Published September 27, 2010
I got the flu out of the way early this year, so I won’t be saying much today.
In my absence, enjoy this parody of the movie trailer for “The Town,” produced by Improv Asylum and spotted on Universal Hub. (Note: Some language in this video may be mildly unsafe for work.)
Published September 25, 2010
In Ware, the central Massachusetts town with a fighting spirit, WBUR’s Morning Edition broadcast live this week from a vacant storefront on Route 9. Host Bob Oakes and reporter David Boeri, with producer Lisa Tobin, introduced the story while standing on the sidewalk. You heard what it sounded like. Here is what it looked like:
Published September 24, 2010
It has been quite a week on the road for us at WBUR. From Pittsfield, the final stop on our Route 9 journey, Morning Edition host Bob Oakes shares his reflections on the many people we met and the stories we told. –AP
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The view from outside our window here at the The Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)
Nobody pretends Pittsfield is perfect. But it’s not a “speed bump” anymore, either.
It’s the kind of place where you might want to spend a Thursday evening. And the kind of place you might want to come to, to see what’s happened while you were gone.
I also have to say, it’s kind of nice to see what has happened to Pittsfield’s downtown in recent years. It’s good for this city, and maybe, in a way, it’s a sign of hope for the other Route 9 communities we visited this week, worried about their own futures.
It was striking on the road to find so many communities trying to find a new identity they hope will return them to some sort of prosperity as they struggle in this economy. In Framingham, retailers and restaurants are hurting as the town also tries to strike a balance on how it wants to treat its burgeoning immigrant population.
In Worcester, the city needs to convince the state to expand commuter rail if its new investment in downtown revitalization is to be successful.
In Amherst, public higher education tries to juggle its desire to gain national stature at the same time it deals with deep state budget cuts.
The most moving story of the week, though, came from the central Massachusetts town of Ware, where 25 percent of the downtown stores are closed, and the town’s immediate prospects are dim at best.
Still, it was the place we met some of the nicest people. Mike McCarthy, the longtime unemployed factory worker we profiled that day, came by after the broadcast to thank us for telling his very sad story. And he said he is still hopeful he will find a job soon.
And that is what is perhaps the most important thing we found this week — optimism, enduring optimism — in the face of all this uncertainty along Route 9 in Massachusetts.
Published September 23, 2010
You don’t get scenery like this on the Pike. Driving west on Route 9 today, toward the final stop on our road trip — Pittsfield — it’s clear that autumn is here.
Following Bob Oakes in WBUR's Route 9 caravan. Somewhere west of Goshen. (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)
Published September 23, 2010
The pronunciation of Amherst is an emotional issue. As far as I know, the Amherst in Massachusetts (there are 14 in the United States) is the only one pronounced with a silent H.
AM-urst.
There’s even a T-shirt that proclaims: “Amherst, where only the ‘h’ is silent.” Yes, the people here are opinionated.
These T-shirts are for sale at Amherst250.org.
Still, I hear many students here at UMass pronounce the H — probably because they’re not from here. A cranky minority of residents actually dispute the pronunciation. One person told me it sounds elitist (maybe because the British tend to drop the H?) and another snapped that the town should drop the H if it shouldn’t be pronounced.
I even noticed some folks in our traveling crew pronounce the H in conversation — but not near microphones or around other people. Odd.
Back in May, Radio Boston host Meghna Chakrabarti — who suffers from her own silent H — made the fatal faux pas of mispronouncing Amherst a half-dozen times on the air. After the complaints rolled in, Meghna offered a linguistic olive branch to Amherstonians:
And how did I mispronounce the town’s name? In that dunderheaded inside-Route 128 way, of course. I said, am-HEARST, and not AM-erst, as Amherst should be properly pronounced.
I even called the Amherst College campus and recorded the phone greeting. Sounds like AM-urst to me, but you should listen for yourself:
For the record, official WBUR style is to drop the H.
Published September 23, 2010
University of Massachusetts Amherst (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)
What’s news on a cool Thursday morning in Amherst — where Morning Edition is broadcasting live from the campus center at UMass to discuss challenges for higher education in Massachusetts:
Three teen girls are due in a Massachusetts court on charges of bullying Phoebe Prince, the 15-year-old South Hadley High School student who committed suicide. All three have pleaded not guilty. (AP)
The rules, unveiled last month, require principals to notify the parents of victims and perpetrators of bullying, and to tell law enforcement officials if necessary. The state’s Board of Elementary and Secondary Education unanimously approved them Tuesday. (AP)
Three colleges in the Pioneer Valley have been listed among the most environmentally friendly schools in the nation,one being the University of Massachusetts. (The Daily Collegian)
John Musante will be Amherst’s new town manager on Oct. 1 following a unanimous vote by the Select Board to appoint him to the position and forgo a national search. (Amherst Bulletin)
On the day Minuteman Marching Band director George N. Parks was laid to rest, the University of Massachusetts announced a public memorial service has been scheduled in his honor Oct. 16. (The Republican)
The phrase “UMass community” gets used pretty often around here, particularly when there is a tragic loss. But as the passing of University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band Director George N. Parks showed, such a thing does exist. (The Daily Collegian)
What are you reading, Amherst?
