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This Just In: Media

WBUR's new frontier: Boston

By Dan Kennedy

WBUR Radio (90.9 FM) is coming home. The Boston University-owned public-broadcasting powerhouse, which built its reputation largely on the strength of programs from National Public Radio and the BBC, is now turning its attention to its immediate environs.

Exhibit A: City Stories, a five-day series that will be broadcast next Monday through Friday, February 23 through 27, from 5:35 to 6 a.m., and again from 7:35 to 8 a.m. Three months in the making, the series will debut with a segment on 24 hours in the life of the city. Other segments will include Boston through the eyes of a conventioneer, a piece on East Boston by a reporter who grew up there, and a look at the isolation of the city's African-American community.

"We report day in and day out the stories that we have to," says WBUR executive producer Bruce Gellerman. "We felt we wanted to get closer to the people in the places where we live and work."

Exhibit B: An hour-long local newscast that will likely be unveiled this summer, and that will be broadcast at noon every Monday through Friday. Gellerman -- citing budget constraints as well as a desire to do something innovative -- is talking about a product that would be both eclectic and eccentric. Ideas include passing a cell phone around a fancy restaurant, broadcasting street performers live, and offering unedited segments of noteworthy news conferences.

Gellerman also plans to tap WBUR talent such as Christopher Lydon, host of The Connection, and Bill Littlefield, host of the sports show Only a Game. And he hopes to offer "news you can use" -- everything from how to get a mortgage to why the phone company charges an additional fee for touch-tone service, even though it's the only service that's offered.

WBUR's move into local programming is particularly welcome now that The Connection has gone national. Even better, it's one of a growing number of broadcast alternatives to the sensationalistic morass of local TV newscasts. From relatively recent shows such as New England Cable News' NewsNight and WGBH-TV's Greater Boston, to old standbys such as WCVB-TV's Chronicle and WBZ Radio's The David Brudnoy Show, there are fewer reasons than ever to settle for blood and guts at 11.