but some amusing images from in and around washington DC http://gwadzilla.blogspot.com/
am I trolling or sharing?
sharing.