Why Internet Streaming is Important to Me: Local News

After 9-11 I signed up for the free e-warn system a weather warning service and for  e-News service offered free by WQAD-TV channel 8 (the ABC affiliate) for area surrounding my hometown.  Tornados and severe weather are a constant concern in the rural areas, and because I travel a lot it's always good to know what's happening at the house in Illinois.  So I signed up a couple months ago and other than getting a couple pages important news stories I never gave it much thought.

And then the morning of Friday, May 3, 2002 hit.

The insane over-egoed bastard who was putting pipebombs and letters in rural mailboxes did his dirty work in the area in and around my hometown. This is an area of the Midwest where the worst thing you're likely to find is a bag of dog shit in your mail box if you tick off a neighbor, but this insane bastard had seriously injured several mail carriers and local residents.

About an hour before the national news picked up the story e-news started tripping off my pager with notices on my cell phone.

Good Afternoon, Mary , WQAD.com has these latebreaking details:
Explosive devices found in several rural mailboxes across QCA.  
MORE DETAILS AT WQAD.COM
CLICK HERE

It immediately got my attention. Because I wasn't on the road I went to my computer and immediately went to WQAD's site to get the latest breaking news from Matt Hamill, one of their reporters.  Had I been on the road I'd have engaged my cell phone's web browser and got the news.

WQAD had streamed the breaking news on their site.  It was good, but I wanted more news. I was sitting some 2000 miles from Illinois and the wire services hadn't broke the story yet. While WQAD alerted me to the news. But I wanted more.

So I went over to another local television station KWQC's Channel 6 (the NBC Affiliate's) site because I knew the KWQC site streams ALL OF THEIR NEWSCASTS and archives them for one week online. (Scroll down the entire page.) I was in time for the local Noon news, and hit the LIVE ON THE AIR icon and went directly into the news, as if I were sitting in the kitchen table in Illinois.

This is the type of delivery system that makes sense. I was completely connected. I got all the who-what-where-when information in about 15 minutes. Okay so KWQC's webcast is a tiny picture, and chops off the commerical in order to get around the SAG-AFTRA thing. No big deal. I get the news streamed to me anywhere any time. That is exactly what KWQC delivered.

But then I wanted to listen to the local buzz and thought I should plug into the local radio stations: First up WOC-AM. The oldest radio station in the area and a news-information-talk format. They should have what I wanted to hear... ut-oh!

It wasn't what I expected. Since Clear Channel recently purchased several of the major local radio stations they have taken WOC-AM and all their other radio stations off the web. Okay guys what gives?

WOC is a talk station. Don't give me the CARP arguement! They don't play music. So what's the deal?  Chopping the commericals is no big deal! Go talk to WOCTV... er KWQC-TV . God knows someone local could show you how to do it!

It would have given me great comfort to listen to Jim Fisher, Jim Albracht and Mark Minnick and hear what they were thinking. I've known Fisher over 25 years, and he is a wonderful common sense oriented local broadcaster. Jim has an excellent following and a very loyal group of listeners.  The Quad Cities is very fortunate to have him there and I would have loved to hear what Fisher had to say.

In summary:

The e-weather and e-news alerts are excellent if you need to be aware of local information, especially when traveling. They know how to deliver short, distinct pages with enough information. WQAD and their service provider gets Excellent marks for their service. However I'd like to have had more streaming video or at least audio of the news on your site.

KWQC gets stellar marks for delivering streaming video of news as it happened online. It was up 99% of the time I logged in, and I haven't missed a broadcast since Friday afternoon.

And as for Clear Channel-- what you have done to my local radio stations is insane. You have taken my ability to get local radio news and information away from me... and your advertisers. (I still purchase a hell of a lot of things when I'm in Illinois.) Fire up the damn streaming servers again and get the local news and information back on the web!

3:51:02 PM    

[The Shifted Librarian Reports] I'm not sure how Ernest knew that both my brother, father, and I would be fascinated by The Mercury Theatre on the Air, but I thank him heartily for the link!

"All of the surviving Mercury Theatre shows are available from this page, in both streaming and downloadable RealAudio format. (MP3s are also available for some shows.) There are several Campbell Playhouse episodes available here as well; the rest are being added gradually."

I just took a look. The site is WONDERFUL! It's a great start at making the great radio stories of the early days of radio available online.  The site owner is completely clued in-- by making the stories available as a stream or download, so you can take them to listen on your mp3 players. I give it 4 stars

1:11:14 PM