Funferal

…and everything like that

One of the first emails I sent to my friends back in Ireland after arriving in Urbana dealt, in part, with the wonderfully diverse radio station that is WEFT. Although I mentioned in particular the Grateful Dead hour, as an example of the eclectic programming, I could just as easily have written about another Saturday evening staple – The Old Timer, Kent McConkey. Playing old-time country, and calling out greetings to his regular listeners, he was a distinctive and fascinating voice on the radio. When my parents visited Chambana this past July, and I brought them by the WEFT studios, it was the Old Timer who was on air, sending his listener greetings and old time country tunes out across the prairie – on many levels so different from the rest of WEFT’s content, but on others so true to its spirit.Kent died this past Tuesday, and though I never got to know him personally, I like most – perhaps all – other WEFTies, will miss the diversity and personality he brought to the station’s output. He didn’t fit the usual profile of Leftie or Hippie/ster (broadly stated) that makes up so much community media. Rather, he played what he wanted, and reached out to – or perhaps created – a community that is otherwise underserved. At pledge drive time – which we’re just finishing up at WEFT – he often brought in more than any other show. Not in large pledges, but in $5 here and $10 there, from people who appreciated what he, and by extension WEFT, brought to them.Pledges and finances are, of course, a minor part of what community media is about (but an unfortunately large part of what it has to concentrate on) so I don’t mean to judge its value in terms of cash raised, but I think the distribution in this case – many small commitments – deserves attention and tribute. Since 1988 The Old Timer has made the sort of radio he wanted to make, and in doing so made radio other people wanted to hear. And everything like that.