The Infinite Dial

I'd been meaning to check out WBEW (Vocalo 89.5) Michigan City, Ind., the new younger targeted, more diverse offering from Chicago Public Radio since its June 4 launch, but I'm getting around to it this afternoon as the result of a recent story in suburban Chicago's Daily Herald.

Targeted to "audiences that have not traditionally listened to public radio," in the words of a station spokesman, Vocalo is a mix of eclectic music and listener-generated content.

In the last half-hour or so, I've heard a mix of progressive hip-hop and R&B (Brother Ali's "Uncle Sam," Blackalicious' "Powers" and the maybe-not-so-progressive-anymore "Mighty O" by Outkast) and eclectic rock (The Replacements' "Take Me Down To The Hospital" and Bobby Conn's "[I'm Through With] My Ego"). Those have been interspersed with spoken-word bits from listeners on such topics as dreaming about Mr. Spock and watching a dog kill a squirrel. There's also been a break in which the host discussed the making of the Mr. Spock piece in a way meant to encourage listeners to submit their own pieces.

In intent, it's a next-generation NPR and there's no shortage of agreement on the need for such a thing. In practice, Vocalo alternately recalls a lot of things--the college radio of 30 years ago, the earliest days of progressive radio, and the almost-completely-lost-to-history black progressive radio of the '70s. It is also very reminiscent of the "Open Source Radio" experiment on CBS' KYOU San Francisco.

Check out Vocalo here, I would be interested in your thoughts.