Public Action – tell them what you think!

Car Talk and PRI’s The World are now part of the Beta test for Public Action, an open discussion of the day’s stories built in to their site.  From PRI:

Public Action is a way for you to engage on-line with other listeners to the World. Each day we’ll select a story from that day’s broadcast and open it up as a topic for discussion. You can post your thoughts for all to see, or comment on what someone else has written. We’d especially like to encourage those of you with personal knowledge or experiences related to the discussion topics to contribute your anecdotes or observations. Hopefully Public Action will illuminate experiences and ideas interesting to all of us, and some of them may find their way on to the broadcast.

At this stage Public Action is still at the development stage (the technical folks call it a beta test), so we’re also really interested in hearing from you how you think Public Action works and ways that it could be improved. You’ll see that there’s already a discussion thread for you to comment on that. We’re also not doing this alone. Several public radio stations and Car Talk are all giving Public Action a test drive. You only need to register with one of us to have access to all of the other Public Action sites.

Finally, there are some ground-rules for posting. We call them the five keeps:
Keep it on-topic
Keep it clean
Keep it civil
Keep it brief
Keep to the Terms and Conditions
The rest, as they say, is up to you.

So tell them what you think! Click here.

“Tell Me More”

the NPR Rough Cuts project of the last few months has a name for its new show: “Tell Me More” “Nothing is assumed.” That’s the unofficial motto of the new Monday-Friday talk show under development at NPR. Grounded in lively interviewing and compelling storytelling, the program seeks to present diverse new voices, cross borders, challenge conventional wisdom and discover how other people think.

The podcast of the pilot show is up too, along with plenty of tough questions for you to blog it out over. Visit “Tell Me More” here.

Climate Connections

Starting May 1, NPR and National Geographic will take you on a year-long global voyage to explore how the Earth’s climate shapes people, and how people are shaping the Earth’s climate. Right now they want to know what they should look for. What issues do you think NPR should explore? What are you confused about? And what are your observations on climate change? Some of the submitted questions may be answered on-air or on NPR.org… or they could be the start of a larger story.

Submit a question.

Spring Break!

Murray State’s Spring Break is here, which means a week of Feedback silence.  Feel free to comment and discuss among yourselves :). See you all on the 25th!

Feedback on Feedback

Looking back on our Spring Fundraiser, is there something you think we could have done better?  Let us know! Here are just a few questions to consider, or just leave a comment on whatever stood out to you. Your suggestions help us prepare for the next fundraiser, so please take a moment to share your thoughts with us.

sample questions:

1. How do you think we could make a stronger case for WKMS’ need for listener support?
2. Are the station’s financial needs clear to you?
3. Do you have suggestions as to how we can better handle the “thank you gifts”?
4. What would you think of a fundraiser without “thank you gifts”?
5. Did our “thank you gift” choices affect how much you pledged?
6. What additional choices for “thank you gifts” would you like to see?
7. What would you like to hear more of/less of during fundraiser?
8. What do you feel was most effective during the recent fundraiser? Least effective?
9. How did you feel about the decision to trim two days off the fundraiser?
10. Should we create better incentives for renewing your membership by mail?
11. Have you any suggestions for increasing the appeal of pledging on line?
12. On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being poor; 10 being excellent) how would you rate the recent fundraiser?

Temporary Texans: NPR at SXSW

NPR has sent Stephan Thompson to one of the biggest events in the Music Industry, South by Southwest, “a sort of music-industry trade show held for four days every March in (usually) sunny Austin, Tex.”  And he’s blogging the whole thing.  From his introduction post:

From the intro to South by Southwest attracts more than 1,300 bands — many more, if you count the ones playing unofficial shows in unaffiliated bars, not to mention buskers and the occasional guerrilla performance on the back of a flatbed truck. And, of course, it brings tens of thousands of diehard fans, label employees, promoters, wannabes, media types, and locals who will gladly expound on their love-hate relationship with the festival and its associated chaos.

From Wednesday through Saturday, NPR.org will not only team up with member stations to stream more than two dozen performances from bands playing the festival, but we’ll also post to this blog as frequently as logistics allow. Rather than merely set the scene — “It’s loud in this club! Wish you were here!” — we’ll stream a veritable pantload of music by artists we like: the ones we anticipated coming in and the ones we discover along the way. And, of course, readers can add to the discussion, offering feedback on the music, recommendations for artists both new and old, and terse corrections of the usage errors and broken links that come with blogging while trying to watch rock shows and drink beer.

Sounds like fun. Read along at www.npr.org/blogs/sxsw. Sample the music and let us know what you’d like to hear!

Dr. Dunn on Meridian – part 2

Murray State University president Dr. Randy Dunn spoke on Meridian last Thursday about the MSU tuition increase, the new science complex, and other concerns. He’ll be appearing the last thursday in every month through April, so email in your questions or give him a call during the show.

To hear the entire hour with Dr. Dunn, visit the WKMS Newsroom.

Tag!

Searching around the blogosphere can be a strange journey into the thoughts and opinions of everyone from schoolkids to retired philosophers.  It’s a neat way to pass the time, but not always the most effecient source of information.  Enter WordPress tags.  There’s a row of them right by the little comments box on the bottom of every post. Right there in the middle, with the little stack of papers. Clicking that will bring you to a whole new place to read: a list of everyone on WordPress that’s talking about, say, NPR. This works for any word, so if you take the url “http://www.wordpress.com/tag/” and add a word after the /, you can find pretty much anything. Pancakes? http://wordpress.com/tag/pancakes/.  So if you see something that interests you, but can’t find more of it here, there’s a way for you to find out what others are saying about it.  Of course, we love to hear what you find… :).

I’m still getting used to tags here, as you can see from the various “uncategorized” posts below, but as I try to learn them, maybe you can find some insightful thoughts from the extended community, and give it a stab of your own.  Join the conversation by leaving a comment below, or create a blog of your own at wordpress.com!

Love Your Job?

Today’s Morning Edition quoted a survey taken by Careerbuilder.com and The Walt Disney Company which found that four out of five people say they are not in their dream job. On the positive side, police and firefighters are most likely to say they’ve got the ideal job, followed by teachers and real estate professionals.

Are you one of the lucky 1/5, or part of a dissatisfied majority?  What’s your job, and what do you think of it?

Ask the President

No, not Mr. Bush. The new Murray State University President, Dr. Randy Dunn, will be on Meridian tomorrow at noon. He wants to hear from you! Email in your questions here or call 800-599-4737 tomorrow at noon to talk to him live on Meridian. 
Check for feedback after the show and share your own in the comments here.