Re: Robert Feder is "Back on the Beat"

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: Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune writes about his one-time co-worker, Robert Feder, and his new role as a writer for Vocalo's website. He also gives a nice overview of the last couple years of Feder's work, as well as a decent overview of the many Vocalo "issues" that have surfaced lately. This particular blog contains numerous links within it, so you might want to click-through to the source page below after you read the text here. : -------------------------- : October 21, 2009 : Former Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder joins Chicago Public Radio site : : Robert Feder, who last year quit the Chicago Sun-Times after 28 years with the lament that �covering the minutiae of the broadcast business isn't as much fun as it used to be,� announced Wednesday he is returning to the media beat as a contributor to Chicago Public Radio�s vocalo.org Web site. : �In my new role, I look forward to redefining my old broadcast beat, while expanding the scope of my reporting to include print, the Internet and whatever else comes along,� Feder wrote on the site. : No start date has been set, but Feder indicated he will be contributing to the site five days a week. : Long a fan of Chicago Public Radio and its boss, Torey Malatia, even before taking a buyout from the Sun-Times, Feder noted in his Vocalo announcement that he liked the idea of contributing to �an enterprise dedicated to serving our community and fostering honest discussion about things that matter.� : A 1978 graduate of Northwestern University who last week was inducted into Medill�s Hall of Achievement, Feder was known for his ability to corral information from local media staffers, agents and managers, sometimes seeming to know the content of station memos before they were even written. : At Vocalo, he walks into quite a media story as some inside and out of Chicago Public Radio have expressed concern about the amount of resources diverted to the ambitious new online and broadcast venture heard over Chesterton, Ind.-based WBEW-FM 89.5. : A February Crain�s Chicago Business report noted that Vocalo, which launched in June 2007, lost $700,000 on a budget of $1.6 million in fiscal 2008. Although it was getting half its funding from Chicago Public Radio, no mention of it was made on flagship WBEZ-FM 91.5 until an October 2008 pledge drive. : The Chicago Reader�s Michael Miner has done a solid job of staying abreast of the controversy over whether those who ostensibly believed they were donating money to WBEZ should have been told they were in fact subsidizing Vocalo. : Crain�s Lisa Bertagnoli reported in her February story that �station management didn't want its base to protest money going to Vocalo. Nor did it want them to participate in its listener call-in format.� : WBEZ�s research showed the flagship �was failing to appeal to community-minded non-whites with incomes of less than $50,000,� according to Bertagnoli, who added that surveys showed Vocalo wasn�t �reaching its intended audience� in that 71 percent of Vocalo's listeners are white, �only slightly more diverse than WBEZ's audience, which is 82 percent white.� : : Since leaving the Sun-Times, Feder has written sparingly, contributing a tribute column to that paper after the death in July of his idol, former CBS anchor Walter Cronkite. He also has been Tweeting at twitter.com/robertfeder. He was at the center of a February dust-up when then-WMAQ-Ch. 5 anchor Warner Saunders stood and accused him of bias at a union meeting where Feder was a guest speaker.

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