Fresh Loaf

“Like Maynard, Hillary believes in creating possibilities for all Americans. For 35 years, she’s fought to turn possibilities into realities. From civil rights to universal healthcare, Hillary Clinton has always been on our side.”

— Valerie Jackson, widow of former Mayor Maynard Jackson and host of WABE-FM (90.1)’s book-themed “Between the Lines,” endorses Sen. Hillary Clinton for president.

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“Because Obama speaks our language: aspirational humanism. We believe that words of hope change things; similar words are spoken from UU pulpits each Sunday.”

— Making Chutney on support for Sen. Barack Obama among Unitarian Universalist bloggers

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“There surely has to be a Republican more competent, able to keep his pants on around female lobbyists, and more mature than the present Speaker of the House . . . Glenn Richardson has proven he cannot be trusted with the power of his office. He uses it for too many small minded purposes. And small minded leaders are dangerous creatures.”

— Erick at Peach Pundit expresses more-than-mild displeasure at fellow Republican, Speaker Glenn Richardson. The inspiration for Erick’s verbal assault: Richardson reportedly stripped Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ranger, of an important House leadership position and made him move his office out of the Capitol because Graves voted to re-elect Georgia DOT Chairman Mike Evans.

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In what amounts to a serious shakeup in its programming, WABE-FM (90.1)’s insertion of the first-rate news show “The World” caused quite the ripple effect starting today. The one-hour news show from Public Radio International, a co-op effort by the BBC and Boston’s WGBH-FM, slid into the 3-4 p.m. Monday-Thursday slot— thereby bumping talk show “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross later to 7 p.m. weekdays.

That’s where the real ripples occurred, because WABE previously had a different show for each weekday’s 7 p.m. time slot. That forced the following changes:

• “Between the Lines,” the locally produced literary show hosted by Valerie Jackson, moved to 7 p.m. Friday.
• “The Infinite Mind,” the syndicated human-behavior program, moves to 7-8 a.m. Saturday as a lead-in to “Saturday Weekend Edition.”
• “Speaking of Faith,” Krista Tippett’s syndicated program on faith, religion and spirituality, moves to 7-8 a.m. Sunday as a lead-in to “Sunday Weekend Edition.”
• “City Arts and Lectures,” the syndicated arts program hosted by actress Linda Hunt, moves to WABE’s HD Radio News & Information Channel (90.1-3) at 3 p.m. Sunday. It will be the only show bumped entirely off the regular radio-dial WABE programming.

With all due respect to Hunt, “City Arts and Lectures” is no great loss. The big trade-off, obviously, is quantity for quality. What evening listeners lose in the variety of so many different quality shows is the more logical placement of the popular and critically acclaimed “Fresh Air” in such a powerful evening slot where it can gain better ratings momentum.

Plus, the addition of “The World” helps deliver high-quality international news programming for WABE at a time when everyone seems to be screaming about keeping everything local. It’s a nice addition.

Check out podcast interviews with Terry Gross and Krista Tippett previously in Creative Loafing, as well as a print interview I did with Gross awhile back.

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