Published September 22, 2010
Check out those rings! Red Sox announcer Carl Beane (Lisa Tobin/WBUR)
The most famous voice heard in Ware this morning was not that of Bob Oakes, our Morning Edition host, but of Carl Beane, the voice of Fenway Park, who delivered a special introduction to his “second home town” of Ware, Massachusetts.
“This is a town that has very special significance to me,” he told Bob and producer Lisa Tobin. In 1976, Beane was hired at WARE-AM — one of two radio stations in America whose call letters are the same as the town name. (Can you think of the other?)
Beane was the voice of high school sports in Ware and surrounding communities. “This town is very, very into its local athletics, so doing those games was a big deal,” he says.
“I knew I did a good job when Palmer people complained I was rooting for Ware, and Ware people complained I was rooting for Palmer. And I used to tell them, I’m from Agawam. I’m here to do a job.”
In its heyday, WARE was a small, 1000-watt radio station that sounded like a big-city operation, Beane says. “We had five studios in our building, and we did a lot of stuff. We carried the Red Sox, the Bruins, the Celtics, the Patriots, local sports. We did Oldies. We had a huge news department.”
What made WARE work for so many years is what made Ware work for so many years, he says: a fierce independence. Like a lot of small AM radio stations, though, WARE had to close up and leave town — for neighboring Palmer.
“This is a mill town, and when the factories and the mills closed, a lot of people left. And like a lot of small towns economically, they have suffered,” Beane says.
“People have died, people have moved away, children of those who used to live here decided they didn’t want to stay here because there wasn’t much going for them, economically. But this town is still tough.” Ware is, as we’ve said, the town that can’t be licked.
Published September 22, 2010
This place is beautiful. (David Boeri/WBUR)
You can be forgiven for not knowing Ware, a once-thriving mill town in central Massachusetts, where Morning Edition has been broadcasting live as part of our week-long road trip.
Driving here in the pre-dawn hours, 100 percent of the commuter traffic was heading the other direction, west, toward Amherst, where I stayed last night — there are no hotels here.
This town of 10,000, with an unemployment rate hovering at more than 10 percent, is heartbreaking. This morning, WBUR’s Bob Oakes tells the story of Mike McCarthy, who was laid off 15 months ago. Used to be you could get fired or just walk out of a factory and have a new job, at another factory, five minutes later. Now McCarthy can’t hold on to any work for more than a short stretch.
Bob asked McCarthy to think of the last thing he bought that he did not need. “It was my engagement ring for my girl,” McCarthy said.
[googlemap title=”Ware, Mass.” align=”right” url=”http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=42.259815,-72.239802&spn=0.041989,0.070896&z=14″]
Our makeshift broadcast booth is set up in a vacant storefront on Main Street. The ceiling is falling down. The space is used to store artificial Christmas trees and electric-light displays.
By our count, a full 25 percent of the stores on this stretch are shuttered. The town’s longtime AM radio station with the killer call letters, WARE 1250 AM, has left for neighboring Palmer. Even WBUR’s FM signal drops off for good in the next town over, Warren.
WBUR’s David Boeri, who lives in nearby Petersham (which you haven’t heard of either), describes the Quabbin region as “achingly beautiful.”
But, he says, “you can’t eat the scenery.” Wal-Mart is the biggest employer here, but it doesn’t pay a living wage. There are dollar stores, a McDonald’s and strip malls, too. But you have to turn off Route 9 and take Route 32 to get there.
Published September 21, 2010
Worcester is a study in urban decay and renewal. Abandoned warehouses and idle factories. A shuttered parking lot next to failed mall. But as WBUR’s Curt Nickisch reported this morning, these empty spaces are beginning to make way for condos, offices and biotech labs — taking advantage of the cheap rent and light traffic, at least compared to big brother Boston.
Photographer Jess Bidgood captured scenes of Worcester’s changing face:
Published September 21, 2010
This billboard for the hyperlocal network CentralMassNews.com appears to take a jab at the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, which recently started charging for some online content. (Andrew Phelps/WBUR)
You’ll recall the Worcester Telegram & Gazette — this region’s largest source of original local journalism — erected a partial metered paywall last month (which I subsequently tried to explain).
Now it seems the hyperlocal aggregator network CentralMassNews.com is capitalizing on the unpopularity of that decision with readers, who apparently expect the news is and always should be free. A billboard on Shrewsbury Street declares, “Never pay for news again!”
Unfortunately, as you hear us say during pledge drives, the news is expensive. I find the farthest west I travel, the harder it is to find diverse sources of news and information. I am spoiled by Boston’s two newspapers, alt weeklies, broadcast media — and the bloggers and aggregators who are equally important in helping me parse the news. Boston’s media market may be shrinking, but Worcester feels like a desert.
Then again, it could be I just don’t know what’s out here. Central Bay Staters, where do you get news and information? Who should I follow? What should I read?