PORTLAND – For decades, people who work in non-commercial radio in the U.S. have argued about a basic question: How much should our work be driven by market, and how much by mission?

Each station is, of course, free to answer this question in its own way, so there’s an immense range out there, from stations that are pretty much indistinguishable from commercial enterprises, to oddball all-volunteer low-power FM ventures, and everything in between.

In one sense, it’s all good. Wherever stations fall on the spectrum, they all have their strengths (and weaknesses). On the other hand, an argument can be made for the importance of preserving diverse approaches to the medium, and over the past 20 years the trend in what might be called “mainstream” public radio has been toward the market end of the spectrum. All across the country, stations that started out as quirky, eclectic student or volunteer shops have morphed slowly but surely into all-professional, narrowly formatted services with a growing percentage of national programming in their schedules.

Luckily for the healthy future of radio, there are still community stations, and as it happens, one of the country’s most mission-driven stations broadcasts right here in Portland: WMPG, Southern Maine Community Radio.

With a paid staff of three, a volunteer corps of a couple hundred, a wildly eclectic program schedule and cramped studios in a little white house on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus, ‘MPG typifies the local, eclectic and creative-on-a-shoestring character of community radio.

Community stations like ‘MPG are good for the future of American radio for several reasons.

• First of all, we keep alive the idea of local radio. Almost all the radio on ‘MPG is made live by local volunteers, by your friends and neighbors.

As a result, just about everything interesting going on in local arts, culture, politics, business, the nonprofit sector — in our communal life in general — gets talked about sooner or later on our air. Local programming may not make as much money for those who broadcast it, but our listeners tell us they rely on it and love us for it.

• Community stations like ‘MPG also keep alive the idea of eclectic programming.

Market-driven radio, whether commercial or not, has long since learned that the way to make the most money is to pick one kind of programming and concentrate on doing it as well as possible. As a result, only the tiny fraction of the music (and, some would say, the news) that has been proven to make stations money gets broadcast.

At ‘MPG, we air the other 99 percent: the music that will never sell iPhones, but that people love nonetheless; and the news, voices and views of those silenced by their exclusion from the mainstream media.

• And community stations like ‘MPG also play a crucial role as a conduit for new talent. Twenty years ago, if you had a cool idea for a radio show, you could walk into your local NPR station, get some airtime and try it out. Then, if the idea grew legs, you could put it up on the satellite and see if other stations around the country wanted to pick it up.

Try that now, and chances are you won’t get past the receptionist. And yet most of the flagship national programs of public radio started in this way — shows like “A Prairie Home Companion,” “Fresh Air” and “The Thistle and Shamrock.” Audio from the first years of these shows bears no resemblance to the polished perfection we hear today. It is clunky, awkward and rough around the edges. Great radio takes time to mature.

So, where are the next Garrison Keillor, Terry Gross and Fiona Ritchie going to come from? From some little station the pros dismiss as amateur, clubbish and irrelevant, where new talent enjoys the freedom from relentless market pressure to move naturally through the awkward early stages. From a station like ‘MPG.

Most of the volunteers who create the programming on ‘MPG do it for the fun and the love of it, but whether they know it or not, they are also contributing to an important ongoing national discussion about the future of public media. And they are helping to preserve something precious, even if it will never make anyone any money: the fundamentally local, inclusive, and creative model of radio championed by WMPG and its sister community stations around the country.

Lisa Bunker is program director at the community station WMPG, which can be heard at 90.9 and 104.1 FM, and streaming at wmpg.org.

 

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