We’ve had a number of calls and emails this week about our jazz programming like this one, where a listener asks “Why are we not hearing Jazz as posted on the website???? Who are these people talking? Is this a new surprise BBC show? If so, I hate it. I vote “no” as a member of the public who helps pay for content.” The explanation is that a few times in recent weeks, and more often this last week, our feed of the jazz program, which we get live via the Internet, suddenly becomes plagued with digital glitches so as to make it unlistenable. When that happened most recently, we switched off the feed and put on BBC World News, which we get via satellite. The mysterious thing is that when we check the jazz feed during the day, it’s fine. The problems seem to start as soon as we put the feed to air. Our engineer has been working with the program provider and our Internet provider to try to track down why this has happened so often lately, and we’re trying out one fix in the hopes it works. We’ll be watching that feed closely. We apologize for the inconvenience.
We got a number of comments and compliments about the work of the WHQR news team. One listener wrote to Ben Schachtman about our pre-election reporting to say “Today I caught up with the WHQR program that you and your staff produced earlier this month. The program was well produced, content rich and very important for the community to have this professional coverage. Sound local news is the first line of freedom.” Another wrote to Rachel Keith to say “You do a great job of giving details while keeping your stories brief enough to consume....really helpful.” Kelly Kenoyer got this response to one of her stories, “I just wanted to say that was a really well-done story on local rent. I thought it might be a national story for a bit. Nice work! Proud to be a member.” And Bill DiNome wrote a note of congratulations to the entire news team for awards from the Radio Television & Digital News Association of the Carolinas, saying “Having won six new broadcast journalism awards, WHQR's news team has again distinguished themselves for the outstanding public service they provide our community and beyond. I can't overstate how proud I am of them all and how grateful I am for their dedication and the quality of their work.”
We got this interesting question from a recent arrival to the Cape Fear, who wrote “I moved to Leland from the Washington DC area and was pleased to discover a wonderful local NPR station. Listening to NPR was part of my morning routine while I was working and remains important now that I’m retired. Recently I noticed that local weather reports were not delivered during Morning Edition the last couple of times I listened. Is this a change in policy, perhaps related to funding challenges? Please let me know” There has been no change in policy, nor is it a result of funding challenges. I asked News Director Ben Schachtman, who’s been filling in on Morning Edition for regular host Ken Campbell, and he suggested that except for the freeze warnings on Monday, the weather for every day has been “sunny, high in the 60’s.” Could these reports be going by so quickly that they’re easy to miss?
Finally, I want to once again thank everyone who responded to our fall pledge drive. You may not have noticed, but our staff on-air and our phone operators often found themselves becoming emotional about the outpouring of warmth in the comments listeners made. We are so proud to be part of the community with you.
We love to hear from you. Please send us your questions, comments and criticisms. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. Or you can email us at feedback@whqr.org. Thanks for your feedback, and we look forward to hearing from you.