National radio show host praises KEPW News

Host of the national show ‘Sprouts: Radio from the Grassroots’ Lisa Loving visited with KEPW News Sept. 12. She praised the work of the News Team: Sam Broadway, Julie Lambert and Jana Thrift, Todd Boyle, Curtis Blankinship, and independent KEPW producer Dan Pulju.

Lisa Loving (KBOO, national host of ‘Sprouts’): I just wanted to say, now that I’ve spent some more quality time lurking around on people’s news websites, and you do such a great job. You guys do a great job, and you’re nested in a really smart platform that allows people to find out what’s going on around them. And you guys are doing coverage as good as any other newsroom in the whole state.

[00:00:37] You really, you should be guests on Think Out Loud, you would be such great guests on that show, because what you’re doing is incredible. The coverage is incredible.

[00:00:46] John Q: Lisa Loving from KBOO is the author of the book ‘Street Journalist: Understand and Report the News in your Community.’

She noted Todd Boyle’s work in convening public comment sessions when the city council is on break.

[00:00:59] Lisa Loving: That’s a brilliant idea. That’s brilliant. You heard me talk about El Tímpano, which is a media outlet in Oakland, where they started out by just like you said, setting up a microphone in outdoor markets because it was during the pandemic, because they realized that the Spanish-speaking people that lived in the Bay Area had no idea how to access services.

[00:01:18] And that’s how they started. They set up a mic, they let people talk, they recorded it, and that’s where their reporting came from. That was the start. That’s just a smart idea. People don’t feel heard.

[00:01:28] John Q: She also praised work by Sam Broadway.

[00:01:32] Lisa Loving: And you guys, this is really great, but you had coverage of a Zoom meeting about housing and it was so well done. I mean, I just had to laugh reading that. You want to laugh and cry both, right? But you guys, like, in the most, you know, just the most dispassionate way, you just serve it to them: But where will we go? Where will they go? Like, what else is there to ask? It was really well done.

[00:01:57] Sam Broadway (KEPW Newsday): Yeah, I’m part of an informal group of advocates that I got together after the Supreme Court decision about Grants Pass to ask that particular question: Where can people go? And the city of Eugene several years ago, especially the city attorney, said outright: It is impossible to determine where people could go. Impossible. And what wasn’t said was: We’re not going to tell you where people could go because then they’ll go there and we don’t want that.

[00:02:31] If you talk to Springfield, well, homelessness is against the law there, you see. So if you’re homeless in Springfield, you need to go to Eugene where people don’t care, says Officer Burke on KEPW radio.

[00:02:45] John Q: He shared a remarkable story reported by Jana Thrift and Julie Lambert.

[00:02:51] Sam Broadway: We have a show on KEPW that airs 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday nights called Legalize Survival. Julie (Lambert) and Jana (Thrift, who produces that show and invented that show), were interviewing Bernice Pogue, who has two children and got an RV. And a neighbor was kind enough to let her hook up electricity, so she had a cord running from the neighbor’s house across the sidewalk to that RV.

[00:03:23] Nobody knew this was going to happen. This was not planned. It was just going to be an interview with Bernice, about how hard things are and what a tough thing that she’s going through trying to wrestle with her and two kids and becoming unhoused all over again for the umpteenth time.

[00:03:43] And while she’s being interviewed, there’s a knock at the door. It’s Officer Burke from the Springfield Police coming over to harass her and tell her all about what laws she’s violating and what she’s doing wrong, including having the cord going across the sidewalk, because that’s impeding traffic, can’t have an electric cord going across the sidewalk, and then he proceeded to tell her that there are no homeless people in Springfield, and they don’t want homeless in Springfield, and the best idea for her was to take her and her RV to Eugene because ‘Eugene doesn’t care.’ They’ve got RVs lined up for miles. Nobody cares. Go to Eugene.

[00:04:39] Everything he was saying was just to make her feel bad and upset her life and that’s how police do when they’re dealing with the unhoused.

[00:04:48] John Q: Bernice tells the officer, and the officer acknowledges, that they are recording.

[00:04:54] Sam Broadway: He got recorded doing this. By the time that was over, I put it out there that this had happened and the entire staff of Lane County wanted to hear this immediately. So most of the staff of Lane County, regardless of department or position heard the entire thing and were appalled, just appalled by this officer and his harassment of Bernice, to the point of tears.

[00:05:25] Julie Lambert (KEPW, Legalize Survival): Yeah, and now we have the dubious distinction of being probably the only show on KEPW that’s actively monitored by the Eugene and Springfield police and who knows who else? Though, that was, I think, one of our best shows and it was also one of our worst shows, because he told her that she was setting a bad example for her children and, ‘What kind of a mother are you? Wipe away those crocodile tears,’ you know, just berating her and we got all of it.

[00:06:01] Eventually the Register-Guard made it a front-page story. However, Bernice still doesn’t have a place to park her fifth wheel.

[00:06:12] Lisa Loving: That’s outrageous. And you deserve a wider audience for that, for real.

[00:06:16] John Q: A story first reported by KEPW producers Dan Pulju, Curtis Blankinship, and Todd Boyle could be headed for a national audience. A small entrenched minority in Oregon kept local Greens from hearing from several Jill Stein rivals.

[00:06:36] Lisa Loving: That story about the Green Party, that’s a big deal. I don’t know if I saw that covered anywhere else, and I’m an inaugural member of the Pacific Green Party of Oregon, and I’m going to work on that story about the Greens because I did a quick search and I didn’t see that covered anywhere, right? And here’s Jill Stein talking about how the Democratic Party is stifling free speech.

[00:06:57] You guys, you’re going to have big ideas, and you’re going to, maybe you’re going to pull on a string that is so explosive it’ll freak you out. Tap me, you know, ask me for advice, because I would love to help you.

[00:07:09] And so I’m doing this national show now that has to have 29 minutes of audio. It’s local elections from around the country, basically. And I am just trying to figure out the best way to see what you’re doing with the elections and see if I can help you in any way, giving you advice or knowledge or anything like that, because your format is perfect for the show that I’m working on.

[00:07:36] John Q: Here’s the opening from Lisa Loving’s national show:

[00:07:40] Lisa Loving: (Music) Welcome to Sprouts: Radio from the Grassroots, a weekly program that showcases radio production by independent community media. We bring local stories to a global audience produced at a different location every week. I’m Lisa Loving of KBOO Community Radio in Portland, Oregon, and this is Election Coverage 2024.

[00:08:06] John Q: If you live here in the Upper Willamette watershed and would like to produce your own KEPW election coverage, your stories could be considered for the national show. We’ll help you get started. Contact us at the studio or through our award-winning website.

[00:08:21] Next up for Lisa Loving: She’s been thinking about ways to bring local news teams together.

[00:08:26] Lisa Loving: I dream of what it would be like to get all y’all, everybody together in one room, the KBOO News staff, they’re incredible people. You know, hobnob those guys with the people at the Oregonian, where the people have the opportunity to speak.

[00:08:39] John Q: Lisa Loving, host of local grassroots election reporting from around the country. Sprouts is available on demand.