Listener Comments to NCPR

the beat authority is keeping this little bookmaker hopping! aloha from booklyn in brooklyn, NY.

Today on the local news segment, I heard a commentator (I think it was the director of the Wilder Association) remark that there is little documentation on nineteenth century history here in upstate New York. Actually, that is not the case. I just finished reading a remarkable book about the history of nineteenth century Jefferson County ("Untidy Origins" by Lori Ginzberg), which details how six women petitioned the New York constitutional convention in 1846 for suffrage rights, two years before the famous Seneca Falls convention. The book provides rich detail on farm, community, political and economic life, using things like wills, contemporary newspapers (especially agricultural journals), maps, and local histories. It was striking how much documentation there was, in fact.


Ellen Fleischmann
Cape Vincent

I am disappointed at NCPR's failure to carry Hillary Clinton's speech yesterday (June 7) bowing out of the Democratic race and endorsing Barrack Obama. Regardless of political beliefs, this was an important speech: a female candidate endorsing a black candidate for president.

As it turned out, Vermont Public Radio did not carry the speech either. I was fortunate enough to be able to pick up WAMC's Plattsburgh frequency at 91.9. How sad that I had to travel 150 virtual miles to listen. WAMC carried the speech in its entirety, even in the middle of their pledge drive. What is NCPR's excuse?

I just listened to the story of a desperate Chinese mother's search for her two year old child in the twisted wreck that once had been their home. I did not understand her language, and her culture and traditions may seem foreign, but I did not need the words of the translator to be able to have an instant connection with her. My hopes rose and fell with hers as she searched for her child. And in the end her profound grief at the loss of her child and the remorse that she felt at not being able to protect him needed no translation. Only NPR seems to be able to remind us of the connection that we all share no matter our religious, political, or cultural beliefs.

I'm listening to my favorite show (Radio Bob's R&B) and just thought that I'd mention how much I enjoy the NCPR top story podcast. I live abroad and so have to make a bit of effort to listen to NCPR shows (the time difference makes it difficult!) and I love having north country stories delivered straight to me.

Great job, and the stories themselves are top quality. The NCPR newsroom appears to have improved immeasurably over the past few years-- from good to great.

And happy belated birthday!

Tired of this War! Join us! http://nysmarchesforpeace.org/

NCPR should be publicizing this event that is going on right now and goes through Sat. It would be nice to form a group from the North Country to add!

Hi, I want to say how much I appreciate you publicizing the Overeaters Anonymous minithon in Potsdam and OA in general with your story on April 3. I wanted to let you know that we also have an OA group that meets Tuesday nights at 5:30 p.m. in Saranac Lake at the Will Rogers Residence. For more information, people can contact me at 891-6755. Thanks!

As much as I appreciate World Cafe and hearing an hour of music that is complied much like a mixed tape that a friend would give me; I am devastated that Fair Game has been pulled. Fair Game is an insightful and fresh hour of commentatry on politics and our ever evolving culture. Like other bloggers have mentioned, I urge you to consider your line up again and to bring back Fair Game.

Martha & All~

Happy birthday to WSLU
you've been with me
what ever I do

as i've traveled
near and far
you've beconed me
from abode and car

coming home always meant
down home elation
as we fiddled with the dial
for our beloved station

we would search through the dark
getting crackles and teases
then a voice oh familiar
such human sound doth pleases

living in the sunny south
walking white sand beaches
when a tinge of homesick hit
online listening did the trick!

you saw me through my triumphs
and helped me through my pain
and if I had a choice
I'd do it all again

I reach for you each morning
I listen late at night
we are friends for life-
North Country Public Radio-
northcountry's true delight!

Mimi Van Deusen

We became "public radio" junkies in the late 1970's having to drive back and forth to Syracuse due to our child's leukemia treatments. That led to listening to Public Radio driving back and forth to work from Carthage to Watertown. All of the "buttons" on the car radio are directed to public radio stations including WRVO and WCNY but because we now commute mostly from Carthage to Old Forge we can listen to NCPR nearly all the time having Carhtage, Lowville, Port Leyeden and Old Forge right down the line of buttons. I recall two inicdents regarding your station. It was call in time and the Syracuse station was threatening having to cut out news and "All things considered"due to lack of listener support and funds. They were announcing raising funds in the low 1000's. You guys were just totally raising 10 times more. Your fund raising is so successful because you are so responsive to the communities you serve. That makes me recall the first time I called in to one of your fund raisers. I was driving to work in Watertown and you played "Man of LaMancha" I was singing along all the way past the beautiful Rutland pond full of Geese arriving from the south. I pulled into the parking lot and called making my first "on air" pledge.

We love your station; we love public radio. Happy Birthday and many, many more.

