The desire to innovate is powerful and intoxicating–and without judicious dosage, stupefying. We’ve been checking into MPR’s cutting-edge new program called “The Loop,” and so far we like what we see. It looks like an interesting attempt to mobilize what Chris Lydon has for a while been calling “open source radio.” (Those smarties over at MNSpeak, another rewarding experiment in new media, also noticed the similarity.)
As a preliminary diversion, it’s interesting to think about Lydon’s short stay at MPR after Katherine Lanpher packed her bags for New York City. For the first two weeks, callers seemed to be as ecstatic as we were– Lydon sounded like Daniel Schorr, but he was actually capable of a genteel, gracious, two-way conversation. We’re not sure how a note of hubris began to seep into Lydon’s dulcet baritone, but it seems to be what killed any longer-term relationship with MPR. On the face of it, a Boston brahmin would seem a good fit for the more high-brow pretensions of the Twin Cities public-radio elite. Something started to go wrong in the relationship–we have no inside dope, but we guess that Minnesotans’ well-documented aversion to know-it-alls and show-offs probably was the deal-breaker, as Lydon began to spend more and more time answering his own questions and treating guests like auditors. Anyway, Lydon’s desire to revolutionize media, to pioneer new models for public radio, undoubtedly rubbed off on the Denizens of MPR’s secret star chamber. How else to explain the sudden, violent, nervous change taking place over at MPR? The Current? The Loop? The Rake–whoops, that’s us.
It’s slightly ironic that the folks at The Loop–apparently populated by a disgruntled segment of MPRs business desk–have been chewing on the “big brain” theory, and asking listeners to discuss the assets and liabilities of working in groups. As a media organization, MPR is a kitchen notoriously crowded with chefs, where very little gets done without the consent of whole sections of the interoffice directory. One surely can’t argue that the model has not succeeded–MPR is exceeded in size and quality only by one rival–National Public Radio–but this communtarian approach to decision-making does tend to take the edge off of innovation and honest self-examination. (Where ya gonna go–commercial radio? Haw haw!)
That’s why we think that The Current and The Loop and The Rake–oops, there we go again–smell like the work of one genius working alone, at his desk, in his shoes and shirt-sleeves, late into the night, somewhere close to the clouds at 45 E. Seventh Street. No, not Chris Lydon, who has long since returned to Beantown. We’re pretty sure someone lit the fuse under Bill Kling–probably Bill himself. It’s good to see there’s some fight left in the old dog.
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