89.7 WGBH, Boston Public Radio Focusing In on Local Issues
In its new WGBH Focus reports, 89.7 WGBH news is going beyond the daily stories to provide in-depth reports on such topics as health care and the MBTA.
By Phil Redo, Managing Director 89.7 WGBH, Boston Public Radio
One of the editorial goals we set for WGBH news, beyond our regular newscasts and talk programming, is to periodically devote additional airtime to explore in greater depth issues affecting the Commonwealth. These reports, which we are calling WGBH Focus, usually will air over a full week. You may have heard two of them already: in late March we explored health care, and in late April, the MBTA. Health care—and, more specifically, federal health care—has been center stage for years and is once again a central campaign issue in 2012. When the Affordable Care Act was signed into law two years ago, debates began immediately over whether the federal mandate was constitutional and what states’ rights were. Making things even more interesting for Bay State residents was how the Massachusetts health-care plan became the proxy for much of the conversation. Health care remains Massachusetts’ largest employment sector. When the US Supreme Court announced that it would hear the health-care case this past November, and granted an unprecedented amount of time for oral arguments, WGBH Radio dedicated its first WGBH Focus coverage to the topic. Similarly, the MBTA called for our attention. A critical public infrastructure like the MBTA demands deeper exploration than simply fitting the latest news developments into everything else we do. We undertook that challenge.
What’s on 89.7 WGBH BBC World Update The Takeaway Morning Edition/Marketplace Morning The Xconomy Report (Fri) The Takeaway The Diane Rehm Show The Emily Rooney Show The Callie Crossley Show Fresh Air The World All Things Considered The World PBS NewsHour Jazz on WGBH with Eric Jackson/ Jazz on WGBH with Steve Schwartz (Fri) Jazz with Bob Parlocha
Listen to a sampling of the stories mentioned above, as well as additional WGBH Focus reports as they become available, at wgbhnews.org
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With WGBH Focus, you will hear local reporters’ enterprise reports, two-way interviews with our Morning Edition and All Things Considered hosts, longer conversations within our local talk block and, as always, supplemental information online. When relevant, the WGBH archives will provide us a means to place issues in better historical context. We won’t pretend we can take on every angle of such challenging, complex subjects. But we will strive to illuminate these issues. Our intention is to offer rich stories that provide a bit more clarity and a bit more focus— insight that we hope will lead to more informed consideration by all of us.
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Living on Earth Innovation Hub Weekend Edition Studio 360 This American Life Says You! Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me! The Moth/Radio Lab A Celtic Sojourn A Prairie Home Companion Says You! Selected Shorts JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater Jazz with Bob Parlocha
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On the Media Being Weekend Edition Bob Edwards Weekend Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me! A Prairie Home Companion Says You! America's Test Kitchen Radio Marketplace Money All Things Considered Humankind Jazz Decades Arts & Ideas Innovation Hub Eric’s Artist Spotlight Jazz with Bob Parlocha
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