MM: Medlock Responds, How the Beltline Came To Be, and WABE

  • Medlock responds to Decatur annexation plans/comments [MANA]
  • How a Master’s Thesis Became the Atlanta Beltline [Atlanta Intown]
  • Atlanta Symphony lockout ends [CL]
  • Atlanta planning bicycle lanes [ABC]
  • Photo: Walkable Atlanta: Auburn Ave [ATL Urbanist]
  • WABE changes programming schedule [WABE]

Photo courtesy of ciambellina via Flickr

14 thoughts on “MM: Medlock Responds, How the Beltline Came To Be, and WABE”


  2. I wonder if WABE had made this decision sooner (people have been complaining for years about the over-representation of classical music on what was then Atlanta’s only public radio station), would GPB have stayed out., leaving WRAS as a fully student-run station?

    1. WABE just lost my support. It’s really dumb to have two radio and two TV stations essentially duplicating each other. I don’t support either one of the two pairs now. Georgia parochialism at its finest.

      1. Apparently they lost a of listeners to GPB when they came in. Not sure about the duplication. From what I read they are going to focus on local news and arts coverage. GPB is mostly national news.

  4. Perhaps WABE should have sought input from beyond their known listener base. Maybe they would have uncovered that segment of their prospective audience that wants MORE and BETTER classical music programming and LESS air time devoted to not-very-interesting local features/talk. And people who could live happily with only one airing of PHC each week.

    It will be interesting to see how many folks follow through on their promise to cancel the pledges they just made, out of resentment of the bait-and-switch tactic.

  6. Why would anyone complain about music selection on public radio in the age of Sirius, Pandora, etc? It’s been a long time since I even attempted to tune into old-style radio.

    1. Local radio is one of the few things that, theoretically at least, can contribute to knitting a community together through shared experience. See the reams of opining nowadays about how appointment TV viewing did that a generation ago. Different kinds of communal experience are evolving around stream-based viewing, but that’s not going to happen around hyper-personalized listening like Pandora.

      Pandora has a place in my world, but what I don’t like is how it combines the worst aspects of self-directed exposure and algorithm-driven exposure. It’s too filtered. Fine for setting a particular mood for chores or for a dinner party. But day to day, as background, I want less predictability and more challenge.

      Satellite radio is too expensive. Besides, it’s not really all of that, IMO. Out of all those gazillion stations, there only half a dozen that I liked that much. Had it free for a few months with new car and only missed it for about 20 minutes when they took it away.

      I find it absurd that a metro area the size of Atlanta has such narrow and redundant radio programming. It’s our lack of imagination that’s gonna do for us, in the end.

      1. I agree that Satellite radio leaves much to be desired as opposed to Pandora, but I still prefer it to over the air radio. I see what you mean re: the communal experience but I think you are placing a higher value on it than I am. And there are so many people opting out of over the air radio that it’s probably losing some of that effect anyway.

  8. Seems to me classical music has a fairly narrow range of appeal and very limited potential for knitting a community together.

    1. My comment above referred to my listening tastes in general, which include but also range far beyond just classical. That said, I think the appeal of really engaging, wide-ranging classical programming (which IMO we have not had in Atlanta for many years) is broader than you evidently do. Reasonable, discerning people can certainly disagree on such a point.

  10. Related: http://saportareport.com/blog/2014/11/incorporation-pushes-unwanted-marriages-on-dekalb-neighborhoods/

  12. I think WABE could raise more money by offering paid vacation days for Lois Reitzes as membership premiums.

  14. What’s really eerie is the complete silence regarding John Lemley and City Cafe. Something’s up, but I can’t tell what. They’re the highest-profile local host and program…or host and program, period…on WABE, but yet not a word has been mentioned. I have a feeling there’s a much bigger shoe to drop in the days and weeks ahead.

    1. That’s the program that finally broke my decades-long habit of keeping WABE turned on from sunup through All Things Considered. And I know I’m not alone.

Comments are closed.