"General Manager -- WUNC FM" - JournalismJobs.com

"Lincoln Center and WNET Team Up for Studio Project at the Performing Arts Center" - NYTimes.com

WNET teasm with the Lincoln Center and WUNC chooses the American Tobacco Center. I still cannot quite understand how WUNC agreed to keep the word tobacco on the air every time they mention their studio in Durham. Isn't there some way to idenitfy their location with a street address?

In view of that graf, this NPR All Things Considered story is a perfect chaser.

"jobs@wunc" - WUNC

Has the University of North Caorlina at Chapel Hill found a new general manager for WUNC? It is surprising not to find a job opening announcement here. Where have they advertised? Or have they?

"Barack Obama Interview" - WUNC

What a great opportunity for WUNC - to collect all that both candidates have said specifically related to North Carolina. Isn't that we expect from a medium calling itself "North Carolina Public Radio" so often?

This collection should include both audio and print/other web links. It would help us all cast the election in terms relating to where we live.

"2008 North Carolina Gubernatorial Candidates Forum" - UNC-TV

Do WUNC and UNC-TV coordinate how they bring more of the gubernatorial debates to more people with more explanation and analysis. It does not appear to me to be so.

Impressed with handling of technical problem

Today, WUNC lost the feed from NPR for All Things Considered at the beginning of the program. In less than a minute, they switched over to the BBC News and in less time, switched back once the NPR feed was restored. The interests of listeners were served extremely well.

"North Carolina Public Radio Summer 2008 Campaign"

I think I heard this morning that something like 1,600 people had contributed $68,000 so far in this campaign. (Update on 19 Aug - the numbers as announced over-the-air are 1,900 and $81,000; another update on 25 Aug - 2,500 and $110,000) Why does WUNC not put this information on its website? I think many people would like to know how the campaign is doing and the best medium of clearly communicating this informaiton is the internet - in addition to over the air.

"Managing Change" - WUNC PowerPoint Presentation

I am not sure the date of this, but it looks to be an interesting PowerPoint presentation by the former station manager about the change WUNC made in 2001 to its current format. It's a useful historical record, at the very least.

Prairie Home in North Carolina

Tonight we are supposed to hear a Prairie Home Companion on WUNC that is made up of two older shows from North Carolina. WUNC has been playing a KEILOR promo for the show, but as best I can tell, there is nothing on their website that might tell us anything about the rest of the story after those earlier performances. What's happened to those who appeared? What's relevant NC news related to what was on the shows? Something that indicates a passing acquaitance with the notion of how to use the web to supplement other media.......?

It is amazing that the WUNC people don't seem to understand the value of linking to something like the Prairie Home Companion site in order to see more about the North Carolina show! At least KEILOR's team knows the value of links - see the links to the performers.

What an embarrassment to those of us who live here.

Whole Foods?

I am sure I heard a mention on-air today of Whole Foods being or becoming a sponsor of WUNC's website. I was interested to see what they were promoting there, so I took a look. Not a mention of Whole Foods as best as I can tell!

I contacted Whole Foods and was told by their local marketing manager they are not a sponsor of the WUNC website.

So I called the station this afternoon and the man who answered said that Whole Foods is indeed a website sponsor. In order to see their banner, all I needed to do was to refresh the page enough times and it would appear. After a dozen tries, it was there!

Effective for Whole Foods? That's for them to decide......if they are sponsoring the site.

"Bull Durham's Message Still a Reality in Baseball" - NPR

It strikes me as more than a little odd that this story appears nowhere on the WUNC website that I can find. But Dave DeWITT's name does, here.

"N.C. Public Radio executive hired to lead nonprofit" - News & Observer

More from WUNC & NPR — WUNC

WUNC is surely vying for the title of one of the area's most incompetent users of the informative powers of the internet.

The station is now broadcasting a concert by the North Carolina Symphony.

Do you suppose there is anything on the station's website that explains the concert, gives the program, etc.

I'll give you a hint.....no.

The NC Symphony must be in the same competition with WUNC. There is not a word that I can find on their own site about the performance tonight (or whenever it is/was).

"Public Insight Network" - WUNC

Did we see any use made of this "Public Insight Network" in the coverage tonight of the primaries in Kentucky and Oregon and their relation to North Carolina? I did not hear any. What a missed opportunity if this really amounts to anything. Primary/Presidential election news here on the WUNC site seems to have stopped 7 May!

