Dylan Brogan
Harry Richardson and Helena White (left to right, in the booth) host an edition of In Our Backyard, with Victor Calzoni at the controls.
In 1993, Chip Mitchell was part of a small crew of volunteers at WORT-FM who wanted to start a different kind of local news show.
The idea was to help bring in diverse voices that were representative of the whole city to report on the community.
“We had an idea of erasing the distinction between news consumers and news producers,” Mitchell says. “That’s one of the principles of community radio — to make it accessible not just for listeners, but producers. Right away that was difficult.”
“We had ideals of bringing all types of people in to make the news,” adds Mitchell, a former Isthmus contributor. “But of course, the people that have the time to volunteer for that endeavor were less diverse than our ideal.”
Mitchell eventually moved on and now works at WBEZ in Chicago.
Perhaps improbably, In Our Backyard has also thrived. The show, which airs Mondays through Thursdays on 89.9 FM, is set to expand from a half hour to an hour. Starting Oct. 5, it will air from 6 to 7 p.m. It’s happening at a time when many news organizations — including The Capital Times and Wisconsin State Journal — have cut editorial staff.
About 40 volunteers work on the show. Each broadcast is put together by a rotating crew of two hosts, an engineer, reporters, producers and writers. Dylan Brogan, the station’s part-time assistant news director, who helps supervise each show, says he’s regularly amazed by what a crew of volunteers can do.
“It’s a miracle every day that we even pull this off. It’s not an easy job for professionals to do,” Brogan says. “And there are times when we’re doing an even better job than professional news sources.”
The crew of volunteers is diverse, Brogan says, including students, teachers, farmers, baristas and state workers, including minorities and women. “Our youngest volunteer is like 21, our oldest is 60-something,” he says. “We are always trying to make our news team more diverse. We do an okay job, but we can always do better.”
Brogan likes that the station has become a training ground. He estimates that a couple of dozen people who started at WORT have gone on to have careers in journalism or radio.
“It’s awesome that people with so many skill sets from so many different walks of life do an amazing job of covering news,” he says. “They’re coming from such a genuine place.”
The news show is definitely having an impact, says Bert Zipperer, a former Madison alder and regular listener. “We need a diversity of media much like natural life forms. Democracy depends on it,” he says. “They are getting out there and finding stories and following up on stories. We should say thank you to them.”
Expanding the show will help the station capture a more regular drive-home audience in the 6 to 7 time-slot, says Molly Stentz, the station’s news and public affairs facilitator. WORT-FM will no longer air two BBC programs to make room for the expanded local show. Democracy Now will move to the 5-to-6 slot.
“We want to offer more local news to the public,” Stentz says. “We’re building upon our existing program that we’ve broadcast for years, and we know it’s something our listeners desire and value.”
The first half hour of the show will be hard news stories, with coverage of state and local news. The second half hour will include more features, with coverage of music, history, astronomy, movie reviews, food and weather. The broadcast will also feature highlights from live interviews broadcast earlier in the day. Also in the works is a revamped WORT website, which will make many feature segments of the show available as podcasts. They’ll also be offered for free to other community radio stations.
“We hope to have more community voices on the air,” Stentz says. “We hope to bring more people into the station.”
Editor’s note: Joe Tarr has done volunteer work for In Our Backyard, and several WORT personnel have contributed to Isthmus.
