I appeared on the show a handful of times beginning in February 2002. I told Karlen and Teddy then that they should start a blog for the show. I can tell you, though, that Karlen was openly, unabashedly contemptuous of both blogging and bloggers and definitely felt very threatened by blogging. Teddy was less overt but apparently equally scornful.

The two definitely come from an "old media" background and consider themselves journalists in the traditional sense. And like oldline media, they saw their radio show as a megaphone for themselves rather than a medium for multi-way communication. The show was modeled on the now-ancient send-receive mode: they send, we receive.

The shunned realtime interactivity with their audience. The only way they would take questions from listeners was via email which was carefully screened (censored) so that the only emails they read on the air were those supporting their views or rebutting their interlocutors' views.

Like all old media, Teddy and Karlen had a death grip on keeping the show and its content under their tight control. Maybe now they will realize that the audience is demanding signficant, if not near-equal input, in real time, into content.

Old media craves the soapbox. an essentially elitist, self-pedastaling position that dismisses the idea that the unwashed, comparitively unenlightened audience actually has anything to contribute other than their time and attention.

If The Public Forum is to revive and then survive, Teddy and Karlen will have to change the way they see their own roles and that of their guests. They must be much less thin-skinned and open to constructive criticism; that they aren't now is another sign of their "old media-ness." They will have to see that a new-media radio show, especially with 3-4 invited guests at roundtable, must be formatted to connect directly the guests with the audience in realtime bilateral conversation. That means de-centering themselves from the show itself, because make no mistake, they definitely see themselves as "stars" to be highlighted daily.

But new media is not about stars or personality. It is about ideas, what they mean and how they can be understood interactively. I am not at all confident that Teddy and Karlen can make that leap. More accurately, I am almost certain Karlen cannot or will not (same thing). Teddy probably can but whether he'll be willing remains to be seen.

I've only been listening to the show for about a year, but I am a regular listener. I've always heard e-mails from both the right and left read on air. I've also heard both Bart and Evins reference blogs and bloggers in a positive light on the show. In fact, it's one of the few places outside of cyberspace that regularly discussed what TN bloggers were talking about.

As I listened, I never felt like Bart or Evins were using the show as a "megaphone" to push their ideology. I have no idea where Bart is politically. Evins leans a bit to the left, but as fars using the show as a "soap box" the only issue I've heard her regularly talk about is ethics reform. I don't consider that a partisan issue.

It's almost as if the Teddy Bart's Roundtable I listened to daily and the one described by Mr. Sensing are in alternate universes.

I hope the show will be revived at some point. They may not have had a blog, but it was the only place to go where you could get civil political discussion with both sides on every issue represented.

"Lord willing," we'll hear the Roundtable on the air again soon

Sensing was on the show a couple times and they pulled the old "you can't really trust bloggers because they aren't fact-checked and don't have editors" schtick that the MSM often trots out even though the blogosphere is actually more heavily fact-checked and more prone to correct errors than the MSM.

Sensing blogged about his experience on the show.

They were good to me and seemed very pro bloging.

The rep

I haven't heard the show in a long time - for some reason the signal of the local station that carries it is dead in my house. If they've become more open to what blogs are doing, then I stand corrected. But my basic comment stands that expecting any audience today to remain in a basically receive-only mode will not work, certainly not for a local-issues show.

I believe that both Teddy and Karlen have evolved their opinions on Blogging.
When Mr. Sensing made his appearences on the panel, they were skeptical and wary of the new medium of unfiltered information and opinion.
They have since, maybe as a direct result of Mr. Sensing's discourse, come around to airing positive views and often site Blogs as points of reference for their statements.
They have grown into using this newest of information outlets, like many of their listners.
Another excellent example of the Forum's primary purpose of the education of its listners which also includes it's host.

If the Roundtable people would produce a show that could get an audience and make it in the free market, they wouldn't have the troubles they have now. Therein lies the problem.

Reason, the Roundtable is a not-for-profit public service to our community. The point wasn't about getting ratings, it was about providing a medium for the discussion of public affairs.

The Roundtable could have been the most popular show in town and still had budget troubles because the show's costs are totally funded by contributions to the Public Forum. It looks like the reason there was a budget shortfall is because the loyal listeners the show has didn't know there was a problem.

Those loyal listeners now appear to be rallying to try and revive the show at some point in the future.

Unfortunately, Reason is right that the Roundtable probably couldn't survive in the free market, much like C-SPAN probably couldn't survive either. Both are important public services that don't cost the taxpayer a dime though.

The Roundtable became a "public service" only after the show was unable to attract advertisers. I have worked in radio for a long time, and know all about the show's bouncing from station to station.

If it were the most popular show in town, it could attract advertisers and be viable commercially. And they wouldn't have any trouble paying the inflated salaries of the talent.

I remember the show that Mr. Sensing was the guest and I took great offense at Karlen's attitude toward blogs. She left the impression that only a reporter for some big name outlet was informed enough to engage in conversation. I too feel that she was less obstinate about blogs in the last year.

The show always angered me in this way. They would only reference the New York Times, Meet the Press, or one of the alphabet news channels. Anything outside of that elite circle was frowned on as untrustworthy and mere hearsay.

Teddy is very good at one-on-one interviews. I grew up watching him do this on the Noon Show and Teddy Bart's Nashville. He said himself that he doesn't really fit the modern issues oriented programming. I wish him the best and hope that his is not a case of growing too old to fit the modern world.