Fellow WNYC/NPR addicts know that there is a newer, hipper, more "conversational" morning news program called "The Takeway" and it is here to show you how new, hip and conversational it is.Every weekday morning on WNYC (at 6 on the FM station and again at 8 and 9 on AM) overwrought alt-rock lead-in music pounds us awake with its John Bonham drums, a come-to-Jesus organ chord and right at the end, a little technical robot noise which we will hear over and over again to demarcate segments, bracket the sound bites and, you know, be cool.
"This is the Takeaway with Adaora Udoji and John Hockenberry and here's our clever theme for the day which brings us to a question that we want You The Listener to answer over the phone and on the website, because this isn't a news program, it's a conversation."
Then we hear Femi Oke (is anyone on WNYC allowed to have a normal name?) not only read the same headlines that we've been hearing all morning, but do so with a cute (and acute) British accent only to get interrupted repeatedly by Huckleberry with lame jokes and non-sequiters. Because this is a new type of show. It's radio 2.0. It's web-savvy. It's crowd sourcing and user generated content and a great big global techno convo.
And I think to myself, "Yay! I get to be part of a conversation! It seems that I never get to have those. And they want me to give them my take at mytake@thetakeaway.com. So totally new and cool and web and awesome!"
Although I applaud WNYC's attempt to put together something so that I don't have to listen to the Morning Edition rerun hour, did it have to be this...thing? This new-media-crazy, consultant-conceived mess of every layer of newthink crap they can throw at the wall?
I know it's not going away, nor do I want it to, but maybe can they just, tone it down a little bit?
That's all.
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