Listener Marvin wrote:
[Your] report on North Carolina public school salaries was interesting, but there was a huge gap in the coverage. It was maintained that effect of the essential salary freeze that has taken North Carolina from about 25th in the nation to 46th would be to drive teachers to neighboring states' public schools or out of the profession. There was no mention of the growing number of private schools in the state, and therefore no comparison of salaries and working conditions between the public and the private schools. It might be noted that the majority of private schools are owned by churches. Do these schools enjoy the same tax benefits that their owners do? Do parents paying private school tuitions pressure their legislators to hold down the amount of tax the parents pay to educate the children of others? The less we spend on public education, the worse our school system becomes in terms of performance. The worse our schools become, the more parents are motivated to move their children to private schools if they can afford it. The more they pay for tuition, the less they want to pay in taxes, so the less we can spend on public education, so a downward spiral is in motion. I would like to hear a follow up story covering this difficult and controversial topic.
In response, Marvin’s premise has merit, but the topic might have been too large for the length of the story we aired. We did not prepare that report, which came from our sister station WFAE in Charlotte.
Darlene Hess wrote on our Midday Interview web page, concerning our interview with “The Returned” author Jason Mott.
Enjoyable interview. Full of content. Makes me want to read this book!
Thank you, Darlene. That interview was conducted by our webmaster Jason Hess, a UNCW Graduate Fellow at the station. It was Jason’s first time on the air at WHQR.
A listener who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to the station. He didn't wish to be quoted on Feedback, but he is one of a number of people I have heard from who does not like the afternoon talk shows and would like us to return to music.
I wrote to the listener that the conflict between news listeners and music listeners is the most vocal among our audience, and the most intractable -- at least at the present time. Ultimately, the solution is for WHQR to operate an second, all-music station, which is part of our long-range plan. Listeners may also be interested in knowing that we offer a 24-hour all-classical stream on our website. Go to whqr.org and click on the Classical 24/7 link in the upper left.
[note: this paragraph has been revised to clarify that the story has been on the website, not on air]:
For several weeks this summer we have been dipping into our archive of recordings from StoryCorps' visit to Wilmington in 2011. Recently we put on our website the remarkable love story of Joann and Irving Fogler – a romance that all started with a flat tire. Steve Taylor wrote on the story’s website:
They are such a lovely pair. Just two of the many folks we miss.
We’d love to hear from you on Friday Feedback. You can always leave a message via email to feedback@WHQR.org. Our Feedback Phone is 910-292-WHQR. That’s 292-9477. And thanks for your feedback