"WUNC News" — WUNC

It remains quite astounding that WUNC is able to project on air the image of it being a great news organization. Their efforts to get people to sign up for their so-called "Public Insight Network" suggests that if one does so, this will be a chance to contribute to many local stories at WUNC.

The fact is that WUNC produces no more than one story/day! Got to the "news archives" and you will find 19 "stories" starting 1 May. In fact, this is more than normal because of a number of short snippets they did with candidates and "stories" on the new UNC Chancellor.

We all ought to expect so much more.

Public Insight Network

I have been thinking about WUNC's on-air effort to recruit people for its "public insight network", I think they call it. My first reaction - upon hearing that WUNC would promise confidentiality - is that that will not work; WUNC is part of the State of North Carolina and there is no exception in the state open records law for "news" gathering.

But the more I thought about it, the more concerned I am about the notion of recruiting news sources. It's bad enough that news organizations are bombarded with promotion from many interests through public relations people and directly. To ask for those people to sign up - and then to be used - strikes me as a lot of effort diverted in the direction of those volunteers when the responsibility of a news professional is to stand above that and make choices of sources completely independently of who is standing outside the front door.

So from the standpoint of diverting resources that would be better used on better and more reporting and from the standpoint of adding one more challenge to the independence of professional reporting, I think the whole idea is a bad one.

Here is a "beta" option from Forbes. It strikes me as a much better approach.

Recession-proof?

It is impressive that WUNC was able to reach the goal that it apparently set for itself - 800,000 early! This morning they said 4,900 had contributed. (Updated on 3 May to "more than 6,000.) That is still such a startling small number.

They keep saying that they get no money from the State as in an on-air plug on 1 May. Literally, that is true, but who pays for their facility in Chapel Hill? See their annual reports. Who manages their back office? It's disingenuous to say what they are saying. When I checked a while ago, I think it amounted to something like 250,000/year but that needs to be verified.

Timing is everything....

Wouldn't one think that WUNC might view this week as being especially important to listeners with the primary next Tuesday? Perhaps important enough to schedule the prize-giving-fund-raising event at another time? Then again, the fund drive is not competing with a lot of hugely innovative and instructive programming orginating locally. This is it.

The Takeaway

This program started today. Another alternative to the WUNC wheel of fortune.......

BBC Newshour

For those wanting to avoid the WUNC wheel of fortune fund-raising, you can access the BBC Newshour directly here, twice a day (every day) -- starting at 8:05 AM EDT and 3:05 PM EDT. These are the best two hours of global radio news on the web, in my view. If I could listen to only an hour of radio each day, the Newshour would be it.

WUNC Events — North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

Why not in Chapel Hill or Durham, too?

Shorter pledge drive?

It seems so disingenuous to announce that x amount of money contributed to WUNC now will reduce the length of the "upcoming" fund drive by one day without telling listeners the starting point. I fear that WUNC is adjusting the length of time it raffles off various things depending on how much money it thinks can be raised. Candor would be a better approach. Why not tell us how many days the drive was to be, and announced that the drive is now down to a month instead of 40 days, or whatever they have in mind?

PETRAEUS hearings available from NPR but not noted by WUNC on its website.....

Nothing here once again about the fact that you can use the web to listen to the PETRAEUS hearings live on the NPR.org site. What is it about the word "service" that WUNC management does not understand?

More from WUNC & NPR — North Carolina Public Radio WUNC

"The February Valentine's Drive is over. More than 4300 listeners pledged more than $401,500 to North Carolina Public Radio."

How does this compare with past efforts to collect money from listeners?

BBC NEWS without interruption....

You can use this site to listen to BBC News without having to suffer through the obnoxious (at least to me) sales pitches from WUNC employees for contributions.

"BBC World Service radio made available through Bangladeshi news site" - European Journalism Centre

Why does WUNC not do the same thing on its website? Maybe a link to the BBC news is on the WUNC home page, but I cannot find it. In fact, the Bangladeshi site is far superior to the WUNC site in most respects. Take a look, and note the BBC links not far down the page center right....

Weekend America from American Public Media

Great Super Tuesday songs here from today's Weekend America program.....