Rachel Keith, Aaleah McConnell and Ben Schachtman got a very nice compliment on their history reporting on the Blackrock Plantation this month. One listener wrote to say “I must tell you the program you put together on Blackrock was superb! The amount of research was voluminous and presentation was outstanding. Your prolific news team is great at the news of the day and week. But I fully appreciate your more in depth pieces such as Blackrock. I suggest an encore in a year or so for those who missed it. Keep up the good work!!” Another wrote “Awesome! Wonderful work and I hope you and the work get some recognition. And thanks for adding to the unpacking ...Julia Love just wrote about a diary that mentions Sherman's troops staying at the house .... unbelievable.” If you missed this excellent piece, you can find it on the WHQR website as part of the NewsRoom.
Now I don’t want you to think we’re always showered with praise. We do get our fair share of valid criticism. This one came from one of our classical channel listeners, who wrote “People would donate more if you would get rid of that horrible, irritating modern noise that you play every day, so we have to turn our radios off. Modern music is NOT classical music.” Over on the news side, music presents a problem for our listeners there as well. One listener wrote “I'm writing to let you know that the music in the background of the whole morning news program takes away from your show and is overpowering. It's too loud it's awkward, its time came and went. In other words, it had expired. It's rotten. It stinks. If we are ever going to take you seriously you must lose the notion that news requires a musical soundtrack. It doesn't. Clean up your product. News should sound professional and clean. Too much jocularity. Steve Inskeep has become so loud trying to be heard over that ridiculous music. It's a news program; not a 3 ring circus. Chill out. Speak seriously. This is not a locker room. It's a news room. "Hey" is a big no no. Tighten it up. Clean it up.” We’re going to share that criticism, literally and figuratively, with NPR.
Finally, on behalf of everyone here at WHQR, I want to thank you, our listeners, for making our Spring Pledge Drive such an overwhelming success. Perhaps my favorite part of the pledge drive is hearing from our listeners, so I wanted to take a moment to share some of my favorite comments from the drive. They contain interesting snippets of their daily lives. Like these:
”Love News and especially your music programs! I listen now in Va! I lived in st James, Southport for 5 years.”
“In honor of our pussycat Bailey, whose voice unfortunately cannot compare to the resonant baritone of Ken Campbell”
“Good morning from Isaac the TerrorTot and Tilly the Terrible! We want you to know that our mom listens to both stations”
“Our son, who attends UNCW, turned us on to Smooth Landings, and we listen to it every day!”
“WHQR is always there. Let's keep it that way.”
When we lost federal funding last summer, all of us in public radio were a bit nervous and the future seemed uncertain. With this drive surpassing the goal, we are much more confident about the future as we begin to plan our budget for our next fiscal year. Thanks very much for all your support.
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.