MICHIGAN RADIO’S “STATESIDE” IS BEING HEARD IN THE UPPER PENINSULA • CKLW’S 20/20 NEWS FEATURED IN NEWLY FOUND VIDEO

Michigan Radio’s daily news/talk show Stateside [link] is now being heard all over the state. Two stations in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula often referred to as “the UP,” have added the show to their schedules.

WNMU 90.1 FM in Marquette airs Stateside twice daily Monday-Friday at 5am ET and at 10pm ET. WGGL in Houghton is airing Stateside daily Monday-Friday at 9pm CT. Neither station is airing the live feed of Stateside at 10am ET.

Michigan Radio’s move is notable because of the vast difference between the UP and the state’s lower peninsula (the “LP”). Stateside is well known in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and Flint, but not so much up in the UP.

Michigan is a challenging state for any statewide service. The UP contains 29% of the state’s land area but less has less than 3% of the state’s population.  The UP is rural and the LP is urban. Can Stateside bridge the gap between the two areas of the state?

April Baer is the host of Stateside

Some Stateside episodes reflect urban life such as Ramadan celebrations in Dearborn and a Detroit teacher who reads  bedtime stories online to isolated students. 

But a majority of recent topics are likely to be of interest to all Michiganders, such as Governor Whitman’s order keeping stay-at-home policy through mid-May.

The difference between the UP and the LP has existed ever since Michigan became a state in 1837. 

Unique lifestyles, work and politics have spawned simmering efforts to have the UP leave the rest of Michigan and become the 51^st state. 

A campaign in 1957 for statehood referred to the UP as “Superior.”

In some ways Superior is similar to Jefferson, the succession plan for northern California and southern Oregon to establish an imaginary new state. 

But, the fact that UP contains only around 300,000 year-round residents, and lacks the of political power to be taken seriously. However the differences between the UP and the LP. Now Stateside has the opportunity to bridge the gap.

 NEW VIDEO EMERGES THAT TELLS THE STORY BEHIND CKLW’S 2020 NEWS

While researching a story, we can across a YouTube video about CKLW’s 20/20 news team and their over-the-top newscasts,

In the `970s and early 1980s, CKLW’s 20/20 style was known around the world. 

It told on the gritty stories in a rapid-fire staccato that at times was almost gleeful about tragedy, heartbreak and loss. You have to hear it to believe it really happened.

Members of CKLW’s 20/20 news team because household names in the Detroit and Windsor areas. 

The video we have today includes now-and-then interviews and airchecks featuring Dick Smyth, Byron McGregor, Randall Carlisle and Joe Donovan.

If you are interested in learning more about CKLW check out Don Gonyea’s Lost & Found Sound episode the was heard on NPR’s All Things Considered in 1999 [link].

We don’t the origin of today’s video, but apparently it is part of an undated CKLW Reunion. It is fun and educational too.