Blowing Our Horn

It's a good day to be working at the Akron Radio Center; back after a two-week hiatus and graced by the news AkronNewsNow.com has won a prestigious national Edward R. Murrow Award for best news website.

You can read more about it here; there's also a link directly to RTNDA, which manages the Murrow Awards. It is quite a coup for a website that started out 20 months ago with a hope and desire to fill a niche in a community that deserves a strong and vibrant media.


That we are recognized with a national Murrow is even more fitting in this year of the "patron saint" of American broadcast journalism; 50 years ago, he challenged us to make radio and TV more than just "wires and lights in a box." This is also the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Akron is in a unique place; less than 40 minutes drive (in most traffic) from Public Square, we tend to fall under the shadow of the bigger Cleveland news market. The "big dog" among newspapers in northeast Ohio pays occasional attention, most of the television and radio outlets based in Cleveland only consider Akron news important when something (or somebody) blows up. That leaves us with the Akron Beacon Journal, struggling in a very turbulent newspaper landscape, broadcast news organizations such as WAKR-WONE-WQMX (the same folks who bring you AkronNewsNow.com) and WKSU-FM, and local talk outlets such as WNIR-FM and WHLO-AM's Matt Patrick Show. In Canton it's just the Repository and WHBC-AM.


We deserve better.


It is a stroke of luck that of the dominant local radio news players in Akron, three (the families of stations WNIR and WAKR, and Kent State's WKSU) have strong local management that not only understands but embraces the greater Akron community. There should be a very real concern that Akron and surrounding communities NOT wind up just another suburb of Cleveland, and a vocal news media covering the stories (or at least trying to...) in our neighborhoods makes a real difference in retaining our identity.

Despite all the talk of regional cooperation, I believe it is also something top of mind at local City Hall offices. Mayor Plusquellic, for example, is using his news conference time tomorrow to help promote a better understanding of Akron's neighborhoods. Big picture for northeast Ohio is one thing; keeping the home fires burning is another.

We are proud of the recognition with a national Edward R. Murrow Award, a testament to the vision and financial support of our ownership led by Thom Mandel and Nick Anthony. They have a long history of putting their spirit and money behind their belief in Akron being a good place to live, work, and build for their families. Without that support our voices painting the picture of home, occasionally challenging the people in power, wouldn't be heard.


Competition for ideas leads to debate, not a bad thing for a community deserving of its own place in the landscape.