Among my many other talents, I am am an editor on Wikipedia (full disclosure, anyone can become an editor on Wikipedia by registering for the site). In that role I have made recommendations for three changes to the Wikipedia article on WVOX 1460 AM which are described below.
There are all sorts of policies on Wikipedia about the proper way to edit a Wikipedia entry. An important one is to first propose changes in a “discussion” area on the site. Each entry has its own discussion page.
Some entries are part of large initiatives. The WVOX article is part of two such efforts: the WikiProject Radio Stations, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of radio stations on Wikipedia and the WikiProject New York, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the U.S. state of New York on Wikipedia.
Below is the first few paragraphs of the article as I found it on March 16, 2012 and below that are the changes to the article I have proposed that relate to those paragraphs. The people managing the WikiProject Radio Stations will, hopefully, respond. I will monitor the discussion and later make edits based on any discussion which occurs.
WVOX (1460 AM) is a radio station in New Rochelle, New York. It is operated as a regional community station heard mainly in suburban Westchester County, the Bronx, Queens, the North Shore of Long Island, southern Connecticut and northern New Jersey. The station president is William O’Shaughnessy, and its current owner is Whitney Broadcasting, Inc. Together with its former counterpart, WRTN 93.5 FM (now WVIP), it claimed more than five million live listeners as of 2005.
WVOX reaches many more listeners, worldwide, by streaming live, online. As of July 12, 2010, WVOX can also be heard on the HD2 subchannel of its FM sister station, WVIP.
Programming is primarily locally produced information and talk, including programs presented by local citizens and interest groups. O’Shaughnessy hosted a daily talk show on the station for more than 50 years, featuring interviews with many major U.S. politicians, authors, and entertainers.[1] O’Shaughnessy, who has been called “the voice of Westchester”,[2] is fond of calling WVOX the “quintessential community radio station in America”,[3] a label first applied to the station by the Wall Street Journal.[2] Referring to the station’s citizen-produced content, a New York Daily News critic described WVOX as a “glorious hodgepodge, much of which even O’Shaughnessy can’t get excited about.”
In 2005, O’Shaughnessy was one of the first 25 people to be inducted into the new New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame by the New York State Broadcasters Association. He was honored for his long record as a champion of free speech under the First Amendment. A history of the broadcasters’ association published in 2005 described O’Shaughnessy as “happily turn[ing] over the airwaves to their rightful owners, the residents of the influential community he serves.”
Proposed edits to the WVOX article on Wikipedia:
Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Radio Stations
WVOX 1460 Dramatically overstated reach of AM signal, false claim of 5 million listeners on FM counterpart WVIP 93.5, Free Speech controversy
I would propose three changes to the entry for WVOX 1460 AM.
The wikipedia entry for WVOX 1460 AM says the station can be heard “mainly in suburban Westchester County, the Bronx, Queens, the North Shore of Long Island, southern Connecticut and northern New Jersey.” What is the source for this claim that the station is heard in Connecticut and New Jersey? The terrestrial broadcast signal is weak. The station is located in the South End of New Rochelle and cannot be heard, during the day at maximum ERP, in the North End of New Rochelle. It is hard to imagine the station has the reach stated in this entry. Regardless, if there is no source, this information should be removed.
The same entry states “Together with its former counterpart, WRTN 93.5 FM (now WVIP), it claimed more than five million live listeners as of 2005.” I have seen the literature at the station regarding the 5 million figure. Granted, Mr. O’Shaugnessy is notoriously prone to exaggeration boarding on megalomania but even he does not claim 5 million listeners. He claims that there are 5 million people living and working in the area where the AM and FM signal can be heard. By this standard the broadcast TV networks could claim 350 million viewers for all of their shows. Further, the entry is about WVOX 1460 AM so why even mention a second FM station and then combine claimed listeners for a second station within the WVOX entry? Does any one believe that this tiny 500-watt radio station (122 watts night time) has 5 million listeners? In fact, the station has no idea how many listeners it has because it does not subscribe to Arbitron or any other similar service. This information on WVIP and 5 million listeners should be removed.
