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Apparently nobody at Boston magazine ever watched Zoom or heard of Robin Young
By adamg on Wed, 02/03/2010 - 12:08pm
Boston magazine has a long article on the public-radio war between WBUR and WGBH that I'm sure is just absolutely fascinating, but which I'm having trouble reading because it's just so full of mistakes, starting with the very first paragraph:
[WGBH] would seem better suited across the river in Cambridge, among the well intentioned and well-to-do, amid the futuristic R&D facilities that serve the region's tech industry. That's where WGBH was for years, of course, before its ambition outgrew the 12 buildings it had purchased on Western Avenue.
Of course? Does nobody at BoMag remember Zoom and its "Boston, MA 02134" tagline from back in the days when it was located on Western Avenue in Allston? But 'BUR shouldn't feel left out:
WBUR, despite all its reporting strength, doesn't have a daily show. Local content is dropped into Morning Edition or All Things Considered or saved for Radio Boston.
I know Robin Young is kind of low key - and her fans appreciate that - but, um, dudes, maybe hit the 90.9 pre-set around noon for a local show on 'BUR (and let's not forget that for two hours before that, Tom Ashbrook hosts a show on 'BUR).
Also, 'GBH's new building may, indeed be humongous, but, really, all of Brighton is scruffy and the structure towers over all of it?
Hat tip to somebody who read BoMag a lot more religiously than I do for pointing this out.
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Comments
WGBH's Cambridge Roots
Actually Boston Magazine is right. WGBH was in Cambridge for years. The original studio was at 84 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge. WGBH was there from 1955 until 1961 when they moved to Western Ave in Allston (thus the "0-2-1-3-4 Send it to Zoom!" that we remember from our 70's childhood). Boston Magazine may be right about WGBH's Cambridge roots, but their writing is confusing.
That does not make Boston
That does not make Boston Magazine right. It means there is a grain of truth to its error. Obviously, the paragraph refers to the recent move and recent high-tech development, not something from 50 years ago, and indicates that Western Ave. is in Cambridge. Adam's criticisms are quite valid.
Well if you want to get REALLY pedantic
Technically Western Ave IS in Cambridge; it keeps its name as it crosses the river, and continues until Central Square. Not that that has anything to do with anything.
Let's not confuse "confusing" with "crappy"
Because this wasn't confusing, it was crappy. First off, even if there's some grain of truth here, saying that WGBH was in among well intentioned, well-to-do, and futuristic neighbors in the late 50's is a realllllll stretch. That side of Cambridge was rather gritty and industrial then (certainly scruffier than Brighton is now); the roots of tech were there, but textiles and manufacturing were a lot bigger, and would remain bigger, in that part of Cambridge for quite some time.
And as for WGBH "looming over" Brighton, did Kix even go to WGBH? If so, how does something "loom over" a neighborhood that, for the most part, is uphill from it? Let alone keep "the whole of scruffy Brighton in its shadow"? It's a big building, that's for sure-- but, again, it'd be huge stretch to say that it blocks out the sun for anyone, literally or figuratively. It casts a shadow over the Pike and maybe a few buildings across the way, and that's about it. "In the shadow" is an overused cliche at best; here, it's just sad. I actually feel bad for the guy.
As for the use of "scruffy" and "hoi polloi", I guess no BoMag article would be complete without a classist, smarmy generalization of a less-than-trendy neighborhood by some semi-skilled hack who just blew in from somewhere else. So in that sense-- factual errors, bad writing, cliches-- this article was complete.
84 Mass. Ave., Cambridge
is an address at MIT. The school's Student Center is now located where the old WGBH studio building was before it burned down in 1961.
That's pretty sad
That's reporting? By someone who just moved here or what?
Does this surprise you?
Boston Magazine has long been a blight on this town. If you want to read a bunch of ads for stuff 90% of us can't afford and where cultural diversity in this city is only celebrated with the occasional profile of Charles Stith and Gene Rivers, then Boston's your rag. Jason Binn probably remembers more about Boston than the morons who run that horrible, horrible magazine.
