Listening Post: Looking ahead

Despite the fact that Guy Berard and Radio Bob ushered in the New Year with the ominous “Bad Moon Rising” by Credence Clearwater Revival, I predict a pretty good 2013 for North Country Public Radio. This is the time of year when sages trot out their annual prophesies, so here are a couple more of mine.

The world will not come to an end in 2013, no matter what the Mayans or any other civilization suspected of harboring ancient astronauts did or did not get around to. And 2013 will not be the year when you finally, finally get your personal commuter jet-pack. According to InTrade–my favorite soothsaying source–there is only an 8.8% chance that NASA will discover extraterrestrial life in 2013. There is a slightly better chance, 10%, that a supersymmetric particle (whatever that is) will be observed in 2013.

So the forecast is a little dull on the game-changing, earth-shattering news front. In DC the prediction is for continued gridlock, in Albany, for more austerity, and the world situation is –as they say–desperate as usual. But there is, contrary to Solomon’s view, something new under the sun. For example–The Dirt–a new NCPR farm and food blog. Another blog and news vehicle focused on the NY corrections system is also in the offing later this month. And we have plans to beef up our online arts and entertainment fare early in the year. More is more better, we hope.

2012 was very good to us. Traffic to ncpr.org grew faster than the national debt: visits up 48%, unique visitors up 74%, topping one million for the first time. It’ll take a lot of skull sweat and treasure to maintain that growth, but I predict we will. One of these years we may even get the jet-pack.

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