Editor’s note: This commentary is by Vic Henningsen, of Thetford Center, a historian and teacher who has been a VPR commentator since 2005.
[R]obert Frost’s poem “A Time to Talk” describes a farmer hailed by a friend who “slows his horse to a meaning walk.” Rather than contemplate work left undone, the narrator plants his hoe and goes “up to the stone wall for a friendly visit.” For 31 years until it was canceled earlier this week, Vermont Public Radio’s Commentary series regularly treated listeners to a variety of such friendly visits. No longer will listeners be treated to wonderfully diverse pieces from the storytellers, local activists, teachers, journalists, college professors and college presidents, farmers, lawyers, poets, naturalists, organic gardeners, novelists, filmmakers, trail builders, businessmen, former governors, ministers and others who peopled the commentary ranks. At its best, commentary was the virtual equivalent of Frost’s “friendly visit” — a kind of over-the-back-fence conversation with a well-informed, if occasionally quirky, neighbor. You never quite knew what you were in for, but you always stayed to listen. And you almost always left the encounter with something to chew on.
Commentary developed as part of VPR’s original mission, defined by founding station manager Ray Dilley as reflecting the listening audience back to itself. Throughout its long run, the series had only one editor/producer, the unflappable Betty Smith, who likened her task to moderating “a vast New England Town Meeting: fairly orderly, sometimes contentious, and often amusing.” For more than three decades several hundred people delivered commentaries – at any given time there were some 100 active contributors, 50 of whom might be called regulars. Former VPR president Mark Vogelzang once referred to them as “a delightful cross-section of friends whom we know mostly from the sound of their voice and what they like to talk about on the radio.” In some cases – the late Edith Hunter and the incomparable Willem Lange come readily to mind – the voice alone was so distinctive as to be instantly recognizable. Because no one “owned” a particular time slot or topic, the morning and evening commentaries were always a surprise – a counterpoint to, or a relief from, the news.
The first commentary featured the late Janet Greene talking about hen spectacles; the last pieces addressed issues as various as immigration, affordable housing, mental health, and how birds get their names. In between are some 12,000 to 13,000 separate pieces on every conceivable topic, most of which, VPR president Scott Finn assures us, will remain available through the station’s website. It’s a treasure trove of informed discussion of politics, art, culture, and other topics by Vermonters for Vermonters – a tapestry of life in the Green Mountain State in the late 20th and early 21st century.
But as listener habits changed and VPR attracted more hard news professionals – culminating in the recent arrival of Scott Finn – it seems clear that the station didn’t really know what to do with commentary. The length of time given to each piece diminished from the original four minutes to the more recent two minutes, 45 seconds; the frequency of commentaries fell from five days a week to three; air times changed so often that even hardcore fans had difficulty figuring out when to tune in.
VPR maintains that eliminating commentary is part of a continuing effort to honor its mission of reflecting the listening audience, in this case by beefing up local reporting, particularly coverage of underserved communities and groups. A laudable goal to be sure, though it’s difficult to see how repurposing six minutes of air time a few days a week will really make that much of a difference. And I have to question the station’s assumption that listeners want even more hard news. Just as many, perhaps more, welcomed the break in the steady drumbeat of what’s-happening-right-now that commentary provided. Commentary – the longest running series of its kind in the U.S. – was part of VPR’s brand, something unique to the Green Mountain State, something that made Vermont Public Radio more than just NPR in Vermont.
“You are Vermont” was the station’s mantra to listeners during a recent fund drive. Well, maybe not. Silencing between 50 and 100 local commentary voices in favor of six minutes more reporting by the VPR staff – good as it is – may make the station stronger and increase its impact. But I can’t help thinking that we’re losing more than we’ll gain.
