Thursday, August 21, 2008

COLORADO COMMUNITY RADIO FOR THE CONVENTION

GREETINGS EVERYONE! WELCOME TO COLORADO

Greetings to all of you visiting Colorado for the Democrat's national "love fest". While you are here (hopefully with time to drive around the state a bit), you may want to check out the radio offerings from several community radio stations (the links to Colorado's community radio stations are available on the right side of our home page). The news departments at many of these stations often operate on shoestring budgets, where volunteer energy is essential. During Convention Week, many of Colorado's community stations who are members of Rocky Mountain Community Radio (RMCR); http://rmcradio.org/ are pulling together resources to provide reports from the convention and related events. Participating stations include KRCC, Colorado Springs; KUNC, Greeley; KGNU, Boulder; KRFC, Fort Collins, KSUT, Ignacio (on the Southern Ute Indian reservation); KDNK, Carbondale, KAJX, Aspen, and KSJD, Cortez. Whether or not this will be "award-winning" coverage, just know that pooling the efforts of dozens of people on the ground should provide fresh perspectives and genuine commentary that larger media players are likely to miss.

KUNC, Greeley, 91.5 FM, and KRNC, Steamboat Springs, 88.5 FM; online at http://www.kunc.org/ . KUNC will have three reporters at the Convention, including State Capitol reporter Bente Birkland, providing feature reporting during Morning Edition and All Things Considered (KUNC-producedreports running up to 5 minutes typically air during Morning Edition and All Things Considered at 35 minutes past the hour; longer reports are aired during All Things Considered during the second half-hour). For a complete listing of where you can hear KUNC across eastern Colorado and inthe Colorado mountains, go to: http://www.kunc.org/coverage.html .

KRCC, Colorado Springs, 91.5 FM and online at http://www.krcc.org/ . KRCC reports will include those from Capitol Reporter Bente Birkeland, and KRCC News Director Andrea Chalfin, who is producing feature material about Latino groups attending the Convention; a topic with state-wide and national significance. Other topics will include "Delegate Service Day", and the Nader/Rage Against the Machine "Open the Debates Rally." Reports will air at the bottom of the hour during Morning Edition and All Things Considered, with longer feature material slated for 8:50 a.m., 5:50 p.m. and 6:50 p.m. Breaking stories during the day will be heard immediately following hourly NPR news updates a four minutes past the hour. KRCC will archive everything online at krcc.org, including all reports from RMCR member stations, even if KRCC doesn't play all of those reports on-air. For a complete list of KRCC coverage areas, go to: http://www.krcc.org/about/index_frequencies.html .

KGNU. Boulder/Denver, 88.5 FM and 1390 AM, or online at http://www.kgnu.org/ . Aside from the usual thought-provoking programs such as "Democracy Now", heard weekday mornings from 7:30 until 8:30, see how Boulder and Denver's Community radio voice is covering the convention in a unique way, by running a blog on the convention (as previously reported at http://coloradopublicradio.blogspot.com/2008/07/kgnu-doing-more-with-less.html ) . Other public affairs programs through the week are bound to address what is happening at the Pepsi Center, Invesco Field at Mile High, and on the streets of Denver.

KDNK, Carbondale and the Roaring Fork Valley (Aspen to Glenwood Springs) 88.3 FM or online at http://www.kdnk.org/ . During Morning Edition, Monday Through Friday at 7:30 a.m. KDNK will air a 10 minute summary of convention-related activities, with some of the coverage pulled from the other community stations mentioned. During their 4:30 to 5:00 p.m. time slot, they are tentatively planning public affairs programming as follows:
MONDAY: Following the money trail, or lack thereof.
TUESDAY: Comparing the health plans of McCain and Obama.
WEDNESDAY: Looking at the 08 campaign's energy and environmental policies, and the effects on western Colorado; particularly natural gas and oil shale development nearby.
THURSDAY: how protesters interacted with police and vice versa.
FRIDAY: alternative journalism perspectives, with youth from the Roaring Fork Valley, as well as foreign journalists' perspectives.

KRFC, Fort Collins, 88.9 FM and online at http://www.krfcfm.org/ KRFC will have a half-dozen people on hand at the convention that will be feeding news and feature segments that will be aired throughout the broadcast day.

KAJX, ASPEN, 91.1 AND 91.5 FM, or online at http://www.kajx.org/ . KAJX will have two reporters at the convention. They will file reports and live comment for the KAJX morning news. Packaged stories will focus exclusively on "local" angles, such as local teens attending the event, participation by and impressions of local delegates to the convention, etc. Those stories will be included during KAJX newscasts at 6:04, 7:04, and 8:04 a.m. For a map of their complete coverage area, go to: http://www.kajx.org/listening_map.php


With the variety of programming, and dedication of dozens of volunteer reporters and programmers contributing at each station listed, you are bound to find something to your liking.