It is true that William O’Shaughnessy was “one of the first 25 people to be inducted into the new New York State Broadcasters Hall of Fame by the New York State Broadcasters Association” and that he was “honored for his long record as a champion of free speech under the First Amendment”. and that “A history of the broadcasters’ association published in 2005 described O’Shaughnessy as ‘happily turn[ing] over the airwaves to their rightful owners, the residents of the influential community he serves.'” What is not mentioned in the article is policy at the station introduced by William O’Shaughnessy in 2011 under which station employees would be fired for allowing callers, guests or host to make a “verbal attack” on “anyone or anything”. The term verbal attack was never defined but “anyone or anything” is stated to include any “person, company or entity.” Unwilling to sign such a vague agreement that might be used to terminate engineers and other paid staff at the station, three “community hosts” (i.e. unpaid, volunteer hosts) refused to sign the agreement (including me) and their shows were taken off the air and they were banned from being on air at the station in any capacity including host, guest or caller for their refusal to sign the agreement.
A copy of the agreement can be seen here: Whitney Media ProposedAgreement
The nature of this agreement and the subsequent banning of those who did not sign the agreement casts William O’Shaughnessy’s commitment to free speech and turning over the airwaves to their rightful owners in a more full context. If the entry is going to so glowingly portray William O’Shaughnessy as a staunch defender of free speech then that same entry ought to make some mention of the current station policy as described in the above linked agreement. Rcox1963 (talk) 12:58, 16 March 2012 (UTC)
wvox on Wikipedia
WVOX’s Wikipedia page needs to update how William O’shaughnessy lives at the station and shuffles around in his mustard yellow bathrobe. And that his son Matthew sexually harasses WVOX past and present employees, masterbates to animal porn in the sales office and dials up hookers to take him grocery shopping.
“Among my many other talents. . .”
Why in the world would you have chosen this word with which to begin your blog? If you are not sure of the definition of a word, there are numerous ways to look it up. Being an “editor” of such a prestigious website as Wikipedia is NOT a “talent” under any definition of the word. Again, if you need help, mayhaps you can find a grownup who can read the dictionary to you.
Here is just one example of the definition of “talent” I found online:
tal·ent (tlnt)
n.
1. A marked innate ability, as for artistic accomplishment. See Synonyms at ability.
2.
a. Natural endowment or ability of a superior quality.
b. A person or group of people having such ability: The company makes good use of its talent.
3. A variable unit of weight and money used in ancient Greece, Rome, and the Middle East.
Regards
my many talents
One of my many talents is editing Wikipedia articles.
Another is getting under the skin of small-minded people who are prone to carping, fussy, niggling, censorious, finicky, cavilling, captious, overcritical, overscrupulous, and hairsplitting behavior. Unable to refute the logic of one of my many brilliant, profound, rational, penetrating, discerning, inventive, astute, perspicacious, articles these people must resort to fiddling, footling, picayune, piddling, piffling, trivial, petty, lilliputian, little digressions in order to cloak their anger and hostility at being intellectually defeated, overcome, frustrated, overwhelmed, thwarted, trounced, vanquished, disheartened and overmatched. The result being a descent into puerile, ad hominem attacks predicated on pernickety and pointless sidebars that do not challenge or even address the point of the article and are merely an outlet for their frustration with their own inadequacies.
Now, if you care to address the rather obvious exaggerations and errors in the WVOX article in Wikipedia and offer solutions on how to correct the entry I am interested. Other than that, not so much.
Self-explanatory
Bobby, Bobby, Bobby-
You have wounded me, cut me to the core. Not! All the big words won’t change the fact that you are unable to write.
I am not able to respond to your challenge to speak knowledgeably about WVOX (as you also are not, apparently) as I am only able to read a few of the first sentences of any of your postings before I explode into laughter over your inability to grasp even the the most fundamental aspects of the Queen’s English. I start laughing uncontrollably, and am never able to read a complete post.
There are books readily available for beginning writers, and classes for English as a Second Language. I recommend both options to you. Learning to spell would certainly not be detrimental to you, as you would not have to lean on the “Just got a new Mac” crutch.
Making a list of words, by the way, is surely beneath your “many talents.”
Regards
Karen’s Stupid Comment
commenting on someone’s grammar doesn’t have anything to do with the content of the article. As long as the point is made, that’s what counts. Who died and made you an English Professor? everyone makes mistakes, it’s called typos.