James F. Evans Collection, Mimeographed, 1994. 28 p. Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention in Atlanta, GA, August 10-13, 1994., As low-wattage AM stations were established in small Midwestern towns and cities following World War II, broadcasters were confronted with the task of promoting acceptance for radio in areas where the medium's local service potential was largely unproven. Station managers, therefore, often found themselves emulating features found in the local newspaper, since rural publishers had already established an acceptable criterion for community service. The newspaper's "personal journalism" model thus inspired many local radio programming ideas, including the "community program", a feature based on the concept of the rural correspondence column. Broadcasters furnished lengthy blocks of airtime to nearby towns and cities (which otherwise had no access to radio service) to air their own local news and other pertinent information. The community program was thus a "psuedo" station for select remote locales, which enabled originating stations to develop regional audiences and, of course, advertisers. This phenomenon is examined here through a series of oral history interviews conducted with former program hosts and station managers. (original)
