Clothesline News

I have never met Gerry Phelan, but I decided to give his new business venture a blog plug because, as with anyone who knows about Canadian radio, I know what is perhaps the most unique radio station in the entire world, where he toiled in the newsroom of the most local local radio news station I have ever experienced.

We all say that great radio is creating a unique experience that people who don't live "there" simply don't get it.

For most of us, that's an aspiration but seldom is it a reality.  Too much of North American radio sounds too much alike.

VOCM-AM's music mix is nominally "country music,"  but it mixes in songs and artists you won't hear anywhere else but in Newfoundland with lots of unique talk and local news.

Gerry, now retired from VOCM's news room after 27 years continues to prove what a powerful perspective he brings to his writing as a columnist for St. John's newspaper, The Telegram.

He calls what he specializes in "Clothesline News."  If that concept alone doesn't inspire you to be even more local, local, local than you think you are, it sounds like he'd love to teach your team how to do it even better.

If you're not a consolidated radio group-owned station and especially if you're not a mass appeal format in a large PPM-rated market, your future is going to be about bringing micro-local to life for your community on every delivery platform.

Hit the streets and listen for what's hanging on the clotheslines in your town!