In Praise Of Local ... Media
I get it. I'm old-fashioned. Just how old, though... You might be surprised. I do remember very clearly hopping into the VW Beetle my parents owned when I was very young and riding, unbelted, in the back seat, the half-mile or so to my grandmother's house for the occasional Sunday Night dinner. It was a chance to see my grandmother, yes, and her house on the bank of the Mississippi River, and her COLOR TV. We'd watch the Wide World of Disney, usually, whether it was a Disney movie, a nature program, a tour of the park under construction, or ... Well, anything else in color was cool. Our TV at home was black and white, which was how I later saw Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. But the media I consumed, as it was, back then was all local. Mom usually kept a radio on in the kitchen, tuned to the local AM radio news station, WJON. They would deliver local weather every 15 minutes or so, farm prices, local news updates, and they had regular...