The Johnsonian

Issue date: 10/9/08 Section: Arts

Media Credit: Justin Rose Professor Haney Howell (front) and instructor Mark Nortz sit in WINR radio station. The professors produced a documentary over the summer that will premiere on ETV this Thursday.

After two and a half years of production, 83 hours of editing and a total of three weeks of interviewing, mass comunication instructor Mark Nortz and professor Haney Howell finally have something to show for their hard work: All 28 minutes and 11 seconds of it.

This summer Howell and Nortz produced a documentary entitled "Losing Their Voices: A Look at Local Radio," which will premiere at 10 p.m. tonight on ETV. The documentary mainly focuses on the decline of small town radio stations and how they are surviving in the industry.

Howell, who got his start in radio, said he was approaching his 50th anniversary in the business when he first got the idea for the documentary. He went back to his hometown and noticed that the local radio station had shut down.

"My little hometown station had lost its voice," he said.

Howell was curious about its closing and wanted to see what was causing some radio stations to survive while others disappeared.

Creating a documentary was a project Nortz always wanted to work on but never had the chance; so when Howell mentioned the idea, he jumped at the opportunity.
He and Howell both teach Introduction to Mass Communication. One of the reoccurring topics they noticed was how Clear Channel Radio bought many of the local radio stations and it seemed these small towns were losing their voices.

"We wanted to see if it was true or not," Nortz said. And they did.
Together they traveled around the state of South Carolina to talk to radio stations from Greenville to Columbia and Gaffney, as well as stations in York County.

"We covered a lot of ground and a lot of money," Nortz said.

Howell added they were able to include a diverse set of stations in their project.
In the end, they found a common trend that keeps radio stations alive and thriving: They all kept personal ties with the community.

"If the power goes out and you want to know where you would you go to get ice, you're not going to listen to satellite radio," Howell said. "I think there is a niche."

Continued...

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