mediageek 9 April 2009: Newspapers’ Troubles Making Copps Go Soft

Chicago recently earned the dubious distinction of having the parent companies both major newspapers and the largest alternative weekly declare bankruptcy. And Chicago is not alone in having troubles with its newspapers. It’s getting so bad that even ardent anti-consolidation acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps is showing signs of softening on cross-ownership. We explore this issue, and the FCC’s new National Broadband Plan.

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mediageek 9 April 2009 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090409.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 9 April 2009: Newspapers’ Troubles Making Copps Go Soft

Chicago recently earned the dubious distinction of having the parent companies both major newspapers and the largest alternative weekly declare bankruptcy. And Chicago is not alone in having troubles with its newspapers. It’s getting so bad that even ardent anti-consolidation acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps is showing signs of softening on cross-ownership. We explore this issue, and the FCC’s new National Broadband Plan.

Download/Podcast

mediageek 9 April 2009 broadcast quality mp3

Listen Now:
[mp3]http://mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090409.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 2 April 2009: ChiTownDailyNews Tries a New Model for Local Journalism

Geoff Dougherty is the founding editor of ChiTownDailyNews, a locally-focused news website employing professional journalists working with over 100 volunteer reporters to cover Chicago news not reported in the major mainstream news outlets. On this edition of the radioshow Geoff tells us about the site and the reasons why it pursues a this model.

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mediageek 2 April 2009 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090402.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 26 February 2009: New Hope for LPFM & the Chicago Journalism Town Hall

Another year, another bill to restore LPFM is introduced into Congress. Only, this time, with GW Bush out of the White House and Democrats in charge of Congress, it looks like LPFM has a fighting chance. Also, we listen to excerpts from the Chicago Journalism Town Hall tackling head on the future of local news as the commercial papers stand on the brink of extinction.

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mediageek 26 February 2009 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090226.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 5 February 2009: Streetwise

Streetwise is a social enterprise designed to help severely impoverished men and women out of poverty. They publish weekly StreetWise, a general interest newspaper with a gritty “from the streets perspective” to give insight to its readers on what is really going on in Chicago.

Suzanne Hanney is the Editor-in-Chief of Streetwise and Ben Cook is the Production Director. The join this edition of mediageek to talk about the paper and its mission.

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mediageek 5 February 2009 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090205.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 5 February 2009: Streetwise

Streetwise is a social enterprise designed to help severely impoverished men and women out of poverty. They publish weekly StreetWise, a general interest newspaper with a gritty “from the streets perspective” to give insight to its readers on what is really going on in Chicago.

Suzanne Hanney is the Editor-in-Chief of Streetwise and Ben Cook is the Production Director. The join this edition of mediageek to talk about the paper and its mission.

Download/Podcast:
mediageek 5 February 2009 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2009/mg20090205.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 16 October 2008: Chicago Media Action

This week Mitchell Szczepanczyk from Chicago Media Action joins us to talk about some of their top media reform issues right now. In particular, we get into the digital TV transition, and the folks who will be left behind, along with CMA’s challenges to Chicago TV broadcasters’ FCC licenses over the poor quality of their local election coverage.

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mediageek 16 October 2008 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2008/mg20081016.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 9 Oct. 2008 part 2 – more with Shawn Campbell of Chicago Independent Radio Project

My new timeslot on WNUR is an hour long, giving me twice the airtime of the original mediageek radioshow. What I’ve decided to do is treat the first half-hour as a self-contained program matching the format that the program has had up to now, distributing this to the show’s affiliate stations around the continent.

With the second half-hour I’m taking a looser approach, often focusing on issues that are more local in nature for the Evanston-Chicago area. If the week’s guest is able to stick around we’ll try to take calls.

This week guest Shawn Campbell of the Chicago Independent Radio Project was live in the studio, so we talked a little bit more of the project’s history with regard to the former community-radio format of Loyola University’s WLUW, and took one phone call.

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mediageek 9 October 2008 part 2 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2008/mg20081009-pt2.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 9 October 2008: Chicago Independent Radio Project

There is a group of motivated radio lovers in Chicago who think that the city needs a real community radio station, independent of a college, university or other organization that might change its mind about who can be on the radio. Shawn Campbell is the president of the Chicago Independent Radio Project, and she joins me this week to talk about why Chicago needs community radio, and how they hope to squeeze a new noncommercial station onto the dial.

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mediageek 9 October 2008 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2008/mg20081009.mp3[/mp3]

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mediageek 25 September 2008: A New Beginning

This show marks the debut of mediageek on its new home station, WNUR 89.3 FM in Evanston, IL, broadcasting to the north side of Chicago and the North Shore suburbs. My pal John Anderson guests to help re-inaugurate the program as we review the raison d’ete of mediageek, and new producer Andrew Gothelf shares his own brief experience interning in a commercial radio newsroom that quickly disappeared.

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mediageek 25 September 2008 broadcast quality mp3

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[mp3]http://www.mediageek.net/sound/2008/mg20080925.mp3[/mp3]

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