Bob Garfield (Photo: Steven Rosenbaum)
• Detroit’s WDET-FM has received a $60,000 grant from the Knight Foundation to support broadcast segments and “pop-up installations featuring photography, listening stations and ambient sound” focusing on the city’s ethnic communities. “The project aims to connect people through the power of visual and oral storytelling while creating an opportunity for communities to see their own story validated and elevated in a meaningful way,” according to Knight’s website.
• On the Media co-host Bob Garfield is raising money on Kickstarter for The Genius Dialogues, a multimedia project comprising interviews with recipients of the MacArthur Foundation’s “genius grants.” “I’m trying to create a whole new publishing platform: part e-book, part audio-book, videos and stills, a la carte or by subscription,” Garfield tells Adland.
• A low-power FM station in Phoenix has flipped from alternative music to a dance format, responding to a new full-power competitor, reports the Phoenix New Times. “With full power KDKB flipping to mainstream alternative we just did not feel with our little station that we would be able to grow in a way needed to be financially viable,” said owner Shon White.
• Writing for Radio Survivor, Alaska Public Media’s Ann Alquist argues that community radio stations airing mostly music should reconsider whether they need news directors on staff. “Insisting that we need a news director position is a physical and mental block to our imaginations – and it’s preventing us from hiring the next generation of community managers who can transform community radio into a relevant, multi platform media outlet,” she writes. Alquist also suggests that stations end daily half-hour news shows and focus on using volunteers to create digital content.