Media
Madison is home to an extensive and varied number of print publications, reflecting the city's role as the state capital and its diverse political, cultural and academic population. The Wisconsin State Journal (weekday circulation: ~95,000; Sundays: ~155,000) is published in the mornings, while its sister publication, The Capital Times (Thursday supplement to the Journal) is published online daily. Though jointly operated under the name Capital Newspapers, the Journal is owned by the national chain Lee Enterprises, and the Times is independently owned. Wisconsin State Journal is the descendant of the Wisconsin Express, a paper founded in the Wisconsin Territory in 1839. The Capital Times was founded in 1917 by William T. Evjue, a business manager for the State Journal who disagreed with that paper's editorial criticisms of Wisconsin Republican Senator Robert M. La Follette, Sr. for his opposition to U.S. entry into World War I.
The free weekly alternative newspaper Isthmus (weekly circulation: ~65,000) was founded in Madison in 1976. The Onion, a satirical weekly, was founded in Madison in 1988. Two student newspapers are published during the academic year, The Daily Cardinal (Mon-Fri circulation: ~10,000) and The Badger Herald (Mon-Fri circulation: ~16,000). Other specialty print publications focus on local music, politics and sports, including The Madison Times, Wisconsin Sports Weekly,The Mendota Beacon, The Madison Observer, Madison Magazine, The Simpson Street Free Press and fantasy sports web site RotoWire.com. There is a strong community of local blogs including Althouse, dane101, and The Critical Badger.
The Progressive, published in Madison, is a left-wing periodical that may be best known for the attempt of the U.S. government in 1979 to suppress one of its articles before publication. The magazine eventually prevailed in the landmark First Amendment case, United States v. The Progressive, Inc. During the 1970s, there were two radical weeklies published in Madison, known as TakeOver and Free for All, as well as a Madison edition of the Bugle-American underground newspaper.
Madison hosts two volunteer-operated and community-oriented radio stations, WORT and WSUM. WORT Community Radio (89.9 FM), founded in 1975, is one of the oldest volunteer-powered radio stations in the United States. A listener-sponsored community radio station, WORT offers diverse music and talk programming that is locally produced and hosted by local DJs. WSUM (91.7 FM) is a student radio station whose programming and operation are carried out almost entirely by students.
Madison's Wisconsin Public Radio station, WHA, was one of the first radio stations in the nation to begin broadcasting, and remains the longest continuously broadcasting station in the nation.
Widely heard public radio programs that originate in Madison include Michael Feldman's Whad'Ya Know?, Zorba Pastor On Your Health, To the Best of Our Knowledge and Calling All Pets.
WXJ-87 is the NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards station located on Madison's west side, with broadcasts originating from the National Weather Service in Sullivan, Wisconsin.
See also:
- List of radio stations in Wisconsin
- List of television stations in Wisconsin
- List of Madison magazines
- List of Wisconsin daily newspapers
Read more about this topic: Madison, Wisconsin
Famous quotes containing the word media:
“The media have just buried the last yuppie, a pathetic creature who had not heard the news that the great pendulum of public conciousness has just swung from Greed to Compassion and from Tex-Mex to meatballs.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“Never before has a generation of parents faced such awesome competition with the mass media for their children’s attention. While parents tout the virtues of premarital virginity, drug-free living, nonviolent resolution of social conflict, or character over physical appearance, their values are daily challenged by television soaps, rock music lyrics, tabloid headlines, and movie scenes extolling the importance of physical appearance and conformity.”
—Marianne E. Neifert (20th century)
“The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message.”
—Pope John Paul II (b. 1920)