It started just like any other morning for the Friday "round table" show. Coffee, yawns, a few songs, and the usual cast of characters logging onto our AM stereo webstream. CBS news, weather, the usual elements that make a morning routine on AM stereo 1430.
Then, came the magic. One international listener. Then another. Before we knew it, the board had a handful of very INTERESTING areas listening. One had to wonder why. (L) It's happened before, (R) but in the world there are literally MILLIONS of choices in audio entertainment! We're always happy to be chosen!
But this morning was different. Before our show was over, we had interaction! E-mails from
We made some friends this morning, some from far away
countries and locations! But, the one thing that we all had in common was
a love of RADIO. The kind of radio that WION delivers. Local, Interesting,
sometimes corny, many times odd, but definitely UNIQUE. To US it was a
normal morning. To one of our listeners to the stream, it was their dose of
healthy laughter. (I was once told that two people in the same seats, doing
NOTHING, but one honestly laughing from deep down compared will find the
laughing one gets 11 times the exercise of the other, and is healthier)
One line from the chat-room today said, "I don't think I've laughed
this much to radio before" which is a huge compliment to us. In-between
discussing "B" movies which will be more discussed NEXT Friday, the
conversation went to how the internet has really made the world a
smaller place. If we'd had it in the library of our computer (not to mention
the proper music licensing, what a pain in the royal donkey THOSE people are)
we were just corny and campy enough to have played Disney's "It's a
small world"...but.....we didn't.
Is it earth-shattering that we had far away listeners?
NO. Is it going to bring those people to Ionia
to buy from our advertisers? Probably not. But, is WION putting MY
town on the map in a GOOD WAY
this week? Definitely!
We're just a small, average bedroom community. We don't have
the world's largest Fork in the road, or the world's longest breakfast table,
or the world's ANYTHING that I'm aware of. But, we do have ourselves. A nice
town, seat to a nice county in Michigan , USA . And,
if WION is seen by the larger world as having a very unique radio station which
chooses to perpetuate the INCREDIBLE sound of AM stereo, and it
spreads via internet chat rooms, I guess WION is doing it's
job as an ambassador to it's city of license.
I found it personally exciting to be in communication with
people around the world who were literally "tuned-in" to us via a
real AM stereo receiver feeding our web-stream and apps. It's a huge
contrast to the days when WION could not be heard on low power south of it's
own town's Main Street .
So, has today's tech-savvy world changed radio for the BETTER?
Absolutely! Even one of our callers said "Good Morning"
to HER "international audience" on our station. (she's a regular caller.)
Our example in this writing is not a case of "all eyes are on Ionia " as it was recently as when differences between people accelerate to violence and the BIG media comes to make us look bad from ONE isolated incident (which is about
the only time they come to town)....but instead, we have a case of the "little media" that makes
our little town look GOOD in the world, and to those who enjoy GREAT radio.
I'd rather have it that way ANY day.
And that's OUR news of the week.
Join us next week as we talk "B" movies for October and Halloween!
-Carlyle
Very cool -- I first stumbled across WION when I saw the stereo pilot flicker on my radio and thought 'OK, who's this?' and then started listening and said to my self 'OK, who is THIS? -- a REAL radio station that is still a part of its community and that seems to 'get' it!'
ReplyDeleteGlad to know you're getting attention in other places too -- now if your idea could just manage to 'catch on' in other areas too, radio might have a chance to flourish once again. In the mean time -- keep up the good work!