Living the North Country, pinging the world

The next couple of months, as we build toward our spring membership drive, we’ll be thinking out loud occasionally here on the In box about what public radio means, past, present and future.

I want to start by pointing out David Sommerstein’s recent national reporting.

On Friday, he invited All Things Considered listeners inside a North Country tradition, as families in Canton swapped food that they had canned and pickled over the summer.

Then, on Saturday, David took Only A Game listeners kite skiing on the Tug Hill.

It’s cool to have our remote region out there in the aether, getting talked about from Alaska to Maine — but I want to make the case that it’s bigger than that.

America’s national media tends to be a pretty urban affair.

Places like Canton and Tupper Lake and Essex don’t usually get a lot of play.  Working with NPR, we’ve developed a strong track record getting our lives, our traditions and our political views out there.

My bias here is obvious.  I think this is one of the reasons our public radio station is worth supporting, both with your membership dollars, and (yes) with national funding.

Right now, public support for stations like ours is on the chopping block.

It’s not just a Republican thing, though the House GOP has made this a priority.   We could also see Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo proposing deep cuts.

If that happens, rural stations like ours — in parts of the US and New York state where trees and dairy cows outnumber people — will feel it the hardest.

Does that mean our voices won’t still reach a national audience?   Probably not.  NCPR has made journalism a top priority. We’re actually searching for economical ways to improve and expand our service.

But despite our penny-pinching ways, the kind of quality that we strive for isn’t cheap.  That’s one of the reasons that so many commercial newsrooms have slashed their budgets, and cut their teams of reporters.

So next time you hear one of our reporters, or one of your neighbors, talking on NPR, think a bit about what it means.

And if you’re interested in chiming on the debate, you can comment below, you can go to this website for more information about the politics surrounding public broadcasting, or you can cut right to the chase by going here to pledge.

Tags: economy, politics, public radio