Media Matters

Missing Mike. My favorite songwriter and performer is Mike Cross. He was headed to a career in law as an undergrad at UNC-Chapel Hill when a music bug bit him, he learned to play fiddle and guitar, and then to perform in local bars and clubs. I couldn’t count how many times I went to hear him play. His songs were—and still are—fun, deep, wise, and catchy. Uncle Josh. The Scottsman. Elma Turl. Nobby. Born in the Country. The Lord’ll Provide. Bounty Hunter. Kentucky Song. A few years ago Mike was bitten by a tick, got Lyme Disease, and has hardly been heard from since. I hope he’s well and can get back out there, showing the next few generations what an amazing gift he is to us all.

Drowning in Red. Fifty years ago, when I was while working at WDBS (a sweet little commercial radio station owned by Duke University in Durham, North Carolina), our slogan was “Let the music keep our spirits high”—a line from Jackson Browne’s “Before the Deluge.” Give it a listen. Take in the lyrics. Then think about the kind and generous purposes behind all the federal programs, agencies, and departments now being demolished. The abandoned alliances and international friendships. The dropped American support for people and organizations trying to do good throughout the world. The Voice of America, silenced. Think about the new political corrections:  forbidden words in grant applications, red flags now waving atop corporate giants, weather vanes vectored right. Think about the shaking trap doors under millions of federal employees—especially ones tasked with helping the weak, the old, the foreign, the oppressed, the dark, the gay, the oddly gendered. And then listen to the news. No, not the old bluestream news we still call main. I mean the redstream news that now predominates on TV, in podcasts, on radio. What you will see and hear is one big amen corner for all of it. This is the deluge.

Sounding Good Everywhere. If you like old album rock and Americana rooted in North Carolina, the best thing on radio in Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill is That Station, on 95.7 FM.  Technically, the station translates (rebroadcasts) WRAL-FM/101.5’s HD2 stream, and rarely mentions its true callsign, which is W239CK. What many listeners may not know is that the signal on 95.7 is only 250 watts from an antenna about 1100 feet up a tower near Apex, while the HD2 stream is coming from WRAL’s 98,000 watt signal pumping out of its antenna almost 2000 feet up a tower southeast of Raleigh. Compare the two signal footprints here and here (thanks to the wonderful RadioLocator.com). Naturally, the station also has an app. That’s what I usually use here in Bloomington, Indiana, although right now I’m digging it on my computer, which has outstanding 2.1 Logitech speakers I picked up for $5 at a yard sale.