I rely upon NPR to provide me with fair and accurate reporting and entertaining shows. - Bonne
I’m going to start with a matter of personal privilege. You may have read in the papers or seen on our website or Facebook page that last week I notified the Board of Directors of Friends of Public Radio of my intention to retire later this summer. Since the word got out, I have been overwhelmed with comments from well-wishers, both from friends and listeners. (And I hope there’s overlap between these two groups).
I won’t use this time to read any, but I’m deeply grateful to all of you who have contacted me. This has been a great ride. Together with this wonderful staff, our dedicated Board, and of course you our listeners, we’ve all made incredible strides. Several years ago the station was deeply in debt and our equipment was often on its last legs. Since then, working together, we have paid off all our debt, launched Classical HQR and re-vamped HQR News, purchased our facilities on Front Street, and finished our emPowering Our Future Capital Campaign which will propel the technological and other changes we need to face the future. You’ll hear the next level of service beginning in a little over a week, and there’s more to come after that.
emPowering Our Future had a goal of $1.5 million dollars. Counting cash and planned gifts, we are now over $2 million, 38% over the goal. I look forward to working with the Board make the transition to the new manager absolutely as smooth as possible. There are great days ahead for your public radio station, and I thank you all deeply.
And now, on to this week’s mailbag. Listener Bonne wrote:
Having recently returned to Wilmington it's been great to hear familiar voices again! I am a devoted NPR fan and have been for the past twenty years. I rely upon NPR to provide me with fair and accurate reporting and entertaining shows.
A listener called who did not want her name used. She is trying to decide whether to support the station, but feels that our inclusion of personal data about the backgrounds of some of our commentators is at times too much information. In response I’ll say that we generally rely on those brief identifiers to place our commentators in the context of life in this community, and we work with them on language that works for both of us. Thanks for your comment, and we’d love to have you as a member.
Listener Maxine wrote last week:
Curious about why the blank time during air time. Yesterday........ Today.......... and other days as well? What is wrong?
I wrote to Maxine that we were making some needed repairs on our 91.3 transmitter in Brunswick County. When that happens, we use the 92.7 transmitter to broadcast 91.3. When 91.3 is at low power, Classical is off the air for a while, including both stations in Myrtle Beach, as are both HD1 and HD2. We posted a notice on whqr.org and our Facebook page about this. And we may have some downtime this weekend as we hunt for the problem. But of course, when we’re off the air we can’t announce to people that we’re off. Nevertheless, thank you for your patience while we work on the problem. As Marty Huggins, the Zack Galafianakis character says in “The Campaign”,
It’s a mess.
Staff Sergeant Patrick Preacher posted on our Facebook page in January:
This is my second time living in the area and I only wish that I'd found this station sooner. Love you guys!
And reaching a little farther back to September, Steven Hennessee said:
A great mix of local and national programs. The music programming on 91.3 and 92.7 are great.
We’d love to hear from you on Friday Feedback. You can send an email message to feedback-at-whqr-dot-org, or you can leave a call at 910-292-9477. And as always, thanks for your Feedback.