Michigan Radio superstar Todd Mundt is moving to Iowa Public Radio. Among his other roles at Michigan Public Radio (and television), Todd hosted the excellent Todd Mundt Show. Todd gives an interesting perspective on all this in his blog:
I’m excited because there’s a chance for Iowa to be one of the leaders in re-imagining the partnership we have with our audience. As Robert Paterson wrote in a recent post, “Participation is not a feature - it is central to the new media.” The power of public media is the way it connects us to our listeners, our listeners to us, and our listeners to each other.
… There’s another aspect of Iowa Public Radio that excites me. These three entities have (largely) decided to stop competing with each other and focus on working together. This merger is not occurring under catastrophic circumstances - giant budget cuts, a future in jeopardy. The biggest reason it’s happening is because, by joining together, Iowans will get the best public radio service they can. If we can do this well, perhaps we can show the way for others who want to address the problem of an overbuilt public broadcasting infrastructure in their locale or region.
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