Current reports WBUR will use a $300,000, three-year grant from the Barr Foundation to hire three investigative reporters and that it hopes to team up with other investigative units, including the Globe Spotlight Team, Pro Publica and the New England Center for Investigative Reporting.
WBUR went live today with an all-new look for its Web site featuring large photos and type on its stories and an easier way to listen to the station online - just click the little button in the left-hand corner (or the bar at the bottom of the mobile-friendly mobile version).
WBUR today launched Politicker, headed up by former Globie and Deval Patrick aide Richard Chacon - who of late had been in charge of 'BUR's news strategy:
WBUR Politicker will cover New England’s races the WBUR way, with deep and serious treatment of issues, sound-rich feature reports from the campaign trail, plenty of perspective and context from our signature analysts, and loads of data.
It's long past time for men to stop being so hung up, WBUR advises in its report on a seminal study of the topic, if you get our thrust.
Hand-lettered farewell on the Red Line. Photo by Dan Meade.
Almost 10 years ago, I took a position as a newscast writer for WBUR. Mine was the early morning shift, and my job was to arrive at 4 in the morning and start putting together the local news portion of Morning Edition. The other part of my job was to call some of the people about whom I was writing - local lawmakers, state officials, an occasional bereaved relative, and get "tape" (what most non-journalists call soundbites). I'd often wince while the phone rang, imagining it jangling in someone's bedroom.
Tom (c) and Ray Magliozzi at Honk in Somerville in 2007. Photo by Greg Cook.
WBUR reports that Tom Magliozzi, co-host of Car Talk with his brother Ray, has died at 77. Greg Cook reports the cause was complications of Alzheimer's.
In a statement, the station says:
No one could have imagined, when two native Cambridge guys came into the WBUR studios in 1977 and started taking listeners’ calls about cars, that they would change public radio forever. But in fact that is exactly what happened.
Bill Marx pledges his support for an FCC effort by the Committee for Community Access to get 'GBH's radio license pulled over the way it dumped jazz and other musical programming when it decided to try to bust WBUR's near monopoly on the giant local market for NPR news and information:
The Boston Business Journal interviews Charlie Kravetz, WBUR general manager.
NPR and WBUR are announcing that the locally produced "Here and Now," hosted by the locally grown Robin Young, is expanding to four hours on July 1 - although she'll be joined by a co-host:
When the expanded program launches July 1, she will have a co-host, Jeremy Hobson, currently host of Marketplace Morning Report. Hobson began his career in journalism at the age of 17 as an intern on NPR’s All Things Considered and since then has gained deep experience as a producer, reporter and now host. Meghna Chakrabarti, co-host of WBUR's Radio Boston, will be the program's primary back up host.
Robert Ambrogi reports that WBUR's Open Court is no longer streaming live video from Quincy District Court. No money, natch.
Joel Brown analyzes the local context of WGBH's purchase of Public Radio International, which distributes shows such as "This American Life" and the 'BUR-produced "Here and Now."
They've shut off the ovens and hung up the toques at Public Radio Kitchen.
NPR reports Tom and Ray Magliozzi are retiring this fall from the locally produced show that gave them - and their accents - national prominence.
"Car Talk" will continue to air, but only with repeats from 25 years of car-advice call-ins, recorded at WBUR's studios. Hopefully, they'll keep their Dewey, Cheetham and Howe offices in Harvard Square.
Allen Rines reports Robin Young's segue from a Sox report on her "Here and Now" show this morning:
Well that's over, let's talk about sperm banks.
Meanwhile, what are the odds these bus ads will stay up as long as that Coraline thing on the Red Line?
Starting today, WBUR is livestreaming proceedings at Quincy District Court. OpenCourt.us is an experiment in further opening the court system to the public:
The Hack reports on the WBUR reporter who rode with him one night for a story about Boston cab drivers:
All this chatting distracted me. I found myself driving aimlessly. Other cabs had cut in front of me to pick up fares I should have stopped for. I was getting frustrated.
"What about the airport?" Adam asked. "You must get a lot of good fares from there."
WBUR's Andrew Phelps tweets:
WBUR is now allowing donors to specify their money not go toward NPR programming.
Mike Ball listened to 'BUR's Deborah Becker grill Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral on Philip Markoff's suicide and thinks Becker ran amok:
Becker started out like a real journalist and quickly went tabloid on Cabral. She clearly came in with her conclusions and was not about to let truth or knowledge interfere.
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