After a year of being the star attraction on parent of Chicago NPR station WBEZ Chicago Public Media's Vocalo blogs (particularly with a series of savage attacks on Randy Michaels and the Tribune Co. in general and WGN Radio in particular), former Sun-Times media writer Robert Feder is leaving Vocalo for parts unknown, although he says he will have a new online home soon:
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/towerticker/2010/11/robert-feder-moving-his-blog-from-chicago-public-media.html Vocalo, was created in 2007 as one of public radio's many attempts to grab a younger and more diverse audience and started out as a 24/7 format on Northwest Indiana sister station WBEW and a web site that focused on user-supplied content. Thanks to a signal that doesn't reach most of the Chicago area and an amateur night vibe (not to mention host topics and contributions that seem more like Howard Stern than public radio, although the format has purposely not identified itself as public radio), it has had no particular success. (It also has had the stigma to some of looking like the reason WBEZ stopped playing jazz at night after over 35 years, although the national trend on public radio towards more news-talk and less music was the main factor.) The addition of the blogs (which include pop music critic Jim DeRogatis, co-host of WBEZ's nationally syndicated "Sound Opinions," and WBEZ and WLS-TV restaurant critic Steve Dolinsky) has increased web traffic, but must of it seems to be along the traditional public radio audience lines instead of being younger, blacker and browner. Vocalo's radio, web site and blog arms will continue, but less money is going to the radio station and one wonders if it would've been dropped long ago if not for the fact that WBEZ GM Torey Malatia sees the project as his legacy (and that it may take Malatia's departure for Vocalo to end). -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
