More News Now

WHYY-FM responds to listeners' requests for more coverage
By Thomas J. Walsh

Mhari Saito WHYY 91FM's news department has recently added a few new reporters, put a new midday newsmagazine on the schedule in the wake of the September 11 tragedies and is now well into its second full year of increased and intensified local news coverage.

Among the recent hires is Brad Linder, who joined the award-winning radio news staff in October as the station's first environmental reporter. Linder, previously a volunteer and a freelancer for 91FM, brings a unique partnership along with him -- a nonprofit Philadelphia organization called GreenWorks, which produces environmental media coverage throughout Pennsylvania.

"We're trying to foster this sense that if it happens in Pennsylvania, Philadelphians should know about it," Linder says. Recently, Linder interviewed officials at the Heinz Wildlife Refuge near the Philadelphia International Airport.

WHYY-FM news director Bill Fantini says that a significant change for the department came in January 2001, when daily weekday newscasts were expanded from morning and early afternoon to every hour from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Dave Heller is 91FM's afternoon and evening host and anchor.

"We are not changing our focus," Fantini says. "We're doing what we've always done, covering issues for the region with spot news coverage and long-form follow up. We have grown, though, in the last couple of years."

In addition to the expanded coverage last year came the creation of the Pennsylvania Public Radio network, spearheaded by WHYY and aided by three other public radio news directors in Harrisburg, Pittsburgh and Bethlehem. WHYY state reporter Jen Rehill, 91FM's first-ever State Capitol reporter, runs operations from Harrisburg, with production assistance from Meridith Thompson. Listeners across the state will also hear Brad Linder's reports through Pennsylvania Public Radio.

WHYY started 2001 with the services of veteran broadcaster Brenda Jorett as the new producer and local anchor during Morning Edition. Jorett's voice is a familiar one to many Philadelphians after her years on the air at KYW Newsradio. Also of note, Fantini says, was the addition of a dedicated urban affairs reporter, Mhari Saito.

Last month, reporter Joel Rose took over the arts and culture beat from Peter Clowney, who moved to New York to become editor for National Public Radio's Studio 360, heard Sundays at 1 p.m. on 91FM.

Fantini says other hirings are likely for more general assignment duties. "My hope is that we will someday secure the funding for an Internet reporter to contribute to our Web site, and a health and science reporter," he adds.

After the September 11 terrorist attacks, WHYY responded to listener requests for more coverage by picking up the program Here and Now, heard Tuesdays through Fridays at noon, produced by WBUR in Boston. The move was made to introduce "another point of view," Fantini says, "and to supplement NPR's news, Marketplace and other coverage. We found it to be well-produced." WHYY provides listeners with local news and features during the Here and Now broadcast.

Director of radio programming Christine Dempsey and Fantini say they will continue to urge the radio news department to render the type of coverage that has garnered it several major radio news awards each year.

Fantini is proudest, he says, of last year's Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcast Association's Joe Snyder Award for Outstanding News Service. The 91FM staff shared the award with KYW, a station that employs a considerably larger full-time news staff.

Visit www.whyy.org/91FM to learn more about WHYY-FM's daily lineup of news and information programming.