Been skeptical of community radio for years, but a station in rural Kentucky changed my mind

I used to think community radio was just people playing their own record collections until I heard a station in Appalachia broadcasting local school board meetings and flood relief updates that the mainstream stations wouldn't touch. Has anyone else found a local outlet that actually covers issues the big news ignores?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_schmidt828d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy lives near that same Kentucky station and he said during the ice storm last winter they were the only ones broadcasting shelter locations and road conditions for like 36 hours straight while the FM stations just played Christmas music. He told me the host was literally taking calls from people trapped in their houses and reading off which neighbors had chainsaws or a working generator. I get the skepticism about hobby stations but that one really showed up when it mattered.

skyler_anderson6528d ago

I see it different honestly. Those community stations aren't really covering news the way you think. My local one spends most of its time on call-in shows where people ramble about their garden or their cat. The school board meeting coverage was just someone reading the agenda out loud with no context or follow up. The flood relief updates you mentioned are probably the only real news they do all year. The big stations ignore stuff for a reason sometimes it's just not that important to most people. Community radio feels more like a hobby than journalism to me.