The Local Touch
On the well-founded theory that people are most interested in people and places they know, the West Virginia Network tried an experiment in "country journalism." Last week the Washington news bureau of the network* celebrated its first birthday, and could congratulate itself on proving that its kind of radio coverage had paid off.
The bureau consists of two reporters: Ray Henle and Malvina Stephenson. Henle handles the "heavy" news, energetic Miss Stephenson does the chitchat items and the legwork. On Sunday nights they feed West Virginia a program of intimate, homey details about what West Virginians are up to. The state's Washington delegation, most frequently mentioned, listens expectantly and attentively. Outraged complaints to the network from Capitol Hill are frequent--but they keep up a lively interest.
Henle & Stephenson constantly buttonhole West Virginians in hotel lobbies, in Congress, at teas, in their offices, in Union Station. Then the pair goes on the air and tells all. They quote Congressmen's offhand comments on one another. They report who went to what luncheon, whose wife was not invited, who has been appointed to what. When a poem by a West Virginian gets into the Congressional Record, they rush the news to the home folks. When Kentucky-born Fred Vinson was appointed Federal Loan Administrator, they reminded their listeners that he had relatives "all over the western part of West Virginia," and read off the list of names.
Other little stations that have had the same idea have failed. The network's exultant Managing Director Howard Chernoff knows exactly why: "They get impressed with being a Washington correspondent. Pretty soon they get talking about White House press conferences and Congress and forget the local touch. Why, we never even mention President Roosevelt on this program, except incidentally."
* Charleston's WCHS, Clarksburg's WBLK, Parkersburg's WPAR, Huntington's WSAZ.
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