Paula and Dave Weal of Carthage and Old Forge

Happy Birthday radio folks!
40 might be the new 25, but it's still a lot of airtime.

Kim Dedam, P-R staff writer

Happy, Happy Birthday to you and all of your wonderful, delightful crew.

Ben and Will wish a very Happy Birthday to you young whippersnappers too.

Live from Middle Saranac,
Burdette Parks

Ellen,

So, today is the day NCPR turns 40. I remember that day, it's not as bad as everyone makes it out to be...

Seriously, congratulations to you and all the staff for making the station what it is today - a venerable North Country institution - enriching the lives of the people of the North Country through your programming and your building of community. We are so lucky to have you all, and St. Lawrence University could not be more proud of its association with North Country Public Radio!

Dear All,

Hearing Jackie and Ellen and Bob reminisce made me think about the station's early days and my connections. I am listening online from Florence, Italy where my husband, Graham Holmes, also a big fan, is working for a few months. So we arrived in Potsdam in 1976 and came to see people at the station in the early part of 1977, where I was welcomed by Jimmy Arvidsen, Rick Hutto and Jackie and invited to do some announcing and given the chance to do a program on Broadway musicals. I had the joy of doing On Broadway for several years, even after we left the region for Schenectady, thanks to Jackie's and others' great editing. Before I left I had another wonderful opportunity, together with Bob Vilas--the chance to coordinate the very first fund drive in the Fall of 1978. That's when I first met Ellen who was offering as a premium maple syrup and, I think, some chickens, as a premium. And as Jackie just said, we didn't give a dollar amount for the first drive. We didn't want to look foolish. We collected premiums from shops, businesses, people-- anyone we could think of-- literally knocking on doors. (The first year, Graham did his English dinner as a premium, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, and after that, for some years he did different sizes of Christmas puddings based on sizes of contributions, made in and sent from Schenectady). The station is still wonderful and we still enjoy listening to it, from Lake Clear in the summer and now online.

Keep on doing what you do!!

Lots of love from Karen Cohen and Graham Holmes from a far country

P.S. I think when Rick Hutto left, didn't her first go to Guam? Or had he been there before he came to Canton.

Congratulations on turning 40! Tell Jackie, I?ll swap my law degree for a job at NCPR any time.

I started listening when we moved to Kingston from the remote outpost that is Prince Edward Island (over there by Iceland) five years ago and now listen from Todd to well past twilight. Your station has been instrumental in framing my idea that we live in a river valley shared by two countries rather than on opposite sides of a wall-like border. Now, because of NCPR, we?ve seen hockey games at SLU, spent summers hunting for frozen custard (unknown in Canada) and also explained your history through showing our kids civil war monuments in North Country town parks ? all due to being attracted by these voices coming out of Canton. Come to think of it, I have also bought a banjo and a mandolin because of String Fever and also have, for a Canadian, an inordinate knowledge of the politics of a state senate race as well as the opinions of one Mr. Bruno down in Albany.

Thanks for all you do and here?s to another 40 years!

Ellen

enjoying the birthday show.

We'd vacationed here several times but I dont think ever turned on a radio but we moved here August 27, 1998.

I drove from VA in a large Ryder rent-a-truck towing a small car --totally unqualified to do so.

As we came through PA into NY I listened to NPR stations along the way and "somewhere above Syracuse" I found NCPR and have been on board ever since.

It was a Thursday (I looked it up) so I dont think Radio Bob was on that afternoon but I know I soon discovered this strange guy who played old R&B....

As several callers have said, I can't imagine living here without NCPR.

Thanks for everything

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! From SHERYL EVANS LISTENING SINCE 1980.

Dear Ellen and Jackie and Bob and Martha and all there:

Happy birthday all of you (and all of us).
When did WSLU itself start, was that no sooner than '68? I associate Jackie with my first awareness of it, and that's all mixed up with folk music, coffee houses, the beginning of the co-op, civil rights movement soon shading into the sorrows of the Viet Nam war. It seems to me the station was serving all those communities with information, connections.

And by the time I came back from Stanford, '70, it was the North Country Defense Committee's fight against the 760KV power line. As I remember that time, Jackie was WSLU, Martha was the newpapers, and Ellen was a charismatic leader in that fight. And things had gotten too grim for folk music.

Here's a question about the history of NPR, not NCPR. I used to listen to the CBC's great news program As It Happens, with Barbara Fromme (?) and Alan Maitland (?). When NPR came up with a show in the same format, All Things Considered, with Susan Stamberg and Bob Edwarde(?) I thought they'd pretty obviously copied the CBC. Is that right? At first, I remember thinking, it was but a pale copy. AIH was awfully good.