I'm still sad I never got to
I'm still sad I never got to be a ZOOM kid
Sigh
I lived in Maryland when the show began. I recall submitting a thing or two, but none was used. I did get some kind of reply though. Had a crush on Bernadette.
Wait, what?
They think that stretch of Western Ave is Cambridge? Am I reading this right?
Someone is confused and I don't think it's me.
There's always a question of who's to blame
Is it the writer, for putting in embarrassingly inaccurate facts, or the editors and copy desk people who should have checked? Personally I blame the writer-- hell, he could have checked UH to see if Emily Rooney's show was, you know, competing against anything WBUR had up in the same time slot:
https://www.universalhub.com/2010/emily_rooney_did...
What About "On Point? Oh, And 27,000 versus 100,00 Watts
In describing the meltdown during Jane Christo's Goetterdammerung, the article simply states that after WBUR's contretemps with Chris Lydon, "The Connection" was cancelled. Nothing about its replacement with "On Point". And the article completely overlooked what brought several hundred people out on a cold, winter's night in early January: the difficulty many people had trying to get WCRB's 27,000-watt (equivalent to 50,000 watts @ about 500 feet) signal from Essex County after classical music was shifted away from WGBH-FM's 100,000-watt antenna in the Blue Hills.
On Point did not quite replace The Connection
Dick Gordon hosted The Connection from 2001, when Christopher Lydon was canned, to 2005 when it was cancelled. On Point was broadcast live in the evening from 2001-2005. It took The Connection's morning time slot after that show was cancelled.
Here and Now is not a local show
Here & Now was launched as a local show but has been syndicated for many years. The number of stations airing it increased significantly after NPR cancelled "Day to Day" last year. It's no more "local" than "Car Talk" or "On Point."
Boston Mag was correct in stating that "Radio Boston" is the only local issues show that airs WBUR.
Update from the writer
Paul Kix, author of the Boston piece, and I have been exchanging e-mail today (yes, quite civilly, despite what I'm sure he thinks of me).
He was wrong about moving from Cambridge and will correct the piece online and run a correction in print next month. It was an honest mistake, based on discussions with a couple of WGBH old-timers about the early days of the station (when it was based in Cambridge, before 1961), he says.
However, he says I'm wrong about 'BUR having a daily locally focused show. While Robin Young is herself as local as you can get, her show is syndicated nationally and so is no more local than, oh "All Things Considered."
Point taken. But Young does do some local stories (the lead item on her site as I type this is about the Yemeni LNG tankers coming into Boston Harbor) - just as her new 'GBH nemesis Emily Rooney does some national stories (although her sucky WGBH Web site makes it hard to find that out).
Well, you're a better man than I am
Considering this idiot described Cambridge citizens as "well intentioned and well-to-do" and it's neighbor across the river as "the hoi polloi of Brighton's bodegas and dive bars", I would be hard pressed not to tell him to go back to Dallas.
Perpetuating stereotypes about 2 great neighborhoods imbued with the kind of diversity that is probably not found in whatever "neighborhood" Mr. Kix lives in is just another in a series of journalistic high crimes that "Boston" commits almost monthly. It also proves to me that not only is "Boston" desperately out of touch with the city it covers, it is also in my opinion blatantly racist.
Seconded
By all means, let's chip in and buy him a Greyhound ticket back to wherever he came from-- Dallas, East Overshoe, wherever. Anywhere but Boston is fine, and when he gets there, his racism, poor grasp of geography, and weak writing skills will not be seen in him there.
"Brighton's bodegas"?
I didn't read the article, but yikes. I lived in Brighton for four years and the Hispanic presence was relatively small (but it wouldn't surprise me if this author confused Allston and Brighton). And since when is Cambridge a uniformly wealthy suburb?