+++UPDATE: USA: Community Radio Fights to Stay Live (and Weird) Despite Coronavirus

In an article in the New York Times, Brett Sokol catches up with some of America’s noncommercial, community radio programmers, who have been forced into hastily improvising a response to the growing spread of Covid-19.

Local stations have cut down on D.J.s coming to the studio, but playlists and personalities are holding strong as small stations get a chance to build bigger audiences.

“This is the situation that so many broadcasters dream of!” said Ken Freedman, the station manager and program director at WFMU. “You have a global, captive audience, and everyone can share and commiserate their experiences. But it’s not safe to go to the station!”

Matthew Dunn of WOMR : “As much as anything else, this is an opportunity to spread joy at a time when people really need it,” he said. “We’ve had some things taken away from us, but radio is not one of them.”

Read the full article in NY times.