What about current trends in radio? This is a time to think about the future too. I am getting worried about it. Smart-ass, overproduced, quick-cut segments, even on ATC; heard one yesterday on a science matter, can't remember what. Do you think NPR is trying to go the way of the print newsmagazines, more and more cleverness and entertainment?

Loyally, Tim

The new verb "to podcast" refers to the action of producing them, not the act of listening to them, as used by the local Morning Edition hosts.

Thanks NPR. It?s January 25, 2008 and you finally covered Dennis Kucinich?s platform for President of the United States on the very day he decided to drop out of the primary. NPR reported on Kucinich?s call for universal health care, pulling the troops out of Iraq, and ending the war. NPR also reported that he never acquired more than 1% of the delegates in the few states in which he ran, and he has four Democratic challengers to his seat in the house because he ignored his state while he was running for President.

The concerted exclusion of his campaign in both news coverage and the Nevada/Georgia debates was not reported. NBC rescinded Kucinich?s invitation to the Nevada debate. NBC is owned by GE (the BIG weapons, medical and nuke plant manufacturer) and appears threatened by a candidate that is opposed to war, for universal medical care and has a progressive energy policy. The media anointed ?three candidates? have arranged the debates into a safe corner where the exchange of minor attacks centering on racism and Bill Clintons oral sex escapades remain center stage, entertaining the delegates for the coming weeks, while issues of life, death, debt, energy, global warming and health care are removed from the stage.

You might say Kucinich (and Mike Gravel) do not have the numbers for a viable candidacy. This approach is wrong for the following reasons: A candidate that meets the party?s requirements and gets on the ballots should get equal time; polls should not determine anything in a campaign; poll numbers vary wildly from one candidate to another weekly and state by state; you can not have a viable candidacy unless your platform/voice makes the news.

Is the campaign of Kucinich and Gravel so threatening as to compel NPR to follow the media monopoly?s lead, lock step, in all manners and ways? Is Democracy Now! such a threat that big money plutocrats and big money corporations would cut off the flow of station funding? Is the status quo that fragile? Is the censorship of presidential candidates? ideas that essential in the maintenance of political control?
Richard Paolillo
West Stockholm, NY

Thank you to Todd Moe at NCPR and Tom and Nellie Coakley for sharing such a powerful story this morning about the Coakleys' experiences in Vietnam. As I was driving to work, I was moved to tears listening to Tom as he described his life-changing injury and to Nellie, as I heard her talk about how her sense of values evolved during and after the Vietnam War. I've known Tom and Nellie for many years, but this story stopped me in my tracks. I was reminded (again) that our north country friends, colleagues, and neighbors all have so many rich stories to share.

Thank you NCPR for mentioning the Hidden/Censored primary candidates for president in your local morning news on Jan 22, 2008. Many people I know who make the extra effort to find out about the primaries strongly support Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul.

It an outrage that Morning Edition with feign seriousness and advocacy for the "three" Candidates said the South Carolina debate sponsored by the Congressional Black Caucus and CNN was a, "Contentious debate". How can we be down to three candidates when the numbers are all over the place and the primary has just started?

Could NCPR make up for this NPR censorship/omission with local news and quotes from the campaigns of: Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul?

This local effort is within your control and power. Please make the effort and inform your listeners who are starved for responsible media reporting of this "primary". Were counting and depending on YOU.

Sincerely,
Richard Paolillo, West Stockholm

NCPR folks, thanks for adding the World Cafe to your nightly schedule. I appreciate the chance to hear this eclectic brand of music, something that no other outlet in NNY offers. David Dye's interviews and insight add a lot to the program. WC with DD was a regular feature on a public radio station in Pittsburgh where I previously lived, and having it here is like making contact with an old friend. thanks. Also appreciate String Fever, Mountain Stage and most of Ira Glass' efforts Sunday at noon.

I am really excited about The World Cafe...the music is unique, and it's a nice change from classical music every night. Thanks for adding it to the schedule!

I have just returned to my mountain home in Paul Smiths, where the radio is all the media I allow, only to discover that Fair Game has been replaced by a souless retread of a show like World Cafe. Where is the attraction there? Fair Game is a slick and well produced hour of intrigue and humor and deconstruction. Perhaps you could return it to it's rightful spot (or at least at 8pm; switching it out with The World) at 7pm, and quit inserting Readers and Writers and Todd Moe's homespun show in its place, on Thursdays. I am okay with Friday's The Folk Show alternative. I do like the music. Oh, and please, please, please flush Mountain Stage. Larry Groce is an absolute self-serving egotist who believes he has his finger on the pulse of music. Most of his guests are compelling enough, but he reminds me of Paul Schaffer (David Letterman). If Larry Groce is such an accomplished musician, why in the world is his signature song such a piece of trash? There has to be better shows out there. Why not air a command performance of the previous week's Radio Bob's Rythym & Blues Show?

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